Direct from Hollywood: Widescreen DVD releases under the gun! Here's the Answer! (1 Viewer)

[Jim Tudor]

I remember a VERY brief widescreen exclamation on my old "Wild Bunch" VHS tape. IIRC, it started with a P&S shot of twp or three of the gang members walking; and then expanded to widescreen to reveal at least two more gang members that were pan & scanned out before. There may've been a graphic saying this was in the widescreen OAR. Simple, effective, and understandable even by J6P.
JiM T

 

[Mark Booth]

I haven't read every post in this thread, so, my apologies if this is a repeat idea:
If places like WalMart are pushing the studios for Pan & Scan releases then my answer will be to STOP BUYING ANYTHING from places like WalMart.
Boycott WALMART and all heavy-handed retailers like them!
Mark

 

[Matt_Stevens]

I think we are too few to make a difference. I never go there as it is.
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[Steve Owen]

I'm thinking we, home theater enthusiasts, can really put together an organized and SUSTAINED campain. More than just the bust that came from the Willy Wonka issue...
The key will be to get involvement from most if not all of the major home theater / DVD enthusiast sites. It's time to band together for a common cause. Certainly HTF can lead the way, and I'm guessing that you could get involvement from the folks at hometheatertalk.com thedigitalbits.com avsforum.com DVDtalk.com and many others. I'm sure you could even get buy-in from magazine sites like guidetohometheater.com etc.
Scattered discussion won't do it. Even "no OAR, no sale" isn't going to do it. We need every person who searches for home theater and DVD information on the net to somehow stumble across this campain.
Ron, Parker... you know the guys that run the other big HT / DVD sites. How about starting a campain and getting them on board? It would be cool to have a site just for this cause... maybe WeWantOAR.com or something like that. Simple, in J6P terms, why OAR is better. We all know why, and there are sites that explain why, but those sites are too obscure getting major traffic.
Just some thoughts... I'd be willing to help out in any way I can...
-Steve

 

[Russell B]

I am sticking with DVD just for the sound and clear picture.
If they want to make them all P&S i will still buy them. Its a shame for the WS lovers, i am one myself, but the majority of the people out there don't have he knowledge of the benefits of the WS format and they don't have the WS tv's. The fact is that more people want P&S. You can boycott
all you want but that won't change the fact that your the
smallest percentage between the two. If they do switch to P&S only they will gain more DVD fans because i know quite a few people that won't buy DVD unless they were P&S only.
It will suck but i can live with it since i watch regular tv which is P&S.

 

[Derek Duncan]

It's thoughts like that, that is going to cause this to come true, I myself have a 4:3 TV, but I am so used to widescreen, that regular television programs look strange to me, but I agree that it isn't going anywhere, just a scare, the true directors wouldn't allow it.
Derek

 

[Greg O' Connel]

It will suck but i can live with it since i watch regular tv which is P&S.

No, it isn't. Pan & Scan doesn't just mean a picture without black bars. Television is filmed to be shown "full screen". No image is lost; everything is the way the director intended. Movies are filmed to be shown on wide theater screens. The pan and scan process zooms in on the picture and crops off whatever doesn't fit (50% of the image, in many cases). Since the image is zoomed in, the picture quality is also damaged. Also, artificial camera pans must be added in that the director never intended to be there. The Die Hard Five Star Edition from Fox has a featurette that demonstrates the P&S process very clearly.
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[Dave Hahn]

The sky still hasn't fallen.

The question seems to be, is widescreen becoming less or more popular? My hypotheis is that widescreen will prevail. While opinions abound, certain facts are available.
Not some, not a few, not many, not most, but almost all films released on dvd are available in their original theatrical aspect ratio.
It is federal law that all television broadcasts be in high definition by the year 2006. While this date may be moved back, it will happen. These high definition broadcasts will be in widescreen. Right now, at the beginning of this transition period the production of 4:3 sets outnumber the production of 16:9 sets. Soon, because of the new high definition widescreen content, they will be equal. In the future there will be only one, 16:9.
As others have noted, as we speak the major networks, including by the way PBS, air television content in widescreen. The number of series and specials shown in widescreen has increased. If this continues as charted, there will only be more and more content shown in widescreen.
I am of the opinion that the evidence supports my hypothesis that widescreen will prevail.
I find it especially interesting that, as Ron reported, "at one particular unnamed studio there is constant battles going on between the marketing people and the enthusiasts who put these films together for DVD." I interpret this to mean that the marketing people at this studio want the content to be in Pan & Scan because of "reported" consumer demand. I find this interesting because the "big boys" of the marketing/advertising world, the guys & gals with offices on Madison Ave., are putting out more and more televison commercials in widescreen. That's right, widescreen.
Now why would companies be spending big bucks on widescreen commercials, commercials that air in prime-time and during high-share events like the Superbowl, why would they spend that kind of money on a format that is supposedly unpopular with the general public?

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"When you call me that, smile!"
My DVD Collection

 

[Matt_Stevens]

It is federal law that all television broadcasts be in high definition by the year 2006. While this date may be moved back, it will happen.

