For those like me who dont have a widescreen tv, or a flat screen tv, but a standard 20 to 30 inch tv watching a widescreen dvd is hard because doesnt it feel like we are missing alot of the movie? Should those with standard 20 to 30 inch tv people stick to full screen dvd's?

i watched ben hur on a 13 inch tv in widescreen, so go with widescreen. plus, if it is 1:85 aspect ratio, then the black boxes might dissopear some.

OAR is OAR to me. I don't care what size as long as I get to see the WHOLE movie. Although I can understand why people would want to go P&S when it comes to smaller TV's

Never,I like watching my movies in OAR and my TV is a 27 inch piece of junk,as for WS on a 13 inch I wouldnt know I wouldnt watch movies if all I had was a 13 inch TV.

Moving to Hardware Forum.

The big problem with buying "Full Screen" is eventually everyone will own a 16 x 9 TV and then what? All of you who have purchased the "Full Screen" editioins will be faced with buying new DVD's in 16 x 9 or watching movies with all the actors looking like NFL lineman. It doesn't make any sense to buy "Full Screen" and unfortunately a large portion of the blockbuster crowd does not understand 16 x 9 is the standard.

Let me go further. If you have no intention of buying a 16 x 9 TV and you plan to kep your 4 x 3 forever, why buy DVD at all? Just buy VHS they are cheaper. DVD was made for 16 x9 viewing in anamorphic widescreen played through a multidecorder receiver capable of playing Dolby Pro Logic, DTS and DD 5.1.

It's just a matter of what you're used to. For the first three years I owned my DVD player, I watched movies on a 25" Magnavox, a Target special.

It's not enormously huge, but I got used to watching widescreen movies on it. Whatever you're reasons for watching widescreen (even popular "I only watch OAR) it is a matter acclimating to watching WS because all you're life you've been FS everything.

It's hard to adjust...but eventually you wouldn't have it any other way.

For the most part any S/Fx intensive movie is only going to be watchable in widescreen....Unless the studio does a complete overhaul for home video. On the other hand most of your movies that are low on the blue screen stuff will be perfectly watchable in full screen. Avoid pan and scan type movies as they are just chopped up and zoomed in bits and pieces of the original film. But properly edited open matte or native 1:33 films will look superior in full screen on a 4:3 display.

Keep in mind that if you get a widescreen TV, you may see vertical bars on the screen, since most TV shows aren't in widescreen. But if you can, go ahead and get one just for the sake of watching DVDs.

The movie that convinced me that even on a smaller screen OAR is a must was Blade. I loved seeing it in the theater, and if I could have afforded it I would have gone back many times, but as it was I waited until the video release.

Back in 99 on release day for Blade I happily plunked down my $8 at Costco and raced home to watch the pan-n-scan vhs on my 35" Sony. I hadn't thought that dvd was a must-have for me at that point. (silly rabbit ) About 5 minutes into the film I just couldn't take it anymore. The action looked horrible - with all of the cuts and pans you couldn't tell what was going on, not to mention the fact that the beauty of the imagery was completely destroyed. I was horrified.

I promptly went over to my mom's house to watch her boyfriend's copy of Blade on his computer - he had a dvd-rom drive. The screen was 15" (probably about 13.5" viewable). And keep in mind the film is in 2.35:1 ratio, so the bars took up more of the screen than the film. And I was in heaven. Finally my favorite superhero (until Spidey, that is) movie in all its glory. Who cared that the images were small - they were perfect and super-sharp.

I ordered Blade the next day, and got the Matrix for free (back in the reel.com days of great deals). I had to wait several months before getting a dvd player, but the wait was worth it.

Granted I do get to watch dvds on a 35" tv, but even if all I had was my mom's boyfriend's pc with itty bitty monitor, I would still choose OAR dvd over pan-n-scan any day of the week.

You seem to have started a lot of threads about the differences between widescreen and fullscreen DVDs. No offense, but how many ways can you ask the same question? The differences have been explained to you. If you prefer fullscreen DVDs, fine, so be it. You don't need our validation.

Watching widescreen movies on a 27" TV is not bad. You really don't notice the fact very much. I guess it can depend on how close you are sitting from the TV to some degree though.

I personally don't like P&S very much. I feel like I'm missing part of the picture (which I am). Of course most "family" type movies are in P&S. And I believe Blockbusters tend to go with P&S as well for their rentals when there are both formats out.

I suppose there is a market for both types as long as people continue to buy both types.

I watched widescreen movies on a 13" Tv in my bedroom for years. I refuse to buy pan and scam dvd's.

I hate Pan and scam!

I watch on 27" tv, and wouldn't think of buying a full screen version of a movie when there's a widescreen version available. 1:85 is not hard to watch on a 20", don't even think about complaining about it. ER, 3rd Watch, and many other TV programs are presented by the networks in OARs of 1.85:1, they don't assume you have a widescreen TV, their research shows it's not a hard OAR to watch on a smaller TV. 2.35:1 and larger can be unfun, and I'd say 27" is about the smallest I'd want.

What Mr. Salty said.

People should stick with what they like. Whatever you're comfortable with.

I have a 15 inch, and a 19inch
I watch widescreen on both
pan and scam sucks

personally if i had a 20-30 inch set i would buy a new television. but i would say that you should go with whatever makes you enjoy the movies the most now. DVDs are really close to being an obsolete technology at this point. well, maybe not obsolete, but i do see them as an intermediate technology. HDTV (1080i or 720P) is the new standard for television and once fully implemented will be for many years to come. it seems obvious to me that people won't want to watch movies in lower resolution than is available to them via television...so HD-DVD will replace DVD as the standard as soon as blue lasers are perfected and hollywood feels comfortable with the encryption schemes. bottom line, buy dvds so that you can watch them today. tomorrow you will have more choices.

I have watched my widescreen Laserdiscs on a 27" for the last 12 years, and my DVDs on it for the past 3 years. I have never really noticed a problem, especially with the lights turned off (or low) and the color controls tuned so that the black bars disappear. My tv also is starting to show its age, and usually is squeezed so that the picture is convex )_( instead of |_|, but the widescreen videos still are very watchable.

Just move closer to the TV, contrary to what Mom said you won't go blind. (Neither does...never mind wrong forum) Or move the TV closer to you. Turning off the light helps tremendously as well.

I have no problem watching widescreen on my 27" Zenith. Although I really want to upgrade to a 36".

I have a 25" tv in the living room and a 20" in the bedroom, and I have no problem watching letterbox movies on either. I am much more comfortable with a somewhat smaller image that contains all the image, than a supposedly bigger, but cropped image.