Widescreen or Fullscreen?

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2003-10-21 05:46pm

Chardok wrote:I dunno...I don't really notice too much of a difference, not being a student of the cinema *cough SPANKY cough*. my thoughts work like this:
I bought a big, pretty TV, with a big, pretty picture.
*pops in a DVD*
WHAT THE HELL?! The guys are all fucking squished up! I'm not using half the damn screen!
*Access DVD options*
*Change to fullscreen*
Ahh, now I'm getting my money's worth.

I'm not going to say Fuck widescreen (OAR) but I will say simply that I prefer fullscreen. (I don't even think it's possible to view movies like LOTR in fullscreen...) and is that a good thing? I DON'T KNOW! I HAVE NO BASIS FOR COMPARISON!! Oh, sorry, ranting at myself there for a minute...
Anyway, if anyone would care to point something out to me I am missing in FS as opposed to OAR, I would love to hear it. (Specifics, please, no CAUSE FS IS STUPID, or any such nonsense.)

They're not 'squished' up. Its just that you're watching a 16x9 movie on a 4x3 display. Now if you were to watch the same movie on a widescreen TV, it would look perfectly fine as it would take up the entire display whereas your 4x3 movie would only appear in the dead center with the black bars on the sides.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-21 06:25pm

Actually, it more sounds like his DVD player isn't formatting the 16:9 anamorphic image properly for a 4:3 television. He should really check the settings and options for his player (making sure they're configured to display on a 4:3 TV rather than a 16:9 TV), and that should fix it.

Chardok wrote:Anyway, if anyone would care to point something out to me I am missing in FS as opposed to OAR, I would love to hear it. (Specifics, please, no CAUSE FS IS STUPID, or any such nonsense.)

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... index.html

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... orama.html

Or if you want just a quick and clear example:
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... rama2.html

The first two (Blade Runner and The Black Hole) should make it clear.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-10-21 06:31pm

Wide screen is keen

Post by **fgalkin** » 2003-10-21 06:39pm

Widescreen, since I watch it on my widescreen projection TV.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-10-21 07:51pm

OAR. And the only thing worse than fullscreen is letterbox.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-10-21 07:53pm

Dalton wrote:OAR. And the only thing worse than fullscreen is letterbox.

What's the difference between letter box and widescreen?

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-10-21 07:55pm

Stravo wrote:
Dalton wrote:OAR. And the only thing worse than fullscreen is letterbox.
What's the difference between letter box and widescreen?

Letterbox is fake widescreen. It's fullscreen with black bars added so you lose even more of the picture. At least, that's my understanding of it.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2003-10-21 08:00pm

phongn wrote:OAR all the way.

Interestingly B5 was shot 16:9, but its initial showing was pan and scan.

Yes. This means that the DVDs are precious things

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-10-21 08:23pm

Dalton wrote:
Stravo wrote:
Dalton wrote:OAR. And the only thing worse than fullscreen is letterbox.
What's the difference between letter box and widescreen?
Letterbox is fake widescreen. It's fullscreen with black bars added so you lose even more of the picture. At least, that's my understanding of it.

My understanding is that letterbox is the same thing as widescreen. Digitalbits agrees with me.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-10-21 08:43pm

Yes, something is "letterboxed" if it has bars matting it to alter its appearance on your screen. This can be one of the various widescreen formats, or even the vertical bars on 4:3 programs playing on a widescreen television.

However, Dalton is correct in noting that films are occasionally put into false widescreen. For example, the Back to the Future trilogy was released on DVD recently, but instead of using widescreen, they used the full-frame print and matted it, so that you were seeing even less than you usually do with full-frame. This was only in the first issuings of the DVDs, and to my knowledge, has been corrected.

Additionally, some films which were shot in 16mm are given a widescreen presentation when released on DVD or laserdisc. I'm not sure as to the effects of this, but I know that when El Mariachi was originally released on laserdisc back in the 90s, Robert Rodriguez didn't know how or why they gave it a widescreen presentation. However, in his recent director-approved DVD special edition release of El Mariachi, the widescreen presentation was chosen again, which indicates that he has no problem with it.
The Evil Dead was similarly shot on 16mm and then released in a slightly different, widescreen format.
My guess is that the change takes place during the initial conversion to 35mm, done before these films were theatrically released.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-10-21 08:44pm

Dalton wrote:
Stravo wrote:
Dalton wrote:OAR. And the only thing worse than fullscreen is letterbox.
What's the difference between letter box and widescreen?
Letterbox is fake widescreen. It's fullscreen with black bars added so you lose even more of the picture. At least, that's my understanding of it.

No, they're the same thing. Fake letterboxing is usually just referred to as fake letterboxing. The most recent example I can think of is the Back to The Future DVD's that came out a while ago. The encoding house actually slapped black bars on to the pan-and-scan and sold it as letterbox. After a massive customer backlash, they replaced the defective DVD's free of charge.

BrYaN19kc · Post by **BrYaN19kc** » 2003-10-21 08:58pm

Depends on the movie and the screen I'm watching it on. If I'm watching a movie in the TV room on the bigger screen, wide screen is perfect, but if I'm watching a move while in the computer room then I like the full screen because the television is smaller.

