Letterboxing

Many films are shot in widescreen formats that are wider than the TV used to display them, In order to show the full picture, it is placed between black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. This is called "letterboxing". It's a common complaint of many viewers confronted with letterboxed movies that their screen is malfunctioning or not showing the full picture, but the opposite is true. In order to see everything that was photographed, you'll need the letterbox. Some televisions allow you to zoom into the picture, or stretch it vertically to fill the screen, but the former crops off the sides of the image, and the latter badly distorts the image.

For more information, return to the HDTV glossary introduction.