Why? ! WHY? !

[frogboy4]

Other than a slight gonk with quality, I do not see why more companies don't do this as well. Go back to my previous complaint about toy/bonus Disk/ bargain pack 2 DVD's thing. If only they were just like that. less in the catelogue, more people would buy them. I mean, I'm still looking for widescreen releases of certain films. Don't understand why they keep rereleasing the family friendly full Frame Shrek, when they keep spitting out sequals.

I just don't see why companies don't distribute double-disc sets. It's really not that expensive and they'd save on so much packaging and the format that most collects dust.

You know, that format used to be the widescreen version, but these days it's the cropped "full frame" DVDs that sell much less in the stores I frequent (San Francisco's Virgin Megastore, Best Buy and Circuit City). There are so many of them that they begin to incorrectly shelve them in the empty widescreen slots. Those usually go fast with the new releases. A couple months after release the full frames are practically given away! Maybe it's the culture of the city where I live or maybe it's a sign of the culture finally getting that in "filling" their standard television frame they are actually missing much pertinent peripheral image! In the days of VHS when "pan & scan" (full frame/ cropped) films were the norm, I'd specialty order the widescreen for $50-80 more! I'm glad there's finally a choice!

 

[Teheheman]

What I think they should do is what some films are doing. They have one disc with one side FF and the other WS. That way, you could play it on whatever side you want. You don't have to keep any of the features on there, but I'm sure that you would wanna put some of them on one side and some on the other side. So, there's my solution America. Where's my money?

Daniel

 

[frogboy4]

What I think they should do is what some films are doing. They have one disc with one side FF and the other WS. That way, you could play it on whatever side you want. You don't have to keep any of the features on there, but I'm sure that you would wanna put some of them on one side and some on the other side. So, there's my solution America. Where's my money?

Daniel

For some reason I have heard it's just cheaper to burn a second DVD than to double-side. Plus Disney and others like to silkscreen an image on one side. Makes them prettier. LOL! I don't mind either way. Personally, I think if a cropped/full frame version is included it should be burned on a separate special features disc as not to disturb the resolution quality of the widescreen image. That would solve the issue.

On another note - I am very glad Pixar has chosen to release Ratatouille only in its intended ratio. I'm sure Disney had talks about it, but it takes guts for an artist to stand up for his work and ensure a quality release. Good for Pixar and Brad Bird. I'm sure a lot of that was his doing.

Bad news Drtooth: Ratatouille comes in widescreen only, including the set packaged with Wal-Mart's special bonus DVD featuring Food Network stars.

And it's in that widescreen format where the black bars take up two thirds of the picture!

The bars don't take up 2/3 of even a standard screen monitor. This is an exaggeration, however it is a lot and there are bars even on widescreen monitors. That was the intended film ratio. It looked great in the theaters! There are DVD functions that allow the viewer to "zoom in" on a widescreen image. I suggest this only if it bothers the viewer that much. Yes, the quality is bumped down, but by excising so much of the shot anyway there is a bump in quality. Until movies are shown in full frame in the theater (like Disney's original Jungle Book etc) there will be bars.

There likely was no rendered quality image where the "black bars" appear on the screen of the DVD release. So much goes on in the frame of an animated picture and I find it fantastic that artistry won't be severed on any home video copy. Lets hear it for artistic integrity...finally. It appears artists and directors have had better control over specifications in recent years. I have seen Ratatouille on Blu-Ray and it looks amazing! Someday I'll be able to afford one of these systems.

 

[D'Snowth]

Hey, Drtooth? Bad news: special gift sets of Bee Movie only come in widescreen.

I had to skip out on having special Bee Movie PEZ despensers so I could actually enjoy the movie without losing 20% of the picture by those annoying black bars.

 

[MrsPepper]

Snowthers, I think you're still not quite getting it. The black bars look like they're taking room up at the top, but by doing that, we're saving ACTUAL FOOTAGE from being lost/removed at the sides, which is what fullscreen movies do. I wouldn't watch a fullscreen movie if you paid me, because it alters the movie as originally seen in theatres and strays away from the artist's intent. It's untrue and butchered.

Many years from now when you are a millionaire, buy a widescreen tv and try watching a fullscreen movie on it. Then you will lose footage at the top AND sides. At least on a widescreen dvd you can zoom in using your dvd player's zoom function (which is pretty standard on the majority of dvd players). You can't zoom out of fullscreen in order to see the 30% of the film that has been removed.

 

[D'Snowth]

Snowthers, I think you're still not quite getting it. The black bars look like they're taking room up at the top, but by doing that, we're saving ACTUAL FOOTAGE from being lost/removed at the sides, which is what fullscreen movies do. I wouldn't watch a fullscreen movie if you paid me, because it alters the movie as originally seen in theatres and strays away from the artist's intent. It's untrue and butchered.

Sorry, but it's just the opposite.

When you watch a movie in widescreen, the top third and the bottom third of the picture is cut out because the black bars. Meanwhile, you watch the same movie in full screen, and those parts of the picture are back because of lack of bars. Didn't you see my figure a few pages back?

 

[MrsPepper]

You have it completely backwards! The bars don't cover anything. In the theatres movies are rectangular, but tvs are square. Fullscreen zooms in, losing the sides and forcing the picture to be square. Widescreen adds extra blank black space at the top (that doesn't cover ANYTHING) to make sure that everything on the sides fits on the screen. I don't know how to explain it any clearer than that.

Check out this page of examples from Labyrinth of the widescreen vs fullscreen versions, and then try to tell me that fullscreen doesn't have something missing: http://widescreen.org/examples/labyrinth/index.shtml
I actually own both a fullscreen tape and a widescreen dvd of Labyrinth; the first time I saw the dvd I was so impressed because of the artsy backgrounds, which were cut out of the tape.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm telling you, THIS is how it REALLY is!

THAT (referring to The Labyrinth) is what they WANT you to think, but it's not so.

Just watch the Finding Nemo DVD, they even say so themselves that it's exactly like THIS.

 

[MrsPepper]

*headdesk* Mash was originally filmed for TELEVISION, that's why that one is different. They use a different sized film.

I have the Finding Nemo 2-disc dvd and I have watched both versions. I am not trying to be mean but you are wrong.

For someone who wants to make their own television show, I think you need to research this more and try to fully understand it.

 

[D'Snowth]

*headdesk* Mash was originally filmed for TELEVISION, that's why that one is different. They use a different sized film.

I realize that, I was just simply using a screen shot of SOMETHING to illustrate how full screen vs. widescreen really works.

I have YET to see a widescreen movie that shows any evidence of any parts of the picture being cut because of the sides of the television set. Heck, another example I can think of is Uptown Girls: compare, if you will, the "Molly Smiles" sequence on television with the full picture, to the widescreen versions on YouTube, where the top and the bottom of the picture are cut from the black bars.

For someone who wants to make their own television show, I think you need to research this more and try to fully understand it.

Hey, I said my show was going to look like it was filmed in the golden olden days of television, so I won't have to worry about any picture loss, unless some maniac tries to crop "widescreen" versions of the episodes, which, I agree, will really peeve me.