IRG CommandoJoe · Post by **IRG CommandoJoe** » 2003-10-21 09:33pm

Wide screen. There's so much stuff in wide screen you miss when watching it in full screen.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-21 10:54pm

neoolong wrote:
Dalton wrote:
Stravo wrote: What's the difference between letter box and widescreen?
Letterbox is fake widescreen. It's fullscreen with black bars added so you lose even more of the picture. At least, that's my understanding of it.
My understanding is that letterbox is the same thing as widescreen. Digitalbits agrees with me.

They pretty much are the same thing. It's just that "letterbox" is often used now to refer to titles that show the film in the OAR, but aren't anamorphic.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-10-22 01:58am

Chardok, to answer your question: when a movie that was filmed in widescreen is shown in fullscreen, the only way to make the picture fit without everything looking squashed side to side is to cut off about 25%. Think if it like you're expanding a picture that fits perfectly from side to side but has the black bars on the top and the bottom so it now fits perfectly in the screen from top to bottom--naturally, the picture also expands from side to side, and since it fit perfectly before, some of the material no longer fits in frame.

This can play merry hell with the composition of every shot in the film, since good directors routinely make use of the whole frame. I'm reminded of a critical shot in a critical scene in the movie Donnie Darko, which was utterly ruined in fullscreen format because an extremely important piece of visual foreshadowing was cut out*.

*GIANT SPOILER THAT WILL RUIN THE WHOLE MOVIE
In the scene in the movie theater, where Frank and Donnie are talking, Frank at one point turns to Donnie and says, "I'm so sorry," for no apparent reason. In the original shot, we see hear that while watching from Frank's point of view. Donnie is centered in the shot, and that shows up in pan and scan, but Gretchen is also in there, sitting perfectly still with her eyes closed. Frank is apologizing for killing Gretchen later in the film. Unfortunately, in the pan and scan version, Gretchen is cut out of the shot, and the whole shot is pointless.

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2003-10-22 01:36pm

Lagmonster wrote:Widescreen. TVs are going that way anyway, so might as well be prepared.

Same reason here. The next TV I buy will be a widescreen TV.

Laird · Post by **Laird** » 2003-10-22 03:20pm

Widescreen.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-10-22 03:37pm

RedImperator wrote: As for the black bars: I find I can tune them out in a few seconds. There have been times where I've turned on the TV and caught a movie being broadcast in widescreen, and not realized it until the credits rolled. Is there anyone who can't tune them out?

On a lot of stuff I can but it depends on the aspect ratio and the size of the tv. Most of the newer films use most of the screen of a standard tv even in widescreen. The Matrix Reloaded is not one of those and I definately noticed the smaller size of the picture because the ws version was a wider aspect than most of those I've been seeing lately. Even in cases like that I still get into the movie and am glad to see all that was intended but it is nice when the picture fills up most of your screen.

Personally, I prefer to see the movie as it was orginally intended although I don't have problems with cleaned up prints or remastered sound. I did not like them changing some of the sound effects on the Terminator: SE it just wasn't right that his .45 didn't sound like a hand canon anymore.

Really, I need to get a wide screen a perhaps larger screen. Since I use my tv almost exclusively for watching DVDs and video it might be a good idea.

You know, I actually like it when DVD's come with both WS and FS versions of the movie. That way I can see the movie as it was intended or with it filling up my screen.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-22 03:44pm

I hate it when they do that when it's a whole other disc for the PS version. Waste of money.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-10-22 03:53pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I hate it when they do that when it's a whole other disc for the PS version. Waste of money.

Usually when I see it done they are both on the same disk. Often with one version on it's own side. More recently I've seen some, like The Howling: SE where it lets you choose the aspect ratio at start-up.

Very rarely have I seen PS and WS on differnt disks and even then I think the set costs the same as a regular DVD.

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-10-22 04:09pm

Durandal wrote:No, they're the same thing. Fake letterboxing is usually just referred to as fake letterboxing. The most recent example I can think of is the Back to The Future DVD's that came out a while ago. The encoding house actually slapped black bars on to the pan-and-scan and sold it as letterbox. After a massive customer backlash, they replaced the defective DVD's free of charge.

Bah. Screw you, prettyboy

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-10-22 04:14pm

Death from the Sea wrote:
Lagmonster wrote:Widescreen. TVs are going that way anyway, so might as well be prepared.
Same reason here. The next TV I buy will be a widescreen TV.

ATSC signals will be natively 16:9, so that's a good choice

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-10-22 04:25pm

If you have a TV of adequate size, Widescreen. If you just have a little dinky TV (like the one in my dorm), then fullscreen is probably best. I, however, always go with widescreen, because when at home, you just can't take advantage of my surround sound without the full intended video.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2003-10-22 04:29pm

Nathan F wrote:If you have a TV of adequate size, Widescreen. If you just have a little dinky TV (like the one in my dorm), then fullscreen is probably best. I, however, always go with widescreen, because when at home, you just can't take advantage of my surround sound without the full intended video.

It also depends on how good your eyesight is. A friend of mine complains that he can't see the picture if its in WS on his 32" TV....yet I have no problem watching WS movies on my 17" monitor a good 10 - 12 feet away on my bed let alone the 25" TV sitting about 3' to the right of my computer monitor....and I've got 20/40 vision with my contacts in.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-10-22 04:41pm

Of course, then there's always the fun of having a projector to work with.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Widescreen or Fullscreen?

Do you prefer Widescreen or Full screen editions?