What is pan and scan and widescreen

[klay51]

i here people talking aobut this alot. whats the difference between the two??

[ember]

Lemme refer you to a site:
http://www.widescreen.org/

[digitalfilmguy]

Well as you may or may not have noticed when you watch a movie in the theater it is in widescreen, much wider than your TV looks. Movies are filmed in an aspect ratio of 2.35 to 1, that is they are 2.35 times wider than they are tall. Your TV has an aspect of 1.33 to 1 (new HD TVs are slightly wider - 1.78 to 1) This poses a problem when the movie is transfered to video. Either it can be 'letterboxed' which means that black bars are left at the top and bottom of the screen thus alowing the picture to be shown at 2.35 to 1 on your 1.33 to 1 TV. Movie buffs like this style of transfer because it allows you to see the frame in its entirty and does not cut off any of the picture. The other more common meathod is to show only a portion of the picture moving the television frame back and forth showing the part of the screen where the most important action is. This is called pan and scan. Most VHS tapes are like this and most people prefer it because they say letterboxing makes the image look to small and they dont understand that with pan and scan they are unable to see about a third of the image. Most DVDs these days are letterboxed or widescreen anamorphic (widescreen anamorphic is compatable with HD TVs) both will apear on a standard TV as a wide image with black bars on the top and bottom.

For more info on this type anamorphic widescreen or letterboxing into a search engine. There are lots of sites out there that explain this in detail and have diagrams, etc.

Hope this helps.