How do you tell if a DVD is wide screen or full screen?

Widescreen DVD's are designed for modern TV's with an aspect ration of 16:9 (almost twice as wide as tall). Most movies made in the past 50 years will fit better on these screens, although most will show a small band of black at the top and bottom of the screen. Full Screen DVD's have the movie edited to fit on an older TV with a 4:3 aspect ratio (almost square). These movies will play on a widescreen TV, but large black bars on the sides (pillarboxes) will be present and some of the movie's original screen space is lost in the edit. Most TV shows created in the past 5 years are formatted for Widescreen viewing, which is also the aspect ratio of High Definition television.