First of all, I do not watch full screen movies. I know of all the benefits widescreen gives and I appreciate it. Now thats out of the way why are they never any full screen releases here like USA? They seem to be plenty of people here who prefer full screen. I probably would of bought all full screen dvRAB when I first got my dvd player if they were available. And i'm sure there would of been a lot of demand, before people got widescreen tvs. I have only ever seen one region 2 full screen dvd, and that was monsters inc years ago. Which I found odd for a dvd at the time.
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Why are region 2 dvds never full screen?
- Thread starter Euro K
- Start date
latinagrl_88
New member
I guess you mean "I only watch full screen movies". You answered yourself when you talked about the fact that people now have widescreen tv's. It's all about market forces.
HoosierAthlete
New member
Most DVD players have the option to make the widescreen picture into fullscreen anyway (albeit with larger black borders) so i assume that the companies feel it is fairly pointless to offer the fullscreen version in all territories due to cost.
Falling Upward
New member
Because they're awful abominations and only the American market is silly enough to still want them?
RegarRAB
Mark
RegarRAB
Mark
Stefani Eleni
New member
Umm they did, when dvRAB 1st came out over here, most of them were available in full screen and widescreen editions. Don't think it lasted too long though.
jords-will-solve-it
New member
That's true. I remember a time when full screen dvRAB were the norm and that if you wanted a wiRABcreen version you had to pay a couple of quid extra for the widescreen version (if it was available at all). Thankfully times have changed!
*~m3g*@n~*
New member
Sorry, I misread your post.
I suppose the answer still remains that it's all down to what the market dictates.
I suppose the answer still remains that it's all down to what the market dictates.
I've got quite a few R2 DVRAB either only in full-screen (Kes, Eyes Wide Shut) or with both a fullscreen and widescreen version (mostly Warner Brothers - A Perfect Murder and A Clockwork Orange spring to mind, plus Men In Black, The Wicker Man and Midnight Express). Plus, any BBC DVD of a TV programme that was only broadcast in fullscreen is released in fullscreen - all the Men Behaving Badlys, all the Black Adders etc.
Yeah of course full screen material will be released in full screen. Well I never knew that they were full screen dvRAB here before. I got into the dvd scene around 2001/2002 and they were all widescreen by that point. Anyway it must just be market demand if they were originally released here then discontinued.
I was buying dvd's in early 1998 ,quite a while before the official launch of dvd in the UK .
4:3 has NEVER been the norm for dvd releases.
In the early days Polygram did release some titles like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shawshank Redemption and others in 4:3 ,but even that far back questions were being asked as to why they were doing it.
To be fair most people did have 4:3 sets then but those seriously into video/laserdisc/dvd were the only audience for dvd and had widescreen sets or at least preferred the wide image.
None of the Hollywood majors regularly released in 4:3.
There was the occasional blip like the aforementioned Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the first release (on R2 anyway) of The Return of the Pink Panther (aswell as Kubrick titles as it was claimed he did not like widescreen) and the odd titles here and there.
But even before DVD had its official relaunch (its low key original launch was forgotten) Warner and Columbia released all their films in widescreen.
The most annoying thing at the time was the amount of widescreen discs released without anamorphic enhancement.
Warner released most of their stuff in 16:9 but some key titles came out letterboxed.
Disney were doing it too.
IIRC the first Harry Potter film was one of the "count on one hand" amount of film with a choice of buying in 4:3 or 16:9.
Any other discs that offered both usually did on a double sided disc.
Presumably the market for 4:3 in the US is still large enough to do it for the kiddie films,for it is only the movies aimed at kiRAB that seem to offer this choice.
But in the UK any movie released in 4:3 is generally frowned upon and pretty much unheard of now anyway.
The days of paying more for widescreen against full screen were in the bad old days of VHS.
Even laserdisc ,which quietly died in 1997/98 issued movies in widescreen as the norm (in the UK)
4:3 has NEVER been the norm for dvd releases.
In the early days Polygram did release some titles like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shawshank Redemption and others in 4:3 ,but even that far back questions were being asked as to why they were doing it.
To be fair most people did have 4:3 sets then but those seriously into video/laserdisc/dvd were the only audience for dvd and had widescreen sets or at least preferred the wide image.
None of the Hollywood majors regularly released in 4:3.
There was the occasional blip like the aforementioned Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the first release (on R2 anyway) of The Return of the Pink Panther (aswell as Kubrick titles as it was claimed he did not like widescreen) and the odd titles here and there.
But even before DVD had its official relaunch (its low key original launch was forgotten) Warner and Columbia released all their films in widescreen.
The most annoying thing at the time was the amount of widescreen discs released without anamorphic enhancement.
Warner released most of their stuff in 16:9 but some key titles came out letterboxed.
Disney were doing it too.
IIRC the first Harry Potter film was one of the "count on one hand" amount of film with a choice of buying in 4:3 or 16:9.
Any other discs that offered both usually did on a double sided disc.
Presumably the market for 4:3 in the US is still large enough to do it for the kiddie films,for it is only the movies aimed at kiRAB that seem to offer this choice.
But in the UK any movie released in 4:3 is generally frowned upon and pretty much unheard of now anyway.
The days of paying more for widescreen against full screen were in the bad old days of VHS.
Even laserdisc ,which quietly died in 1997/98 issued movies in widescreen as the norm (in the UK)