What are the 'pan & scan' DVDs like?

[Atlas Mugged]

I just started noticing them recently - you know, 'fullscreen', 'widescreen', and now it's 'pan and scan'. I know what panning and scanning is, I'm just curious how it works on a dvd. Is it worth it?

[vpigrad]

1. They are what's called "fullscreen."

They're not really fullscreen. That's a lie. They show only the part of the picture that can fit on a 4:3 TV. They chop-off most of the picture. You never want to buy one of them.

ETA: "fullscreen" is pan & scan. People are too stupid to understand the term pan (film with a camera) or scan (turn the camera left and right to pick-up the important fraction that will fit in the 4:3 horrificly limited 4:3 of normal TC what's) that the studios gave-up and just started calling it fullscreen. As usual the companies lie. It's not fullscreen. It's only a small portion of it.

[Atlas Mugged]

5. Aw, crap.

Having worked with video editing equipment (commercials) in the past, I was hoping for a new technology for the home viewer. This is almost as insultingly depressing as the "elections" - here and in Iraq.

[ikojo]

2. I googled pan and scan and found this

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/specsformats/widescreenletterboxpanscan.php

Pan and Scan: Movies encoded into 4:3 ratio by intelligently panning and scanning horizontally across the widescreen film to keep the action in the middle of the screen. Though better than merely cropping the image, this still results in a loss of at least 30% of the original image.

Here is an article with pictures to illustrate the difference between widescreen and pan and scan...

http://dvd.ign.com/news/16377.html


I buy only widescreen DVDs

[DIKB]

3. Good for you

I do too =)

Although I have friends who say "With widescreen they cut off the top and bottom of the movie." What really annoys me is when I have to explain to people time and again that the situation is reversed. You'd be amazed how many times I do this.

Kinda reminds me of those juvenile "I know you are but what am I" arguments. We're not missing more of the movie with widescreen, YOU ARE missing more with Full screen/Pan&Scan.

[gmaki]

4. mostly true

with the exception of 1:85 aspect ratio movies. In that case the 4:3 full frame usually is the entire frame while the letterbox and widescreen versions are matted (stuff is cut off).

However the letterbox and widescreen are always closer to the way the movie was shot, projected, and intended to be viewed.

[Az]

6. Pan and Scan suxors

Pan and scan basically requires someone to transfer the video. They crop the image to fit your tv and then move the focus to take in as much of the action as possible. Its a compromise between simple cropping and distorting to fit everything in.

Live with the letterbox. Its worth it.

Fullscreen: The edges are cropped off. You may miss much of the action if the director uses the entire screen.

WideScreen: The movie as the director intended it. If you do not have a widescreen tv you will have to abide with letterbox to create the proper perspective and this decreases your overall screen size.

Pan and Scan: Camera focus wanders around the cropped screen trying to keep centered on the action. Can be very distracting and useless if the director has action on both sides of the screen.

Panoramic: Center of screen is in proper perspective. But the edges are compressed to force entire picture on screen. You will get a zooming effect whenever the image moves or if someone walks torwards the edge of the screen. Very disorienting.