I got $5 on daddy.
Man, I had no idea DVD format choice was a moral issue. Where have I been?
Say huh? Did you not note that I am pissed that it received crappy foolscreen release? Dang, y’all.
Now that made me laugh.
Oh, I’m sorry. You had a point?.. 
Ok, so…
I just wanna clarify here…
I purchase DVDs in widescreen…but rent them in full screen…because I only have a 13 inch TV to watch them on at the moment…and can’t see jack in widescreen mode…
Does that make me one of the horsemen?
Oh, my, God - you must run. It is not safe for you here. Have you not seen what the Widescreen Geeks do to fullscreen-watchers? You will surely be torn asunder. I know of a safehouse for full-screen watchers. We can get you there, but you must tell noone. And whatever you do, never divulge to a Mac User that you have a PC.
Yes, because you give the companies the impression that there’s a market for fullscreen, instead of letting it die on the vine like the blasphemy it is. 
Too late - the mob’s picked up your scent…
See, I don’t think this is like that. I don’t think this is about techno-geeky nerdiness at all. Viewing films in their intended format is not like some new gadget that the geeks brag about and no one else has heard of. It’s not a gadget at all.
If anything, panning and scanning is the nerdy, gadgety thing. It takes special equipment most people don’t even know exists to do those abominations. Kinda like specially designed esoteric torture devices. Which is, of course, exactly what they are.
All that being said: watch whatever the hell you want-- but be aware you’re missing a bunch of the movie.
What’s the difference if it’s “Ghostbusters” or “The Godfather”? Either way, every time the video pans to the left, you miss the reactions of the actors, or the scenery, or the sneaking villain, or whatever; occurring on the right side of the screen.
And blowero– I find it odd that you in particular would be satisfied with only part of the information. With all the eloquence and wisdom you express in various “God / No God” threads it seems ironic that you, just like a hive-brained theist, would settle for seeing anything less than the full picture.
Kind of an odd sidetrack, but thanks for that nice compliment, although I don’t agree with your usage of “hive-brained”. Everyone is entitled to his own beliefs, and I certainly respect everyone’s right to hold them. I don’t think any purpose is served by ridiculing others for their religious beliefs.
You’re just jealous because the nerds made something of their lives while your large, fully functional dick is stuck serving them fries at Mickey D’s.
“Pan-and-scan” is the process used to convert most widescreen movies to the 3x4 aspect ratio for TV. It involves panning back and forth from one side of the frame to the other in order to see everything in the original frame. Done well, it’s not very noticeable to the casual viewer, but done poorly, it can be nauseating.
Lots of people prefer having the entire original picture (especially if they have totally rad 16x9 TVs), thus the holy wars regarding DVD formats.
Unlike, say, “Mac vs. PC” or “Emacs vs. vi” or even, dare I mention it, “Deep Space Nine vs. Babylon 5,” this debate has one clearly superior side.
Not that it’s wrong to watch pan-and-scan movies, mind you. It’s just crap, and that’s OK. People like crap. I, for example, enjoy fast food. That’s what fullscreen is. The fast food of movies.
If it’s serving fries, I’d say it’s beyond “fully functional”! It must be downright prehensile.
Back on the subject at hand (so to speak), does it make any difference if I’m not actually watching the movie when it’s on? I’ll pop in a DVD now and then just for background noise while I’m online. So, I guess I’m not seeing any of the original artists’ visions. Does that make me a bad person?
Well, I had to guess, since I’ll never personally know what it’s like to have such a gigantic throbbing cock.
Nah. No point in getting worked up about it if you’re not into the visual aspect of it. (But for the best quality background noise, I’m assuming you have a full 5.1 surround system, right?! Just kidding.)
I know a blind guy who has a DVD player and no TV. He just rents movies and listens to them.
I think I have this hidden envy of those who have time to go get a video and watch it.
I am still trying to wrap my head around such a concept.
I’m just not the type to sit still long enough. So, getting one’s panties in bunch over ‘art’ (when it’s cookie cutter entertainment) is foreign to me.
Since I opened the thread yesterday, I finished work, went to dinner with my wife and kids, went to a Flyers game, cut my grass this morning, worked on my neighbor’s boat, hit the bike trail, bought some more wood, started to build some furniture, finsihed off my daughter’s doll house, cleaned my truck, painted easter eggs, hid the eggs, spent some Q.T. with my wife, watched some more Flyers playoff action, and came down to my basement which I finished, grabbed a soda from behind the bar I built, turned on the 60" widescreen to do some surfing and sat down at my PC which sits on the desk I built.
I guess I am pissed because you DVDers get kind of snooty when discussing people who don’t care about aspect ratios of people doing make-believe on TV.
I was raised to be exhaustingly active, productive and to enjoy tapping my own artistic abiity, rather than sitting around watching cookie cutter movie scripts.
I always shook my head at the people who scurry into movie stores and get all jazzed up. Shook my head in a ‘not for me’ kinda way.
But this thing you people have about being ‘smarter’ or ‘better’ baffles me.
Not to mention, coated with asbestos.
Uhh. There are cookie cutter movie scripts, but there’s a huge number of films that are original, artistic, and still a hell of a lot of fun.
And yet, despite your bafflement, you’re surprisingly good at it yourself.
Please, go on, in great detail!
Comedy is just as valid an art form as any other form of cinematic endeavor. And Ghostbusters is a film that is badly maimed when viewed in foolscreen. Rietman composed some beautiful shots in that film, and they are utterly ruined by the hatched job done by the Pan & Scan makers so that the unwashed morons of the world don’t have black bars on their TVs.