Format for showing an entire movie image in its wide format on a standard 4-by-3 aspect ratio video display by fitting the image width into the width of the more square format and placing black bars above and below the image (when the wide picture is fit into a comparatively narrow space, the height of the picture does not equal that of the display). Letterboxed movies are common on laserdisc and DVD but are much more rare on VHS tape or standard television programming. he problem with displaying a movie designed for the theater and its wide screen on a 4-by-3 aspect ratio video display is that the movie does not fit. If you fit the image to the height of the television, the wide movie image extends beyond the sides of the screen. This method fills the screen but results in the loss of part of the image. When a movie is displayed on a television screen (a traditional “square” 4-by-3 screen) and it fills the screen, parts of the movie have actually been taken off and thrown away. To prevent this, the movie must be shown in such a way that its width fills the screen and not its height. When this happens, you see the entire movie as shown in the movie theater. However, the movie then does not fill the height of the television screen resulting in black bars above and below the image. letterbox movie, also known as a widescreen movie, shows the entire image by filling the width of a standard analog television’s 4-by-3 aspect ratio display and placing black bars above and below the image. The end result is a “short” image that does not fill the screen but does show the entire movie as it was seen in movie theaters.