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99% of the TV's built today are 16/9, 99% of the laptops sold are 16/10, 99% of all statistics are made on the fly, many pc screens sold now are 16/10.

Should demos be designed 4/3, 16/9, or should we use the golden ratio designing demos?
What's the current tendency? What do you prefer watching? Does it really matter?

16/10

Scrap your TV, buy a projector instead and fit the image as you like.

All demos should be made for 3:2 aspect ratio, as the mighty NINTENDO defined this as the ideal aspect ratio when they made the GBA.

Parties determine the aspect ratio. As long as they use screens with 4:3 aspect ratio, it should be the norm.

Unless every party lose the big screen and sets up 16:10 laptops on every table.

(also 3:4 for the win!)

For me, the ideal ratio would be... hold on, I'm getting a strong sense of deja vu here!

In cinema we see things like 2.35 : 1 and it is fine. I like so much 2:1. Crt TVs fuck all about design with negative space, but HDTV and 16:9 will be important I think about the way of doing everything. For design, a fixed ratio is better.

Basically you should design for your preferred aspect ratio and then make sure that everything between 5:4 (1280x1024 CRT displays, always remember, they AREN'T 4:3) and 16:9 also works without looking too ugly. Yes, 2:1 demos that show black bars instead of cropping a little bit, i mean YOU.

Also consider the title safe area when showing credits/greetings/scenepoetry and don't put them into the outer let's say 5-7% of the screen.

Just let the viewer select which one they prefer and design your demos so that they look as good as possible on any ratio.

Cinemascope solves everything!

I prefer this screen setup... ("Duoflex")

D'uh ?! This black stripe right in the middle of the frame is really, really frustrating... It completely ruins the effect.

/me dive back into hypersleep until wide screens are cheap