Would you buy one of your Fav. Movies if it was ONLY on P&S DVD?.... I Did :( (1 Viewer)

[Paul E. Fox II]

You know, until the events of a few weeks ago (the great Desertion of US by the Studios), I would have said a hearty YES. At the time of this writing, I think I actually have THREE titles that aren't OAR and they are:
Christmas Vacation
Happy Gilmore
Full Metal Jacket
Two of them I bought and one of the two is presented in the Aspect Ratio of Choice by the Director of the film (at least that's what I've been told), and I'm not sure how I came into posession of the other one. Is this justification? I'm not sure, but that's the story.
Now, that being said...I WILL NEVER AGAIN BUY ANOTHER MOVIE THAT IS NOT PRESENTED IN IT'S ORIGINAL ASPECT RATIO! Regardless of the situation! If it's a movie that I truly want to see, I'll wait for it on one of the Premium Movie channels, where Pan and Scan Rules!
DerekFe Mentions

Dave, Amen man! Most people on this board take things way too seriously. I am surprised that the administrators didn't delete your post because it didn't suit them. They are big fans of censorship here, which really really sucks. It seems that only the rabid petitioners have opinions that matter.

I have had my share of problems with some of the policys on this board in the past, but Censorship is not what happens here. As I'm sure you know, this is a Pro OAR board AND it's privately owned! Ron and Parker decide what goes on here and it's their pond.

 

[Charles Bober]

Dude, don't ya see. The same thing we're saying about OAR is the same thing they're saying about the evil that is P&S: Force it on them and they'll get used to it.
No offense, but you're playing right into their hands......and admitting it. If Disney or Paramount are reading this, they're either laughing from the hypocrisy or $ signs are floating in their eyes. Hey, if they can force the die-hards into buying P&S, the battle is won.
I know, I know. It's just this one title. Then another favorite comes along. When the compromise starts, the justifications come flowing, and the snowball gets rolling, it's very difficult to stop. And multiply that sentiment by how many people that are selling out.
We must standfast with the HTF philosophy on OAR. I must admit I'm starting to share Ron's skepticism. The way the studio's are turning their backs on the early adopters and hardcore enthusiasts is repulsing. Please don't reward them for their devious actions by purchasing P&S. It only encourages them.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Of course not every open-matte film is 100% open-matte. That's why I worded my statement very carefully...as "true open-matte (where it does exist)"
Immediate examples of true open-matte that come to mind are some of this recent Warner Bros animation like 'Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker', some Kubrick stuff like 'The Shining', but there have to be hundreds of other true open-matte films...the trick is finding out what they are...but I digress.
As far as stuff like Imax goes...
Butchering the composition of films like 'Super Speedway' and 'Evil Dead' to make it 'fit' anamorphic 16:9 screens is just as wrong as Disney and Columbia releasing pan-and-scan titles. It's also worse than true open-matte releases, as on the latter you can recover the original composition.
Composition is more important than size or resolution or constant height. Always.
I've heard people say that the cropped anamorphic Imax has 'good enough' composition...well, if you compare it to the original it is obvious that the cropping compromises composition. This 'good enough' argument is the same argument that our 'sixpack' cousins use to rationalize pan-and-scan. Watch out...karma can be a real bitch.

 

[Tony_Faville]

I have to admit, I have 108 DVD's in my collection that have P&S on them.....alot of those have both P&S and Widescreen as well as alot of them are TV shows or cartoons that were never presented in widescreen.

Those titles in my collection that are pure P&S were purchased before I was educated.....and only number 18. Out of 721 DVD's 18 isn't that bad.

Now I pass on anything not Widescreen...which means I have even had to pass on two of my favorites, Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men.

 

[Steve Christou]

I assume we are all talking about widescreen movies that are pan & scanned, not old full screen movies like Gone With the Wind and Casablanca? Unless some of you guys want to see Gone With the Wind with black bars covering the top and bottom of the picture giving a pseudo widescreen effect? This actually happened by the way in the sixties when GWTW was rereleased as a 'widescreen' release, the horror the horror.
Anyhow I do have 2 fairly recent films in full screen on dvd, I had no choice in the matter, and I wanted these films on dvd, 'The Shining' and 'Full Metal Jacket', both superb transfers, but not a black bar in sight, at signor Kubrick's request.
Not every film was made in widescreen, I think we forget that sometimes.

 

[Kenneth Vestergaard]

Now I pass on anything not Widescreen

Passing on everything not widescreen?

Good it's not me... Where would we be without classics such as Third Man, Rififi, and Notorious (just to name a few)?

I'm sure you mean passing on everything not OAR?

 

[Dave Anderson]

Now I pass on anything not Widescreen...which means I have even had to pass on two of my favorites, Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men.

Well, that's why every home theater needs laserdisc. Both titles are available on widescreen laserdisc.

 

[Tony_Faville]

Kenneth and Dave...yeah, I meant OAR. And yes, I do have a LD player....now if I could find both of those I would be very happy.

 

[Robert Floto]

I won't even RENT a non-OAR disc!!

I'm really scared that studios execs will see this thread...

 

[Rain]

I'm really scared that studios execs will see this thread...

I thought the same thing when I first saw this thread. Fortunately, it does seem that many people are posting "no" in response to the question asked.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I'm really scared that studios execs will see this thread...

