A Touching Story About Widescreen (1 Viewer)

[Steve_Knutzen]

I work in a video store. I'm used to customers being mad or just renting a VHS copy of something because they 'don't like them black bars'. Today I was over-joyed when a girl no more than ten-years-old shouted at her parents in disgust, "You don't like widescreen!? I like it that way." With the current fear of Pan & Scan overcoming Widescreen, things like this give me hope for the future.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

That gets the cockles a burnin
Is it just me, or is cockles just a great word?

 

[Brenton]

Good girl! Tell it like it is!

 

[Carl Walker]

Way better story than what I witnessed last night at Best Buy:

I was browsing the aisle when I noticed a couple (probably in their fifties) looking at the DVDs. The man picks up a title, turns it over and says, "Enhanced for widescreen TV's. Humph!" and slams it back down. He then reaches for another one, turns it over, reads the back, and slams it down. He reached for a 3rd title, this time his face is contorted into an expression that made me think that he had just bitten into a rotten lemon, looked at the back and shrieked "ENHANCED FOR WIDESCREEN TV'S!!!" and slammed it back down so hard that I'm surprised that the case didn't crack. He then grabbed his wife's hand and literally jerked her out of the aisle and around to another aisle. I looked around at the other people who saw this display and they just shook their heads in disbelief.

I continued browsing the aisle that I was on for a couple of more minutes. Then, I went to the next aisle in time to see this "man" randomly picking up DVD's, reading the backs, and slamming them down. I felt sorry for his wife, who kept her mouth shut during this whole display, but she had to be embarassed.

Finally, the moron took his wife and they left the DVD section... During this whole scene, I REALLY wanted to point this idiot in the direction of the VHS section (actually, the VHS half-aisle) and tell him that he didn't deserve to own such a great miracle of technology as a DVD player...

 

[Richard Travale]

I REALLY wanted to point this idiot in the direction of the VHS section

and somehow these are the idiots that the studios talk to in their "polls"

 

[Clinton McClure]

A sad bit to tell here is that my girlfriend admitted to me last week that she hates the black bars presented on some widescreen films and would much prefer watching the fullscreen (per)version of a movie. Why? You guessed it... Because it (the picture on a fullscreen/P&S disc) fills the screen completely.
She told me she also prefers to watch them on the 25" 4:3 stereo TV in the living room as opposed to the 40" widescreen and full surround in my home theater because in the living room, she can lay down on the couch and watch the movie.
After a 9-month relationship, I feel as if she's been cheating on me with a P&S release.

 

[TedD]

She is truly not worthy.
Imagine spending the rest of your life putting up with her skewed priorities.
Find someone else who appreciates the movies more than the environment.
Ted

 

[Jodee]

The man picks up a title, turns it over and says, "Enhanced for widescreen TV's. Humph!"

This guy must be one of the idiots who think you need a widescreen TV in order to watch a widescreen DVD.

I have actually even heard Best Buy employees say that!

 

[Art Martinez]

My buddy had a great story for me last night at work. First let me say that I work at Wal*Mart. (I know it does not have a great following here with members, but I do my part in educating people in the advantages of WIDESCREEN)
Anyway, my buddy (who works overnight, we're a 24 hour store) told me that a guy came into the electronics department and was going through the copies of Blade II. After a while he asked my buddy where the fullscreen copy of Blade II was. My buddy Matt told him it was out on the floor. The cutting room floor! The customer got the joke and laughed, but he went away disappointed that there was no fullscreen version.
By the way, we got in about 200 copies of Blade II. It sold out in about 3 days!

 

[Marty M]

About 10 years ago when my daughters were in their teens, I started watching movies whenever possible in letterbox. They now have carried on that tradition and have educated their spouses to the virtues of letterbox.

 

[Ricardo C]

My cousin Willi (age 14) is an OAR fanatic already When he got his first DVD player a year ago, he simply accepted WS as the standard. Great kid, and he loves LOTR and Star Wars

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

OFFENSIVE QUOTE FROM DELETED POST EDITED OUT BY ADMIN.

