Video Asylum

Posted by Steve K (P) on November 30, 2002 at 00:09:50

In Reply to: Re: What is progressive scan ,? some DVD players have this specs . posted by R. Hertz on November 29, 2002 at 18:46:39:

Actually, the term "pan and scan" is refering to how a "widescreen" picture, usually a movie, is fit to a 4x3 screen without letter boxing the picture.

Basically, instead of adding black bars to the top and bottom, each side of the frame is chopped off a bit. Aspect ratio remains correct, and no "annoying" black bars...but you dont get to see the "whole" movie.

What you described is the difference between a progressively scanned and an interlaced picture. A progressively scanned image means that all lines are drawn/refreshed in sequence. If an image is interlaced, that means that at each refresh cycle either all the odd lines or all the even lines are drawn.

There is no such thing as a "pan and scan tv", however a "conventional" [by this, I assume you mean analogue] tv is not capable of displaying a progressively scanned image.