It will be moved back. To never, most likely. The FCC won't enforce their own rules and the broadcasters are delaying delaying delaying. It's a serious problem. Numerous stations have not even begun converting for HDTV. They have done nothing, because they know when the first deadline hits next year, it will be extended without penalty. There are numerous threads over at avsforum.com about this disgrace.
We need to find people in power, elected officials, who are sympathetic to us and will push for the FCC to stick by the deadlines, the 2006 deadline in particular.
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www.deceptions.net/superman

 

[Mathias Klemme]

I guess I'm lucky to live in "Region 2". OAR has never been a problem with consumers over here, in fact you'd have a hard time finding P&S versions even on VHS, and it's been like that since the early 90's. Seems like this is an american issue...

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Actually, this "2006 law" doesn't exist. Just a requirement that if in 2006 a given TV market has 85% of its households capable of receiving a digital broadcast, that the stations in that market will switch over to digital and will have to broadcast digital, and 4:3 480i is a valid ATSC digital broadcasting mode.
There was never a high definition mandate.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Uneducated, stupid Joe Sick pack is the majority and the businesses, studios, broadcasters tailor to them.

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[David Tolsky]

Cont. from my previous post...
I don't believe that an "education clip" is the answer to cure J6P. I do believe that studios should include both pan and scan AND anamorphic widescreen versions of their films on every release. This way you shut everyone up. Yeah, of course us HTF'ers think it's a waste of space to include a P & S version, but this just might save our OAR issue. If you have to, make every release a two disc set so we can still get our "ultimate editions".
Sorry, but I am very opinionated on this. The whole idea of going "anamorphic" on a dvd is with 16 x 9 sets, NOT 4:3.
Beleive me, I have to put up with the damn black bars too until I go front projection soon. When I look at a widescreen movie on a 4:3 set, I think to myself, "Urrrghhh!
this is the compromise I have to put up with." Then I try to block it out and enjoy the film.

 

[Todd H]

How about running the P&S and widescreen spot at the theater before each movie? FORCE J6P to sit through it each and every time he watches a movie there. Eventually, it will sink in.
The other option I like is to just use the P&S feature built into the DVD standard. Same movie, same disc. That way you don't have to manufacture 2 different versions.

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

I too am opposed to P&S because they are useless to me when I understand what I am missing.
Wouldn't it be cheaper for studios (or a group effort) to launch a campaign to post cardboard displays in stores showing a side-by-side comparison?

 

[Matthew Brown]

I guess it's so much easier for the studios to use their existing transfers if they do P&S. They will save money all the way around.
Why don't they use the method that BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR did? Wasn't the black bars triggered by a feature that was similar to how the subtitles were created? I don't remember the specifics. They can put their full-frame transfer on there and it could be matted for the OAR.
Matt

 

[wally]

Right On Dave Hahn!
I have only read about 60% of this, now 5 page, thread so forgive if I’m re-plowing ground.
I think it is significant that while the DVD P&S debate is raging, the networks (NBC, HBO, ENCORE) are quietly, and from another post without much fuss, broadcasting films, series television, and commercials in widescreen.
Who owns the rights to a motion picture as far as the format used to present it on another media. Can a director/producer veto a studio from releasing their film in P&S? If so approaching these folks is the best way around this. It is after all their “vision” we are trying to preserve. If not, directors/producers should demand that right prior to producing other titles.

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[Matt_Stevens]

There was never a high definition mandate

This is much of the problem. 720p or 1080i should be the required minimum. This country will still be in the fucking dark ages ten years from now because the FCC has no balls.
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www.deceptions.net/superman

 

[JonZ]

I agree, even TV shows are being shown in widescreen now-ER, Band of Brothers,Enterprise,Sopranos, tons of commercials-widescreen wont go away, and I think the fuss made over Willy Wonka show we can make a difference.
Again, Digital Television and widescreen are the future.
When J6P walks into a store and sees nothing but 1:78 TV's, hell have no choice but to submit.
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"....With that in mind,I humbly add my own prophecy of
what the dawn of the new millennium shall bring forth-
one thousand more years of the same old crap" Jose Chung

 

[Ted Todorov]

quote:
"Europe has adopted 16:9, we should figure out how they got it accepted over there."
And I guarantee you that then the J6P types who dominate USA culture will get the tops and bottoms cut off all the 4:3 movies and the sides cut off all the 2.35:1 movies. No screen ratio is a solution.
I see the future. We will be buying special editions and many japanese imports at prices that are greater than what I paid for most of my laserdiscs.

And I’ll be buying from France, where the prices (minus the VAT) are in line with American ones, and the local snobs say NON to Pan & Scan (and all new TVs above miniscule are 16:9). The key I think is moving to 16:9 TVs – the anti P&S fight will be MUCH easier then.
I will be flamed for this but HDTV is what is sinking us over here – the European 16:9 TVs are half the price of the American ones – no wonder they are more popular over there. To compare Apples to Apples a 16:9 Sony WEGA costs $4000 (seen at Circuit City this week) over here and my gray market import 16:9 Sony WEGA (with what I can only imagine is a hefty markup) cost me under $2000 (a year ago).
The bottom line is, I’m optimistic. Even if things get bad here, there will always be reasonably priced OAR DVDs somewhere in the world. And while region coding or PAL might be a barrier for J6P, it is not for the knowledgeable HTFer.
Ted