Aspect ratio. Most people don't even know what it is. I am talking about the ratio between the width and the height of the video screen of a TV or computer. Everything used to be so simple. When buying a TV or PC, there was only one aspect ratio to consider, namely 4:3. This is the aspect ratio of standard TV sets, computers and digital compact cameras. Common display resolutions with the standard 4:3 aspect ratio are 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768. Virtually all CRT monitors have this 4:3 aspect ratio. But lately, other aspect ratios have appeared, which have resulted to some unwelcome complexity. Worse, the TV and the PC have gone their separate ways with regard to the aspect ratios they support.
One of the early culprits of this terrible aspect ratio quandary is the LCD monitor. Things were fine at first with the release of 15-inch LCD monitors that have a 4:3 aspect ratio. Then 17-inch LCD monitors appeared and that is where the problem started. Almost all 17-inch and 19-inch LCD monitors have a non-standard aspect ratio of 5:4, usually with a native display resolution of 1280x1024. Interestingly enough, 20-inch and bigger LCD monitors usually have the standard 4:3 aspect ratio. Now, what possessed the monitor manufacturers to use a non-standard aspect ratio for 17-inch and 19-inch LCD monitors when they already use the standard 4:3 aspect ratio for all other monitors?
The situation gets even more confusing in the case of widescreen displays. The HDTV (High Definition Television) widescreen aspect ratio is 16:9. In contrast, the widescreen LCD monitor aspect ratio is 16:10. Why can't they even agree on one common widescreen aspect ratio?
So how does this profusion of aspect ratios create a problem? Here's one example. All game software applications support the 4:3 aspect ratio. But not all of them support the other aspect ratios. Running a game on an unsupported aspect ratio would usually cause images to be stretched to fill the screen. This would distort the images on the screen. For example, "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" does not support widescreen aspect ratios. So when you run that game on a widescreen monitor, the game characters would all look fat on the screen.
This plethora of aspect ratios also causes problems with computer desktop wallpapers. In the past, wallpaper creators only need to create 4:3 wallpapers. Now, they also need to create versions for other aspect ratios. The computer user also cannot just use any wallpaper. To prevent the wallpaper from looking distorted, the user must exert some extra effort to ensure that the wallpaper's aspect ratio matches the monitor's aspect ratio.
I'm still trying to find some rational explanation as to why the computer industry chose to introduce these 5:4 and 16:10 aspect ratios. I think the industry should have just stuck with 4:3 for regular monitors and should have adopted 16:9 for widescreen monitors. Somebody made a mess and everybody is paying for it.
In geeky camera terms, I find it confusing that the regular point-and-shoot goes by 1024 x 768 and the digital SLR goes by 1024 x 680. *sigh* 
