What are wide-screen, full-screen, and letterbox?
In some DVDs released by the major studios today, there may be both a full-screen and widescreen version of the movie on the same disc. Full-screen has an aspect ratio of 4:3 and widescreen has an aspect ration of 16:9. Letterbox means the video is presented in its theatrical aspect ratio, which is wider than standard or widescreen TV. Black bars, called mattes, are used to cover the gaps at the top and bottom. DVD was designed to make movies look as good as possible on TV. Since most movies are wider than standard TVs, letterboxing preserves the format of the theatrical presentation. (Nobody seems to complain that the top and bottom of the picture are cut off in theaters.) DVD is ready for TVs of the future, which are widescreen. For these and other reasons, many movies on DVD are only available in widescreen format.
