What's the difference between Serenity Widescreen and Serenity Fullscreen DVDs?
POSTED BY: iccledames
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 01:09
VIEWED: 25496
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Hi all - don't think I've ever started a topic here before so apologies if I've gotten it in the wrong place.
Although I'm in the UK, I've recently purchased a multi-region DVD player (my old one broke unfortunately. It was Region 2 only but at least now I've got this shiny new contraption, I can get Serenity a bit earlier). Just wondered (it's probably a stupid question) but what's the difference between the Fullscreen and Widescreen DVDs? Am wondering which one to buy (I can't afford both!!) as I only have a portable TV so it's a relatively small screen - which format DVD is gonna look better do you reckon? Help! Which do I buy!!?
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Full screen fills the TV but often has the edges of the film clipped as the shape of most tvs is not the same as film..
Wide screen gives you the shape of the film but its a bit smaller and there is a black area above and below the film to letterbox or shadow box it.
I do NOT know the difference if you have one of those fancy newer tvs that are actually shaped like film cells...
most film nuts (uh that would include me) prefer widescreen as you see what the director shot, and little bits on the edges are not missing...
chindi
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On a 16x9 (ie fancy film cel shaped TV's ;) ) you usually have the option of:
1) Displaying a regular image centered with black or other coloured bars on the sides.
2) Displaying a regular image stretched sideways to fill the screen
3) Displaying a regular image zoomed in with the top and bottom cropped off.
Hope this helps.
Cheers.
J\
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my personal preference is widescreen. i also just bought my parents a 52 inch widescreen TV, so i get to use that when i go home. but in the dorms, i have just a 19 inch standard 3:4 TV. like the others said, widescreen puts those black lines on the top and bottom. Even though they bothered me at first, I now prefer them because you see everything as it was in the theater. With fullscreen DVDs they have to clip the edges off the picture in order for it to fill the entire screen on standard TVs. While widescreen gives you a smaller picture, it gives you the full picture, the way the director intended it. so yeah, movie buffs, a.k.a nerds, like myself prefer widescreen.
p.s. almost all DVD players come with a zoom feature that allows you to zoom in on widescreen DVDs so they take up the entire screen. While it does a good job, it is not always centered the way it would be on a fullscreen version DVD.
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Just a point of historical note, movies used to be in 4:3 (today's TV aspect ratio). Watch any old Marx Brothers movie, or The General or whatever, and they're 4:3. Since that was the standard, it made sense for the newly-invented television to copy it.
Then television took off, and movies started trying to come up with ways of differentiating themselves to maintain a competative edge. Once of those ways was to change the aspect ratio. They went through a number of strange combinations (especially Disney cartoons) for about a decade before settling down on today's standards.
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Also, when you play your widescreen vers, make sure your player is set to 16:9, else everyone's gonna look like they got sucked through the cargo bay door 
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Get the widescreen. Unless you have a tiny TV, then get the full-screen.
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There is absolutely no reason to buy a "fullscreen" DVD, and I wish studios would stop releasing them. "Fullscreen" destroys the composition of a widescreen shot, and it's completely pointless. Serenity was filmed with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which means that if you get a "fullframe" version you'll be missing about 50% of the original picture.
I'll spare you all from a lecture on aspect ratios, but if anyone wants more information on them, check out The Digital Bits. They have a very good article on them as part of their discussion of anamorphic DVDs.
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescr
eenorama.html
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"Remember, there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over."
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Quote:
Originally posted by MohrStoutbeard:
There is absolutely no reason to buy a "fullscreen" DVD, and I wish studios would stop releasing them. "Fullscreen" destroys the composition of a widescreen shot, and it's completely pointless. Serenity was filmed with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which means that if you get a "fullframe" version you'll be missing about 50% of the original picture.
here here!
except for full screen tv shows like buffy which were shot for full screen...but this is the only exception.
~lissa, retired spwhore
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Quote:You sure, M?
Originally posted by MohrStoutbeard:
Serenity was filmed with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which means that if you get a "fullframe" version you'll be missing about 50% of the original picture.
It looked more like 1.85:1, like the show.
But I could be wrong.....
Either way- get the widescreen, definitly, even if your watchin' it on a 7" LCD!!!!!!!!!
Chrisisall about preserving the artist's view
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