Wide Screen VS Full Screen

Comparing Widescreen and Fullscreen

©Turner Classic Movies

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Wide
• Screen
• Widescreen
• Fullscreen
• Aspect
• Ratio

[j00ztube]

According to the comments here, most people don't actually prefer the widescreen aspect ratio for their own reasons, or at least it's not clear that they do. They just adopt the preferences of directors. That is, if directors filmed in 4:3 then these sheep would prefer 4:3 TVs.

[eshiki]

@j00ztube That's not entirely true. Truly good filmmakers have a vision of how the film should look and they shoot the scenes to fulfill that vision. Some movies are wider than others because that's what the director intended. When you start taking a fully realized vision and cutting it down just to fit into a box you lose the art behind the film. There is no "perfect" aspect ratio. What you should look for though is the Original Aspect Ratio instead of something that has been modified.

[kdawq]

So is widescreen better to buy in DVD when you have a flatscreen TV. I always wondered if they chopped off the bottom and top to give us more on the sides. is this true?

[eshiki]

@kdawq Typically speaking Widescreen is the better option for most DVDs since it shows you the whole image that the director intended when he shot the film. There are some DVDs when DVDs first came out (IIRC they were MGM movies) that took the Fullscreen version of the film (which was already Pan & Scanned) and then cropped it to fit in the Widescreen aspect ratio, so they were getting rid of a ton of the picture. Newly made DVDs typically won't do this though.

[srstarshine]

what movie was the last clip from?

[eshiki]

@srstarshine It's from Gigi (1958).

[MrFugums]

I like how this video isn't in widescreen.

[keysersoze5]

@PepulzGuys Not only that, but in the scene where Luke is looking through his binoculars at the banthas to see if there are any sand people around, when he spots one and says, "wait a second, there's sand people alright, I can see one of them now", you can't see the sand person in the pan and scan version. I remember when I was younger and saw that scene it always confused me, I always used to think, "what's he talking about, I don't see a sand person?"

[Usul573]

@swordbook

Please, it's the entire picture, and it's using a lot more of the screen real estate on a widescreen 1.78 HDTV. Tons of films are done in 2.35, it's a very epic ratio. The black bars just feel like curtains. Virtually all television is made for 1.78 now though, it's a good ratio and standard and compromise.

[swordbook]

@swordbook

I mean hate it.

[swordbook]

I hated when you play a widescreen movie on a widescreen HD TV and you still get the black top and bottom bars ;|

[MegaTimebomb098]

@MrFugums it was posted in 2007, what do you expect, youtube didnt support widescreen at that time/

[Vole2000Partnership]

@j00ztube I agree! Woody Allen's Annie Hall was filmed on (4:3) Academy Ratio.

[202saphira]

I love widescreen you see so much more!!

[PREZILLA2009]

Fulscreen should be getting rid of.

and just like james rolfe said they should not exist.

[collegeman1988]

When did home video in widescreen become the norm instead of the exception? I used to hate widescreen, but now I often won't watch a movie on TV or on my computer if it is in pan and scan because it is really disorienting and looks terrible.