pan and scan

[pan uhn skan]

noun

Television.

1. a technique for changing the aspect ratio of a wide-screen film, usually by selecting the significant section of each film frame and cropping the sides, so that it can be transmitted in 4:3 aspect ratio.

Other Word Forms

• pan-and-scan adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of pan and scan¹

First recorded in 1980–85; pan ² ( def. ), scan ( def. 6 )