What if widescreen goes extinct

[Porkchop]

This week's DVDFile editorial speculates that all releases might be pan 'n scam before too long. I'm sure this is depressing news for almost everyone here.
Will you keep buying DVD's if this happens? I think I'll probably have to quit (except for the few that come out as proper OAR releases). That's a sad thought.
What to do, what to do?


(My apologies if this topic has been covered. Searching for the word "widescreen" turned up far too many threads to sift through.)

[UFO]

What would I do? I would quit being a casual collector (as opposed to hardcore) and only buy a couple DVDs a year of movies that I absolutely LOVE. I want every disk to be widescreen and anamorphic. They developed these HDTVs for a reason ya know!

The studios need to realize that it was us, the collectors (casual and hardcore) that pulled DVD up by the bootstraps.

[tomdkat]

This is more of a "Soapbox" issue, so I moved it...

Peace...

[UserNameUndecided]

I'm not worried about widescreen becoming obsolete. Pan and scan may become more widespread, but it won't replace widescreen.
I think studios have learned well enough that whenever they announce a non-OAR only release, they will have hell on their hands with all the petitions and angry letters.
I'm more worried about studios not even giving a rats ass about educating consumers.

[tomdkat]

Originally posted by UserNameUndecided
I'm not worried about widescreen becoming obsolete. Pan and scan may become more widespread, but it won't replace widescreen.

I agree 100%.....

Peace.....

[Marty McFly]

Originally posted by tomdkat
I agree 100%.....

Ditto.

But hypothetically, if all releases became P&S, I'll no longer support the DVD market. If I can't see it in its OAR, I don't want to see it at all. I can watch it on TV if I want to see it cropped (and for free, no less).

[SolidSnakeASS]

I will not buy pan and shit! I'll just wait til I can find dirty cheap VHS copies of movies I like, because it won't even fucking matter. Widescreen or nothing (unless 4:3 is the OAR), which means that the video companies will be losing a ton of $ from me.

[theta]

The editor was saying widescreen will NOT go extinct.

And, I agree with him. Probably what will happen, as a very worst case scenario, is a return to the early days, where you had a widescreen and a fullscreen transfer on the same disc.

You see, the studios love NOTHING better than something they can list as a "special feature" that supposedly ramps up the value of the disc, even if it's something you'll never watch (hey, I'm sure the fullscreen transfers on the discs I own, that have them, are great, but I've never watched them.)

Also, we will NEVER have to worry about a hit movie or important film not being sold in its proper aspect ratio ever again. Widescreen is still seen as a mark of prestige. One advantage to caving to the viewing public when it comes to some respects is that you can do simple things and seem above "flyover country" (the charming term folks in LA and New York City have for the rest of the country) when you do them.

Other movies...well...don't hold your breath, necessarily, especially family titles, although at least Disney has the class not to crop their animated films.

There are two ironies at work though:

1) the catalog titles that the studios think aren't worth the time to widescreen because "nobody buys them" they will hear endless amounts of bitching and whining about because the only people who buy them (us) really care about widescreen.

2) In five years, as has been pointed out about a bazillion times, HDTV will come along, and...well, you know the rest! Can we say "suckers?"

[manigrasso]

Before DVD took off, some studios started offering titles on VHS in widescreen. Why? Because there was a market for it. It was a necessary substitute for people who preferred the OAR but couldn't afford a laserdisc player, and the software (if there were no rental outlets nearby). The desire for OAR has not gone away. If anything, DVD has made the demand for OAR even greater, but unfortunately not great enough to surpass the amount of "I hate black bars" types who bought into DVD.

Worse case scenario: There will be more and more seperate releases. Maybe it would reach the point where stores like Suncoast will have to seperate the sidecreen copies from the P&S copies, or the people who want OAR will have to specficially ask for it, like it was bootleg porn or something. But OAR will most likely be available for every movie, and if they don't, then we hold our breath until we turn blue, and they give us what we want. I would venture a guess that the clear majority of people who buy more than rent prefer OAR. I'll bet the studios would LOVE if we the consumer didn't really think about OAR, so they COULD release titles in P&S, then bump up to widescreen when hi-def TVs become the norm. But that boat has been missed. Everyone relax, widescreen isn't going anywhere; it just might take us a few extra seconds in the stores to find them.

[SilentBob]

Chances are my spending would go down if they only release Pan & Scam DVD's. It would be a nice break for my account and Debit card. But i can't see it going that way anytome soon with the new wave of TV standards coming up soon. (in 4 years i will be breaking my TV and be getting a new one under the extended warrenty i have )


So no worries here.

[Lenny Nero]

I got a multi-region player with a built in NTSC/PAL converter and in Europe widescreen is widespread, 90% of people own it and most TV channels are in widescreen, so I'll just be getting DVDs from there, I already get majority from overseas, mostly because they are cheaper (Australia) or not available in US (UK, France, Japan), but if something like no widescreen at all happens, which is unlikely, there is always a country or two with less percentage of idiots than US that will release widescreen versions.
And if my said player breaks, I'll import a multi-system TV, and if electricity goes out, I'll buy a generator and an AK-47, and if I start running out of money, I'll use that weapon, and if california finally starts to go under the water because ice caps melt faster because ozone layer holes enlarge because every ass has 7 SUVs, I'll move to Germany, and ...

