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Aspect ratio incompatibility
The television industry's changing of aspect ratios is not without difficulties,
and can present a considerable problem.
Displaying a widescreen aspect (rectangular) image on a conventional aspect
(square or 4:3) display can be shown:
in "letterbox" format, with black horizontal bars at the top and bottom
with part of the image being cropped, usually the extreme left and right of the
image being cut off (or in "pan and scan", parts selected by an operator or a
viewer)
with the image horizontally compressed
A conventional aspect (square or 4:3) image on a widescreen aspect (rectangular
with longer horizon) display can be shown:
in "pillar box" format, with black vertical bars to the left and right
with upper and lower portions of the image cut off (or in "tilt and scan", parts
selected by an operator)
with the image horizontally distorted
A common compromise is to shoot or create material at an aspect ratio of 14:9,
and to lose some image at each side for 4:3 presentation, and some image at top
and bottom for 16:9 presentation. In recent years, the cinematographic process
known as Super 35 (championed by James Cameron) has been used to film a number
of major movies such as Titanic, Legally Blonde, Austin Powers, and Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon (see also: Films shot in Super 35). This process results in
a camera-negative which can then be used to create both wide-screen theatrical
prints, and standard "full screen" releases for television/VHS/DVD which avoid
the need for either "letterboxing" or the severe loss of information caused by
conventional "pan-and-scan" cropping.
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