MZ rants about Pan & Scan...

[MinionZombie]

http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2007/12/pan-scan-my-arse.html

Just a rant...was inspired to blog my thoughts recently...but pan & scan has pissed me off for years now...

Anyway...

[bassman]

Although I understand where you're coming from and I completely agree......Widescreen is pretty much the standard these days. So Pan & Scan is almost completely gone. Well, except for those morons who seem to think that Widescreen actually takes away from the image.

"All it does is add black bars to the top and bottom of the screen":mad: Man that pisses me off when people say that. I usually sit them down and draw out the differences on a piece of paper so they'll understand it. Even if I do get them to understand, most of them still say something like "The bars still get on my nerves". The bars have NEVER been a problem for me. They basically don't exist once I sit down and look at the TV. *Jerry Seinfield voice*So what's the big deal with people and the black bars?!??

Anyway....it's funny that you referenced Die Hard 3. The Die Hard trilogy(can I still say that?:rockbrow:) and the Ghostbusters films were the films that I watched constantly on VHS growing up. They were also the first set of DVDs that I purchased when I got my first DVD player. Needless to say....I felt the same way you did. ESPECIALLY with Ghostbusters. Actually, Pan and scan wasn't fully used and it cut out jokes. JOKES! In a comedy!

Case in point:
After the GBs bust Slimer in the Sedgewick hotel and they come from the ball room to speak with the manager, Venkman is the one that tells the manager how much the charge is. Well, in the pan and scan version, all you see is Venkman tell the hotel manager the charges while he occasionally looks off screen. To my surprise when I got the widescreen DVD, Venkman is actually looking over at Spengler and he's "scratching" his face while holding up fingers to let Venkman know how much to charge. I couldn't believe it.

There's actually also many other scenes in the film where character's facial reactions are cut out and let's face it....that's really the comedic driving force of Ghostbusters.

[Terran]

I have a Pan and Scan version of Lost Highway....and it drives me crazy....I got it because at the time that was the only version of the DVD I could find!... It drives me nuts....I want it in Widescreen!

[MinionZombie]

There's still films getting released in Full Screen though - and with 16x9 being the INDUSTRY STANDARD, it makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER!!!

Halloween 2007, or Devil's Rejects - both have "full screen" versions - WHY???!!! Who the f*ck would be stupid enough to buy those?! I guess the sorts of idiots who would buy the "rated" version when the "unrated" version is sitting right next to it.

Gah! :eek:

[bassman]

There's still films getting released in Full Screen though - and with 16x9 being the INDUSTRY STANDARD, it makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER!!!

Halloween 2007, or Devil's Rejects - both have "full screen" versions - WHY???!!! Who the f*ck would be stupid enough to buy those?! I guess the sorts of idiots who would buy the "rated" version when the "unrated" version is sitting right next to it.

Gah! :eek:

Well sometimes the unrated isn't necessarily a good thing. One that comes to mind is Knocked Up. All the unrated has is a few pointless scenes that just add length to an already lengthy picture. That was one of my few complaints with that flick - it was too long. Then the unrated just added scenes that weren't of any use and made it even longer...

[Skippy911sc]

I have always hated P&S transfers...but the most annoying thing about it is when the slide the picture (digitally I guess) to show whats going on off screen...that little jittery shot from one character to another causes me to switch it off. I have found that some films like Godfather seem to handle this better than others...although I think the Godfather series were matted.

[PJoseph]

When I first had a Laserdisc player back in 1996, I had to go to one little store in Miami to rent discs - and everyone else in the world thought it was crazy to get widescreen versions. And at that time, explaining the benefit to people was fruitless.

At least ten years later, more people are clearer on the subject, but I too do not understand why the hell there are full frame versions of anything on DVD.

The only time you should be able to buy full frame is on VHS, because if you are still buying new movies on VHS, then you deserve full frame.

pJ

[Danny]

heh, i remember way back when, man i must have ben 10 or 11, and my mom took me to toys-r-us to spend moolah on me for my birthday, i wanted episode one on VHS (cant believe i just admitted that) and saw one that said the mysterious phrase "widescreen edition". i was intrigued so i asked for that one.

- my mom threw a **** fit "WHADDAREYA CRAZY?!?, THATLL BLOW UP OUR TV",- everything ould blow up the tv according to my mom, copied videos would, cd's in a dvd player would real self denial luddite if ya get me.
-anyway she was adamant it was a "wrong" version and got me the origional ,which i never watched... wonder what happened to it.

- but point is ,people are tards about formats.

[DjfunkmasterG]

There are still morons today who buy full screen claiming WS isn't the way it was meant. The problem is not enough WS TV's are being sold, and no one has given anyone a clear explanation when they are buying the discs. They should have a display at the store showing the difference.

When I bought Die Hard 4, they had more FS copies than WS at Circuit City. I wanted to cry. :(

If I can't get WS I just don't buy it. I want it the way it was meant to be seen.

[Terran]

Yeah me too....if Widescreen is not availible I just dont buy exception being when I bought Lost Highway....(thats the only version I could find on DVD at the time anywhere)

[zombie04]

When I bought Die Hard 4, they had more FS copies than WS at Circuit City. I wanted to cry. :(



Maybe when you got there lots of people had purchased the WS version and left all the FS copies for some other suckers to buy. If that's the case then that means people have learned their lesson and are more accepting of WS than when DVD was first introduced. But if you got there when the store opened the day it came out, then we have some problems there.

Probably one of my worst experiences with FS was the original Halloween. When I first watched it in WS so much more was added. In the FS version you would constantly hear music cues and then see Myers coming out of nowhere a few seconds afterwards. In WS when you heard the music you could also see Myers coming out of the shadows at the same time. It just happened so many times in that movie it was like watching it for the first time all over.

[MinionZombie]

I got "Death Machine" on Region 1 DVD - fullscreen, gah! - (hey, I dig it, saw it when I was a young teen, so adult movies and violence and such was all new to me, and as a result, it's a beloved movie for me).

I got the R1 disc because it wasn't on R2, and I figured it wouldn't make it, or not for a very long time...but it came out about a year later on R2 - IN WIDESCREEN.

SON OF A BITCH! :mad:

[Danny]

which is why i never buy a doovde' at full price when its released, wait till its cheap the youll either gt it cheap or a better version will be out.

the only time ive doen that this millenium was for the first part of season one of heroes.