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Pan-scan is when they put a movie on tape, and instead of preserving the way the movie looked in the theater, they chop off the sides and make it fill the whole screen (since a theater screen is wider than a TV screen, ratio-wise). Then they'll pan back and forth across the screen, showing you what otherwise you'd miss. This is, of course, detrimental to thye film as a work of art, and I am morally opposed to the practice of mutilating films in this fashion. Letterbox is when they preserve the original theatrical image (and thus the artistic integrity of the film) , but since a TV isn't as wide as a theater screen, there are these inconsequential black bars at the top and bottom of the screen where otherwise there would be static. These bars bother some people, but trust me, once you get used to them, and see how much better a movie is widescreen (another term for letterbox), you'll never watch another pan-scan format movie again. So you see, there is no argument here: Letterbox is clearly better for watching movies. I mean, there are CAR COMMERCIALS that are letterboxed, and yet I have to special order letterboxed movies. You know, in Japan, there is no such thing as pan-scan, they wouldn't dream of ruining a movie like that.
Vegeta
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