Want a truly faithful film experience? You need a projector with anamorphic features.
I hate looking at black bars in movies more than I hate mushrooms. And I’d rather have a bath with a great white shark than eat a portobello ‘shroom. While I’ve previously begged for the return of ultrawide 4K TVs, there’s actually a ready-made way to eliminate black bars in 21:9 content without cutting off the edges of the image. Namely, by watching movies on a projector.
They may hold only a tiny market share next to the best TVs in 2023, but projectors have rarely been a more attractive A/V alternative. Not only are they cheaper than ever before, but the best projectors can provide a true ultrawide movie experience.
Getting the sort of 21:9 aspect ratio on a projector that you’d see from a movie in the cinema can be achieved in several ways. With older projectors, you can install an external anamorphic lens to recreate the correct ‘CinemaScope‘ aspect ratio most movies are filmed in. By contrast, certain newer projectors from the likes of Sony and JVC have these lenses built in. Many modern projectors also boast anamorphic zoom modes that let you stretch a film’s aspect ratio.Lens pals
What exactly is an anamorphic lens, though? In short, it’s a special lens that can stretch or compress an image either horizontally or vertically to help restore an ultrawide movie’s correct, intended aspect ratio. As noted above, some projectors have these lenses built in, while companies like Panamorph also make external anamorphic lenses that can be attached to projectors.
