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Widescreen (Finally) Winning

Yort writes "There's a little blurb over at the IMDB about customers at Blockbuster now generally preferring the widescreen, or letterbox, format over full-screen. This after Blockbuster tried to only stock full screen versions of movies a few years ago. I guess now the wife will have to let me buy that new widescreen TV, right?"

17 of 519 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah! by sg3000 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The masses choose wide screen over full screen! Next, we have to wean them off of pro wrestling, Brittany Spears, and lite beer and the 2000s won't end up being an embarrassment to history! Or at least we'll be cooler than the 1920s, with their flagpole sitting and zootsuits.

    --
    Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
    1. Re:Yeah! by Bendy+Chief · · Score: 2, Funny

      My friend, we have nothing to fear. We came after the beat poets of the late fifties/early sixties, and no one can ever put them to shame for lameness, daddy-o.

  2. Widescreen = Bedda! by CyberBill · · Score: 5, Funny

    My parents always watch DVDs in pan-n-scan, because my dad says "We bought a big tv and that widescreen doesnt use it, what a waste!", but I personally ONLY watch DVD's in widescreen unless not available. You can see a lot more of whatever is going on, I feel. :)

    -Bill

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    -Bill
    1. Re:Widescreen = Bedda! by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Funny

      So of the fact that he got you episode 2 and the fact that it is p&s, which is the insult and which is the injury?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Re:How?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    You are a snob, a bigot, whatever!

    Happy?

  4. Re:Honest question by DeltaSigma · · Score: 2, Funny
    You! You people are the ones that screwed up the internet! I hate you all!
    Man, if they don't have the processing power for flash they should get a better computer.
    I shall hunt down every last one of your kind until the internet is pure and w3c compliant...
  5. I tell fullscreen supporters... by shepd · · Score: 4, Funny

    Your DVD player has a zoom feature (most do, anyways). USE IT! That way we both win.

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    If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
  6. Because the format sucks? by Kjella · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, seriously... 4:3 is nice for a newsreporter, or a solo artist etc. But compared to the human field of vision, it's hopeless. And if you're looking to convey a "realistic" scene, you can either squeeze all the actors together, or you can have basicly a lot of ground and sky that would be "outside" the letterbox. Either way it sucks, and I'm glad we're moving to a format that is at least closer to the experience you get at a cinema. Note that cinema producers would actually like it even more rectangular, like 1,85:1 or 2,35:1. Personally I have a 32" widescreen (not HD) TV, and it's great for watching DVDs.

    Kjella

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  7. here is an example. by geekoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    The second example from the bottom is enough to sell me on widescreen.

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    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  8. except by geekoid · · Score: 2, Funny

    in 30 years there will be a new generation of geeks telling us about all the advantages of this new "SquareScreen"(tm) movie format.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. Reminds me of what a Suncoast employee said once.. by D'Arque+Bishop · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Pan-and-scan is formatted for the small-minded."

  11. Re:Widescreen by JDWTopGuy · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't care, I'm not happy until America's Funniest Home Videos is in widescreen HD!!!

    Why are you looking at me like that?

    OH!!! Duh. Uh, nevermind.

    --
    Ron Paul 2012
  12. Re:Widescreen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Yeah, too bad 9/11 fucked up your TV reception. REAL fucking tragedy there.

  13. Re:Widescreen by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 2, Funny

    They'll keep switching ratios until they make TVs with adjustable screens that you can pull up and down. That's when the triangular movies are going to start coming out.

    Eventually all movies will be shown on a torus, "as the director intended". There will be a big hole in the middle of the round screen, and the actors never stand in it.

  14. Hey, cool, but... by trudyscousin · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...this guy is going to be so upset.

    --
    Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
  15. Re:It is a superior format by instarx · · Score: 2, Funny

    Cropping the top and the bottom of a 4:3 screen would have the added advntage of elliminating those annoying scrolling messages on all the news channels that take up 20% of the screen with useless graphics while repeating the same headlines ad nauseum.