Hellboy II "Full screen"? (1 Viewer)

[Ernest]

With all of the LCD's sold during the last year I thought we were over this "full screen" non-sense, but I was wrong. Now we have Universal releasing Hellboy II in widescreen and full screen. Why would anyone with a HD TV buy full screen? To my dismay they are or the studios would not master major releases in full screen.

The next thing you know we will start seeing BluRay in "full screen". Don't laugh those same people buying the "full screen" SD DVD will cross over to BluRay and complain about the "black bars".

It is frustrating because there is no need for "full screen". Most LCD's and DVD players include zoom features that can be used to eliminate the "black bars" for those that hate them.

For those that don't understand the limitations of "full screen". Full screen is formatted 4 x 3 and stretched to fill the screen. The 33% vertical resolution gained by anamorphic widescreen format is lost making the picture soft with nominal detail. Buying "full screen" is truly a waste of money.

 

[cafink]

Is this any worse than any of the other thousands of full-screen DVDs released in the past 9 or 10 years? Lots and lots and lots of people still have 4:3 standard definition televisions, and a fair number of them want their screen filled. I agree with you that full-screen is a nuisance, but this is hardly anything new.

 

[ChadMcCallum]

I bet anything that once Blu-Ray catches on you'll see 2.35:1 movies available in both OAR and 1.78:1 so it will fill peoples widescreen tv. I'm surprised it isn't being done already.

 

[Thomas T]

I seriously doubt you'll ever see "full screen" wide screen films on hi def discs. Indeed, far more likely, I sincerely believe we will see fake "wide screen" films in order to satisfy those who want their screens "filled up". Don't be surprised to see Sunset Boulevard or All About Eve or High Noon "enhanced" for wide screen to have your TV all filled up.

"Joe 6Pack" wanted his screen filled up hence pan and scan and full screen editions of wide screen films. When he (and if) switches to wide screen TVs, he's STILL going to want his screen filled up! "I paid good money for this wide screen TV and I don't want those ugly black bars on the side of my TV!"

Indeed, some people are stretching 1.33 films now to fill up their screens. Someone recently told me of being forced to sit through Laura on a wide screen TV ... stretched ... so that Gene Tierney looked like June Allyson!

 

[Mark Talmadge]

The assessment that by zooming a widescreen movie to full screen will make the movie full screen is inaccurate. The way it was explained to me was that by committing to this process that you're actually losing even more of the viewing area of the screen than a standard full frame version of that movie.

 

[TravisR]

I've seen that stated alot of times but I doubt you'll see that many instances of it and probably nearly zero instances where the OAR isn't offered too. The average consumer isn't going to be buying Sunset Boulevard on Blu-ray (or DVD) so there's not much point in making a product for an audience that doesn't exist.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

If Hellboy II was fullscreen only, I'd understand the point of this thread. However, it's not, and there are still plenty of FS releases happening - why act like this one's something unusual?

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I would even understand the frustration if the poster was complaining about single disc releases that cram a fullscreen title on the same disc as the widescreen, compromising the bitrate for the one that actually matters. Of the couple dozen or so Warner new release theatrical titles I have reviewed this year, more than half have been widescreen/fullscreen combos (some dual-layered DVD-9s, some flippers, one DVD-14). Of the remaining titles, all but a few of those had separate full-screen releases. It is still very common for new release theatrical product but very rare for catalog releases.

Regards,

 

[Jesse Skeen]

You can't even find many 4x3 TVs in stores anymore (should they be called Full Screen TVs?)

 

[Zack Gibbs]

Doesn't change the fact that they're still the majority in actual homes.

 

[Bradley-E]

All these people who spent years griping about Widescreen DVD's and bought Full Screen copies are now buying Widescreen televisions. I love it.