common aspect ratio

In the year 1997, my friend's father bought their first television set with a wider screen. When I watched an old Charlie Chaplin movie on the new television, I noticed a black band on each side of the screened video. Now, we called the technician assuming it to be a technical glitch. When the technician saw that, he was the first who brought the term "Video Aspect Ratio" to my knowledge. That television set was intelligent enough to place the black bands on each side of the video so as to avoid any distortion of the video.  Table Of Content:…