I can't say to the same extreme, but I agree with you

 

[BooneG]

As some of you know I work at Hollywood video. This guy comes in one day and rents Dragonfly on dvd. He pays for it and leaves. About five minutes later he comes back in and he is mad. He says that he HATES widescreen because of "them dang black bars" (I live for the time being in Nashville). I told him that we don't have pan & scan version of Dragonfly because the studio wasn't dumb enough to make it. The joke flew over his head, but everyone else in the store got it. He thenm asks me if I like it. I say yes, it's the only way to go. He continues to complain and I tell him that the store has plenty of copies of Dragonfly on VHS. This is what he came back with:

I bought this CD player so I could watch my movies on CD. This ain't right that I have to deal with black bars taking up my nice 19 inch tv. I can't see sh**! This ain't right. I'm goin' over to the blockbuster.

You see this story is pretty good, but the best part is the guy returned the movie he just paid for five minutes earlier. So we got his money for the movie and the movie back within ten minutes.

PS: I can turn anyone onto widescreen except old people. They will not listen to the youth of this country because they think that we are stupid. This is what one customer told me.

 

[Paul McElligott]

BooneG, I think people like that are a good arguement for re-instating the draft.

Think of it, you show up for your draft board and the hold up two copies of LOTR. "Which one would you rather watch?" they ask you.

If you pick "Fool-screen", you get shipped immediately to the front.

Those who pick OAR get a cookie and a bus ride home.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Paul's idea is terrible because our military forces would constantly get outflanked due to our soldiers' inability to identify enemies that are not directly in front of them due to lack of peripheral vision and due to their refusal to use binoculars becasue of those darn black bars around the figure eight shaped image.
Regards,

 

[Ray H]

OFFENSIVE QUOTE FROM DELETED POST EDITED OUT BY ADMIN.

Something tells me that was my post.:frowning: If it was, sorry if I offended anyone. With "A Touching Story About Widescreen" as the title, I was expecting a heart-warming story. Not stories about ignorant people.:b

 

[Garrett Lundy]

I've got a heartwarming story for ya
I went to Blockbuster today, not only did they have Queen of the Damned on DVD in Widescreen, they didn't even stock a fullscreen version! They also have good deals on used DVDs too (assuming you can live without missing booklets)
Todays buys:
The One: special edition $12.99 (No booklet/insert :frowning: )
From Hell $12.99 (2 discs in a crappy blockbuster-case with no book :frowning: )
The Royal Tenenbaums $16.99 (Original case, but no booklet :frowning: )

 

[Jan Strnad]

Ray H:

Have you wondered why there's a widescreen version of Monsters Inc. on the DVD, given Disney's penchant for releasing family titles fullscreen-only? Here's the story why.

Jimmy Holnitz, a little boy in Davenport, Iowa was dying of a rare bone disease. His parents contacted the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the boy wished for a trip to Disneyland. Unfortunately, his short height and fragile bones kept him from riding many of his most-anticipated rides. Late in the afternoon, Disney CEO Michael Eisner posed for a publicity photo with the dying child and he asked how the boy had enjoyed Disneyland. The boy replied that it was okay, but because he couldn't get on Space Mountain, The Matterhorn, et al., it was, in the boy's words, "kind of like watching a pan-and-scan version of a movie on DVD." That got Eisner to thinking, and the next morning he called Buena Vista Home Video and ordered them to include a widescreen version of Monsters Inc. on the upcoming DVD so as not to disappoint little boys like Jimmy. Tragically, little Jimmy Holnitz passed away this past weekend without ever seeing the fruits of his conversation with Eisner, but we all owe him a posthumous debt of gratitude. Thank you, Jimmy!

Jan

Yeah, I made it all up. Or...did I?

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

When you discuss widescreen, it's best to firstly explain what Panavision/CinemaScope is/was. The 2.00:1 and above ratios are "the movie" - nothing else is "the movie".
The comparison that I like to make is this:
"How would you feel about having to listen to "Sgt. Pepper" in mono only? That glorious 'hard-left, hard-right' stereo track being compressed to a central 1 track mono signal? You'd be furious, right? You'd DEMAND the ORIGINAL artifact, right? You know it makes sense, mister."
Then show 'em the airport scene Altman's "shvil" on VHS. Then the same scene with that big ol' marquee banner from, this time, "Nashville" on DVD, and watch their expression change.
Thanks for reading.
Gordy

 

[AaronMK]

Jan, that story brought tears to my eyes.