DAMN YOU AND YOUR WIDESCREEN WAYS!

And so, it seems, I have been burned by yet another widescreen DVD … MURF

I can hear the mumblings of those reading this as questions arise as to my perpetual dislike of widescreen video format.

It isn’t so much that I hate widescreen. Considering what we see in movie theatres, widescreen is the natural means by which the film is supposed to be viewed … that is how it is shot, and how the director intended it.

My problem comes in the fact that widescreen formatting simply doesn’t work unless you have a much larger screen on which to display the movie.Take for example the television that I have … it only has a 13" screen, which for the time when I bought it, suited the needs of a college student who only occasionally watched VHS tapes or played Playstation games on it.

However, when you consider the amount of space that is given up on the screen during the displaying of a video in panoramic widescreen format, a 13" screen loses approximately 20% of its height, both top and bottom … a whopping 40%, which translates into a loss of 5.2" … the widescreen formatting has now effectively cut my viewing space from 13" high to 7.8".

Unfortunately, neither my living arrangements or my financial status allow for me to upgrade to a larger television, and frankly for my situation, I don’t really need anything more luxurious. However, in sitations like my recent hold-out purchase of Moulin Rouge on DVD (yes, I was a major hold-out, but such is life), my normally watchful eye missed that it was widescreen.

What I would love to know is why movie companies insist on putting out separate copies of each movie, one in Widescreen and one in Full? I have several movies in which the menu screen allows for the choice between the two, and even a couple of DVD’s which are double sided, with widescreen on one side and fullscreen on the other. For those who have small televisions, for whatever reason, it is a constant pain in the ass!