VHS enthusiats

[BoringSupreez]

I still have yet to ever run into this 'unskippable commercials/trailers' problem that everyone seems to always refer to when it comes to DVDs/Blu Rays. If the menu button won't work, the chapter skip button will.

Then you don't watch enough DVDs. WWE DVDs in particular (among others I've seen) are notorious for having unskippable trailers in the beginning. And neither the skip or menu buttons work to skip them.

You should download VLC player for your PC; it lets you skip anything, even FBI warnings. And it's free.

[AppleQueso]

I still have yet to ever run into this 'unskippable commercials/trailers' problem that everyone seems to always refer to when it comes to DVDs/Blu Rays. If the menu button won't work, the chapter skip button will.

Then you don't watch enough DVDs. WWE DVDs in particular (among others I've seen) are notorious for having unskippable trailers in the beginning. And neither the skip or menu buttons work to skip them.

I'm sure the issue exists, maybe I've just been lucky? It's not like I don't watch DVDs or Blu Rays.

[Ziggy]

I think I've come across this once or twice. It's not that big of a deal. The menu or skip buttons wont work, but you can still fast forward. When I put my DVD player on the fastest fast forward, it will blow through any length of trailers in just a few seconds.

[KDub]

I've come across more and more Netflix DVDs recently that won't let you skip, fast forward or use the menu button. It has gotten ridiculous...

[Hobie-wan]

Whats pan and scan?

When something made in a widescreen ratio is cropped to fit a 4:3 TV. Aside from losing parts of the screen, when things are happening on the far sides of the screen they have to slide back and forth to focus on parts of the film. When there's stuff happening on both far sides of the screen it creates a bit problem. This will help explain. Or this one.

@BoringSupreez

That assumes you're watching at your desk or have a PC hooked up to your TV.

[Ziggy]

When something made in a widescreen ratio is cropped to fit a 4:3 TV. Aside from losing parts of the screen, when things are happening on the far sides of the screen they have to slide back and forth to focus on parts of the film. When there's stuff happening on both far sides of the screen it creates a bit problem. This will help explain. Or this one.

I remember watching Ghostbusters for the first time on DVD. The part when Dana Barrett first walks into the office and is talking to Jeanine, Peter stands up very suddenly to look at Dana. Pan and scan, Peter is out of frame. This is one good example how pan and scan can destroy a scene.

[BoringSupreez]

When something made in a widescreen ratio is cropped to fit a 4:3 TV. Aside from losing parts of the screen, when things are happening on the far sides of the screen they have to slide back and forth to focus on parts of the film. When there's stuff happening on both far sides of the screen it creates a bit problem. This will help explain. Or this one.

I remember watching Ghostbusters for the first time on DVD. The part when Dana Barrett first walks into the office and is talking to Jeanine, Peter stands up very suddenly to look at Dana. Pan and scan, Peter is out of frame. This is one good example how pan and scan can destroy a scene.

I'd rather have black bars on the top and bottom of my TV than miss part of the picture any day, but you'd be surprised how many people hate having those bars tot he point that they'd rather just lop off part of the picture.

An interesting, although different, example of that type of stupidity is the World at War series on Blu-Ray. It was originally made in the 4:3 ratio, as it was a 1970's TV production. When they put it in HD, they didn't want it to be pillarboxed, so they just went and zoomed the picture in until it fit. This left the top and bottom missing, which is even more disastrous than cutting the sides. Even the VHS edition is superior to the Blu-Ray release.

[RCBH928]

i never experienced this pan and scan ever
maybe i wasnt paying attention
but if u think about it all TVs were squared in VHS era
and i hate those wide pictures with black bars on top and bottom
it makes ur screen viewing much smaller!
its like just a wide line in the middle screen with
most of screen space being wasted
wide tvs are a very recent thing


speaking of vhs quality i just saw a brand new vhs movie
and a dvd of the same, both on composite cables.
it was
like watching another movie especially in dark areas
much more detail.
whats funny and worries me is that ppl say
dvd(sd) looks blurry next to HD content
so vhs to dvd is like dvd to bluray/HD


question, do u prefer wide screen or 4:3 ?
personally its all the same to me except wide screen looks like a cinema
we have seen 4:3 for decades, no one complained

[Hobie-wan]

But that's the thing. Movies are almost always wide so watching them on TV before widescreen messed them up to different extents. In that first example I linked, near the end the man and the woman are talking on opposite sides of the screen. Seeing the man and the chopped off legs of the woman over on the right is terrible and destroys the scene. I prefer to see what the director and cinematographer intended me to see. If that means some black bars depending on what I'm viewing it on, so be it.

[CRTGAMER]

i never experienced this pan and scan ever
maybe i wasnt paying attention
but if u think about it all TVs were squared in VHS era
and i hate those wide pictures with black bars on top and bottom
it makes ur screen viewing much smaller!
its like just a wide line in the middle screen with
most of screen space being wasted
wide tvs are a very recent thing


speaking of vhs quality i just saw a brand new vhs movie
and a dvd of the same, both on composite cables.
it was
like watching another movie especially in dark areas
much more detail.
whats funny and worries me is that ppl say
dvd(sd) looks blurry next to HD content
so vhs to dvd is like dvd to bluray/HD


question, do u prefer wide screen or 4:3 ?
personally its all the same to me except wide screen looks like a cinema
we have seen 4:3 for decades, no one complained

Gaaah, what is with your sentence structure! Some caps and not hitting enter after each sentence will make for an easier read.

Anyways, look for Anamorphic DVDs. They fill the screen with the flexibility to stretch the image or leaving the black bars. I posted this in my CRT vs LCD Guide at my signature.