Letterbox Totally Explained

Everything about Letterboxed totally explained

Letterboxing is the practice of transferring widescreen film to video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. Since the video display often has a square aspect ratio, the resulting videographic image has mattes (black bars) above and below it; LTBX is the identifying acronym for films and images so formatted.
   Letterboxing is the alternative to the full-screen, pan-and-scan transference of a widescreen film image to videotape or videodisc. In pan-and-scan transfers, the original image is cropped to the 1.33:1 (4:3) aspect ratio of the standard television screen, whereas letterboxing preserves the film's original image composition seen in the cinema.
   Letterboxing was for use in 4:3 television displays when widescreen television was in its technologic infancy. Any Academy ratio (1.33:1) film will appear stretched and distorted to fill the widescreen television display, avoided by pillar boxing the image either via the TV set or the DVD player. Occasionally, an image broadcast at 4:3 appears letterboxed on a 4:3 or a 16:9 or wider aspect ratio television screen. This effect is common on personal video websites and old documentaries, either the original image's top and bottom have been matted or it appears stretched and wider than normal, making the people appear fat.
   In today's changing home video format, the term "letterbox" sometimes is referred to a motion picture or video that hasn't been anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 screens, thus not taking full advantage of the DVD or HDTV resolution.

Early use of the Letterbox format

The early use of the letterbox format first appeared with the RCA videodisc (CED) format. Initially, letterboxing was only limited for selected key sequences (for example opening, closing credits) but later extended for the entire movie's duration. The first full letterboxed CED release was Amarcord in 1984. Several CED movies were released later in the letterboxed format. Each disc were labeled with a note explaining the movie featuring "RCA's innovative wide-screen mastering technique".

Letterboxing in the cinema and home video

Some cineastes prefer letterbox video formatting of their films. Woody Allen insisted that Manhattan be released letterboxed; Sydney Pollack preferred the widescreen in a bonus segment of The Interpreter DVD, despite there being pan-and-scan and letterbox versions; Miloš Forman thinks the matting distracts the viewer. Nonetheless, most video releases of movies are made without consulting either the director or the cinematographer. Often, videocassettes contained only pan-and-scan versions, but DVD releases tend to be offered in both versions.

Letterboxing on television

Current digital high-definition television (HDTV) systems use video displays with a wider aspect ratio than standard television sets, making it easier to accurately transfer widescreen films. In addition to cinema films, some contemporary television programming is produced in widescreen and high definition; and, when viewed with a standard 4:3 TV set, it appears letterboxed. Programs broadcast in HDTV are sometimes letterboxed in standard-definition television (SDTV) sets.
   In Europe, letterboxing has been the display standard for widescreen cinema on television, because the higher-resolution PAL television system doesn't degrade letterboxed images as much as the American NTSC system. Together with digital broadcasting allowing 1.78:1 (16:9) widescreen format transmissions without losing resolution, 1.78:1 widescreen television is becoming the European television norm for television materials. Although this isn't true of high-definition television, it has the same aspect ratio. Most programming in countries such as Britain and France is in analogue letterbox format (adopted in the 1990s); in Germany, most television programming is in the full-screen, 1.33:1 aspect ratio.
   On a widescreen television set, a 1.78:1 image fills the screen, however, 2.39:1 aspect ration films are letterboxed with narrow mattes. Since the 1.85:1 aspect ratio doesn't match the 1.78:1 (16:9) aspect ratio of widescreen DVDs and high-definition video, slight letterboxing occurs; the mattes are so narrow as to be unnoticeable. Usually, such matting of 1.85:1 film is eliminated to match the 1.78:1 aspect ration in the DVD and HD image transference.
   Most current camcorder models have a widescreen recording mode that appears letterboxed on a 4:3 TV set.

Pillarboxing and windowboxing

Pillarboxing (reversed letterboxing) is the display of an image within a wider image frame wider by adding lateral mattes, for example a 1.33:1 image has lateral mattes when displayed on a 16:9 aspect ratio television screen.
   An alternative to pillarboxing is "tilt-and-scan" (reversed pan and scan), horizontally matting the original 1.33:1 television images to the 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Windowboxing occurs when an image appears centered in a television screen, with blank space on all four sides of the image,, such as when a widescreen image that has been previously letterboxed to fit 1.33:1 is then pillarboxed to fit 16:9. It is also called "matchbox", "gutterbox", and "postage stamp" display.. This occurs on the DVD editions of the Star Trek films on a 4:3 TV whenever the included widescreen documentaries show original television series footage. It is seen in, a film displaying widescreen pillarboxing with 1.85:1 scenes in a 2.40:1 frame that's subsequently letterboxed. It is common to see windowboxed commercials on HD television networks, since many commercials are shot 16:9 but distributed to networks in SD, letterboxed to fit 1.33:1.
   Some 1980s 8-bit home computers feature gutterboxing display mode. In particular, the Commodore 64, VIC-20, and Commodore 128 (in 40-column mode) featured coloured gutterboxing of the main text window, while the Atari 8-bit family featured a blue text window with a black border. The Fisher-Price PXL-2000 camcorder of the late 1980s recorded a windowboxed image to partially compensate for low resolution. Occasionally, an image is deliberately windowboxed for stylistic effect, for example the documentary-style sequence of Rent suggesting an older-format camera representing the 4:3 aspect ratio.

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