I doubt management would approve the use of two TVs (the only ones in my department are hooked up to gaming consoles), two DVD players, separate widescreen and full screen Star Wars DVDs opened, and the time and effort it takes to do this. They'd have absolutely nothing to gain by me converting customers to widescreen. I'm probably only doing this for that warm fuzzy feeling I get inside when someone chooses widescreen over full screen cuz of me.

Anyway, I've hooked up my printer and successfully printed out three pages of comparison shots. Now I'd like to find a screenshot of the "This film has been modified..." tag from an actual movie...

Work at 8. Must hurry.

K

i hope you get some converts

In case you haven't found "This film has been modified.." yet, Here it is From the Batman DVD

Although I'd prefer the green background version (it's more immediately recognizable, I'd say, to anyone who has watched a "modified" movie on TV before), I think I will just call it a night and use the aforementioned one. Thanks a bunch.

K

You shouldn't even be taking that seriously. They don't pay you enough and it is a waste of your time. Much like trying to stop someone from smoking, drinking, posting on the internet.

It is their cash. Let them piss it away on whatever version they want. Being an informed worker is one thing when folks come up to you and ask you. But it seems like a simple explaination to what the difference of ws and fs is cool enough.

You shouldn't look at it as trying to convert people to widescreen. If you're truly just trying to educate people, you need to take a step back and realize that it is a PREFERENCE. There is no right or wrong choice here.

You also need to realize that what you're doing is a waste of your time and energy. You've stated that your employers stand to gain nothing by your extra efforts and would not approve the use of any of their resources. So why should you donate any of yours?

Anyway, that said, I work in a video store and I understand your desire to educate people. When people come up and ask me about the difference between full screen and widescreen, I tell them as plain as I can. If it looks like they're not going to understand it, I grab a piece of paper and draw them a picture and try to illustrate what the image looks like in the theater, what it looks like letterboxed, and what it looks like as pan-and-scan. Then, when they seem to have a grasp on the concept, I let them make their choice.

Often times, they'll ask me which is better. I use this to tell them that it's a preference, and that some people like to see the whole image while others like their TV screens to be filled. If they ask which one I think is better, THEN I tell them that I prefer widescreen. They usually end up going with widescreen and I feel nice and warm inside.

I'm not actually serious about trying to convert people to widescreen. It's really no skin off my teeth if someone goes with the full screen of a particular DVD. I've been pretty bored the past couple hours and that's the main reason I took up this project. It's just nice to have visual aids for the people interested in the difference between widescreen and full screen. And it makes much more sense to have screenshots of Star Wars since that's what the majority of people inquiring tomorrow will be asking about. If someone picks up The Mummy and wants to know which version is better or the differences or whatnot, I'm not gonna have a separate set of screenshots for it. Although I could. Really, it'll just help show people better, when I'm asked. I'm not preaching to anyone or anything. While I don't agree with full screen as a viewing method, I can't say I completely disagree with it as an option. It's just not my choice to view movies that way. If someone is undecided and ask for my help, I'd just like to be prepared. I'd hate for someone to choose full screen cuz I gave a bad explanation. You know, "black bars" and warts and all. I'm not a very social individual. Pretty pictures are helpful. We'll see how it goes. The madness starts at 10 AM. Wish me luck. Or a good day at work, I guess.

K

Damn, all these posts & no pics!

I work at Best Buy too, in the Media Dept of course, and at mine I printed out the page from widescreen.org and made sure to credit the site at the bottom and put some printouts on the new release table, for exactly the same reason as Cornelius1047, so that when people ask What's the difference between the gold box and the silver box? I can illustrate.

I also do the same thing at my store, and try and educate people when they as what the difference is, which usually comes up when a big release like The Punisher or Man on Fire is released widescreen only. And I find that most people just don't know and have never had it explained, they think the dreaded "black bars" cover up part of the picture, or that they're only for people with widescreen TVs. That's my number one reply I hear at my store "But I don't have a widescreen TV!"

One lady the other day got real upset when I tried to explain things to her, and how on a movie like Star Wars you lose a lot picture going widescreen to pan n scan, and she got all angry and started ranting about how that used to be the case, but now they don't make films like that anymore, the way they make them now is the opposite! You lose picture in the widescreen version! Then she started talking to someone on her cell phone making sure to pass by me and talking loudly so I could hear: "No, I'm not going to pick up Soul Plane, they only have widescreen!" "That's why the full screen ones are always gone and they can't give away the widescreen copies!" Uh huh, that's why we got in Star Wars in a 6-to-1 ratio in favor of widescreen.

