# I Pit Widescreen DVD's **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 7, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582 "2005-01-07T16:07:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/41 "2005-01-07T20:07:32Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > And remember, we like our shit long and thin, just like the maker intended. Funniest thing I’ve read all day! 🙂 Good to know you like them long and thin, mhendo! Sam ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/42 "2005-01-07T20:12:14Z")
Funny (kinda story): I had a friend who would come over to watchmovies and he would complain at first about widescreen. But eventually over time I convinced him that it was right and proper and pan-n-scan sucked ass. So I get a call from him and he is excited, he finally got himself a DVD player. But he is complaining, too. One of the first movies he bought was _Casablanca_ and it was “pan-n-scan” and he was furious because there was nothing on the box indicating it was so. He calmed down after I explained to him that older movies had different aspect ratios. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/43 "2005-01-07T20:20:10Z")
A badly done pan-and-scan can completely ruin a film as well. The first time I saw _Tombstone_ was P&S and I just hated the movie, the story was hard to follow & the camera seemed to be making lots of unnecessary cuts and moves. The same film in widescreen is a completely different experience. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/44 "2005-01-07T20:29:10Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Damn straight. > > And remember, we like our shit long and thin, just like the maker intended. Now of that compact, 4:3 shit. Touche 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/45 "2005-01-07T20:38:38Z")
> [@Earthworm Jim](#): > > I have a widescreen TV. All of my widescreen DVDs show black bars somewhere. I’ve read the manual for the TV. I’ve read the manual for the DVD player. No matter what buttons I push on either the TV or DVD player remotes, I still have black bars to a greater or lesser degree. > > Maybe I’m a moron and haven’t found the right combination of buttons, but I do remember reading that “widescreen” doesn’t necessarily mean exactly 16:9… > > eh. Or maybe you just decided to not read the text you quoted. Please refer back to the last clause of that sentence. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/46 "2005-01-07T23:46:02Z")
Get a good TV and you won’t loose a single line of vertical resolution with widescreen. I’ve got a Sony XBR Wega (Xtra Bucks Required!) and it senses widescreen and cuts the vertical scan to just the appropriate hight of the image - the “black bars” are entirely unscanned and completely black, and the effective vertical resulution is more or less doubled. Very cool feature. BTW - the correct term is pan and SCAM. You’re not getting all of the movie as created - why do you still have to pay full price? ---
**Author:** ![TastesLikeBurning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@TastesLikeBurning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TastesLikeBurning)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/47 "2005-01-08T02:22:37Z")
Does anybody know why when widescreen TVs started being produced, they weren’t built to the ratios more accurately reflecting cinema screens? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/48 "2005-01-08T03:05:57Z")
> [@TastesLikeBurning](#): > > Does anybody know why when widescreen TVs started being produced, they weren’t built to the ratios more accurately reflecting cinema screens? As mentioned in Gangster Octopus’s posts, older movies had a basically 4:3 aspect ratio, the same as a 35mm film frame. I imagine television followed that rationale. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/49 "2005-01-08T03:12:58Z")
> [@TastesLikeBurning](#): > > Does anybody know why when widescreen TVs started being produced, they weren’t built to the ratios more accurately reflecting cinema screens? Because as earlier mentioned, there is no “one, standard” cinema aspect-ratio. 16:9 is a setup that fits well with a great amount of available programming. Or maybe they just thought it would be clever to take 4:3 and square both numbers, I wouldn’t put it past them. And yes, on some smallish TV sets a widescreen looks small and you feel like you want to squint… but that’s neither here nor there. After all, you can also get a bad viewing experience at the moviehouse if you wind up in the first row, having to twist your neck to see the picture – BTW, before we get a little bit too high and mighty scoffing down at the phillistines, let’s remember that those of us watching widescreen on our TV (or from the chiropractic row in the theater) are NOT really quite exactly watching “as the creator intended” either. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/50 "2005-01-08T04:09:33Z")
