Confused about Widescreen

Posted by Nigel Pond [SysOp] [IP: 206.241.18.4] on April 21, 1999 at 15:01:55
Using Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; MSN 2.5; Windows 95):

In Reply to: Confused about Widescreen posted by Mike on April 21, 1999 at 14:37:45:

: While shopping on the internet for DVD's, Some of the titles have widescreen or letterbox next to the title. My questions is, does that mean that the move CANNOT be played in 4:3 format? Thx

Mike it usually means that the movie is in widescreen or letter box format. It may however be accompanied by a 4:3 cropped version on the other side of the disc or the disc may tell the player how to produce a 4:3 cropped version when it is playing, but not always. There is much inconsistency between studios as to the use of the terms "widescreen" "letterbox" etc. and whether 4:3 capability is included in some form or other.

Also if a disc is billed as "enhanced for widescreen TV's" or "anamorphic", if you play it back on a 4:3 TV and do not have your DVD player set up properly, the picture will look squashed vertically (see Stuart's piece on this on the main SMR site).

So when shopping on the internet it usally pays to look at the detailed information about a particular disc before you order it - Ken Crane's and DVD Express both let you do that and they both have pretty detailed information available.

Follow Ups:

• Confused about Widescreen - Mike 16:09:29 04/21/99 (1)
  • Confused about Widescreen - Nigel Pond [SysOp] 18:58:53 04/21/99 (0)

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