Full or Wide

Right! Ive had enough of you smelly poeple, i voted for Full Screen! Ha HA! Dam you ALLL!.....

But i am going to be serious for a moment, and once you have finished reading what i am about to ask, please do not cast me into the poisonous depths of the MOFO latrine, but i honestly do not understand the difference between widescreen and full screen apart from that widescreen has two black bits at the top and bottom and a bit of a wider picture.....*flinches*....I ONLY GOT A WIDESCREEN TV THIS CHRISTMAS! IM SORRY!
.........Can someone please lay out the differences and advantages in a simple child proof manner so that i may never experience this torment again...Pleeeeease...

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Pumpkins scream in the DEAD of night!

Which would you rather have: a dollar or sixty cents? It's essentially the same question. The cropping of a true widescreen movie for standard TV loses over 40% of the image. To me that is criminal and totally unacceptable. For any real movie fan anyway.

Essentially the problem is this: the movie screen is a rectangle and the TV screen is a square. To fit the rectangle into the square you either have to chop off the sides and lose a lot of the visual information or you have to present it in the proper ratio, which means you will have "black bars" at the top and bottom of your set.

For some examples of how much you're missing watching great movies visually butchered for TV, look at these -> The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade, History of the World Part I, Amadeus, and Monty Python & the Holy Grail.

Anyone who votes for panning & scanning is either a) uneducated, or b) a total moron.



BTW, I hate the term "full screen". It's a bullsh!t, purposefully deceptive term. Some movies presented at the 1.33:1 aspect ratio for television aren't in fact pan-and-scan transfers. What they are is correctly called either open matte or soft matte. This is done only for movies projected in aspect ratios of 1.85:1 on down to 1.66:1, not the true full widescreen processes. It's still incorrect and contrary to the filmmaker's original vision, but very little visual information is usually lost on the sides this way, and some information is actually gained on the top and bottom. This is not how it is meant to be framed, and will even cause the ocassional boom mic to be seen on some sloppy TV transfers, but it isn't panning-and-scanning either.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

So even with different ratios, does it mean that all of the movies pics are still intact? If so, why different ratios? Why not keep them all the same?

As usual, Holds pipes in with the trip-hammer of information. Just clicky on the links Mr. Pike so helpfully supplied. Clearly, this is a total butcher job these films have gone through, destroying the original cinematic vision of the director. pan and scan is the devil's work gents, and is just dumber than a sack full of hammers....

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Your right sedai, these links of Holden's are some excellent examples.

I don't understand the question. For the same reason all movies aren't exactly two hours long or only star Adam Sandler, I guess. The aspect ratio is decided on by the director and cinematographer. Whichever they feel is best to tell their story, that's the one they use. As a general rule you'll notice most action-oriented movies are the wider widescreen, usually around 2.35:1 (or the frame is over twice as wide as it is tall) while comedies and pictures that don't necessarily rely on elaborate visuals are filmed closer to 1.85:1 (or the frame is less than twice as wide as it is tall - but still significantly wider than a regular TV screen (which is approximately 1.33:1, so not a true square, but much closer to a 1:1 square than the obvious rectangle of a 2.35:1 flick).

It's not really that complicated. The next time you're in the movie theater, notice how long the image being projected is. Then visualize how square a regular TV is. Hold your hands up to your face like blinders, blocking out the sides of the projected image. That's what happens when the movie is chopped up to fit the television screen. It ain't "fullscreen" at all. It's only partial screen.

Widescreen processes only started in the 1950s, as Hollywood looked to make the movie experience different from the increasingly popular television. TV screens are the size they are because that used to be the standard size of a projected movie - be it Gone with the Wind or The Wizrd of Oz or what have you. Before the '50s, that's what movies were. Hollywood went nuts there for a while, even going as far as Cinerama, which were especially large theaters that actually had three projectors working in tandem to give one super-long and gigantic image that wrapped part-way around the audience. But the other widescreen processes stuck, so when you see a magnificent movie like Lawrence of Arabia cut to fit the TV screen, it's truly a travesty.

Widescreen, of course. However, I do not share in the near-religious anti-fullscreen zeal. For some films, it makes very little difference. I've never intentionally purchased a fullscreen DVD (and I don't suspect I ever will), but I have purchase them by accident, and don't always immediately notice.

Now come on Yoda... The Waterboy isn't nearly as effective in full screen, in fact, I'd go so far as to suggest its not even worth watching b/c the masterful cinematography is lost, thus negating the reason for watching the movie!

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My Top 100 favorite movies.

Oh, ok, i always figured in the movies they had the same ratios, and never took notice of the different sizes of the pictures even in the theatres. I thought they all fit perfectly to the big screen. That is why i wondered why even in widescreen dvds, they had different ratios.

Anyways, thanks for clearing it up.

definitly wide
not only the are you view is bigger from that in full but also for me a movie in wide has this feel that movies in full dont but again some people prefer full so i guess to each his own...


l8r

WIDE

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Wide is the best full doesn’t look as well

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"Misery loves company"
- Harvey Pekar, American Splendor

If you like fullscreen, you are not a true movie buff. Widescreen all the way. Granted, at first I hate widescreen, but it soon grew on me.

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Beware My Power...Green Lantern's Light"

--Green Lantern Oath--

"The Green Lantern Corps has battled against the forces of evil and chaos for a millennium. To serve is the ultimate honor."

I....I...had no idea.....it is only now that i realise i have spent my life living a shadow of the true world in which i should exist. for the past three years ive been at university purchasing some of my favourite movies and watching them on my normal 20" screen...MY LIFE IS A SHAM!

All that matters Blib, is that you recognize you have a problem.

That's always the first step.

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"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

Yes, it is a shame that all your fullscreen dvds you spent your hard earned money on are now going to be junked huh. But since i'm such a nice guy, i'll take them off your hands for free ok.

I love WideScreen!!
With WideScreen, you see all of the picture with no cuts.
You see everything the way it was filmed.

You can also zoom in and out for your own preference.
If you want fullscreen or half-wide to your own liking.

I perfer WideScreen, WideScreen is the Best!!

My life is a lie...

My name is...my name is Blib...and i.....i...Have a problem.....

Good start, now all that needs to happen is for you to become a born again christian. Wide

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