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Letterboxing is the scaling of the widescreen image to fit inside the ratio of the TV screen, whereas pan and scan is used to describe the process in which portions of the image are "chopped off" in order to fill the TV screen
The movie, as seen in the theaters, is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, meaning the image is 2.35 times wider than it is tall.
The aspect ratio of a television, however is 4:3 (or 1.33:1). Thus, compromises have to be made in order to completely fill the TV screen
The important portion of the image is singled out, and the remainder of the image is forced to be cut off and discarded. With the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, a minimum of 43% of the picture is missing in the pan and scan translation.
With letterboxing, the full widescreen image is intact, and "black bars" are artifically added because there is no picture information in those areas. Nothing is blocked by the black bars! This is a common misconception.
There are several other aspect ratios in use in movies, as well. Another common ratio is 1.85:1, in which a minimum of 28% of the image is lost when viewed in pan and scan.
You may have noticed in your local electronic stores the presence of widescreen TVs and HDTVs (High-Definition Television). These are manufactured with an aspect ratio of 16:9 (1.78:1). Many DVDs are 16:9 enhanced (also coined as "anamorphic widescreen").
As mentioned before, widescreen TVs and HDTVs feature a 16:9 aspect ratio. When the letterbox image is "zoomed-in" to fit the wider TV, the image becomes increasingly less detailed because the TV is forced to fill in the missing information when the picture is enlarged.
In an anamorphic widescreen DVD, the vertical resolution of the picture is increased by adding more information where some of the black bars formerly remained (when the aspect ratio is 1.85:1, almost no black bars remain when the film is anamorphic on DVD). The anamorphic picture is stored on the DVD in the 4:3 ratio and appears stretched when played on a 4:3 TV without proper formatting.
When the anamorphic widescreen disc is played on a 16:9 set, the picture only needs to be stretched horizontally, with no zooming in required. Thus, much more resolution is obtained than when the disc was simply letterboxed.
When the anamorphic widescreen disc is played on a 4:3 set, the DVD player can resize the image accordingly to make it appear as if the disc was letterbox.
Thus, you have hopefully learned that the widescreen/letterbox format is truly the originally intended way in which those responsible for a film would like you to see their work. Additionally, the anamorphic widescreen (16:9 enhancement) feature of DVD is an excellent way of preparing for the future of TV sets.
HTH
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