BAD: Rental stores are stocking pan & scam and that is bad news for all of us.  

No surpises here. However I also expect P&S DVDs to have rental pricing model soon, so rental places will have a choice to get $90 P&S or $25 WS DVD. Gives them quite an insentive to educate public, WDYT?

It seems so 2001 American to dumb down our technology to fit the masses. How much longer are 4x3 sets really going to be sold? I don't think they will be more than 1/3 of the sets two years from now. I just bought a 16x9 53" Pioneer and I LOVE IT! My wife worries that I will only watch TV on it, not just DVDs and it is hard to resist. It's just better, no holds barred.

I signed on for the Lackluster (Blockbuster, for those of you in Palm Beach County) deal:

$19.95 for 30 rentals for 30 days (limit 1 per day)

It works out to be .66 for each rental and so I just stop by on my way to work everyday. I am pleased with it, even though I still have my NetFlix membership. The thing that amazed me though was how many VHS tapes were in the store! Don't people understand that simply buying a DVD player can be as easy as $80! The picture quality will almost double right away and you don't have to ever rewind them! The truth is, most people don't care about hi-fi like those of us who use AVS Forum do. That's cool, to each their own.

I never really watch much of the extras, so they need to make sure widescreen is on EVERY DVD!

OUT

------------------
Head to Below Retail Audio for FREE shipping on all orders!

A lot of this has to do with the way the retail sheets are printed. My local TommyK placed an order for 5 rental copies for REMEMBER THE TITANS and simply picked the first order #. They got 5 pan & scan copies and have had constant complaints about no widescreen from their educated customers. But they can't do a thing about it! When they get their order sheet, there is almost always no way to tell the difference between pan & scan and widescreen, so they are trying to order equal amounts of each from here on out.

But other local shops are TRYING to get pan & scam because of people complaining very loudly about how much they hate those black bars cutting off the picture. Employees I have talked to state even showing customers examples of widescreen vs. pan & scan (like Die Hard or Superman) does not work because the customers refuse to believe some snot nosed kids (and those kids say the widescreen supporters simply walk out and go elsewhere instead of complaining, which is a mistake, so now I complain every time I see a pan & scan copy of a film).

This situation will only get worse and we will get to a point where pan & scam will be the default in rental stores, leaving us the only option of buying DVDs. Now, I buy plenty of DVDs, but I do not want to be forced into a situation where the only way to see a film is by buying it, even if I have no idea if the film is worth a cent or not!

I do think that studios need to go back to the practice of releasing ONE version of the film, with BOTH widescreen and pan & scam. Yes, that means fewer extras, but people, we are cutting our own throats here with these dual releases. Joe-the-retard-six-pack is now getting into DVDs because of CROPPED releases and he is a lot louder and nastier than regular Joe Six-pack.

Hello.

But if you think about, manufactures are still producing the 4:3 television by the truck loads.....Your average TV watch has a 27in 4:3 TV. They are now just upgrading from VCR to DVD, and they probably don't like the version of a movie that has the black bars on the TV.

Case and point I bought my mom a DVD player and she hates the widescreen format of DVD's. She makes sure if at all possible to get the pan and scan version not the wide screen.

I don't for see this problem going away anytime soon, especially since we still have TV's in the 4:3 format as the majority TV!

Rhett
My .02

Does anyone know what percent of large screens (40 inches or more) being sold are 4:3 vs 16:9? I bet many people who buy larger monitors for sports rather than movies are still buying 4:3.

Dan