Widescreen vs. Pan & ScanAre studios playing a new game?What about DVD retailers? What’s their game? Is it just me or does it seem that studios and stores are making it harderand harder to purchase Widescreen DVD’s?A few weeks ago I went to Wal-Mart to pick up E.T. on DVD. As I walked in the door I found myself fce to face with a huge palette of Collector’s Editions. I checked all over for the telltale “Widescreen” label, but couldn’t find any listing of which transfer type I was looking at. I grabbed one from the top shelf turned it over and scanned the back for the spec chart, where it would normally say Widescreen orFullscreen or at least give a ratio to mathematically gauge what I was about to purchase. Alas, I could find nothing. I picked up another and scanned that for signs of consumer friendly labeling… nothing. What the F…?After minutes of frantically scouring these packages, I finally notice a tiny sticker about the same size as the UPC code, which had Full Screenwritten on it. After about 20-minutes of straining my eyes and amping up my anger, searching through DVD after DVD looking for a single Widescreen copy, I finally found one. It was in a single row of Widescreen discs at the bottom of a display that was overflowing with Full Screen editions.Why in the world would studios package their discs this way? Are they just trying to pad their numbers to keep Fullscreen numbers on par with Widescreen? Are they not looking at the sales charts? Widescreen titles are still dominating it. Doesn’t that tell you something? No? Let’s listen to Blockbuster and Wal-Mart who say Fullscreen is better? Yeah, they must be right, look at how many DVD’s they rent/sell. The millions of DVD fans who vocally oppose Pan N’ Scan, and continually supportWidescreen, must be off their nut.RIGHT! What about the merchandisers who are selling this stuff? Why are they hiding the Widescreen DVD’s? Because they can’t sell the Fullscreen when theWidescreen are on display? When I went to pick up Spider-Man, a film MADE for Widescreen presentation, they had one row of Widescreen, again at the very bottom hidden behind some Fullscreen titles. I don’t get it.*UPDATE – Here’s a link to an amazing article from the gang over @ StarWars.com. Check it out*
