I also have a cheap-ass 27" TV. With widescreen, I may be missing detail, but there’s only a few instances where it has even been a minor annoyance. I can still see each sparking diamond on Satine’s bodice. Once in a while, I can’t read a note some character’s holding. I suspect that when the note was five feet high on a movie screen, I probably could have made it out. But never has it mattered in terms of understanding the story, the motivations, or the (what was it Milos said?) “the pace, content, and story; and the meaning of the film is still conveyed”.
In contrast, a poorly done Pan and Scan does interfere with those things, for reasons already listed. A well-done 3.5 film doesn’t. At that point, it becomes viewer’s choice.
I happen to be very fond of long tracking shots and deep focus. I was indeed that geeky college student who got all excited when learning about Mise en Scene in Citizen Kane. They make me happy. They look like shit in a 4:3 ratio. Ergo, I prefer widescreen, even for many TV shows.
Ummmm… you do know that the HDTV standard calls for a 16:9 ratio by default, right? And that a few years from now - whenever the FCC grows enough backbone to put their foot down about HDTV adoption by everyone - it’ll be impossible to buy a 4:3 TV anymore (except perhaps for “special use” TVs like those used in kiosks and in cars, etc.)
The FCC keeps putting it off and putting it off - wasn’t HDTV-only broadcasting supposed to happen in 2001 or 2002… then in 2005 then in 2006 and now it’s 2009? Or something like that?
Whatever - it makes no difference, as these whiny 4:3 bitches will be out of luck by then and foolscreen will die the horrible, horrible death it deserves.
What about the arguments my mother keeps making? I keep telling her, wide-screen is better, but she keeps insisting, “But those black bars cut off the top and the bottom!”
:smack:
Hopefully, I’ll be able to convince her by showing her those comparison links.
We got a 50" plasma HDTV. Widescreen is the way to go. Especially when out TV settings also allow us to move the image so it takes up the whole screen. So none of the bars. Nice!
I’d rather average out the detail loss across the whole image than have nice detail on 2/3rds and no detail at all on the part that was completely removed. Sometimes the missing portion is merely annoying, but sometimes it totally jacks up the movie. See here.