I won’t buy a fullscreen DVD unless that is the original aspect ratio.
Here is a page with examples of widescreen versus fullscreen images. The ones from 1776 are particularly telling because often entire characters are cut out of the frame. If you have ever watched the fullscreen version of that film, it’s maddening because characters will seem to be talking to no one, or will be watching action you can’t see because it has been cut off the screen.
I like the example for “Monty Python and the Holy Gra”
My favourite example is Planet of the Apes where Charlton Heston is on trial. As it was originally filmed, the three orangutans were shocked by “Taylor”'s heretical testimony and they were in the “see no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil” pose. This is how the shot is meant to be seen. In the fullscreen version, you only get the middle one and the gag is lost.
As someone who works on films from time to time, I look at it this way: The Director of Photography and the Director know how they want the image to appear on the screen. They spend a lot of time thinking up the shot and setting it up. If a film is not shot in 4:3 ratio, then cropping it to fullscreen and cavalierly getting rid of up to 1/3 of their composition is a violation of their artistic intent. (Even if the movie is crap, and the Director and DP are incompetent, it’s still wrong.) It’s like putting boxer shorts on Michelangelo’s David because you don’t agree that people should see his naughty bits.
Next up, a rant against colourization. 
Are all DVD movies even available in fullscreen?
I have well over 300 DVD movies and everyone of them is widescreen except for TV DVD sets and 1 mistake I made a few years ago (I picked up “Princess diaries” in fullscreen by accident and couldn’t return it).
I don’t have any special widescreen hardware and the bars don’t bother me.
widescreen is obviously better, becaus it lets you see EVERYTHING that’s there. Full screen cuts off stuff on the side of the picture.
No, but many are available only in fullscreen, and some others are marketed in two separate versions, like the new Indiana Jones box set.
Some films I’ve noticed that are available only in fullscreen are Happy Gilmore, Billy Jack, many of the early Burt Reynolds movies, and the first Babe movie (although that may have been released in widescreen by this point). Until recently Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was available only in fullscreen. If there is any pattern, it seems as though lowbrow comedies and b-movies most commonly receive the fullscreen-only treatment.
I think many people come to prefer widescreen once they understand what it is, unless they have tiny televisions. If you watch in a dark room, the matte lines disappear anyway.
Watching movies in fullscreen makes Baby Jesus cry. Seriously - it’s an abomination. It’s funny though - if you ask the “I hate black bars” people if they’d like it if the record companies just 1/3 off all the songs on their CDs they always say “hell no!” - but I guess this just doesn’t translate with film. More’s the pity.
I once heard a person in a video store complaining about the top and bottom of the picture being “cut off” in widescreen presentations. Clearly some education is needed.
Case in point: once while browsing DVDs a lady next to me asked if I knew the difference between widescreen and fullscreen. I explained the difference and she not only bought the widescreen version, but expressed horror that anyone would crop the picture. I like to think that most people would have that reaction.
Just so we are clear.
Normal t.v. is in a 4x3 aspect ration. That is to say, it is 1.66:1.
Standard Academy aperture is 1.85:1 ( Rectangular ). It uses normal or “Spherical” lenses. There is no compression vertically.
Anamorphic lenses compress the image vertically, then the image is “re-anamorphised” when projected back through a lens that delivers the properly stretched aspect ratio, which is either 2.33:1, or 2.66:1.
I seriously prefer wide screen. Whatever aspect ratio was chosen, is the format I wish to view it back in. Anything less is insulting, and you lose information to boot.
Cartooniverse
How embarassing. Why not simply go To This Widescreen Info Site, and it will explain in amazingly clear detail.
Talk about fighting ignorance. That link perpetuates an awful myth.
Panavision is the name of a company that basically started by taking a Mitchell BNC-R and updating some elements, and calling itself a Panavision Camera. It is not an aspect ratio/format at all.
You can shoot with a Panavision camera, and frame for 1.33:1, 1:66.1, as well as Academy Flat ( 1.85:1), or Anamorphic ( 2.33:1, etc. ).
It is a stupid misnomer, and has lasted for decades. I left out some truly funky aspect ratios, such as Cinerama and Cinemascope and Supe Cinemascope. “2001: A Space Odyssey” was shot so freakin’ wide, it’s amazing to see uncropped on a normal say, 25 inch t.v. set.
Cartooniverse.
Actually, Cartooniverse, 4x3 is 1.33:1.
Speaking of 2001: A Space Odyssey, are there any online examples of fullscreen vs. widescreen using that movie? 2001 has always been my example against fullscreen since it’s such a beautifully framed movie. Every time someone tried to rent the fullscreen version from me (when I worked at Blockbuster) I almost always told him to go get the widescreen version. I got so sick of doing this that I put a note on the 2001 box to go to the widescreen section and watch that version.
Widescreen, which I guess on a 16:9 TV might as well be called fullscreen. Anything else is for failures.
I like fullscreen, I notice the 2 damn black strips too much on the widescreen. Why can’t they smush everything good onto a full screen? lol.
Well, if you tell your DVD player you have a widescreen TV it will smush the widescreen into 4x3. At least it does on mine.
Looks funny though.
Good point.
What you see on your home set is 1.33:1.
What I shoot in my eyepiece is not.
Sorry to keep nitpicking but…
Academy aperture is 1.33:1 with 1.85, 1.66 etc. being composed within that full frame.
Most theatrical 35mm films are composed in 1.85.
Here’s an interesting thing I recently learned. Standard TV ratio, is, as has been mentioned, 4x3. This is the same as 12x9.
Widescreen TVs and most movies are 16x9.
Currently, as TV channels are in a transitionary period between the two, the standard they are broadcasting in is exactly halfway between the two - 14x9.
So what you’d see, depending on your equipment and settings, is either some small black bars on the top and bottom of your standard TV, so slim as to be almost not noticeable. Or two slim vertical bars on either side of your widescreen TV, also designed to not be too distractingly obvious.
Very cool.
It’s nice to have the widescreen, but a lot of the disks in the UK seem to use the letterbox format. On my 42" widescreen, this looks like I have 2 10" tv’s side by side 
Surly they can get the picture to fill the screen without having 2 bloody great black bars top and bottom.
You could expect to see the black bars on a 4:3 tv in order to keep the aspect ratio, but the whole idea of a widescreen is that it is just that - Widescreen.