How much do people prefer widescreen (16×9) to standard NTSC (4×3)?

An experiment was conducted to find out if nonexpert viewers prefer wide-screen (16×9) to standard (4×3) TV aspect ratio. The experiment was designed to determine the strength of preference for 16×9 over 4×3 in a side-by-side comparison using moving images. An effort was also made to determine whether the preference for wide screen changes with relative size of the 4×3 (4×3 images were compared to wide-screen images with the same height, same area, same diagonal, or same width as the 4×3), viewing distance (viewers sat 4, 8, or 12 ft from the screen), and screen size (4×3 image had either 20- or 26-in diagonal). The major finding is an overwhelming preference for wide screen under all test conditions