So now part of our 'plan' to 'save' OAR is to censor ourselves and not allow earnest discussion?
No thanks.
We all know that virtually everyone here supports OAR and that the vast majority of members here would not buy the vast majority of titles if not released OAR. Nothing from this discussion could allow a reasonable person to infer otherwise.
But regardless, if we restrict our discussion in some effort to make propaganda for the studios, the forum itself will suffer greatly. Not allowing OAR advocacy or debate threads (which all result in flame and noise) is one thing; not allowing discussion of our love for film and the occasional compromise it prompts some of us to make is something else.
And for the record, I don't ever buy pan-and-scan. I rarely buy open-matte when I know it is open matte (from the first to the last frame) and I am faced with no alternative.
I did buy the compromised (cropped to 16:9) versions of 'Book of the Dead' and 'Super Speedway'...the former for the supplements, the latter for the correct fullframe transfer that was also included.

 

[SteveK]

No. I will never buy a DVD that is not presented in its correct aspect ratio. If that happens to be full screen, fine; if it happens to be widescreen, that's fine too. But don't give me a P&S version of a widescreen movie and expect me to buy it. Won't happen...ever.

Not only do I not purchase (or even rent) P&S only titles, I don't even watch P&S movies on television, including the so-called premium channels. I subscribe to the Showtime package only because it includes Sundance channel which shows many movies in widescreen. I don't watch any of the movies on Showtime, The Movie Channel, etc because they are always P&S. And even though various Encore channels are included in my AT150 package, I never watch them because they too are primarily P&S.

I very much wish that Showtime, HBO and Starz would dedicate at least ONE of their channels to OAR presentations. I would instantly subscribe to HBO if at least one of their channels would present movies properly. Since they don't, I don't subscribe.

In other words, I don't watch a P&S movie of any kind and would certainly never buy one. Ever. No matter how much I liked the movie.

Steve K.

 

[John Knowles]

Absolutely not! Fortunately, there are only a couple of films I like well enough to own (for the present!) that are p/s only. Fearless, which I luckily bought on WS LD and Babe, which I REALLY want to buy, but just can't stomach a p/s DVD.

 

[wally]

Nope!

OAR ONLY!

 

[Dave Anderson]

We all know that virtually everyone here supports OAR and that the vast majority of members here would not buy the vast majority of titles if not released OAR. Nothing from this discussion could allow a reasonable person to infer otherwise.

But regardless, if we restrict our discussion in some effort to make propaganda for the studios, the forum itself will suffer greatly. Not allowing OAR advocacy or debate threads (which all result in flame and noise) is one thing; not allowing discussion of our love for film and the occasional compromise it prompts some of us to make is something else.

Exactly. I agree with you 100%. To all of you responding about how SCARED you are of studios reading this thread: WHAT are you thinking? Your comments are entirely wrong.

This is a great thread; I want studios execs to read it. Are we all supposed to lie? Or is it better for studios exec to see the truth? I.e. That the majority of people here won't buy a P&S DVD regardless. That a small minority will buy a P&S DVD but only for a movie they particularly like. Gone will be impulse buys. No matter which way you look at it, it's lost sales for them.

 

[John Stone]

If it is truly full-frame, you can matte it. How is that different from non-anamorphic letterboxed?

So-called "full-frame" or "open-matte" transfers often contain scenes in which the telecine operator has zoomed in to eliminate the presence of boom mics, dolly tracks and other spoilers within the 4:3 frame. So your suggested matted presentation of an "open-matte" transfer will, in places, often result in a pan-and-scan picture that is further matted to approximately 1.78:1. If that's not butchering the picture, I don't know what is. :frowning:
EDIT: Sorry, I just saw that several other posts already covered what I said above.

 

[Oscar]

Yes, but it was rather a gift from my cousin, it was "The Grinch" DVD, i didnt want to tell him on the phone that i wanted the OAR version,because i thought it could offend him.

But i will never do it again.

 

[Jerry Gracia]

Speaking of THE GRINCH DVD...I have a little story.
My brother-in-law accidently got the FULL SCREEN version as a gift. He wasn't going to tell the person who got it that he didn't want that version, ofcourse, that would be rude.
So...he tried the next best thing.
He tried to exchange the FULL SCREEN verion for the WIDESCREEN version. The store was called K-something (MART!). Granted, he didn't have a receipt but he was told that this is where it was purchased from.
They would not let him do so, I guess you can't really blame them.
So we went back to the DVD section so that I could buy something while I was there.
Guess what was playing on their DVD demo display? Yup, THE GRINCH in WIDESCREEN.
So I walk up to the DVD player and push eject, the drawer opens...hmm...I tell my brother-in-law to give me his FULL SCREEN disc...then...I swap them!
Hey...they probably would've liked the FULL SCREEN version on this display anyway...
We walked out of the store with the WIDESCREEN version.
If anyone would have caught me swaping the discs I would have just played dumb and said I wanted to know what the difference was between the two versions!

 

[CharlesD]

NO!

No OAR = No Sale

(No exceptions!)

I don't care which movie it is, what extras it has or how cheap it is, if it is not OAR I will not purchase or rent it!

 

[Michael Allred]

I don't care if it'd be "Empire Strikes Back", "Back to the Future" or "Raiders of the Lost Ark", I would *NEVER* buy or rent a pan and scan only DVD.

Hear that? Paramount? Columbia? Disney? Fox? MGM? Never.