pan and scan

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A method of printing movies for presentation on television that modifies the rectangular theater image by trimming the sides and focusing on significant action within the newly truncated image.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• adjective film Formatted to fit within proportions of a 1.33:1 or 1.78:1 aspect ratio television screen, with sides of the original widescreen image (especially 2.35:1 aspect ratio) cropped off.
• noun uncountable, film The method or practice of adjusting widescreen film images, especially 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 aspect ratio, so that they can be shown within the proportions of a 1.33:1 or 1.78:1 aspect ratio television screen, by cropping off sides of the original widescreen image, as opposed to letterboxing.
• noun film A movie recording employing this technology.
• verb film To adjust widescreen film images so that they can be shown with standard television aspect ratios by cropping the original image, i.e. using pan and scan methods.
• verb film To crop out (a character or object) when performing the pan and scan process, resulting in the deletion of a character or object.