Overheard in Walmart: "Damn, they are all widescreen, we're gonna have to go to BB" (1 Viewer)

[Greg Rakaska]

(Dang, just noticed a typo in the subject: supposed to be Overheard in Walmart, not "Overad" Gotta invest in a better keyboard)

I know we have probably read enough of these types of threads lately, but this is the first time I ever witnessed such a remark personally, and I was dumbfounded!

While trying to find a copy of Disney's Treasures "Mickey Mouse", I went to Walmart. Neither BB, nor CC had one in stock, and I really wanted one today.

The gentleman that made the remark (in the subject) was holding a copy of Matrix in his hand. When I politely said that I believed that Matrix was only available in widescreen, he went ballistic, started foaming at the mouth, while screaming and yelling something about half the f'ing picture was missing, and he was never going to but another g*dam DVD that was not fullscreen. He then ran over to the nearest cash register counter in the area and started going off on the poor sales clerk, who's only response was that he agreed, and that he personally was not going to buy a DVD player until all DVD's were full screen.

Looks like this battle is only in its beginning phase.

 

[Brian E]

As has been said before. A little why WS is better blurb on the disc would really help to educate these people. I seem to remember there being some kind of pro WS campaign involving pics from Star Wars. If the studios would use this and other high profile titles as thier examples it would get the best effect. The problem is some of the people at the studios are the worst ones at continuing this terrible thing that is P&S.
A good place to get examples to show people is here.
http://www.widescreen.org/examples.html

 

[Ryan Peter]

I did some preaching tonight to a woman in Target. Overad her talking about the DVDs that had both widescreen and p/s and she was looking for those ones. I politely told her that widescreen is better, you can see more.

 

[Mike_Ped]

I work at Best Buy part time and everytime I'm asked for help finding a movie (usually "in Fullscreen"), the customer ends up leaving the store with a Widescreen copy. I have to "educate" them. Just doin' my part...

Mike

 

[Sean Conklin]

Very commendable Mike, with all the uneducated Joes out there you must be giving 2 or 3 lessons per shift.

Keep at it though, we are bound to win!

 

[Nathan*W]

Gotta invest in a better keyboard

Or a typing class...

 

[SteveGon]

The worst thing about this is, would it really cost the studios that much to invest in some sort of widescreen education scheme? I think a small flyer inside the dvd case would work best; hell, they stick merchandising catalogues in cases all the time, why not a flyer extolling the virtures of widescreen? I hereby challenge the studios to prove to us that they care...

 

[Blu]

This may open a can of worms but perhaps the studios have no intrest in educating people to widescreen. Perhaps they want to take DVD in the way of VHS. Why would they want to do this? Who knows but there is a trend of releaseing more and more P&S films first or pushing them above the same widescreen release. I admit to buying How the Grinch Stole Christmas at Wal-Mart and I really had to look for a widescreen release. They were outnumbered 4-1. If the studios were that interested in perserving widescreen then this would have been the opposite. A ominous trend in the least.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Once you 'educate' them (the general public, not your friends who are likely smarter than average), most of them still prefer chopscreen anyway.

 

[Oswald Pascual]

I agree with Michael, I have explained this to several J6P in my life, and the bottom line is they still prefer the "Fullframe" version becuase it fills their screen. They even understand that the movie gets cut and the reason for the disclaimer, but the prefer that their TV's be filled with image. These are the same guys that complain in very large numbers to BB asking for DVD's without black bars. I dont know if we are going to win this one. It will take years IMHO. Even when all J6P have 16:9 which will be a very long time from now they will wany their 2.35 movie's adjusted to 1.78.

 

[Joseph S]

Tell him to turn it over and look at the picture on the back of his copy of the Matrix.

Ask him: Do you want Keanu's arms or feet chopped off?

 

[Kenneth Cummings]

Well I did my part in this war by doing a speech in English class(this is a senior class, if your wondering), and talk about Widescreen and Full Screen for about three minutes, while passing out a copy of the aspect rations from TheDigtialBit, which I notice a number of them reading the paper and rereading it(only one copy sadly, due to size of paper). No one complain to me about it, so I guess it worked. If the adults can't be changed, then the youth will be.

