With movies being released in Widescreen formats, many people are being exposed to “letterboxing” and don’t know what to make of it. Compounding the confusion are Zoom, Full-Screen and Pan-and-Scan settings on DVD players and televisions. Since most movies are shot using some kind of widescreen aspect ratio, there has to be a compromise.
For those of you still with standard squarish 4:3 televisions, there are only two ways to make a rectangular movie fit on your screen. Pan-and-scan will focus on the primary area of the original image while cutting off the rest. In extreme cases, for films shot in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio (think of those epic films), more than half of the image is missing. The other alternative is what is known as Letterbox. This displays the film in its original widescreen context by placing black bars at the top and bottom of your TV so the entire image can be seen. In this case, those black bars may consume 40% of your screen for those epic films.
With the emergence of 16:9 widescreen televisions, the problem can still persist when watching DVD’s or Blu-Ray discs. Although this aspect ratio corresponds perfectly for high-definition broadcasts from your content provider or over-the-air reception, you will still get letterbox bars if your TV is displaying the image correctly. Yes, I said correctly. The reason being most movies since the late 1970’s have been filmed using a 1.85:1 ratio. That aspect marries up closely to a 16:9 display but still requires letterboxing. Fortunately, the black bars for these films will be so thin they shouldn’t be a distraction. The epic films, using the extremely wide 2.35:1 aspect ratio, will require thicker black bars to display the entire image. Zooming will eliminate them in both instances but remember you will be cutting off part of the image in addition to the director’s vision.
Ironically, the biggest problem with widescreen TV’s comes when you watch standard-definition television shows that were shot in a 4:3 or 1.33:1 ratio. What you end up with are the bars on the sides of the screen instead. To remedy this malady, TV manufactures provide options that will “stretch” or “justify” the picture to fill the screen. Zooming would also eliminate them but, as above, will cut off part of the image.
For those of you still with standard squarish 4:3 televisions, there are only two ways to make a rectangular movie fit on your screen. Pan-and-scan will focus on the primary area of the original image while cutting off the rest. In extreme cases, for films shot in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio (think of those epic films), more than half of the image is missing. The other alternative is what is known as Letterbox. This displays the film in its original widescreen context by placing black bars at the top and bottom of your TV so the entire image can be seen. In this case, those black bars may consume 40% of your screen for those epic films.
With the emergence of 16:9 widescreen televisions, the problem can still persist when watching DVD’s or Blu-Ray discs. Although this aspect ratio corresponds perfectly for high-definition broadcasts from your content provider or over-the-air reception, you will still get letterbox bars if your TV is displaying the image correctly. Yes, I said correctly. The reason being most movies since the late 1970’s have been filmed using a 1.85:1 ratio. That aspect marries up closely to a 16:9 display but still requires letterboxing. Fortunately, the black bars for these films will be so thin they shouldn’t be a distraction. The epic films, using the extremely wide 2.35:1 aspect ratio, will require thicker black bars to display the entire image. Zooming will eliminate them in both instances but remember you will be cutting off part of the image in addition to the director’s vision.
Ironically, the biggest problem with widescreen TV’s comes when you watch standard-definition television shows that were shot in a 4:3 or 1.33:1 ratio. What you end up with are the bars on the sides of the screen instead. To remedy this malady, TV manufactures provide options that will “stretch” or “justify” the picture to fill the screen. Zooming would also eliminate them but, as above, will cut off part of the image.
THE WHOLE PICTURE
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By Patrick Duffy
