Full screen vs Widescreen
Everything Misfit toy just posted couldn't be more wrong.
You saw more of the picture on the old FULLSCREEN VHS tapes because they were NOT 'masked' with the black bars. That is picture information that was NOT projected in the theatre and was never meant to be in the composition. Hence the reason you will see "boom mic's" occasionally. That screen info wasn't meant to be seen.
There are TWO types of Widescreen.
Matted and TRUE Widescreen.
Matted is what Misfit Toy describes.....that is for films shot in 1:85:1 format....also called standard format.
True Widescreen (or cinemascope, or panavision) is 2:35:1 or wider. If the black bars are not applied to the home video version, you will lose HALF (HALF!!!) of the picture that was shot on film.
4:3 and 16:9 are aspect ratios for television and have nothing to do with film or how the movie was shot.
Plain and simple....if the movie was SHOT IN A WIDESCREEN PROCESS like panavision, cinemascope, tohoscope, ect.....you will lose HALF OF THE PICTURE if not letterboxed. Period.
I defy you to watch a classic horror widescreen movie like ALIEN or SUSPIRIA is fullscreen mode and have it NOT LOOK like a steaming bunch of garbage. Everything streched out.....people offscreen talking....no focus.
Garbage that is.
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I hate widescreen. I ve been butting heads with this guy over the downfall of Widescreen.
bring back Beta