Full or widescreen DVDs?


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widescreen edition all the way baby

when full screen they cut off a portion on the left n right side of the picture, but when widescreen, its the way the director wanted it to look like, it being the movie

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I don't really think your going to have much choice. The majority of DvD's are 2.35:1 or 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Both of those are widescreen standard.

If you have a normal 4:3 TV, then go for movies that are 1.85:1, that way the picture will be larger on your TV.

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Fullscreen DVDs are the devil, nasty Pan and Scan, why the hell would anyone buy them?

people who have a 4:3 TV

I advise buy DVDs that match the ratio of your TV , after all, thats why we are given a choice.

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people who have a 4:3 TV

I advise buy DVDs that match the ratio of your TV , after all, thats why we are given a choice.

Even before I had a widescreen TV I would never have bought 4:3, they suck full stop!

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people who have a 4:3 TV

I advise buy DVDs that match the ratio of your TV , after all, thats why we are given a choice.

Even before I had a widescreen TV I would never have bought 4:3, they suck full stop!

nothing sucks more than watching a 16:9 DVD on a 28" 4:3 TV

nasty , just a thin line across the middle of the screen,

or scan and chop the sides off, or pan and everyone looks skinny and 20 feet tall.

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nothing sucks more than watching a 16:9 DVD on a 28" 4:3 TV

Yeah it does, watching a film that was filmed in widescreen be hacked and cut up to bits to fit on a 4:3 TV...

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You all seem to be missing something here, all DVD's are in widescreen (at least unless they weren't made that way which isn't very often any more) but at the same time most DVD players or TV's will now ajust the picture to fit your TV, so you can buy one DVD and have the best of both worlds especially if you ever plan to get a new widescreen TV (which by the way I recomend as everything including the news Six feet under sports and digital TV movies are all in widescreen now) so there you go no choice when you buy just a choice about how you view them.

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I use to be all about Full-Screen, I mena you know I wanted to use all my t.v. that's what I bought it for, but then I was kept watching wide-screen and I don't know, I just feel that's how it's meant to be watched.

So WIDESCREEN.

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There shouldn't even be a question about it. If you buy a dvd movie, you go for widescreen... that's the way the film was intended to be watched afterall :) I always go for anamorphic when it's possible too.

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Yeah it does, watching a film that was filmed in widescreen be hacked and cut up to bits to fit on a 4:3 TV...

thast virtualy the same thing,

so my point still stands, for a 4:3 TV , get 4:3 DVDs

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I don't really think there's much question as to what is better...

but I do think that the people who go "Wiedsrceen rulorz!!! fulscream sux lol" are idiots. I estimate that only 10% of shots are you actually missing out on anything worth seeing. In many cases, what has been cut is a grey wall, or something trivial and pointless. It's not like you miss out on any important plot details that would keep you from understanding and enjoying the movie.

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Anamorphic widescreen baby! Even on my 25" 4:3 TV I watch the movies in widescreen, simply cause you miss so much of the movie when you just see 2/3 (or whatever it may be, I haven't done the math :)) of the picture.

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hey since we are all going to digtail in 2005 and evrything be in HDTV 16:9 y do people buy HDTV widescreen 4:3 tv's?!!? i was dead liek em and carnival in hdtv on my 16:9 plasmaz and my nieeghbor watches hdtv on his 4:3 32inch sony TELEVSION , he decided to buy an 800$ set top box to convert hdtv to regular and squeze it onto his TV, which is ok i guess...if u like big black bars, also since the black bars on hdtv projection or other projection TV r not covered under ANY warrenty if u get urself a 16:9 pretty tv and watch ur 4:3 movies on itur going to have black bars on each side, so this will eventually make the spots where the bars are LIGHTER which hurts ur picture... i really thinkg fullscreen dvd's r for the uneducated consumer but if so many were not that then companies wouldn't be so rich huh? so y dun u just save urself trouble and get widescreen its comming around evntually and FAID if u want something that doesnt cut off anything go buy hdtv tapes and watch it on a digital projector on a 73inch studio quality screen, in your custom theater dark room, i wis i had one like my friend steve

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Yup Widescreen! Same here even on my 4:3 27inch I always watch in widescreen, even when i was still buying videos as well as DVDs (when the lowest price a dvd was 25$ i still bought some videos when they were like 10$) and when I could, i'd buy the videos in widescreen.

Some movies you may not really fell the difference, like comedies sometimes, but go watch something like Gladiatior's opening battle in full, then in Wide and you'll mose definitly notice the difference and realise why Widescreen is the way to go. Or same thing with Lord of the Rings battles.

Edited by Ash
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It doesn't matter if its "worth" seeing, its hwo its MEANT to be seen.

Here's a perfect example, "The Night Watch" by Renoir is arguabley one of the most famous paintings by the artist today. It was HACKED (actually cut) and made to fit a specific wall in the City Hall in Amsterdam at one point. This impromptu trimming actually removed several key figures all to get it to fit. This was obviously not the artists intention.

Movies are meant to be shown in the aspect ratio they were shot in. For some movies (like most Kubrick films, and most movies shot in the early 50's prior) this means that they can viewed in 4:3 as thats how they were shot. For other movies, you miss out on a LOT other than just edges of the frame. SOme movies the aspect ratio gives a sense of feeling, and more importantly of SCOPE. To me it would be a sin to watch say "Lawrance of Arabia" or even something modern like "Gladiator" or "Solaris" in Fullscreen. These movies have some scenes that are just awe inspiring in terms of their magnatude and brilliance. Watching them hacked down would be like destroying a Renoir just to get it to fit on a specific wall.

Here's the other thing about 4:3 too. Its called Pan & Scan because in order to get the movie to fit in a 4:3 aspect ratio, a matte artist will PAN and SCAN around the original image to show what they want. Sometimes these editors are serious HACKS. I have seen some Pan & Scan movies that are absolutely dizzying! For a good example of this, watch the train scene in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" at the begining with Indiana as a young boy. The scanning back and forth would make some people sick (those who get motion sickness from Quake too!!). There is even one character talking who can't even be seen!

Now, of the DVD issue, here's my 2 cents. Save yourself some time now and just look for Anamorphic DVD's. These DVD's will auto format to insert black bars for 4:3 sets, and in the furutre when you get a 16:9 set they will autoformat to fit them w/o the bars. If you sink money into 4:3 media now, you ar just goign to be ticked when you have a 16:9 set later because they will all have black FRAMES around them (as they will be 4:3 source with black bars at the side now too).

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