DVD sales figures: WIDE SCREEN vs FULL

[WizarDru]

It's the same thing as colorizing a black and white movie. Citizen Kane was filmed with the intent to utilize the highlights of blacks, whites and greys. Colorizing screws it up.

 

[Green Knight]

What permanently soured me on Fullscreen DVD's was the Lord of the Rings DVD. What can one say about it when the dialogue says something along the lines of "Nine rings for mortal men doomed to die" yet they only show seven men? And BARELY seven at that (One guy's cut in half, so you can barely see he's there)? So I gave that version to my brother and went out and bought the Widescreen version, where I can actually see all 9 kings. Have no intention of buying Fullscreen after that (Even went to the trouble of returning some FullScreen Star Wars DVD's I got for my birthday, and exchanged them for the WideScreen versions).

 

[Green Knight]

Well it makes sense in this case since it was made to be view in full screen, to modify it for widescreen is the same as changing a movie from wide to full (or close enough anyway).

Yeah, that's stupid. Why make it WideScreen if it wasn't made in WideScreen to begin with? They did the same thing on the uncut version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. It wasn't made as a FullScreen movie, but they released it as if it was a FullScreen movie. The end result. Bruce Wayne's head gets chopped off whenever he stands up. It's ridiculous. Isn't the whole POINT of getting the WideScreen version so you can see the movie WITHOUT having parts chopped off? But if it wasn't made in WideScreen, but you make it that way, you end up with parts getting chopped off. It's like buying a WideScreen movie as FullScreen. Unfrikkinbelievable, but there it is.

 

[S'mon]

I bought a widescreen TV then discovered that my cable service (NTL) only broadcasts in 'full' screen . Does this happen in the USA or is it a British thing only?

 

[WizarDru]

Well, I'm not exactly an expert, but most television is full-screen. Only a handful of shows are actually broadcast in wide-screen, although this will change more and more as wide-screen capable TVs become more available.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Girls play video games too! If you have a daughter just make sure to train her properly, none of that rading or outdoors crap!

For that matter, train your gf! That's what I did to my gf, and we're both much happier for it.

And I must say, this thread is really making me wish I had a job right now. I mean, being able to pay for food and rent and such are nice, but this is making me drool.

Oh, one comment I was going to make, but please don't think this is me trying to escalate flame wars, because it isn't. People like to spend money on hobbies - we all buy role playing books. Some of us also love to collect and play with technology, and that's a hobby as well, albeit a more expensive one. If you have the money, and you want to indulge your hobby, more power to you.

 

[Aeolius]

In my neck of the woods, Time-Warner Cable offers 10 channels (out of hundreds) in HDTV format: Discovery HD, 2 HBOs, 2 Showtimes, PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX (the last 4 do not broadcast 24/7).

 

[S'mon]

Well, I'm not exactly an expert, but most television is full-screen. Only a handful of shows are actually broadcast in wide-screen, although this will change more and more as wide-screen capable TVs become more available.

In the UK most digital-terrestrial broadcast tv is in both formats - you can change between wide & full screen versions at the press of a button. I have this on my old 12" Sony fullscreen tv in the kitchen. However the big new ca 30" widescreen TV in the living room is plugged into NTL cable, which is fullscreen-broadcast only. Given that this is digital cable (near universal in UK) it's annoying. I understand most people in USA still get analogue cable?

 

[Welverin]

In the UK most digital-terrestrial broadcast tv is in both formats - you can change between wide & full screen versions at the press of a button. I have this on my old 12" Sony fullscreen tv in the kitchen. However the big new ca 30" widescreen TV in the living room is plugged into NTL cable, which is fullscreen-broadcast only. Given that this is digital cable (near universal in UK) it's annoying. I understand most people in USA still get analogue cable?

Yep, and there are truly barbaric people who don't have cable at all!

Even digital doesn't guarantee high definition programming, much less widescreen.

 

[WizarDru]

Yep, and there are truly barbaric people who don't have cable at all!

Even digital doesn't guarantee high definition programming, much less widescreen.

In point of fact, most of the video afficianados I know claim that digital cable's signal is much worse for picture quality than analog, at least currently. All I know is that they seem to make the technology far more confusing than it ought to be.