Widescreen Signaling (“WSS”) is a technical standard adopted by the International Telecommunication Union (“ITU”) in Recommendation ITU-R BT.1119-2 and by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (“ETSI”) in the European Norm EN 300 294. WSS designates the system and the signal defined by such standards that can be used by enhanced television receivers for identifying the image format of an analogue television signal and adapting it to the screen.

WSS can be implemented in any device with a television tuner. For example, television sets of any type (CRT, LCD, plasma, and projection), set top boxes, video recorders with hard disk or other storage media (cassette, DVD, Blu-ray), PC TV cards, and USB TV receivers for PCs can utilize or generate WSS independently of the transmission means of the television signal (terrestrial, cable or satellite).

The WSS feature is marketed under several names including, Auto(matic) (Picture) Format, Auto(matic) Zoom (Switching), Auto(matic) Wide (Mode), Auto(matic) Aspect Ratio (Control).

How does WSS work?

Enhanced television receivers compatible with WSS technology can automatically set the aspect ratio of the image to produce the best picture possible by setting it to the mode embedded in the television signal. Alternatively, many televisions also allow users to manually adjust the settings to 16:9, 4:3, Widescreen, Zoom Center, Panoramic, and so on.