Pan & Scan is not as “bad” a thing as it once was. Most movies made these days the director as two frames bracketed in the viewfinder and will make sure the bulk of whatever it is that’s being filmed fits in the TV bracket. Of course some movies are more cinematic than others so getting the full panorama of, say, Lord of the Rings will be more important than getting widescreen on Meet the Fockers. Some old movies, before they were thinking about TV when making them, really suffer from Pan & Scan however. In a college film class we watched samples of Casablanca in widescreen and Pan & Scan. With the Pan & Scan there was one scene I remember where Bogart and Bergman were talking and the Pan & Scan had to do hard cuts from face to face while the widescreen you saw both faces at the same time. Getting the immediate reactions from each actor as they responded to each other was LIGHT YEARS better than the Pan & Scan. VERY noticeable. I stick with widescreen these days just to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/51 "2005-01-08T04:15:08Z")
Wasn’t **Casablanca** shot in 1.33:1 aspect ratio? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/52 "2005-01-08T04:22:04Z")
I’ll concede there are two sides on the widescreen vs fullscreen issue. But one of them is wrong. Widescreen all the way. But there is one issue I take exception to. That’s television producers (and worse yet television commercial producers) who shoot their work in any aspect other than 4:3. Listen people, you knew what the aspect ratio was when you chose to work in television - deal with it. Anyone who intentionally misfits their product into the primary medium it will be shown on is just being stupid. It’s like writing a haiku and deciding to put an extra syllable in the last line. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/53 "2005-01-08T04:26:37Z")
> [@Dante](#): > > Wasn’t **Casablanca** shot in 1.33:1 aspect ratio? TBH I do not know and after writing that I wondered if it was indeed Casablanca. It’s been 20 years since that class so the memory is foggy. What HAS stuck with me was some classic movie doing as I described and the difference was strikingly apparent. Bottom line is it really depends on the movie (how it was originally shot as well has the effort put into the conversion to TV). Some Pan & Scan you wouldn’t notice the difference. I doubt you lose much watching _Dude, Where’s My Car_ in Pan & Scan but movies like _Saving Private Ryan_ I think you will (if only for losing some of that cinematic feel). FWIW I have a widescreen TV and many movies (as previously noted) display with a black bar top and bottom. My TV can adjust the image to fill the screen but you either get some distortion or some cropping of the image. I go with the black bars most times (although some naturally fill the whoel screen which is nice). ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lodoen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b3f665/32.png) [@Jeff\_Lodoen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lodoen)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/54 "2005-01-08T04:27:40Z")
> [@Dante](#): > > Wasn’t **Casablanca** shot in 1.33:1 aspect ratio? Yeah, funny how people can be tricked by memory. A quick search says “The Robe” (1953) was the first widescreen movie in general release. CinemaScope, 2.55:1. ---
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/55 "2005-01-08T04:39:23Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Or maybe you just decided to not read the text you quoted. Please refer back to the last clause of that sentence. Hmm. Perhaps my communications skills are lacking. I’ll try again. > [@Munch](#): > > he either has his settings wrong, No matter what buttons I push on either the TV or DVD player remotes, I still have black bars to a greater or lesser degree. > [@Munch](#): > > or the ratio of the film doesn’t match the ratio of his screen. I do remember reading that “widescreen” doesn’t necessarily mean exactly 16:9… Clearer? ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Damage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@Mister\_Damage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Damage)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/56 "2005-01-09T00:35:56Z")
> [@Earthworm Jim](#): > > Hmm. Perhaps my communications skills are lacking. I’ll try again. > > No matter what buttons I push on either the TV or DVD player remotes, I still have black bars to a greater or lesser degree. > > I do remember reading that “widescreen” doesn’t necessarily mean exactly 16:9… > > Clearer? Well, you’ve answered your own question (is there a question?): unless the movie you’re watching was shot in precisely a 1.78:1 ratio (which no movies _are_ shot in), you will see some sort of black bars. You’ll see smaller black bars for movies that were shot in 1.85:1, and the larger black bars for movies that were shot in 2.35:1 (the two most common aspect ratios for modern movies). **Mr. Roboto** ’s neighbor will have this problem, too—a widescreen TV makes the problem _better_, but it doesn’t eliminate it completely. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/57 "2005-01-09T02:43:42Z")
