Fed up with Wal-Mart's shift towards Fullscreen (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Kleist]

Well, what I can tell you, watching the REST of the industry, that P&S versions tend to sell the first 2 weeks only, then they sink like a stone while the wide hangs much better.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Wal-Mart in my area seems to carry about 50/50 usually, though there's the occasional movie such as Animal House, and for some reason Blood Work, that seem to only have in full.

 

[MarkHastings]

Mark, I'm no market researcher myself, but I'd say that the majority of DVD sales now are from the average person more so then the DVD lovers as you call us. DVD is now very mainstream, and with anything that is mainstream it will appeal to the masses, and believe it or not there still is a demand for Fullscreen DVD's

But the big fear is that we will lose WS for Fullframe. I just don't see that happening.

I am trying to be as optimistic as I can here - When DVD first came out, it was a niche market (i.e. Only hard core HT fans got into it), and now that the general public is slowly getting into DVD's it seems like there is a massive swing toward Fullframe. This is exactly true, but as far as the mainstream public is concerned, DVD is still a brand new medium and most of the consumers out there have no idea what WS is.

I am hoping that this Fullframe shift starts moving the other way once people start realizing how wonderful WS is.

Let them have their crappy Fullframes for now, but I am praying that the rise in FF is only to appeal to the new mass market (to get them interested in DVD) and not as a trend toward switching DVD's over to P&S.

 

[Bryan X]

But the big fear is that we will lose WS for Fullframe. I just don't see that happening.

I agree with you that in the end, WS will win out. But will WS win the battle during the life of DVD or HD-DVD, or some future format? Eventually, 16:9 TVs will be the norm and WS will be the preferred choice. But we've got a long way to go until that happens.

In the short run, it is looking more and more like FS is going to be crowding out WS in B&M stores like Wal-Mart, KMart, Target, etc. And many of us HT enthusiasts have no other local B&M option.

That's what I'm saying. WS may eventually win out, but in the meantime (which could be YEARS), for many of us with limited B&M options, it's going to be harder and harder to find certain titles in widescreen.

Just because we will win the war doesn't mean it's not going to be a long, frustrating battle.

 

[Steve_Tk]

Steve_tk, Did your local Wal-Mart carry the WS version of Animal House DSP? I'm curious because so far, I haven't heard from anyone who has seen the WS version at a Wal-Mart.

I'll let you know tomorrow or Wednesday when I make it in there.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

My Wal-mart has been increasing the ratio of Full Screen copies of most movies for the last month to two months. It is depressing, as they were really starting to stock mostly WS for a while this summer. Hopefully this is just a phase they are going through. Maybe it will start to slide the other way before Christmas.

 

[JustinCleveland]

I miss Bigstar.com and Reel.com...

Buy 2 get 8 free...

All WS.

 

[WillG]

customers pick the full screen version 65% of the time.

Maybe that is true, but I wouldn't call that figure overwhelming. That's still one out of three people who pick OAR. It's the minority, but it should be enough for WM to stock both titles in WS. If space is a concern, since they sell so many DVDs maybe the should start expanding their floor space for DVD.

In all fairness, WM is not the one who is bad. My local Circuit City pisses on OAR almost as bad as WM. I give high marks to Costco. At my local Costco it used to be pretty much OAR only. In the past 6 months or so, they have started purchasing MAR editions, but they still stock more OAR than MAR. And sometimes they still just forget about stocking the MAR on some new releases. And older catalog titles are almost always the OAR version unlike WM where all non-new Release titles they stock there are MAR only when available

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Call it selfishness, but I'm not worried. My Wal-Mart does a decent job of stocking WS copies, and I have a Best Buy to go to where I can easily get titles cheap the first week.

To be honest, I think we should start worrying the minute online stores start stocking only MAR releases. It's like a kid swallowing a quarter.

 

[MarkHastings]

Here's an interesting article dated August 28, 2003:
Viewer prefer full-screen format for home video

Here are the good and bad bits from the article:

Bad:

Seven years from now, anyone who buys a new set but owns movies on full-screen DVD will be complaining about the black bars that appear on the sides of their televisions.

