![letterbox definition letterbox definition](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dy9yZ6dtmBw/maxresdefault.jpg)
![letterbox definition letterbox definition](https://www.pennlive.com/resizer/56l-atjejnZ8iOC_uY8H_hdf1Lg=/1280x0/smart/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/advancelocal/PYIOVWLM35F2LIJAAJREG3KKBA.jpg)
Pillarboxing (reversed letterboxing) is the display of an image within a wider image frame by adding lateral mattes (vertical bars at the sides) for example, a 1.33:1 image has lateral mattes when displayed on a 16:9 aspect ratio television screen.Īn 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, which at any given moment crops part of the top and/or bottom of the frame, hence the need for the "tilt" component.
#Letterbox definition tv
The table below shows which TV lines will contain picture information when letterbox pictures are displayed on either 4:3 or 16:9 screens. The 2016 Ghostbusters exploited the edges for its 3D effects, with visual effects that "spilled over" into the letterboxed areas. Similar to breaking the border of a comic's panel, it is a form of breaking the fourth wall. In other instances mattes are animated, such as in the music video for " Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)", and even parodied such as the final scene of the Crazy Frog Axel F music video in which Crazy Frog peeks over the matte on the lower edge of the screen with part of his hands overlapping the matte. Others uses of colored mattes appear in ads from Allstate, Aleve, and Kodak among others, and in music videos such as Zebrahead's " Playmate of the Year". IBM has used blue mattes for many of their TV ads, yellow mattes in their "I am Superman" Lotus ads, and green mattes in ads about efficiency & environmental sustainability. Letterbox mattes are not necessarily black. Usually, such matting of 1.85:1 film is eliminated to match the 1.78:1 aspect ratio in the DVD and HD image transference. Because the 1.85:1 aspect ratio does not match the 1.78:1 (16:9) aspect ratio of widescreen DVDs and high-definition video, slight letterboxing occurs. On a widescreen television set, a 1.78:1 image fills the screen however, 2.39:1 aspect ratio films are letterboxed with narrow mattes. In addition to films produced for the cinema, some television programming is produced in high definition and therefore widescreen. Ĭurrent high-definition television (HDTV) systems use video displays with a wider aspect ratio than older television sets, making it easier to accurately display widescreen films. In addition, recent years have seen an increase of "fake" 2.35:1 letterbox mattes on television to give the impression of a cinema film, often seen in adverts, trailers or television programmes such as Top Gear. When using a 4:3 television, it is possible to display such programming in either a letterbox format or in a 4:3 centre-cut format (where the edges of the picture are lost).Ī letterboxed 14:9 compromise ratio was often broadcast in analogue transmissions in European countries making the transition from 4:3 to 16:9.
![letterbox definition letterbox definition](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/48f777_a1d11ef46e0d4b7ea0c988ba62cde258~mv2.jpg)
Most television channels in Europe are broadcasting standard-definition programming in 16:9, while in the United States, these are downscaled to letterbox. On television ĭigital broadcasting allows 1.78:1 (16:9) widescreen format transmissions without losing resolution, and thus widescreen is the television norm. The image is produced by using a map projection-like technique to approximate how the picture might look if projected onto a curved Cinerama screen. The term "SmileBox" is a registered trademark used to describe a type of letterboxing for Cinerama films, such as on the Blu-ray release of How the West Was Won. Each disc contains a label noting the use of "RCA's innovative wide-screen mastering technique." In cinema and home video The first fully letterboxed CED release was Amarcord in 1984, and several others followed including The Long Goodbye, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The King of Hearts. Initially, letterboxing was limited to several key sequences of a film such as opening and closing credits, but was later used for entire films. The first use of letterbox in consumer video appeared with the RCA Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) videodisc format. The term refers to the shape of a letter box, a slot in a wall or door through which mail is delivered, being rectangular and wider than it is high.