0rac

It seems that before the take off of DVD widescreen was called Letterbox. I remember my old VHS said Letterbox. Remember how hard it was to find movies in Letterbox. The day Media Play added a small Letterbox VHS area was the best.
Anyway, is Letterbox and Widescreen the same thing? I still find myself saying Letterbox at times. Is it different or the same?
While we are on it, would Full Frame and Pan and Scan be the same also?

milo bloom

Letterbox/widescreen are kinda interchangeable. Although in the past several years, some folks have started to use letterbox to indicate a widescreen transfer that's not enhanced for 16x9. Since you brought it up, the original versions of the Star Wars movies coming out tomorrow are described as 4x3 letterbox since they're not anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 displays.

Fullscreen is used more to describe transfers that are open matte, exposing the full camera negative above the correct widescreen transfer. These not only affect the composition, but can reveal microphones and other props. Pan and scan is used to describe a scope movie that has actually had the sides cutoff to fit a 4x3 display.

monkeyboy

Letterbox and Widescreen are the same thing, Widescreen just became the preferred term. I think Letterbox had some negative connotations in people's minds because they associate it with "those damn black bars covering the picture". I think Widescreen just sounds bigger.

I think Full Screen would essentially be Open Matte. But I could be wrong there. I assume Full Screen is essentially the 35mm film frame, adjusted to the 4:3 aspect ratio. Pan and Scan is taking a 4:3 window and moving it left and right over a Widescreen formatted image. Pan and Scan definitely isn't a static image transfer.

DVD Josh

In a more practical sense, LB became WS as WS HDTVs became widely available.

acostigan

Just a personal note:
With relation to DVDs, I always seem to associate the term "letterboxed" with non-anamorphic, as in the bars are already part of the image (same for VHS). I typically associate "widescreen" with the current labeling, and assume that current WS releases are anamorphic.

Son_Of_Zod

Well WIDEscreen does sound better than LetterBOX.

marty888

Letterbox means nothing unless you already know what it means, while widescreen is much more self-explanatory.

Drexl

I don't really like using the term "letterboxed" for non-anamorphic, just because any AR wider than 1.78:1 is indeed letterboxed, even if the transfer is anamorphic.

The Third Jake

Which is why "letterbox" and "widescreen" aren't exactly interchangeable, since 1.78:1 is widescreen but it sure ain't letterboxed. Least not on my screen.

Drexl

Yep, and 1.78:1 is also "fullscreen" on your screen.

caligulathegod

If one is watching on a 4:3 TV, then 1.78:1 is indeed letterboxed. But, yeah, it's migrated to referring to non-anamorphic widescreen presentations.

mrhan

On Laserdisc it was either marked Letterbox,Widescreen, or Pan and Scan depending on the manufacturer, when there was no such thing as anamorphic.

Fincher Fan

Which is wide...

Living Dead

**Head Explodes**

kevkev

letterbox means nothing to us uk'ers. i think its one of those american terms.

Peep

I believe all of the initial widescreen Buena Vista DVD's had that curved "Widescreen" banner across the top. The term was popularized when DVD's hit the market.

Didn't "Ransom" come out in '97?

kevkev

what? widescreen banners have been on videos for 15 years.

mrhan

But wasn't Bound a non-anamorphic release even though it says widescreen on the side?

JOKipper

The terms all became somewhat confused is recent years. Some of these terminologies were originally used by the film industry many years ago to refer to the aspect ratio. Full Frame is a ratio of 1.33:1. Big Screen (also called Industry Standard) is up to 1.85:1 ratio, and Widescreen is any aspect ratio larger then Big Screen. To be even more confusing, Big Screen and Wide Screen TV's were marketed...a BS TV is large screen TV and may or may not be WS, while a WS TV may or may not be a BS TV but has a larger than 4:3 aspect ratio.
So, when shows were aired and movies were sold at a larger aspect ratios than 1.33:1, they were first referred to as Letter Boxed. All this means is that the film is presented at a different aspect ratio than Full Frame. A LB movie may or may not be anamorphic, it may or may not represent the original aspect ratio of the film (it could be just a FF version that has been cropped), but it does have black bars to force the aspect ratio. A Wide Screen movie may or may not have black bars (depends on the user's TV screen aspect ratio and the ratio of the film itself), may or may not be anamorphic, etc.
There's really no standard definition of these terms anymore, as the terms vary according to how different companies use them on their products, but in recent practice, LB has come to refer to aspect ratios forced and fixed by the black bars, while WS refers to a more flexible frame that varies according to the capabilities of the TV being used.
It's confusing and hard to explain in definite terms because companies set no standards and have used the terms interchangeably.