We had this whole discussion in two different threads last April or so. In [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=250113&page=1&pp=50&highlight=wide+screen) I posted my rabid opinion that only a goof-ball would watch and widescreen film in full-screen. But later I backed down after having a discussion with a well-known film director about this topic. But I still personally feel you’re missing something when you watch full-screen rather than widescreen. _Originally posted my **I Love Me, Vol. I** (me) on April 24, 2004_ > [@](#): > > I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to film director Milos Forman tonight before a screening of his film “Hair” at the San Francisco Film Festival. > > Because of my views on the letterbox/fullscreen debate (firmy in the letterbox camp), I wanted to ask how he felt about it in general. His first comment was, “Ahh, there is nothing I can do about which way people watch films so I don’t worry about it.” > > I asked more specifically how he felt personally about his films not being seen by some viewers in the way that he shot them. He responded in a way I found surprising and unexpected. He said (something to the effect of), as long as the format of the picture doesn’t interfere with the pace, content, and story; and the meaning of the film is still conveyed, then he didn’t really have a problem with it. > > I told him I was involved in a discussion (this thread) about the differences and that some people (myself included) felt quite strongly about the fact that people were mssing parts of the movie. > > “Twenty years ago I too would have really been bothered by this, but I am much mellower now.” he told me. > > This opened my eyes a bit. Forman is one of my favorite directors; I have a lot of respect for him. I still maintain that seeing these films in their intended format provides a richer viewing experience, but I took his point about “as long as the meaning is still conveyed” to heart, and I must say I for one am willing to back down from my earlier “holier-than-thou” approach. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/58 "2005-01-09T19:13:59Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > But there is one issue I take exception to. That’s television producers (and worse yet television commercial producers) who shoot their work in any aspect other than 4:3. Listen people, you knew what the aspect ratio was when you chose to work in television - deal with it. Anyone who intentionally misfits their product into the primary medium it will be shown on is just being stupid. It’s like writing a haiku and deciding to put an extra syllable in the last line. But,… but, how will they prove they’re _artistes_ with a cinematic vision and full mastery of the medium and idiom, if they play by the rules? “I am a _film auteur_, not a beer salesman!” Of course, there are a couple of legit reasons for filming a commercial widescreen: 1. Because you’re also making a theatrical version. American audiences may be spoiled about this but in much of the world, the trailers before the feature include actual ads. 2. Because you want to take maximum advantage of widescreen-capable HDTV, if your ad is ever on such a broadcast. ---
**Author:** ![spectrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/59 "2005-01-10T03:45:23Z")
> [@Mr. Roboto](#): > > Lindy Hopper & mhendo, What Mfg. of television do you own? Mrs. Roboto and I own a 27 inch Samsung and the Widescreen format is brutally small. I can’t beleive that we are not viewing the same demensions unless your Mfg. has some built in Compensators. My television is a 27" Samsung model, and I only watch movies in widescreen (if available). As a true appreciator of cinema, I want to see the film properly – ie, in whichever format the director and cinematographer chose. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582/60 "2005-01-10T13:23:06Z")
> [@spectrum](#): > > My television is a 27" Samsung model, and I only watch movies in widescreen (if available). As a true appreciator of cinema, I want to see the film properly – ie, in whichever format the director and cinematographer chose. You all keep saying this, but you seem totally oblivious that you are missing detail by shrinking the picture. Yeah, I like watching widescreen too. I believe it’s superior, but if someone wants to watch a picture because they enjoy seeing textures and colors no black box more than the entire frame, it doesn’t make them wrong. > [@Little Nemo](#): > > I’ll concede there are two sides on the widescreen vs fullscreen issue. But one of them is wrong. Widescreen all the way. :rolleyes: > [@Little Nemo](#): > > But there is one issue I take exception to. That’s television producers (and worse yet television commercial producers) who shoot their work in any aspect other than 4:3. Listen people, you knew what the aspect ratio was when you chose to work in television - deal with it. Anyone who intentionally misfits their product into the primary medium it will be shown on is just being stupid. It’s like writing a haiku and deciding to put an extra syllable in the last line. Well, now that more and more TVs are going 16:9, I think you can expect more of this. I know that HBO shows Sopranos in widescreen, and “Lost” has a widescreen broadcast, too. Within a few years, I hope that it’s the dominant format for TV and that broadcasting reflects it. For now, if you have wide-screen you can clearly tell that a baseball game (or whatever) is still framed for a 4:3. Hopefully they’ll start changing that when widescreen (if widescreen) becomes the dominant format. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-widescreen-dvds/283582.md?page=4)