Abstract: A television signal processing system develops a television signal containing wide aspect ratio image information which is compatible with a standard aspect ratio television format. One image line is separated from every group of four successive image lines. The remaining image lines are vertically compressed, whereby vacant regions ("bars") appear along the top and bottom edges of a displayed image. The separated image lines are scrambled and inserted into the vacant regions. An image display including the vacant regions exhibits a standard aspect ratio, while the active image area between the vacant edge regions exhibits a wide aspect ratio.