Letterbox - vs - Pan
& Scan
(by Paul James)
The aim of this page is to hopefully help
people understand the different viewing options available today for watching your
favourite movies on DVD. Terms such as 'Pan & Scanned', 'Letterboxed' and
'Anamorphic Widescreen' are commonly used and referred to on an every day basis by
Home Theatre enthusiasts. Now I know these terms have been around for years and associated
with Laserdisc owners worldwide but for the average person these terms have little or no
meaning to them.
So if you're a current VHS fan and maybe would like to know
more about what you're missing or if you're the proud new owner of a DVD player and you'd
like a little insight into 'Aspect Ratios' and the like read
on....................................
Okay where do we start...... when you go to the movies you
are more often than not watching a film that has been filmed in Panavision 'Scope'.
Basically this means that the movie has been filmed with a very wide lens and produced in
an image that is 2.35:1. (That means the image is of the aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is
2.35 times wider than it is high). An example is shown
below.
(This is an image from the movie
'Twister' and is indicative of what you would see at the cinema)
This looks great when we are at the cinema but what happens
when you watch it in your own lounge room, unless you're a millionaire or good friends
with one you can't have a movie cinema at home so what did they do.............
The majority of televisions around the world are
practically square in shape (1.33:1) or as it is sometimes referred to as 4x3. But we all
know you can't fit a rectangle into a square or can you? .In order to overcome this
problem they 'Letterbox' the image when it's transferred onto a DVD. This means
that they shrink the entire image until it's small enough to fit inside the square
television screen thus you get the entire image as it was filmed and the director intended
but on your television. An example of what this looks like is:-
(The same image as shown above but this
time 'Letterboxed' onto a normal 4x3 television)
Now for the avid Home Theatre collector this was great for
they got get to see the version as it was originally filmed and shown in the cinema but
for the average home consumer who loves to watch their VHS tapes on a Saturday night this
did not go down to well because they complained that they did'nt like the black bars, the
picture was too small or some people thought that the actual image had been cropped and
the black bars were actually blacking out the rest of the picture and for these reasons
and others 'Letterboxed' movies took a back seat. So what happened next...in order to
satisfy the general public who wanted the whole of the television picture filled they
decided to 'Pan & Scan' the image.
So the orginal film is then 'cropped' or cut if you like
and blown up to fill the screen, this resulted in sometimes up to 40-50% of the original
image being discarded and an example of what this looked like is shown in figure (A):--
 (A) |
(B) |
| Pan & Scan (4x3) |
Letterboxed (4x3) |
The vast majority of consumers were
satisfied with this but not the discerning Home Theatre enthusiast. Watching a film that
had been 'cropped' was simply not an option to them and therefore 'Pan & Scanned'
versions were basically left for the VHS rental market, the VHS home video collector and
for television broadcasts. The letterboxed image was then more commonly only used for
Laserdisc and DVD owners.
However with the advent of 'Widescreen' televisions in the
market place the letterboxed image was improved on again. The widescreen or 16x9 TV has
the aspect ratio of (1.78:1), now as you may have noticed that is not as big as the
theatre format of (2.35:1) but the black letterboxed bars were there but much smaller. So
in order to improve this the image becomes 'Anamorphic Widescreen', which means
that the image is able to be 'vertically stretched'
With anamorphic widescreen, the picture is stretched ONLY in the horizontal plane. If it
is a 1.78:1 anamorphic then it will, after horizontal expansion, fill up the whole screen
(top to bottom, left to right). However, if it is a 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 anamorphic there will
still be black bars above and below the horizontally stretched image.
Below is an example of how the Anamorphic Widescreen picture looks Before it is expanded
out to full 16:9 widescreen and how it looks after it has been expanded (to properly fill
a 16:9 Widescreen TV)
(Before and After 16:9 Enhanced on a 16:9 widescreen
TV)
Anamorphic produces better pictures on widescreen TVs
because there is more information recorded in the vertical plane (ie, more lines) whereas
a letterbox has fewer lines recorded (basically, letterbox image is not as tall as
anamorphic image prior to stretching by widescreen TV).
This as you can see looks great , with the added resolution
and the smaller black bars it makes for ideal home viewing. So now it comes down to
preference, I personally want to see the movie as the Director intended. Both Pan &
Scan and Letterboxed versions are provided on some DVD movies giving you the viewer the
choice which I think is a great idea, though having both formats is twice as expensive, so
some studios opt to offer on one format per movie . A good example of just how badly some
movies are cropped when thet are panned & scanned is 'Twister'. Take a look and you'll
see what I mean.
So I hoped I've helped you understand a little bit more
about these terms, if you have any questions or any of the information above is incorrect,
please drop me a line. Thanks and happy DVD'ing.
** Please Note. The above images have been modified
for the purpose of this article and DO NOT represent actual images of this movie.
They are only for demonstrations based on my interpretation. ** |