Breakfast with Girls

Earlier than that. It's been in use commercially since the era of VHS and laserdisc.

Nowadays, letterboxed is generally used as "4:3 Letterboxed," which means a widescreen non-anamorphic transfer, as opposed to "Widescreen enhanced for 16:9 displays," which is anamorphic.

mzupeman2

You'll also see in a letterbox presentation, they may say can be seen as widescreen on a widescreen TV. So there's probably more of a reason than 'letterbox' and 'widescreen' meaning the same thing, obviously we would naturally think that letterbox means '4:3 presentation shown in widescreen' while widescreen means it can fit a TV that's widescreen. BUT, even if they both did mean the same exact thing as some others have said... widescreen is certainly the preferred marketing term I would assume. People are confused enough over what widescreen actually is and why it's better than 'full screen' DVD's. You start throwing 'letterbox' on everything instead of 'widescreen' when their intentions may have been the same, then some people may be confused yet again with the terminology they won't identify easily with.

Josh Z

I can assure you that no one in the film industry has ever used the term "Big Screen" to refer to any aspect ratio. "Big screen" is a term used by TV salesmen to refer to any large television of any aspect ratio.

The term "widescreen" means any aspect ratio wider than 4:3. Both 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 are "widescreen".

"Letterbox" means any movie image with black bars above and below the picture. A 1.85:1 movie viewed on a 4:3 TV is letterboxed. A 2.35:1 movie viewed on a 4:3 or a 16:9 TV is also letterboxed.

- 4:3 is often referred to as "Academy Ratio".
- 1.85:1 is often referred to as "flat" or "spherical" widescreen (a reference to the type of lenses used to shoot it).
- 2.35:1 is often referred to as "Scope" (a shortened version of the "Cinemascope" process, but now frequently used to refer to any 2.35:1 shooting process including Super35).

tonyjg

Just wondering...

wouldn't it be simply to 'identify' which companies are currently using the LETTERBOX term - and which ones are using ANAMORHPIC ??

For example

- PARAMOUNT uses ANAMPORPHIC on its covers - but rarely (if ever) specifies the film ratio.

- WARNERS uses the words : PRESENTED IN A 'MATTED' WIDSCREEN FORMAT PRESERVING THE ASPECT RATIO .........ENHANCED FOR WIDESCREEN TVS (again - rarely puts the film ratio)

- FOX - pits in WIDESCREEN and the ratio


I must admit that it is frustrating with some companies who continually use the 'Widescreen' wording when the transfer is 4x3. A company here in Australia put Widscreen 16x9 on the back cover of one of its TLAVideo (licenced) - however it was only a 4x3 transfer. The 'crap' answer I got back was that it was a 1:85:1 ratio film - therefore it is a widescreen film. Needless to say - as an owner of a wide screen TV - i wasn't impressed with the poor answer.

Josh Z

Unfortunately, the studios themselves are not usually consistent even among their own releases.

Warner is actually pretty good in this respect. When they say the above, they're generally referring to a 1.85:1 movie. For 2.35:1 movies they usually use the language:

PRESENTED IN A "LETTERBOX" WIDESCREEN FORMAT PRESERVING THE "SCOPE" ASPECT RATIO OF ITS ORIGINAL THEATRICAL EXHIBITION. ENHANCED FOR WIDESCREEN TVS.

The word "matted" is referring to 1.85:1, while the word "scope" refers to 2.35:1. In either case, "Enhanced for widescreen TVs" means anamorphic.

JOKipper

I gathered my terminology from a 1999 issue of Widescreen Review, I should have been clear about the dating of the terminology. That was the angle I was coming from, that the passage of time has confused the issue even more. But "Big Screen" was indeed a term used at that time to describe an aspect ratio between 1.33:1 and 1.85:1.
As Leonard Maltin says in his 2002 movie guide: "today, most films are 1.85:1; since this has become the norm, they are no longer thought of as 'widescreen'".



4:3 is definitely not Academy (Industry) Ratio. It is 1.85:1. It is not the standard to film theatrical releases in TV format (unless your name is Stanley Kubrick).