It may seem bad right now, but we'll get there eventually. Don't give up the WS hope.

 

[Bryan X]

Some good info there Mark.

Seven years from now, anyone who buys a new set but owns movies on full-screen DVD will be complaining about the black bars that appear on the sides of their televisions.

I've never bought into this theory though. It seems to me that most J6Ps when they do have 16:9 TVs will have them set to FULL mode which will just stretch the image to fit their screen. Since they never cared that up to 40% of the movie was missing I doubt they care that everyone is a little 'heavier'.

 

[MarkHastings]

I've never bought into this theory though.

Unless they plan on putting some sort of 'squish' where the DVD adds the black bars (the same way in which 4x3 tv's 'squash' a 16x9 picture).

In fact, I wish they had this feature now so that I don't have to keep switching modes on my tv when I switch back and forth between The Simpsons DVD's and regular DVD movies.

 

[Malcolm R]

I find it a bit hard to believe that if J6P cannot figure out the "zoom" function on their DVD players that would turn any WS DVD into their glorious "full screen," that they'll be any smarter at figuring out a similar function on their HDTV's.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

No, that's all screwed up. There won't be any 'black bars' on the sides of 16x9's when watching a 4x3 - they'll be gray. (at least they are on mine)

I only say that because I find the gray bars about 50,000 times more disturbing than any black ones on the top & bottom.

Glenn

 

[MarkHastings]

I only say that because I find the gray bars about 50,000 times more disturbing than any black ones on the top & bottom.

This is also why I watch a lot of programming 'stretched'. I usually watch my tv in a pitch black room and the grey bars sometimes over power the video (especially in dark scenes). The grey bars make the picture 'duller' in certain respects.



Here's something that I'd LOVE to know:

I wonder how well a movie like "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings" would do if there was only a WS choice? It seems like when there is a choice between WS and FF, the general public will choose FF, but if they weren't given a choice, would they really say "No thanks"? or would they buy it anyways?

I can't imagine a lot of consumers having such a hard stance about "No FF/No sale" as we are with our "No OAR/No sale".

Maybe it'll take a little while, but eventually (in time), the mass market would learn to live with the WS versions. I don't fault places like Wal-Mart at all, I blame the studios for appealing to the 'uneducated'. I will admit that the first time I ever saw a letterboxed video, it was hard to get used to, but I eventually did. The mass market is just afraid of anything "New" and it takes a while for them to get used to it, but the studios aren't helping by providing more and more choices for FF. If they started backing off a bit, more and more people would be forced to watch the WS version and get used to it.

I mean, can you honestly believe that J6P would turn down LOTR, Star Wars, The Matrix Reloaded, Spiderman, The Hulk, etc. if they only provided WS versions???

 

[Bryan X]

I find it a bit hard to believe that if J6P cannot figure out the "zoom" function on their DVD players that would turn any WS DVD into their glorious "full screen," that they'll be any smarter at figuring out a similar function on their HDTV's.

I don't know if this is the same on every HDTV, but on mine, it is set to FULL so that my anamorphic DVDs are properly stretched to show the correct aspect ratio. In this mode, if I were to put in a FS DVD, it would stretch it and make everyone look fat-- No bars on the sides. This is why I think that J6P won't have bars on the sides with their FS DVDs.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Walmart has a website where you can email your comments to local store managers (you choose the store location) as well as larger district-buying departments.

go forth and give them the feedback!

dave

 

[Bryan X]

go forth and give them the feedback!

I've done that. Hopefully if enough customers do it, it will have some impact.

 

[Chet_F]

They lost two sales within 5 minutes of being there to pick up a copy of Animal House. I just went somewhere else. I also spoke to someone about it but inevitably got the 'blank stare look'. Is it just me or do these people get dumber by the year. Pretty soon they're just going to be standing there with drool dripping off their chins. :frowning:

 

[rick stein]

Chris i actually enjoy going to the store instead of buying online also but it does have it's bad point's sometime's that's all. I too am entertained by the easily annoyed but not as much as people who spell it easiuly.Just kidding