I educated someone about Widescreen today (1 Viewer)

[Leif Wall]

It happened in the Super Target store in Grand Forks, ND today. I was going in quickly to look for an X Box game. They didn't have it so I strolled by the dvds to see if maybe that a good deal on anything.
I passed a couple (probably late 20s - early 30s) and the wife said "Honey, do you want the widescreen or the fullscreen?" She had Lord of the Rings in her hand. I didn't say anything at first, but kept paying attention to them. He came over and just shrugged. Wife: "Well, I don't know what the difference is." That was my cue. I went over and said "Okay, you know when you go to a movie theater the screen is like a rectangle? That's widescreen" She says: "Well, what are the ones with the black bars?" I told her widescreen assuming they probably had a 4:3 set.
I explained how widescreen dvds look on tvs. Then she says "Well, we have one of those wide tvs, like a movie theater, but we still get those big black bars on all our movies." I told her there is a menu with a setting in her dvd player that she needs to set to 16x9. I explained some more stuff really quickly since I had to go, but I stuck 16x9 in her head and that wider is better. I think she actually wrote 16x9 down on a piece of paper and kept repeating it as I was walking away like she was trying to remember it.
The husband never said a word, not really sure why. When I told them I had about $7k-$8k invested in my home theater their eyes kind of lit up. Maybe because they're older with careers and I'm just some punk kid.
All in all, mission accomplished.

 

[Adam_Garris]

Keep up the good work!

 

[Andre F]

Nice job!

 

[Jeremy Allin]

Great job!! To think, people plunk down the cash for a 16:9 TV and do not understand the difference between widescreen/fullscreen. :frowning:

 

[Lin Weiwen]

Good!!! Keep it up!
"One WIDESCREEN to rule them all."

 

[Sam Davatchi]

I don’t know which is worse. To have a 4:3 TV with the player set to 16:9 or to have a 16:9 TV with the player set to 4:3! I think the latter!

 

[David Hicks]

Amazing that their bigscreen sales associate didn't inform them of this upon purchasing (tongue planted firmly in cheek).

 

[Marc Colella]

The husband never said a word, not really sure why.

Maybe he thought that you were hitting on his wife... with all this talk of "wider is better".

 

[Scott Shanks]

My guess is that they have a big screen TV, not a widescreen TV.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Anything to further our cause is to be commended, excellent work my friend!

 

[Mike Cooper]

I did the same thing at CCity the other night.
A lady wanted Spiderman and the woman at the counter said widscream or full and the lady buying it said I dont know. I was buying Dirty Dancing (for my fiance and some other flix) and explained to her the difference and she got the widescrean and said thank you.

 

[Marshall Alsup]

I had a mixed experience in Wal-Mart the other night. I was in there for a flannel (sp?) and I decided to check out the DVDs. This kid came by and put a spiderman back and grabbed a different Spiderman. The one he grabbed was widescreen, and when I looked at the one he put back it was fullscreen. I was elated! I told the kid he was doing the right thing. He said something to the effect that he hated missing some of the picture.
Later my friend wandered into the DVD section and I told him about it. Then he went to layaway for something and this other guy came up and grabbed the exact same fullscreen the kid put down. I hadn't yet hid it behind the widescreens . I told the guy that he probably wanted the widescreen so he could see the whole picture. He said "But this one fills the screen" . I explained that while that is true, he still loses a bunch of the movie. He said he knew, but would rather have his screen filled than see the whole picture.
Man, that totally blew my high from the experience I'd had not 3 minutes before.
-Marshall

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Damn that sucks Marshall. :frowning: It's great that the kid was apparently a lot wiser than that guy was. To actually KNOW the difference but still choose FOOLSCREEN is beyond comprehension!

 

[jeff lam]

Some people just see it that way. A co worker of mine doesn't care if he is missing 40% of the picture he just doesn't want to see the "bars". I tried explaining that that is not the way the director intended the film to be viewed be he was stuborn and didn't even listen to a word I said and just said he didn't want those black bars on the screen. Oh well, you can't win them all.

 

[Jay Taylor]

The employees at the Best Buy in Northwest Oklahoma City have been drawing smiley faces on the 'Sale Price' cards on the DVD shelves.
In front of the Widescreen DVD section they have a smiley face.
In front of the Fullscreen DVD section they have a frown face. :frowning:
Jay Taylor

 

[Leif Wall]

She did say that they have a wide tv. I didn't get the model. She also said they had a cheap RCA player. Good that she knew it was cheap. I didn't want to overwhelm them with information. Could of been there all night!

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Some people watch movies, others watch TV screens.

 

[Brenton]

That's true. I just don't understand it. Some people have their eyes glued to the "black bars". I keep my eyes glued to the FRAME within the black bars.

 

[Rollie]

To think, people plunk down the cash for a 16:9 TV and do not understand the difference between widescreen/fullscreen.

Yes, its a shame. These people need to give up their TVs to the 16:9 needy. Namely, me!

 

[James Bergeron]

They may have a wide screen TV or may have a big screen.

I had this "argument" with a co-worker a few months ago, the guy kept saying it was a widescreen TV, I drew pictures he kept saying, it's very large and it's a sony. I said "How much did you pay for it" he told me, I said well then it's a 4x3 projection tv, he said no no it's a widescreen. I knew for the price he paid it was impossible. Finally I got his model number from him and it was a 4x3 sony. Still a nice TV but some people are really clueless!