This is true, but the original point made still stands, that it is more difficult to show people how you're losing something with fullscreen compared to widescreen when using an example where they actually crop things from the fullscreen image in order to make the widescreen one. If people already believe that the black bars means that they're losing image, showing them Super-35 side-by-side comparisons would probably just convince them further, wouldn't it?

I just got back from future shop...stood there laughing for ten minutes as the clerk and a customer tried to explain to another customer the difference between widescreen and full screen..the customer got very frustrated and was basicly like 'whatever!' and grabbed the full screen. now if the clerk had those visual aids...

Any chance that Jar Jar gets cut out of the Pan & Scan version of the DVDs? That might be a reason to go with fullscreen.

No need because he's not there.

I managed a convert at Fry's today. After a few minutes of browsing, I casually asked the guy next to me if he realized he had the fullscreen version. He said yeah, but he only has a regular tv, but then he asks me if the widescreen will work on a regular tv. Ah-ha! I knew I had him, I explained the differences, and how, for these movies especially, any loss of image is a bad thing, and he swapped his gold box for platinum. Yay me!

Cheers to the BB employees who are actually trying to educate people on the formats. I just came back from BB myself, and while I was grabbing my copy, someone next to me said: "Are you buying the full screen?"
Of course I said "no". ..and he asked why. So I explained and he ended up taking the Widescreen version.
What does this tell me? That there are people out there who really want to know what is going on with the different aspect ratios. They want to be educated. Sure, there are some that don't care, but there are others who are really really confused about the whole thing.
I think I'll bring out screenshot examples myself in case anyone else asks me.,.....even though I don't work at the store. hehehe

So, what you're saying is....um...

It's ok for YOU to educate people, but not this guy who works at Best Buy?

I'm a little lost on the point since you contradicted yourself so incredibly well.

Try this link:

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/H...reCompare.html

it may be what you're looking for.

Take a good look...Doesn't the pic of Darth on the cover of the set make him sympathetic and remorseful looking? Just from that I see him in a whole new light. For real!

There IS a right or wrong choice....people buy FOOLSCREEN becasue they want their tv screen filled up, thinking that the black bars are taking away part of the image when it isnt....it is preserving teh original scope of the intended viewing image, which was not intended to be shown on television - it was intended to be shown on a huge WIDE theater screen, but when the day comes when 16x9 is all you can buy, fullscreen titles will be "pillarboxed" (bars on the sides) and they will have to distort teh picture to fill up their screens again.

Look, its real simple...... you will never lose black bars unless the film was shot in 16:9 (1.78:1) so buy WIDESCREEN (or origianl aspect ratio) every time and forget the FOOLSCREEN - when your 4:3 set goes on the fritz and come the day when you will never be able to buy or service a 4:3 set anymore, you will be sorry that you ever bought any fullscreen versions of titles, becasue teh REASON you bought them (to fill up your screen) will no longer apply when finally HAVE to buy a 16:9 set (unless you stretch the image, and then whats the point?)

It's too bad you can't actually show side by side comparison sample clips versus just screenshots, because IMO the best example of WS vs. FS is best heard with the dialogue that goes along with the scene.

The part I'm talking about is in ANH. The part where Luke is in the Jundland Wastes (sp?) looking thru his macrobinoculars before he gets attacked by a Tusken Raider. He's looking through at a few Banthas, and says "Well, there are a few banthas down there, but I don't see any sandpeople. Wait, I can see one of them now". Then one of them attacks him.

In the FS version, you cannot even see the sandperson he's talking about because it's cropped off the right side of the screen. It's so dumb, because clearly he says he can see him thru his binocs, but it is not there! For years all I had was the FS VHS, and this annoyed me to no end. Finally I got the WS version, and it was instantly noticeable to me. I've been advocating WS ever since.

Way to go, OP. Keep up your efforts if you want to. More people need to understand that what they're losing with FS. In most cases I believe it's ignorance or arrogance, not preference. If the same people that prefer FS went to see a movie and it was shown in FS, not WS, they would most likely complain that the movie was missing it's sides, and it wasn't filling the whole screen. But the funny thing is that if they were home, they'd be watching the same FS version, and wouldn't have a problem because it filled their TVs. O brother, please help these people.

I went to buy the new Mr. Show DVDs today, but they only had FOOLscreen, so I left. Stupid Foolscreen!!

The fact that she was buying soul plane tells you all you need to know about her.
Also, to those who say "dont take your job at Best Buy so seriously," may i ask why not? Don't you take your job seriously? Is there something wrong with being employed there?

I'm enjoying watching how many posts this thread goes with no comparison pics.

No, it's better that all BB employees become cynical and lazy, so we can read more "Check out this stupid guy I saw at BB today" threads.

of course it would be in poor taste to start a "check out this penny-pinching geek customer I saw at BB today" thread