oh no.. not another black bar question

[oldmetalguy]

but it's not what you think its going to be about

this doesn't relate to blu's specifically, but I can't seem to find the right a-ha article to read.

when buying dvd's, is there any easy way to tell if it's been pan and scanned by looking at the fullscreen / widescreen listing and the aspect ratio?

I don't care about having black bars or squashed picture, what I don't want is '2 noses talking'.. I want to see it like it was in the theater

or rephrasing it another way, standing in a store and looking at those 2 things on a dvd box, for example, fullscreen and 1.33:1, is that the indicator that it has been pan and scanned? (if it's not 40+ years old)?

there are a lot of movies that I would like to get, that because of my 'odd' tastes, probably will never be made into blu, so I have to get what I can get.

[Kryptonic]

Yes, if it says Full Screen or 1.33:1 in the specifications box, then that is Pan & Scan. Some films are in 1.37:1 though, but as you said, they're mostly older films or very low budget indie films. The vast majority of films are 1.85:1 or 2.35:1.