A widescreen story to delight and depress (1 Viewer)

[Jason Little]

My girlfriend and I have a 30" 4:3 TV. Widescreen movies look pretty tiny on it. But I always insist on OAR, and I've tried over the months to explain it to her, but still I would be faced with complaints about the black bars.
Well, a few days ago we were at Hollywood Video and she picked out "Death to Smoochy". I put it in the machine for her, started the movie up, and walked away to do something else. After a few minutes she calls me over. "Shouldn't this be in widescreen?" Sure enough, the image is fullscreen. "Do you want to watch it anyway?" I ask her. "No, I want the widescreen. It makes me feel like I'm watching a real movie at home and not just TV".
HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!
Now here's the downside of this story: I take it back to Hollywood. The case says "Widescreen Edition" but it clearly says "Standard" on the disc. The clerk tries to tell me I need to adjust my set. Umm.... no, lady. I've had my DVD player for 2 years, I know I don't need to adjust my set. I ask her if I can get another copy. She pulls three more copies off the shelf... all the same thing!! "Widescreen" on the case, fullscreen disc inside!! How can they get away with this?

 

[David Lambert]

Hollywood had this problem before, didn't they, with a different dual-aspect release? I can't recall which one, but a search will probably pull it up. But the answer, IIRC, turned out to be that they discs they got didn't go with the case inserts they got. Since these are sold as snappers, and the rental places can't use snappers, they get inserts from a separate source. In this case, the one didn't match the other. Seems like it's happened again! :frowning:

 

[Steve Phillips]

My friend just had that exact same experience when renting SHOWTIME at Hollywood. The case said widescreen, but the disc itself was actually "fullscreen".

My question: is there any way to tell from just looking at the disc itself which version you have?

 

[Jason Little]

I think all WB discs from the past couple of years are the same... if it's widescreen, it will say "WIDESCREEN" around the outer rim of the disc. If it's fullscreen, it'll say "STANDARD".

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I rented Death to Smoochy from Hollwood Video here in Fresno and had the same problem--widescreen on the case, standard on the disc. I didn't watch it. When I took it back and told the clerk she said "I don't know how that happenned because when there are widescreen and standard versions we only order the widescreen." So the mistake happenned somewhere further up.

 

[GerardoHP]

Proof that people can change and grow. Good for her.

 

[Chris M]

I was quite happy yesterday, got chatting with a co-worker about movies, and mentioned that I prefer widescreen, he questioned me on that. I sat down and drew diagrams and he understood completely. He asked about widescreen TVs, I explained the pro's and cons. He's going to get a 4:3 TV, but he'll probably be more inclined to watch widescreen movies in the future!
Chris.

 

[CameronS]

Good job. You have trained her well. She is now a keeper.

 

[Brenton]

She is now a keeper.

I agree.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

She is now a keeper.

Good to know we all have our priorities right.