With the World Cup final and the Tour de France taking place this weekend thousands of sports fans will be glued to their television sets.

A significant number of sport addicts will be watching the action on sets almost half the size of the couch they are sitting on. According to retailers, the best way to get a view of the action is with a widescreen television, which offers advanced levels of picture and sound quality. The concept is simple; widescreen television means you get to see more picture on your screen. The conventional television has an aspect ratio (width of screen to length of screen) of 4:3, whereas widescreen television sets provide an aspect ratio of 16:9.

The promoters of widescreen say the format delivers a picture which is closer to how the natural eye sees the world than conventional television.

Cinema has used the widescreen format for years and until now when a film was transferred from the cinema screen to the television set, a substantial portion of the picture was lost. Widescreen television eliminates those irritating black bars which appear at the top and bottom of the screen during the broadcasting of certain films.

Most widescreen televisions also include Dolby Pro-Logic surround sound, which delivers cinema-quality sound, far advanced to that provided by conventional televisions. The system operates by decoding the special additional soundtrack material which is created directly for use in the cinema.

Thousands of films have been recorded with the Dolby ProLogic soundtrack and many TV and satellite programmes are already broadcast on the same basis. On top of this, most widescreen televisions have Nicam stereo which gives almost CD-like sound quality.

Most widescreen televisions include a "zoom" format which means the television will select the best format for the programme you are watching, whether it be 4:3 or 16:9. Widescreen televisions are compatible with digital television signals because they have a Scart terminal at the back, which accepts cables carrying digital.

Conventional televisions use 50 Hz frequency scanning, to which the human eye is particularly sensitive. This means the picture often seems to flicker and excessive viewing can tire the eyes. However, widescreen television generally uses 100hz frequency scanning, which effectively doubles the scanning rate and produces a flicker-free picture which is easier on the eye.

It is difficult to assess the popularity of widescreen sets, but there is no doubt that with channels such as BBC 1 & BBC 2 already showing some films in widescreen format (some drama programmes are soon to be broadcast in the format) more consumers will be looking for that level of picture and sound quality.

A spokesman for Power City, which sells widescreen sets, said they were becoming increasingly popular, but the price was still too prohibitive for many people.

The cheapest widescreen comes in at about £600 or £700, whereas conventional televisions can now be bought for as little as £150.

There is not much difference in the features which come with the various makes of widescreen televisions. Most will have nicam stereo, fastext, headphone sockets and up to 100 channels. However, not all will have Dolby Pro-Logic surround sound and additional features like splitscreen which means you can call up two channels at the same time.

Some widescreens enable the viewer to condense one of these channels into a small box in the corner, so they do not have to miss part of one programme, while waiting for another to start.

The picture quality is considerably superior to conventional televisions, but some consumers may feel the extra cost is not worth it. Widescreen television sets take up a lot of space and the elaborate sound system often means increasing the volume to levels which some may find uncomfortable.

Widescreen is probably most suitable for the film buff, as films shown on widescreen sets are far superior to those shown on conventional sets. There is no doubt that someone who has a surround system, with a set of speakers behind them, is getting as near to a cinema experience as is possible in a domestic setting.