Why is Universal still releasing SD on Full Screen?

Can someone explain to me, why Universal Studios is still putting out product on both Widescreen and Full Screen versions on SD-DVD?

I fully realize that there are people out there with older 4x3 aspect ratio TVs, but you loose so much of a movie with Pan and Scan Full Screen presentations as opposed to Widescreen presentations.

Hey Universal, make HD-DVDs instead of SD-DVDs if you have extra plant capacity...I'll buy them...even Leather Heads

Although sales of new TVs reached a point several years ago of selling more than 50% in widescreen, the majority of the American public still own standard-screen sets. And many of them are not as enlightened as you or I.

Studios still make so-called "full-screen"-ratio SD discs because the public still buys them.

John

what john wrote is especially true of the lower-income demographics, who tend to be less tech-savvy than others. this isn't to say that lower-income people lack intelligence, but at the end of the day, they probably have more important things than aspect ratios that preoccupy them.

Unfortunately, the war between "full screen" and OAR still continues. WTF do they call it "full screen" anyway? That marketing term seriously pisses me off sometimes.

Yes, "full-screen" used to make sense when everybody owned 1.33:1 ratio TVs, but today some 40% of American homes have widescreen TVs, so for widescreen owners the so-called "full-screen" 1.33:1 ratio picture only fills a part of the screen, leaving black bars on the sides. 1.33:1 is not "full screen" on my screen! It annoys me, too.

But I guess the studios feel the term "full-screen" has come to be accepted as a certain screen size, whether the term actually makes sense anymore or not. Still, these days the term is confusing, especially to new owners of widescreen TVs.

John

It isn't just Universal, I've seen recent releases from New Line Cinema, and 20th Century Fox that are Full Screen.

Oh... I miss those CRT 4:3 HD Ready Sets!

It's because Universal is cheap. They could easily have BOTH 1.33:1 and widescreen versions on the same release like other studios. Universal probably does it this way on purpose hoping that some people will buy the wrong one by mistake.

What pisses me off is when they take the original theatrical version of a movie and only offer it in fullscreen then offer the unrated changed version in widescreen. Two examples.....Anchorman and King Arthur. It impressed me when Die Hard 4 came out on sd dvd with both versions(rated and unrated) and in widescreen on the same disk. Somehow they made the video look good too with both versions crammed on there.

I think it's more ridiculous that the studios aren't putting both versions of the movie on one DVD. It's been done many times before, we know it can be done. I'm sure many people are like me, with both types of TVs in the house. It's bullshit that I would have to buy most movies twice to fully enjoy them on every TV/projector in my house.

Quote:
I'm sure many people are like me, with both types of TVs in the house.

Technically speaking, you can watch the OAR version on that "other" type of TV as well.