Ok ok

[Damo]

Yep i got to say as a resident of the UK Widescreen IS the main thing.. Go into a high street store in the UK 90%+ are Widescreen ONLY versions.. only the biggest releases like Harry Potter get 2 versions.. This is only a good thing.. BUT the problem is that we hardly get any DTS tracks maybe 5 in 100 releases..

But still most of my releases are Region 1 (Come out months before they do here / more likely to have DTS)

I'ved noticed on R1 titles most have 2 versions.. but MGM seem to have the right idea.. 2 versions on the one DVD-18?

If all comes to worse you can always get a Multiregion player and import!

[tomdkat]

It's interesting to read that the widescreen format is so widely accepted in Europe. I wonder why we tend to "cling" to 4:3 so much here in the U.S.

Anyone care to speculate?

Peace.....

[mighty mint]

They are more advanced in this area than we in North America are. I could be wrong but I think that they have been broadcasting in HD for some time now.

[theta]

Actually, it's because it's a smaller market. The US has 351 million people, Britain a fraction of that. Therefore, the collectors are more able to make their voices heard.
Also, the British would HATE to be like the Americans. I've noticed this weird kind of thing among my British friends and in British magazines. Britain is really no better or worse than us, just different, but the above groups seem to like to imagine America as some oppressive hellhole of bigotry and violence. I guess it's just a "where we live isn't so bad" kind of thing, God knows I've heard Americans bitch about English food, the English film industry, and above all, the CCTV cameras that are absolutely everywhere. Britain might well go the way of "1984" if those cameras keep getting installed (30,000 a YEAR!!!)

[Damo]

LOL - Actually it's not a smaller market at all.. Funny enough the UK isn't europe and it's Europe on whole with similar population as north America (or more) is primarily Widescreen.. and yes HD is starting to become more used..

Oh without those CCTV's we wouldn't get all these TV shows showing Dumbass Criminals getting caught all the time..

Oh and another thing the UK has more in common with America than any country in Europe..

Anyway as long as you buy Widescreen DVD's and enjoy them - who cares? Hehe

[TheBlackKnight]

Actually in the UK, we don't have HDTV. Just reguar Digital at PAL resolution. Although Widescreen is definitely established here.

I think 4:3 is more popular in America because of the phrase Bigger is Better. You know, the uneducated masses, they buy the biggest screen they can afford. 4:3 is cheaper, so they get more "value" from it. Probably why P&S is so popular, it appears to maximise the value. Fills the whole screen. There are people like that all over the world of course, but because the US is bigger, there seems like there's more of them. The Americans here on this forum are different, you know the truth, so spread the word!

If that didn't make sense, sorry. I'm tired.

[Flash Ahhh]

I think widescreen is safe.

We'll probably see multiple issues of same titles in different aspect ratios.

Without getting long winded. The studios can easily solve this by making all releases two disk sets. Put both the 4:3 and the anamorphic widescreen OAR on one disk and the extra features on the other. Only one release required and everyone is happy. Kinda like a Superbit Deluxe for every title.

-Flash

[Drexl]

Originally posted by tomdkat
It's interesting to read that the widescreen format is so widely accepted in Europe. I wonder why we tend to "cling" to 4:3 so much here in the U.S.

Anyone care to speculate?

One reason, I think, is that part of it is a governmental thing. Our government was more proactive in getting those damn V-Chips to be required in every TV set over 13" (at an additional cost to the consumers, many of whom don't use it or don't even know how to use it) than it was about getting 16:9 digital television established. The deadline for ceasing of analog broadcasts is still 2006, isn't it? Or has it been pushed back again?

Flash Ahhh, I think you're oversimplifying it. You can't just put two transfers on every disc. If the movie is longer than two hours or so, or has a DTS soundtrack, it's probably going to have to be dual-layer. Then you get into DVD-18, which is problematic to produce in mass quantities. Also, there's a reason why Disney hasn't produced a two-sided disc-there's got to be artwork, or some kids or visually-impaired people won't be able to see what's on the disc.

[aintnosin]

I think one reason for the increase in 4:3 releases in the fact that DVD is going mainstream, meaning that the casual renter is going to be a bigger influence on the market.

:barf:

P&S releases will probably do pretty well in the rental market while widescreen will continue to be dominate the sales market.

just my $0.02

[Welles and Ford Fan]

Posted by Drexl:
Flash Ahhh, I think you're oversimplifying it. You can't just put two transfers on every disc. If the movie is longer than two hours or so, or has a DTS soundtrack, it's probably going to have to be dual-layer. Then you get into DVD-18, which is problematic to produce in mass quantities. Also, there's a reason why Disney hasn't produced a two-sided disc-there's got to be artwork, or some kids or visually-impaired people won't be able to see what's on the disc.

Drexl: I think this could be solved by not wasting stuff like DTS on the Pan and Scam side. Hell, they could probably release the P & S side in mono engineered for a 79¢ TV speaker and no one would notice. I wouldn't, because I would never play that side. The P & S guy won't notice because he probably hasn't connected his DVD player to his audio system anyway.

[NotaNumber]

I doubt Widescreen will go extinct.

Most of the programming on PBS is being broadcast in widescreen/HDTV format. Eventually the 'what are those d*mn black bars?' crowd will get used to them.