Wow...Fry's Electronics did something really great! (1 Viewer)

[Jonathan Burk]

Last night, I was standing in the returns line at Fry's Electronics in Woodland Hills, CA. There at the front of the store, they always have a big screen tv set up with some DVD or other blaring away. I noticed they were playing Atlantis, and started watching it out of boredom. When I looked over, I saw that they had taken two Mits big screens, one a 55" 4x3 set, and the other a 65" 16x9 set, so they were roughly the same height. They had put a huge sign above the sets that said "4x3 vs. 16x9" I chuckled, as I imagined that the Atlantis picture had to be badly mangled on one of the sets; you couldn't play it on both sets and have it look good.

But I couldn't believe it. Some enterprising sales clerk had gone through the trouble of synching two DVD players! One had the pan&scan version, the other the widescreen, with both being played on their respective sets. While I've seen countless web and video demos of the difference in my years of Laserdisc and DVD collecting, this was the most effective demonstration I had ever seen. There were about 15 people standing there watching, and I was glued to the display. The differences were so glaring and obvious, you just couldn't look away. It was like watching a tennis match, as peoples' heads bounced back and forth, comparing the cropped image with the widescreen one.

Everyone who entered Fry's that day got a very effective education in pan&scan!

 

[AndrewR]

They've been doing this for at least 3 weeks. I told one of the Sale Reps that it was a GREAT idea and they should promote whoever thought of it!


Andrew

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I've seen the one in Sacramento do that too with both Shrek and Mission Impossible. Not quite a fair comparison though since the 4x3 plays the pan and scan version and the widescreen plays on a 16x9, that seems to imply you need to have a widescreen TV to see it in widescreen.
On the other hand, I went there to shop for a new widescreen TV (which I ended up not buying because they don't make the one I want yet!) and they had Star Trek The Motion Picture playing on all the TVs in 4x3 pan and scan from some stupid movie channel! (If I buy a widescreen TV it has to show black on the sides when showing 4x3, but the only one I'd otherwise consider showed gray on the sides, which looks terrible.)
Most of a time when a DVD has 2 separate releases, Fry's still ONLY carries the widescreen version, which is in everyone's best interest of course.

 

[NickSo]

its a step in the right direction, but not a very effective one. If they had BOTH 4x3 TV's THEN it'd be okay. but since they're trying to sell the 16:9 TVs, i cant blame them.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

To quote Monty Burns: "Excellent"!

This is the type of thing the stores need to do to educate people about widescreen!

 

[Jason Guardiano]

I also saw this in Woodland Hills

 

[Mark-W]

They have been doing this in Wilsonville, Oregon, too.
(Though I haven't personally been back to where
they had this going for weeks.)
Last time I was in (and looked), months ago,
they were showing The Neverending Story
in the side-by-side.
Mark

 

[David_Jr]

When are they coming to the east coast?

 

[Andrew_L]

Ive been seeing this too on my trips to frys...it brings a smile to my face every time i see it

 

[Jan Strnad]

If they had BOTH 4x3 TV's THEN it'd be okay.

As you said, they're trying to sell widescreen sets, and that's fine with me. I've come down to believing that the only way widescreen DVDs will thrive is if J6P has a widescreen TV.

A person might look at the Fry's display this way: "This is how a movie looks when you fill up your 4:3 screen vs. filling up a 16:9 screen."

I wish more stores would take the trouble to do this!

Jan

 

[Richard Travale]

If they had BOTH 4x3 TV's THEN it'd be okay.

This would be in vain as most of the people would only comment on "the black bars". Showing people side by side that 16:9 is the better medium for viewing DVDs and HDTV is definitely the way to go.

 

[Ron-P]

I may just have to swing by my local Fry's here in Fountain Valley to see if they have the same set-up.
Now, if Best Buy and Circuit City would do this....just imagine.
Peace Out~

 

[John J Nelson]

As you said, they're trying to sell widescreen sets, and that's fine with me. I've come down to believing that the only way widescreen DVDs will thrive is if J6P has a widescreen TV.

The predominance of widescreen TVs in the UK has definitely driven DVD as a widescreen medium (most new releases only come in a WS version here). The full-screen version of Harry Potter bombed big-time in terms of sales, and there was no P&S version of LOTR released.

-- J.

 

[Paul McElligott]

Fountain Valley was doing this a while ago with Top Gun, which looked terrible on the 16x9 set, not being anamorphic.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

If I buy a widescreen TV it has to show black on the sides when showing 4x3, but the only one I'd otherwise consider showed gray on the sides

If your looking at RPTV or FP, you greatly increase the potential for burn-in with black bars. I also wanted black bars. You can get use to gray, but I agree it's tough at first.

 

[Malcolm R]

They should set up a third TV, a 4:3 showing a widescreen DVD. Then people could see that even on a 4:3, they are getting the entire 16:9 image through the "wonder of black bars."

 

[Jeff D]

Fry's in sunnyvale has had this setup for a while. Each time I walk past it I'm soooooooo tempted to just fix the 16:9 display which they have configured wrong. The problem was (they may have fixed it) was that they were both fed off the SAME dvd player. The player was configured for the 4:3 tv, and I've always been tempted to reconfigure the dvd player to 16:9 output just so people can really see what it's suppose to look like. (oh well, I'm not going to help them sell tv's)

 

[Ted Lee]

eh? i've been in the sac fry's multiple times these past few weeks buying stuff for my new pc. i must have missed it.

jesse - where are they doing the display at?

 

[Steve Y]

Hi Jeff - the Sunnyvale Fry's often has its displays set up incorrectly (I've seen the one you mention). I also noticed several times their DVD players were downconverting (!) anamorphic material onto a perfectly capable WEGA displays.

I fixed it a couple times and it looked LEAGUES better. Not only that, but the salespeople -- or whoever sets up these displays, or perhaps the televisions are left to their defaults -- have the levels cranked up all the way to the top. So I do my mini-calibration and everyone notices except the salespeople, who are briefed mostly on payment plans and "BOSE shows".

When I go back their displays are usually set up incorrectly again. But I MUST approve of this side-by-side widescreen display, even if it's there to sell TVs rather than promote OAR. I welcome the unintended consequence...

~Steve

 

[John Garcia]

Fry's in sunnyvale has had this setup for a while. Each time I walk past it I'm soooooooo tempted to just fix the 16:9 display which they have configured wrong. The problem was (they may have fixed it) was that they were both fed off the SAME dvd player. The player was configured for the 4:3 tv, and I've always been tempted to reconfigure the dvd player to 16:9 output just so people can really see what it's suppose to look like. (oh well, I'm not going to help them sell tv's)

LMAO!! I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing. I laughed out loud when I saw what they were trying to do - a good thing, but they were doing it WRONG. This setup has been on display for more than 4 months, when they were running The Neverending Story, now Jimmy Neutron. I think they did switch to using two DVD players, but they still have it setup wrong.