widescreen vs. full screen

[Greenspock]

Anamorphic Widescreen! (enough said) :P

[EddyH]

Super Walmarts eh... the nearest Asda*Walmart to me is absolutely massive... funny thing is that nothing was torn down to make it... it's the latest in a long line of supermarkets to occupy that heeeuuugge warehouse-like building since the UK's first supermarket (and a couple other large businesses IIRC from the info board) occupied it back in the early 70s.
Further down the road, there's a Tesco that's being majorly extended whilst still open for business.
Tch, recycling, get with it guys.

PS Have there EVER been any DVDs released in a format that allows you to choose 16:9, 4:3 letterbox, or 4:3 pan & scan? I remember seeing something in the DVD specs about it (like there's a little 'pan' flag & value that sets a certain part of the anamorphic picture to be horizontally blown up) and my player's Picture Shape setting has all three... but I only ever seen discs that are either 16:9 / 4:3 letterbox, or fixed 4:3 fullscreen with no anamorphic.
hmm?[/list]

[flaninacupboard]

I'd always wondered on this one too. Seen that option in the menu, tried it, no effect.
Perhaps it was decided to leave it alone, consumers get confused enough as it is

[geek rock]

PS Have there EVER been any DVDs released in a format that allows you to choose 16:9, 4:3 letterbox, or 4:3 pan & scan? I remember seeing something in the DVD specs about it (like there's a little 'pan' flag & value that sets a certain part of the anamorphic picture to be horizontally blown up) and my player's Picture Shape setting has all three... but I only ever seen discs that are either 16:9 / 4:3 letterbox, or fixed 4:3 fullscreen with no anamorphic.

i think there must be a few. i have one. i bought the "robocop trilogy" and watched the second disc, and when i played it the picture was clearly pan and scan. and it said widesreen on the packaging..

i checked my dvd player's settings and realised i'd had it on "4:3 P+S" mode, rather than "4:3 LB" mode. i changed it to LB and the disc was back in widescreen.

funnily enough there is no mention of a P+S version on the packaging anywhere..

thinking about it, i don't see why the DVD makers don't just do this with the discs that they release in P+S and widescreen. all the P+S mode is is a set of pointers - co-ordinates, if you will - that tell the DVD player what part of the screen to zoom in on. if they authored all DVDs like this then they'd save themselves the hassle of printing and producing 2 seperate DVDs.

or, ideally, ban all P+S films anyway

-Mark