How do the aspect ratios work?
Video can be stored on a DVD in 4:3 format (standard TV shape) or 16:9 (widescreen). The 16:9 format is “anamorphic,” meaning the picture is squeezed horizontally to fit a 4:3 rectangle then unsqueezed during playback. DVD players can output video in four different ways: • full frame (4:3 video for 4:3 display) • letterbox (16:9 video for 4:3 display) • pan & scan (16:9 video for 4:3 display) • widescreen (16:9 video for 16:9 display) Letterbox means the video is shown in its theatrical aspect ratio, usually 1.85:1 or 2.40:1. Since this is wider than standard 4:3 TV, black bars must be added to the top and bottom. Pan & scan means the smaller TV “window” is panned and zoomed around the wider movie picture, chopping off the sides. However, most movies are shot soft matte, which means the full TV-sized film frame is used, with the top and bottom masked off in the theater. When transferred to video, the extra picture on the film can be included during the pan & scan process.
Video can be stored on a DVD in 4:3 format (standard TV shape) or 16:9 (widescreen). The 16:9 format is “anamorphic,” meaning the picture is squeezed horizontally to fit a 4:3 rectangle then unsqueezed during playback. DVD players output widescreen video in three different ways: – letterbox (for 4:3 screens) – pan & scan (for 4:3 screens) – anamorphic or unchanged (for wide screens) Note: Some 16:9 discs are playable in widescreen and letterbox modes only, if the producer chooses. For letterbox mode the player uses a “letterbox filter” that creates black bars at the top and the bottom of the picture (60 lines each for NTSC, 72 for PAL). This leaves 3/4 of the height remaining, creating a shorter but wider rectangle. In order to fit this shorter rectangle, the picture is squeezed vertically by combining every 4 lines into 3. This compensates for the original horizontal squeezing, resulting in the movie being shown in its full width.
Video can be stored on a DVD in 4:3 format (standard TV shape) or 16:9 (widescreen). The 16:9 format is “anamorphic,” meaning the picture is squeezed horizontally to fit a 4:3 rectangle then unsqueezed during playback. DVD players output widescreen video in four different ways: • full frame (4:3 video for 4:3 display) • letterbox (16:9 video for 4:3 display) • pan & scan (16:9 video for 4:3 display) • anamorphic or unchanged (16:9 video for 16:9 display) Video stored in 4:3 format is not changed by the player. It will appear normally on a standard 4:3 display. Widescreen systems will either enlarge it or add black bars to the sides. 4:3 video may be formatted in various ways before being transferred to DVD. For example, it may have been letterboxed to hold video with a wider shape. Or it may have been panned & scanned from film composed for a wider theatrical presentation. All formatting done to the video prior to it being stored on the disc is transparent to the player. It merely repr
Video can be stored on a DVD in 4:3 format (standard TV shape) or 16:9 (widescreen). The 16:9 format is “anamorphic,” meaning the picture is squeezed horizontally to fit a 4:3 rectangle then unsqueezed during playback. DVD players can output video in four different ways: • full frame (4:3 video for 4:3 display) • letterbox (16:9 video for 4:3 display) • pan & scan (16:9 video for 4:3 display) • widescreen (16:9 video for 16:9 display) Video stored in 4:3 format is not changed by the player. It will appear normally on a standard 4:3 display. Widescreen systems will either enlarge it or add black bars to the sides. 4:3 video may be formatted in various ways before being transferred to DVD. For example, it may have been letterboxed to hold video with a wider shape. Or it may have been panned & scanned from film composed for a wider theatrical presentation. All formatting done to the video prior to it being stored on the disc is transparent to the player. It merely reproduces the signal in
