One thing I have trouble getting my head around is all the terms for various picture sizes and ratios. That's one reason I rarely fill that info in when entering laserdisc info. The jackets on the discs rarely uses terms like "Academy". I get the feeling many of the terms are used interchangeably and sometimes incorrectly. Is there a clear precise definition of what the difference is and how to apply it to entries for laserdiscs? For example, what is the difference between TV size and 4:3? I thought they were the same..... I also see times where 16:9 is not considered anamorphic so what is the difference between those 2 terms? Other terms like Open Matte, Video, Pan&Scan, etc. I thought Pan&Scan was when a letterboxed movie was converted to 4:3 buy choosing a 4:3 portion of the picture to show.
I believe I understand "Open Matte" as when a previously matted movie has the matt taken off to expose more of the original fim image. How do you know the disc is open matte?

"TV Size" (TVサイズ), "Vista Size" (ビスタサイズ), "Scope Size" (スコープサイズ) are descriptions found printed on the back of Japanese disc jackets, to indicate aspect ratios of 4:3, 1.66~1.85:1 letterboxed into 4:3, & 2.0~2.55:1 letterboxed into 4:3, respectively. "Academy Ratio" applies, strictly speaking, to material shot on film in the 4:3 aspect ratio, using the whole 35 mm sound frame. Material shot on video should not be described as "Academy Ratio".

Your understanding of "Pan & Scan" is correct. Unfortunately, some people are in the habit of tagging all 4:3 material that way, even when it was obviously not cut down from a wider aspect ratio.

Generally speaking, determining whether a video version is "open matte" requires comparison with a widescreen version of the film, to judge whether things are added in (Open Matte) or cut off (Pan & Scan) in the 4:3 version.

It is perfectly possible to have a non-anamorphic 16:9 ratio in NTSC. In that case, it is letterboxed into the 4:3 frame. "Anamorphic" or "Squeeze" refers to using the full NTSC video frame to store a 16:9 AR picture, which is then distorted when viewed on a standard 4:3 screen. HDTV is natively 16:9, so the term "anamorphic" should not be used.

Is this reasonably clear? See also the LDDb Picture Ratio Help topic.

A good rule of thumb for Academy Ratio is if the title was released before 1952. Besides a few wide screen films that were never released on laser, all films from that time period would be Academy. I usually only use the TV ratio when it is a video based program or a TV show. Beyond that, I usually look up what the OAR was for a film and try to determine it as best I can. That's one of the reasons I haven't listed all my lasers in the database. I only insert something after I've watched. I'm anal that way.

So what is Academy ratio? Its not 4:3? I know old German Silents are in narrower ratios like 1.19 but I always thought US movies from the 20-50's were 4:3.
And what aspect ratio is video? or does that just mean the source is video as opposed to film?

As I said above :
"Academy Ratio" applies, strictly speaking, to material shot on film in the 4:3 aspect ratio, using the whole 35 mm sound frame. Material shot on video should not be described as "Academy Ratio".

"Video" is 4:3 if NTSC or PAL. Squeeze NTSC or Pal+ should use "16:9 Widescreen". Hi-Vision should use "16:9 Hi-Vision". If the source is video, but there is letterboxing, "Letterboxed" should normally be used — this is mostly of interest in cases where an NTSC release is made from a Hi-Vision source.

Thanks.

Silents had a different aspect ratio as they didn't use the side of the film for the soundtrack. That's why on a big screen, a silent will look bigger than a classic film like Citizen Kane. This is why David Shepard did a lot of his silent transfers in what he called "Window Boxing" because in order to fit the entire image on a 4:3 television, you needed to have black bars all around the image. Academy ratio is the the image minus the side of film that has the soundtrack. Tv's were originally made to match Academy ratio and so most programs made for television fit this ratio. Yes, video, (to me at least), signifies the source, but it should be the same ratio.