You can still find 4:3s. You may need to know someone, though. Ive picked up 2 for my sons computer that were salvage. One is a very nice IPS screen, 6ms, 1600x1200 that goes for $1k new. It's still got lots of life in it.

Games look gorgeous on it.

I also have a slew of laptops that I'll put games on from time to time. My kids have one with putt-putt loaded onto it.

I am seriously considering now to get a projector instead, also because I wanna watch more movies again. Anyone playing old games with this method?


At least there I hope will be zero annoyances with black bars etc. lol.


Particularly this model sparked my interest: BenQ HT2150ST

Full HD 1080p, so doesn't that mean it has an aspect ratio of 16:9 (widescreen)? Meaning, it has the very same "issue" as your 16:9 monitor, ie. either your old games will be stretched horizontally, or there will be empty spaces (bars) on the sides.

You'd have to buy an older data projector which displays 4:3 by default, but then with 16:9 widescreen movies you'd have black bars at the top and the bottom of the picture. Isn't that annoying as well, watching widescreen movies on a 4:3 display?

Probably less distracting to have black bars at the side when there isn't such a clearly defined screen. Surely if you have a 4:3 screen to project onto, the black areas of the image will fall harmlessly off the side and be less distracting. Probably.

Even on a projector!? What the ... honestly, I didn't look it up but I just assumed you'd be able to downscale or at the very least the bars would be "invisible".

If it's got a good contrast ratio the black bars should be for all intents and purposes invisible in theory. Depends on how well it does black.

projector still have the stretching issue, since their pixel are basically 1:1.
And, contrast ratio for old projectors are quite bad.

You might check craigslist or ebay. I have an old 19" 4:3 flatscreen monitor in my closet saved as a backup. I gave another one to my Dad (he likes that size screen better). You can get them pretty cheap if I recall. I thought about selling mine at one point, but prices were so cheap I didn't bother and kept it for backup.

Then you'd have to use two whitescreens for your projector, one 16:9 (for movies) and one 4:3 (for old games), and zoom it properly for each.

If you display a 4:3 picture on a 16:9 canvas, certainly there are empty (black) areas on the sides. Zooming the areas out won't help because then you'd also zoom the top and bottom of the image out of the screen.

Naturally, I was taking that as a given.

Ok then, if the OP really is so determined not to see the horrendous "black borders", even if it means buying two sets of canvas of different aspect ratios and redirecting the projector based on what he is going to watch/play. :D

I'd probably just live with the black borders if I see something with the 4:3 aspect ratio (watching it on a 16:9 canvas, or a big borderless white wall), just like I do today. To each his own, there are more fish in the sea, do unto others etc.

That reminds me how in movie theaters they sometimes keep moving the curtains on the sides, depending whether they are showing some advertisement in a narrower aspect ratio, or the actual movie in an ultra-widescreen ratio. I always felt that is pretty silly, they could just as well move the curtains away all the way even if advertisements don't fill the whole canvas, but I didn't realize other cinema goers might find it far too distracting to see the "borders" on the sides (because the canvas is too wide).

Hmmm, that gives me a business idea: small curtains that you can slide on the sides of your widescreen monitor, so that you can't see the terrifying black borders on the sides when playing 4:3 games...

Many CRT could adjust width and height of the display, so every pixel have no fixed ratio.
I think an CRT is what OP really need. :-P

Do you mean that on projector could display images with multiple different aspect ratios?

Maybe some projector-expert can say if there are such projectors, but at least the projectors I've used (at work mostly) are set to certain aspect ratio, just like monitors. So if it is e.g. an older projector showing 4:3 images natively, then watching a 16:9 movie on it means there are borders on the top and the bottom, and if it is a 16:9 projector, then watching a 4:3 image on it has borders on the sides.
Somehow I feel we are talking about different things here. I presume the OP is talking about the physical dimensions of the monitor or display device, and I don't think any CRT tube monitors can physically morph from a 4:3 monitor to a 16:9 monitor (in order not the ever show any black borders, without stretching the image either vertically or horizontally).

I am *assuming* that is the reason, as I can't come up with any other logical explanation. I never went to the projector room demanding them to explain why they keep moving the curtains. Maybe I should.

Any qualified cinema projector operators here? Is that why you keep moving those curtains, or are there some of the staff hiding behind the curtains and you move the curtains for them, or are you just bored and keep moving them?