In Reply to: DVD with 16:9 capable, purchase only,who cares,never? posted by Elizabeth on July 2, 2001 at 15:59:24:
I also have a 4:3 TV, along with a modest DVD player. (It's just that I want a high-end preamp worse than a 16:9 HDTV this very moment.) But I love movies almost as much as I love music, so eventually I want a wide aspect ratio set. Anamorphic - progressive scan rules. Some day soon, I hope. I have a very strong visual memory, and I find favorite films almost impossible to watch in pan and scan. I want to see a film as close to the director's original intention as I can. On large screens, the anamorphic DVD is a more film-like picture. I thought about buying one of the Sony Wega 4:3 XBR sets with 3/2 pulldown, but decided to wait 'til I could get a bigger display.I only have a few LDs. But I definitely buy my DVDs with an eye to that future HT potential. Having replaced LPs, then LDs, and VHS videos, I'm hardly eager for more software upgrades anytime soon. I don't know what I'm gonna do when HD DVDs get out...thank God that's down the road.
One notable exception to my anamorphic/enhanced DVD acquisitions: made for TV material, where you doing well to get it on DVD period. I'm fond of quite a few TV productions, especially BBC, A&E type stuff, and I'm very impatient for them to get older shows onto DVD. While I was pleased that dramas like Horatio Hornblower and Pride & Prejudice were released on DVD, I was disappointed to find HH wasn't widescreen. (I know HH could be widescreen - the "making of" documentary shows the director watching playback on a 16:9 video display.) Most current and older television productions, of course, were not produced in widescreen.
I also have archived VHS videos of theater, concerts, opera and ballet broadcasts that I'm sure will look terrible on a large screen, line doubler or not. So it goes. It's always something.
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Follow Ups
- Confined to 4:3, but still I care... - Harmonia 19:13:59 07/02/01 (0)