Anamorphic Projection is a technique that brings more of the real cinema experience to Home Cinema.  Continuing the Cinemascope tradition of the 1950s, anamorphic projection gives a wider image and eliminates the black bars at the top and bottom of a movie which you see when viewing on 16:9 TV or screen.

There are a number of elements to an anamorphic projection system.  The first is a wider screen.  Many movies are made in a 2.35:1 or 2.40:1 aspect ratio.  A screen in an anamorphic projection system mirrors those aspect ratios offering the opportunity to watch films in the manner the director intended.

The next element in the system is the Projector itself.  Although there are native 2.35:1 projectors coming onto the market now, the vast majority of Home Cinema projectors in use today have the same native 16:9 aspect ratio you see on a plasma or LCD.  Anamorphic projection requires that the projector stretches the image vertically filling the screen and eliminating the black bars at the top and bottom.

This stretching obviously distorts the image and it's the third element of the system, the anamorphic lens that corrects that.  The anamorphic lens stretches the image sideways, filling the 2.35:1 screen and at the same time restoring the image to its correct dimensions.

The result is true cinematic projection and it creates a much more immersive experience that really sucks you into the action.

There are further subtleties available to Home Cinema system designers when designing an anamorphic system.  Home Cinemas aren't used just for the latest blockbusters.  They are used for gaming, watching Sky Sports or much loved older films and TV series.  This means the system has to cope with a variety of image shapes.  Many films have an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, most TV output including sport is output at 16:9 and older programmes are output in the much squarer 4:3 ratio that many of us will still remember.  A well designed anamorphic system will accommodate all these different output shapes.

The anamorphic lens that stretches the image sideways can be motorised so it can be moved out of the light path when showing 19:9 or 4:3 content. Screens can have physical masking - effectively black edging -  that can move into into place to frame any different image shape perfectly.  The Kaleidescape Movie server even holds aspect ratio information about the movie so we can programme the system to automatically adjust the projector, lens and masking to make the whole process seamless.

Anamorphic projection is a fantastic enhancement to any Home Cinema system.   It adds real magic to the whole movie experience and if you're looking to do true Cinema at home, that's what you're trying to do. 

The tutorial below which features Neil Davidson of Genesis Technologies, a key partner of Brilliant in Home Cinema design and installation, shows how the elements of anamorphic projection come together.

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