Is a aspect ratio of 800.1 equal to that of a 16/9 screen aspect ratio?
Answer:
16:9 is aspect ratio (Width vs hight) . All HDTVs are now 16:9.
800:1 defines contrast ratio. (Best white over best black). The bigger the better. But make sure you don't use Dynamic contrast.
These days, good LCDs have a contrast of at least 1,000:1 with a response time 8 ms or better.
Dynamic contrasts should be 4,000:1 - 6,000:1 or higher.
(Dynamic contrast is 2-5 times the real contrast).
Regardless of specs DO go and watch those TVs with real content in a store.
As the previous answer stated 16 by 9 is the aspect ratio, while 800:1 is contrast ratio. All high definition lcd tvs will be in 16/9 format and a decent contrast ratio is somewhere around 3000:1 if not higher. Also to answer the other part of your question, you get around 800 square inches of viewing size on a 37 in and little over 1000 on a 42 inch screen.
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