DVD movies and Widescreen ?

[NavyDood_ F/A18_Mech]

Why are new release DVD's all Widescreen? Seems like all the stores stock the widescreeen only. Correct me if I'm wrong, but why would you want a widescreen edition of a movie, and see black space above and below the actual picture? I'm guessing that 95% of the TV's in America are NOT widescreen compatible. So why? /forum/smile.gif

Yes i'm venting. If I'm over looking something please inform me.

Jim

[JW310]

I believe it is because of the new HDTV standards being imposed here in the U.S. I believe all television stations in the U.S. will be requrired to go to the new HDTV format, thus all TVs will either be the old, analog TVs with a converter for HDTV to analog, or digital, wide(r)-screen TVs. This would probably explain why you can't seem to find anything other than widescreen DVDs.

JW

[chipbgt]

i agree with ya..i want regular viewing dvd's because im watching them on my computer. why would I want to waste all that space?

[LittleKing]

I disagree. I love widescreen. I'll live with the black bars. Did you ever consider how much is cut off buy the standard format. It's someware around 40% - 45%, depending on widescreen format (that's my quess, don't knowexact figure). Get a movie that has both widescreen and standard and compare how much is cut off the edges. I would rather have what was intended to be seen than fill my screen. A good example would be from the Matrix. When trinity is flying throw the air at the begining. With widescreen you see her whole body, with standard it is cut off drasticly. Well that's just my opinion. I won't force anybody to like widescreen but I sure do. /forum/smile.gif /forum/smile.gif /forum/smile.gif

Happy movie watching.

LK

[This message has been edited by LittleKing (edited 11-07-1999).]

[chipbgt]

depends on the movie. action movies yes, regular ole movies I coudl do without the widescreen. But I do have matrix in widescreen (short poll how many poeple who have a dvd player DONT have the matrix /forum/smile.gif )and its worth it. so I guess I take it back and say it all depends on the movie.

[Ygor]

I don't have dvd, but LittleKing is right! Movies originally shot in widescreen were shot that way for a reason. More may be happening on the sides than you may realize, and in some cases, scenes won't make any sense with part of the scene missing.

[reddog4629]

Standard tv is 3:4 aspect ratio. DVD High Res. is 9:16. Guess they think everyone will eventually have high def. tv.

[chipbgt]

while we are mentioning HDTV, how much more do they cost and how many netqorks actually support it now? I saw them for the first time in hifi buys last week, and I about peed my pants. I guess you never realize how unfocused a reg tv picture is until you see that.

[JerseyJoe]

Chip, currently most HDTV's are either rear or front projection sets (sony does make table models).
As for networks broadcasting a hdtv signal theoretically the major networks (abc, cbs, fox & nbc) should be sending out a digital signal in the top 10 markets by now. And they should be sending out a digital signal in the top 25 markets by the end of 2000.

Currently, the hdtv signal is just an "up convered" signal from the normal network feed.
In general, cbs & nbc are using the 1080i hdtv format; abc is mostly using the 720p format though they do use the 1080i format in some markets; fox is using the sdtv 480p format. And in 1 or 2 of the west coast markets upn and wb are sending out a digital signal.