Page 1 of Wide Screen CON - Films that ain`t really widescreen

Hi,
I recently bought a wide screen TV , I thought I would check out some of my DVD`s to see how they look but I came across a problem.

My copies of Tremors and Thing both say wide screen on the Box but they are really 16:9 picture printed onto a 4:3 screen - result when TV goes to wide screen mode everything is stretched across the screen.

The only way to play it properly is to use 4:3 and zoom into the picture until its fills the screen up.

Does anyone know of an on-line list that keeps track of these CON films , never seems to be mentioned in the reviews , surely it is illegal to market something by deception.
The Escape from New york is the same as well.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this ?
I for one feel cheated , how about you

These movies aren`t a con, it`s just the terminology surrounding the whole widescreen thing is a little confusing.
The movies you mentioned ARE widescreen images, however, they haven`t been anamorphicaly encoded and enhanced for playback on a widescreen set. Anamorphic? If you`re not too sure, go here; http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/welcome.html to see what it`s all about. I would explain myself, but the post would be about 6 pages long!
What you need to be looking for in future is packaging that states either,
`enhanced for playback on widescreen televisions`, or anamorphic written underneath the image ratio description.

Hope this helps

Westy

I think you`ll find that nearly every site review here at Reviewer always mentions this in the Video section. My 200+ certainly do!

Ok , I think I know what you mean.
SO these are like the widescreen films released on Video ( only fill a little bit in the middle of the screen ) ( 4:3) display ?

I know that anamorphic fills the entire screen , its just that these ones a stretched really badly horizontally. ie everyone looks like a fat bastard.

Yes, these are like the video widescreen releases. However, you shouldn`t get fat people, the proportions should be right - try zooming the picture rather than stretching, so you expand in both directions, so to speak.

Yeah - non-anamorphic dvds are like "letterboxed" films on standard tvs (and video) - black bars at the top and bottom of the picture, so you have to zoom in (which loses picture quality). NO widescreen dvds should be released this way anymore!

You do still get black bars at the top and bottom of A LOT of anamorphic dvds - where the picture size is 2.35.1 (narrower than 16:9). This is fine though, as it is the way the particular movie was made and intended to be seen.

Incidently, THE THING was filmed in 2.35.1, not 16:9 (I saw it in 2.35.1 on the Sci-Fi channel the other night!). I haven`t got the dvd, but if the picture is only 16:9 format (and non-anamorphic), it really is a bad release!

It`s similar to the BBC and CH4 only showing movies in 16:9 format, when A LOT of the time, 2.35.1 is the correct ratio! It p***es me off - what`s the point in showing a movie "half and half"!! (ie - not standard 4:3, but not 2.35.1 either!)

I will go and calm down now..........

also remember that when changing from a 4:3 TV to a 16:9 TV you need to alter the video out setting on your DVD player`s setup menu so that it outputs the correct screensize