Why is 'Pan and Scan Enabled' the default?

[goddi]

Greetings,

I have tried to find any discussion on 'Pan and Scan' (in the Create HD Video) but the Search engine comes up with nothing useful nor could I find anything in the Tutorials.

When I use the default 'Pan and Scan Enabled', all I see is that the show is zoomed in and you lose the edges of the images. When I have text at the top or the bottom of images, they get partially or fully cropped out. It seems to me that the default should be 'Pan and Scan Disabled', so you get what you expect with no cropping of the images.

Am I missing something here? It took me a while to see what the 'Pan and Scan' was doing. I don't even understand why it is called 'Pan and Scan'. Under what circumstances would anyone what the 'Pan and Scan' to be enabled???

Thanks...Gary

[Lin Evans]

Hi Gary,

Read here:

http://www.divxland....pect_ratios.php

Best regards,

Lin

[goddi]

Lin,

Thanks for the site. It confirms what I have been questioning. When it says 'pan and scan' "cropp(s) off the sides of the original widescreen image. This is considered destructive...", I wonder again why 'Enabled' is the default in PTE. I didn't realize that 'pan and scan' was an official video term. Still not sure why those terms are use, but I'll leave that be. Doesn't it make more sense to have the default to be 'Disabled'?

Gary

==================

Hi Gary,

Read here:

http://www.divxland....pect_ratios.php

Best regards,

Lin

[Lin Evans]

Hi Gary,

It would only make sense to have it disabled by default if the "majority" of users were creating slideshows for wide screen television. Right now, even with the great influx of the new 720p/1080p televisions, the majority of televisions in the world are still the older style with 4:3 aspect ratio. Pan and Scan will autocrop wide shows for these so it still makes sense to have it as a default when more users are seeing shows on the more common aspect ratio screens.

It may be that in the future it will make more sense to not have it disabled as a default. For those creating DVD rather than HD, it still makes sense as the default. For those creating 16:9 aspect ratio wide screen shows for viewing only on wide screen monitors or newer televisions at HD resolutions, it doesn't, in my view.

Best regards,

Lin

Lin,

Thanks for the site. It confirms what I have been questioning. When it says 'pan and scan' "cropp(s) off the sides of the original widescreen image. This is considered destructive...", I wonder again why 'Enabled' is the default in PTE. I didn't realize that 'pan and scan' was an official video term. Still not sure why those terms are use, but I'll leave that be. Doesn't it make more sense to have the default to be 'Disabled'?

Gary

==================

[goddi]

Lin...

Not to start any argument, but I think anything that 'autocrops' my images as a default is a really big no-no, no matter what aspect ratio is used. I think if someone does not like the black boarders, the person should then make his own decision to crop his images. I would think that most photographers would do their compositions in the camera and not leave much, if any, wasted space. The term 'pan and scan' is not very intuitive and it probably might take most people a while to figure out what is going on...at least it did for me.

Gary

======================

Hi Gary,

It would only make sense to have it disabled by default if the "majority" of users were creating slideshows for wide screen television. Right now, even with the great influx of the new 720p/1080p televisions, the majority of televisions in the world are still the older style with 4:3 aspect ratio. Pan and Scan will autocrop wide shows for these so it still makes sense to have it as a default when more users are seeing shows on the more common aspect ratio screens.

It may be that in the future it will make more sense to not have it disabled as a default. For those creating DVD rather than HD, it still makes sense as the default. For those creating 16:9 aspect ratio wide screen shows for viewing only on wide screen monitors or newer televisions at HD resolutions, it doesn't, in my view.

Best regards,

Lin

[Lin Evans]

Hi Gary,

Pan and Scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of an ordinary TV screen, by cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image.

This is considered destructive to the directors original vision and intentions, because it can remove up to 45% (on 2.35:1 films) of the original image, and hinder the viewer's understanding of what's happening.

The Pan and Scan method also allows the maximum resolution of the image, since it uses all the available video scan lines. This is specially important for NTSC and PAL television, that has a rather low number of lines available to begin with. It also gives a full-screen image on analog television. For this reason, Pan and Scan versions of DVDs are often called Fullscreen.

Certain software video players (such as RadLight and Media Player Classic) have a so-called 'pan and scan' feature, which consists basically in enlarging or reducing the video size to reduce the black borders from widescreen videos shown on 4:3 displays such as normal monitors and TV sets. There is no actual 'pan' process because the borders are cropped equally on both sides constantly.

As you can see above, it only "crops" a widescreen image on a 4:3 aspect ratio screen. It also allows "maximum resolution" on the same screen and gives a "full-screen image on an analog TV"

If you make a widescreen slideshow without Pan and Scan and try to display it on a 4:3 monitor it will be cropped anyway but it will not display on PAL or NTSC at the full possible resolution.

Now that you know how it works, you can choose to use it or not. You can use Google or other search engines to find terms you are not familiar with.

I don't know why you couldn't find information on it by simply typing in "Pan and Scan" on your search engine. I found numerous explanations, even on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia....ki/Pan_and_scan

Best regards,

Lin