 

[Nate Anderson]

Kenneth-

I did something similar to that, except I editied film clips back to back, first in Pan and Scan and then in Widescreen. When the widescreen played, I pointed out the areas that were cropped. I think I had an impact.

If anyone cares, I used:

Lethal Weapon 2

Evita &

As Good As it Gets.

Why those three? I dunno. I had both versions of Lethal Weapon 2 available, Had the Evita Widescreen tape, and I needed a 1.85:1 widescreen example, and the only one I had was As Good As it Gets. I wish I still had that tape. It came out quite well...

 

[Brian O]

One of the factors I have noticed in my experience is some people with poor eyes really prefer to have there whole 4:3 screen filled up, especially if they have a smaller(32" or less). I dont condone this and I really cannot relate having been blessed with excellent vision(so far). But, maybe there is some relevance for some people.
Another factor is seating distance from TV. Too many people have too small a TV for their room and/or viewing distance to view the image ideally. Also, the better the sound the bigger the image seems to me.

 

[Brett Cameron]

I had to do a persuasive speech for English class, so I did one on convincing people why widescreen is better. I made a tape that showed the pan and scan clip of Ghostbusters 2 when you only see half of the GB's, then I showed the widescreen clip where you see all of them. I then explained why watching matted films was better by using the clip from Pee Wee's Big Adventure where you see the chain going into the ground on the full frame version, then I showed the same scene in widescreen that did not have the mistake visible. One kid(JOE SIX PACK) said to me "People should have a choice, all you miss in widescreen is little details who cares, I rather see it full my screen". Some people have no clue.

 

[Nate Anderson]

I'm gonna play Devil's Advocate here for a second...bear with me.

I think people should have a choice. As long as OAR (anamorphicly enhanced, of course) is still on the disc or has a seperate version equally available at the same price, than I have no problem with there being a Pan & Scan version as well.

 

[Chris S]

I have to agree with Nate here, however there is one change to his statement that needs to be made. It should read

As long as OAR (anamorphicly enhanced, of course) is still on the disc or has a separate version that is equally available at the same price and in the same quantity to all retailers, than I have no problem with there being a Pan & Scan version as well.

Its when retailers like BB and WM have a 4 to 1 ratio and do not meet customer demand that I start to get upset. People should not have to settle for a full frame release when there is a (IMHO) superior product available. It is when no choice is provided that I get upset.

 

[Matt Butler]

I work for Suncoast as a PT second job and I do my part. I use a LD newsletter flyer demoing W/S vs P/S that I grabbed several copies of in 1995. I dontated a copy to the store. I have changed many peoples minds when I hear people bitch about widescreen. I had someone with a p/s Pearl Harbor VHS; one look at that demo and they grabbed the w/s copy. A couple days ago I saw a lady with a p/s JP3 DVD. I walked up to her and changed her mind as well.

I do agree that we need to do our part for this battle; but if the studios want to still release p/s we'd better still get our W/S!!

 

[Nate Anderson]

YES! Chris, thank you for adding that. I haven't been renting very much lately, so the rental part of the argument hasn't been very present in my cluttered brain.

 

[Sean Conklin]

Nate and Chris: I of course would prefer your "both" analogy, if the alternative was P&S ONLY.

But why shouldn't the DVD format be reserved for OAR ONLY?

J6P has a better selection of VHS movies anyway, so let them stick with their VCR's.

If Joe is willing to support P&S on DVD, he is obviously not interested in viewing the film as it was intended, so why should he care about the extra resolution of DVD?

Even if he is interested in the better resolution, he doesn't deserve to own a DVD player. Is that too rough? NO! DVD is the ultimate format and should be treated as such!

VHS is for the most part P&S, why do we need two formats with P&S? WE DON'T!! I don't believe we should condone P&S on DVD at any level!!

Now if I could be guaranteed 100% that P&S would not interfere with ANY OAR releases, I may be able to look the other way, but as of yet I do not!!

Am I an Elitist Bastard? Yes, I/we that love and appreciate DVD/OAR films do not need another VHS type format, we need ALL DVD's released in OAR!