Return a widescreen DVD to Best Buy?-MEANT TO POST IN BRAG & MOAN

[kjacobs]

I am new to DVDs and bought a widescreen DVD at Best Buy. The salesman said it would make no difference on the TV I ran it on! I have an older TV and so get the balck bars at the top and bottom. What SHOULD I have bought? SInce the DVD is open, am I out of luck in exchanging it? The receipt seems to say that I cannot return it.

It just GRIPES me when I am not told the truth!

Ken

 

[AbsolutDealage]

delete? move?

 

[nater]

you should keep the widescreen, pan and scam BLOWS. But wrong forum

 

[ddwbi0]

all wide screen are gonna have the black bars, it has nothing to do with your tv. So you WERE told the truth, belive it or not. If you do not like the black bars, get FULL SCREEN versions of the movies you buy.

Depending on what movie you want, full screen may be better than wide.

 

[LaLaLand]

Full screen sucks, you will learn to like widescreen.

 

[ddwbi0]

nope, OAR is the best

 

[UF Jspec]

Widescreen lets you see the movie as it was intended for the big screen.

 

[joecav]

Widescreen rocks

 

[emonkey]

train yourself to not believe best buy employees. widescreen is how you are supposed to see movies and even with the black bars taking up some screen then you get to see much more than on p&s.

Plus, one day when you buy a widescreen tv (and one day you will) then you wont be wondering "what are those big black lines on the right and left of the screen".

Leave the fullscreen copies for the soccer moms and the people with bad eyes.
Good info on widescreen

 

[TonyG]

You will hardly notice the black lines once you start watching the movie. Just takes a little getting used to.

 

[tji]

Check out this site:

http://dvd.ign.com/news/16377.html

It shows some examples of Widescreen vs. Pan & Scan movies. To do 'fullscreen' a lot of the movie needs to be eliminated. Some times it doesn't make any major difference, but in many cases you lose part of the meaning of a scene.

Most new TV's being sold today are 16:9 widescreen. Movies seen on these sets will have either no black bars, or smaller black bars - depending on the apect ratio of the movie.

 

[rile0161]

Originally posted by: tji
Check out this site:

http://dvd.ign.com/news/16377.html


Most new TV's being sold today are 16:9 widescreen. Movies seen on these sets will have either no black bars, or smaller black bars - depending on the apect ratio of the movie.

Actually it's still fairly hard to find 16:9 widescreen TVs, as most tvs sold are still traditional non HD.

 

[unclebud]

one can exchange that. i saw a customer do that this past friday while i was there sniffing around.
be polite, and if one csr says no, find another or a manager. they get these all the time i'm sure-- my goofy behind returned goldmember [unopened] when i realized it was fullscreen
good luck... *wonder if people are calling hbo for tech support "the sopranos come on and my tv gets these crazy black bars!"

 

[JahWren]

If you watch DVDs in the dark, take some black trash-bag material and tape it over the black bars while watching the movie. Sounds stupid but it is a SERIOUS improvment in watchability. The problem is that the black areas on the screen are really grey and subconsciously distract you from focusing on the movie and they also reduce the effective contrast in the actua picture area. So by covering them up with something black you get true black bars which makes the real image seem a lot more vivid and engrossing.

Before anyone gives me any baloney about how they aren't bothered by the black-bars or whatever, go and try it. It is the single most cost-effective upgrade you can do to the average home theater. I've since moved on to a 10' wide screen with a front projector, but I remember how amazingly effective this simple tweak is (i actually used black-foamboard from officemax, but that cost $10 instead of 10 cents).

Oh yeah, to get back to the original question, widescreen is the only way to watch a movie. Some of these fullscreen cuts are missing almost half the picture, why waste your money buying only half a movie?

 

[Bananadude]

Do you guys not have widescreen TVs in the USofA? I'm in the UK, and they are very common. They outnumber normal 4:3 screens in nearly every TV shop you go into these days. Yet from what i hear from the other side of the pond, they are not nearly as popular. I would have thought there would be great demand, and i can't see any reason why they would not be sold on a wider basis out there. It makes a huge difference when you watch a film on a proper widescreen TV, as opposed to a standard set. And with a decent sound setup, it's the next best thing to being in a cinema!

 

[nealr]

how can you live in 2003, and never have seen a widescreen movie on a tv?
where do you live, in 1979?

 

[ChrisHagwood]

Originally posted by: Bananadude
Do you guys not have widescreen TVs in the USofA? I'm in the UK, and they are very common.

My 1988 TV is working just fine. I don't see much of a point in buying a new one until the old one quits. My two 1993 autos run, and I repair them when they don't. My 1998 computer works fine too. I have had to buy three camcorders since 1993, so that irks me. I suppose it's people like me that make manufacturers built shoddy equipment so I'll have a reason to buy again.

 

[EXman]

that is really the silliest (I want to say stupid opps) post I have ever read!

 

[RVN]

If you're a mutant and your eyes are located one on top of the other ...go with the pan & scan ...that would indeed make sense.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: ChrisHagwood

Originally posted by: Bananadude
Do you guys not have widescreen TVs in the USofA? I'm in the UK, and they are very common.

My 1988 TV is working just fine. I don't see much of a point in buying a new one until the old one quits. My two 1993 autos run, and I repair them when they don't. My 1998 computer works fine too. I have had to buy three camcorders since 1993, so that irks me. I suppose it's people like me that make manufacturers built shoddy equipment so I'll have a reason to buy again.

Use whatever format suits you - don't listen to the others and their silly responses. Sure, there are lots of great benefits with wide-screen movies. But, wide screen is only part of the presentation. The number of scan lines along with many other factors have to be applied to the equation. Sure, one could watch a wide screen movie on a 13" TV, but the quality would be so bad. Yuck!

Not everyone has the funds or even the desire to buy the latest and greatest 16:9 format TVs so they can play wide-screen movies. Some 4:3 TVs can handle wide screen movies quite well (Sony Vega, for example) and maybe even a few others.

But, as time goes along, finding a movie that plays in two formats: pan & scan along with 16:9 widescreen format is going to get harder and harder. The demand for wide screen movies is going to make other formats nearly obsolete.

There is a simple (well, relatively simple) work-around for this issue. The Panasonic DVD players have a nice 4:3 zoom feature where the player will try its best to get the movie to fit your screen. Sure, there will be some cropping on the sides, but you will be able to play the wide screen movies with ease on your older 4:3 format TV.

Oh, and for all of those who responded with their comments about 4:3 / Pan & Scan being major suckage, I wonder what kind of sound gear they are using? I'd pick the option of watching a movie using pan & scan with a great sound system as opposed to some cheapy "Home theater in a box" system where the subwoofer is unlikely to get below 40 Hz.