What's the difference between...
 

They cut out half of the picture from the sides when they adjust it to fit on normal television screens. Pan & scan movies are the devil. :laugh:

Anyone who would want to watch half of a movie needs to be slapped.

Um, huh? :o

You must've forgotten that I'm blonde. Are you referring to wide screen editions with that comment?

:laugh:

http://www.moviesbystarlight.com/wid...widescreen.htm

Full screen DVDs are in a 4:3 (1:33 to 1) aspect ratio and you miss a lot of the image that is intended to be viewed. They "blow" the image up to fill the screen, and you miss things that are happening on the "side". I caught Ghostbusters in full frame the other day and buddy, there is some vital stuff going on to the left/right of the characters that is totally left out. Full screen DVDs are a complete waste of money.

A Widescreen DVD (16:9 format) can be in a 1:85 to 1 ratio or 2:35 to 1 ratio, depending on the type of camera the director uses to film the picture. All movies are shot "wider" than most TVs to get more of a viewing angle (hence the black bars on the top and bottom of your screen). You never see the "bars" in a movie theater because of the screen size. Your typical home TV set you will see the "black bars" at some point. If you have a widescreen flat panel TV (an LCD, or Plasma, or DLP or even some of the projection TVs) they can eliminate a lot of that.

It's cool. Glad I could help. I work with installating home theater equipment for a living, so I'm used to the "dumb" questions. It can be confusing and even I'm not an expert on it, but I think what I said above is about all you need to know. Just wait until they start releasing hi-definition DVDs...! It never ends, I tell ya.

Yeah I use the Live in Boston Fleetwood Mac disk for a demo a lot, because it was shot in Hi-def and it looks really sharp on plasma Tv's, etc...Technology changes so damn fast now, it's pretty frustrating.

Actually, though, widescreen really irritates me, even though I know I'm getting more picture. Those black bars at the bottom and top drive me to distraction. They really make me feel like I'm not getting the full picture. Sad, but true.

*high five!* :)

If you don't like the black bars that preserve the actual ratio of the film, you can use the zoom button on your DVD remote to make the image fit your TV.

And I just discovered the coolest thing about my player. When it's zoomed, you can hit the right or left arrows and make the image pan left or right. And it's a cheapo...

Mid-90s, when I first discovered the difference between widescreen & pan&scan, I remember looking for months and months for a widescreen version of Gone With The Wind. :laugh: And I was *furious* that one wasn't in production - how dare they cheat me out of "the rest" of one of my favorite films (and one of the most beloved of all time)???

Finally, a very nice videophile explained to me that the first films were shot in the 4x3/1.33:1 ratio. Then TV came along, and adopted that format out of necessity. When the movie moguls realized how much of their audience was being stolen, they widened the screens so people would be enticed back into theaters. And for artistic reasons too - if you've ever seen a true Cinemascope or 70mm movie, you understand - your entire field of vision is taken up (without having to sit on the first few rows).

that's cool. Mines on my computer, but I'll look for that. :nod: