Blu-ray Forum - View Single Post - What's the difference between full-screen and wide-screen edition?

Deciazulado · 12-29-2006, 07:36 PM

Well now that we have more 16:9 TVs, "Fullscreen" might mean a 16:9 image.

Fullscreen was a description given to Laserdiscs that didn't letterbox movies made after the mid 50's, so you could distinguish between getting a letterbox version of a widescreen movie or the cropped/open matte version of such. So you could buy something like Sleeping Beauty in "letterbox widescreen" version (which filled the empty space created by fitting a rectangular 2.25 wide movie in a square TV with black bars), or in "Fullscreen" version (which filled the whole screen of the 4:3 TV by zooming-in the 2.25 image).

If the film was made before the mid 50's there were no "Fullscreen" and "widescreen" versions, as their 1.37 wide aspect ratio for sound movies is very similar to the TV's 1.33 wide shape and for Silent movies it's the same. These films are technically "Academy" aperture films, but since they filled the 4:3 screen people starting calling video versions of them "Fullscreen" too.

They are also called "Standard" or 4:3 , as opposed to "Anamorphically enhanced" 16:9 on DVDs, which is also a misnomer as both kinds of DVDs are anamorphically enhanced (one for 4;3 and the other for 16:9). And this terminology has continued with us with DVD and into the HD era.

Now that we have jumped to 16:9 shaped displays, on them "Academy" aperture films will be "pillarboxed", while "Standard Widescreen" ones will look "Fullscreen", and "Scope" and 70mm widescreen ones will still be letterboxed.

The way things go, might even happen that at one point you'll get Casablanca (Academy 1.375) and STAR WARS (Scope 2.40) in "Fullscreen" 16:9 1.78 wide editions (Sacre Blu!) as some HDTV channels are doing, to Full the screen

So there could be the "Foolscreen Edition" and the "OAR" (Original Aspect Ratio) edition waiting for you on the store shelves!

For more info about this, look at these couple of threads, which all interbreed about the same subject, (the Search function is your friend):

How Do I Get the Full Screen??

? regarding hdmi and a 1080i tv (black bars on widescreen)

16:9 FullFrame or 2.39:1 letterbox formatting for Scope films on Blu-ray Discs?

Aspect Ratio List?

12-29-2006, 07:36 PM	#4
Deciazulado Site Manager Top contributor Member since:Aug 2006 Location:USiberia Home Theater Gallery:6 4K collection:1159 Blu-ray collection:7041 DVD collection:4040	Well now that we have more 16:9 TVs, "Fullscreen" might mean a 16:9 image. Fullscreen was a description given to Laserdiscs that didn't letterbox movies made after the mid 50's, so you could distinguish between getting a letterbox version of a widescreen movie or the cropped/open matte version of such. So you could buy something like Sleeping Beauty in "letterbox widescreen" version (which filled the empty space created by fitting a rectangular 2.25 wide movie in a square TV with black bars), or in "Fullscreen" version (which filled the whole screen of the 4:3 TV by zooming-in the 2.25 image). If the film was made before the mid 50's there were no "Fullscreen" and "widescreen" versions, as their 1.37 wide aspect ratio for sound movies is very similar to the TV's 1.33 wide shape and for Silent movies it's the same. These films are technically "Academy" aperture films, but since they filled the 4:3 screen people starting calling video versions of them "Fullscreen" too. They are also called "Standard" or 4:3 , as opposed to "Anamorphically enhanced" 16:9 on DVDs, which is also a misnomer as both kinds of DVDs are anamorphically enhanced (one for 4;3 and the other for 16:9). And this terminology has continued with us with DVD and into the HD era. Now that we have jumped to 16:9 shaped displays, on them "Academy" aperture films will be "pillarboxed", while "Standard Widescreen" ones will look "Fullscreen", and "Scope" and 70mm widescreen ones will still be letterboxed. The way things go, might even happen that at one point you'll get Casablanca (Academy 1.375) and STAR WARS (Scope 2.40) in "Fullscreen" 16:9 1.78 wide editions (Sacre Blu!) as some HDTV channels are doing, to Full the screen So there could be the "Foolscreen Edition" and the "OAR" (Original Aspect Ratio) edition waiting for you on the store shelves! For more info about this, look at these couple of threads, which all interbreed about the same subject, (the Search function is your friend): How Do I Get the Full Screen?? ? regarding hdmi and a 1080i tv (black bars on widescreen) 16:9 FullFrame or 2.39:1 letterbox formatting for Scope films on Blu-ray Discs? Aspect Ratio List?