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Letterbox: Difference between revisions
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[[File:letterbox.jpg|frame|The black bars at the top and bottom of the screen are normal for this format.]]
This term refers to a method of fitting a widescreen movie to the [[Aspect Ratio]] of a TV screen (commonly 4:3). This is done by shrinking the original frame until its width matches that of the 4:3 frame; the side effect is that the movie's ''height'' is now considerably less than that of the TV screen, resulting in black bars at the top and bottom forming a "box" around the film (it's rather like watching the film through a mail slot or "letter box", hence the term). Naturally, this is less of a concern with films that are not too wide to begin
Although letterboxing preserves the entirety of the picture as it was shot, that picture is ([[Captain Obvious|obviously]]) much smaller than a [[Pan and Scan]] transfer, which can be somewhat disconcerting on smaller television sets. Further, some viewers claim to be distracted by the empty black bars on the screen, preferring that the screen be filled with picture. Again, modern wide-screened TV sets help diminish this problem somewhat, although films shot in even wider formats (such as vintage CinemaScope, Todd-AO, Ultra Panavision 70, and Cinerama releases from the 1950s and '60s) are usually letterboxed rather than cropped even in the "widescreen" home video releases.
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