Pan&Scan vs Letterbox -- not a debate... just an idea

[peckinpah]

Lately I've been hearing rumors that rental companies like Blockbuster are fighting the studios over the need for more Pan & Scan DVDs. It seems that the majority of video store customers still complain when their movie is letterboxed and they seem to "lose" half of their screen area. Of course, we all know this not to be true, but try making the case to someone that thinks they're losing out on the big picture after spending all kinds of money on a big-screen TV (personally, I have a TV that does 16-9 mode, thus giving me higher resoloution out of anamorphic DVDs -- but not everyone has this, wants to know this, etc.).

The problem is that studios may actually stop releasing widescreen versions of DVDs if the pressure continues. So do us all a favour and tell your local chain video store how much you love their widescreen DVDs -- chances are they only hear the complaints.

Lately, I've been thinking of an alternative solution to this problem; a way to make all DVDs widescreen and pan & scan without having to put two video files.

I'm looking for software programmers who might want to develop this technology with me. I read this forum daily, and it seems to have a lot of brilliant contributors. Maybe some of your spare brilliance could go towards saving widescreen DVDs?

[tgpo]

The problem is that studios may actually stop releasing widescreen versions of DVDs if the pressure continues.

It'll never happen. Widescreen DVDs have always outsold Full Frame DVDs by wide margins. The companies know they make more money with WS, thus they'll keep releasing them regardless of what Blockbuster says.

It they do give in then they would probably only release the FF versions to rental companies, and release the WS publicaly. BUt jsut so you know, at my local video stores the WS version always gets rented before the FF version.