What is Pan and Scan? I've seen that option in some video apps and it is listed as an option on my home DVD player. The actual layout of the options are 4:3 Letterbox, 4:3 Pan and Scan and 16:9 Wide. I'm not always thrilled when I get a movie where the letterbox is rather skinny, so I go to my players options and set it to 4:3 Pan and Scan and it expands the view just right for my tastes, with just a little bit of black on the top and bottom.
A pan and scan movie is a wide-screen movie that has been adapted for a standard TV screen by cropping from the centre out towards the edges. Since the right and left sections are now gone, there is a risk that characters on the left and right side of the original frame can have a conversation, without the viewer seeing anything except the furniture between them. The pan and scan DVD option simulates the pan&scan movie, digitally. Pan&scan causes fainting fits in Videophiles.
I want to make sure I understand my terms as I'm mainly talking about the settings on my home DVD player for right now. First of all, Widescreen and Letterbox are two different things, correct? Like I had mentioned, on my options in the DVD player there is 4:3 Letterbox, 4:3 Pan and Scan and 16:9 Wide. Most AVI movies that I have are usually all ripped in 4:3 Letterbox and sometimes it's a bit too skinny for me, so when I watch them on my home DVD, I switch my options to 4:3 Pan and Scan and it lessens the size of the black bars on the top and bottom. But your saying that when I do this, I should take notice of it because that will crop the right and left sections outwards, as you said correct?
When I play a widescreen movie on my standard television, the PAN and Scan setting fills the screen vertically, but cuts off the sides somewhat.
