Fullscreen to Widescreen Replacement

[Ting Ting]

I'm considering trading in the majority of my fullscreen DVDs for money at GameStop and then purchasing them again in widescreen all at once. I think it's a good idea, but do you think it's too late to do this? Blu-Ray will most likely take over DVDs sometime within the next few years, so should I just wait and live with my fullscreen titles for now?

What do you think?

[Jake Lipson]

No, do it. See the whole picture as the directors intended you to. And regardless, Blu-ray is a niche thing at this point and IF it becomes dominant over DVD, it will be years until that happens.

[castleinthesky]

No, do it. See the whole picture as the directors intended you to. And regardless, Blu-ray is a niche thing at this point and IF it becomes dominant over DVD, it will be years until that happens.

I would agree with Jake. You definately should have all your films in Widescreen. The only reason you shouldn't have a film in widescreen is if it is one of the few films made that was made originally in fullscreen. Myself, I have both the first 2 Harry Potters in Fullscreen and I would exchange them, but I don't have enough money at the time being. If I did, I wouldn't waste any time in chaning formats.

[AwallaceUNC]

I'd say go ahead and exchange them, unless they're titles that will be re-released as a superior special edition of some sort in the near future. As for Blu-Ray, you're really only going to need to upgrade your favorite films or most technologically demanding titles. (Or at least that's my plan).

If you've got movies that have aready been released to Blu-Ray or are likely to be soon <i>and</i> they're the kind of movie that would be worth an eventual upgrade to Blu-Ray <i>and</i> you won't much them much or at all in the meantime, then I'd say wait it out.

-Aaron

[DarthPrime]

Blu-ray isn't a sure replacement for DVD. If it replaces DVD it will be a lot longer than a few years in my opinion. Unless your ready to buy Blu-ray now, I wouldn't worry about buying the DVDs. Even if you buy Blu-ray now, it may be years before a certain title is available. Also you can upscale your DVDs on the Blu-ray players. They want look anywhere near what a Blu-ray will, but it will still be an improvement over a non-upscaled DVD.

I say go ahead and go for the Widescreen releases. You may not want to rebuy everything though depending on how many Fullscreen titles you need to replace.

Gamestop want give you much at all on trade ins. My friend recently traded in the King Kong 2 Disc, and got about $2. You might want to try selling them online, or trading them.

[Disneyfreak1990]

definatly get them in widescreen since its superior but most of mine are full because unless i go with my mom she'll get me full instead. and don't worry about blu-ray until it's the only way to get movies.

[DarthPrime]

definatly get them in widescreen since its superior but most of mine are full because unless i go with my mom she'll get me full instead. and don't worry about blu-ray until it's the only way to get movies.

My parents buy Fullscreen as well. I have no problem with people buying Fullscreen, as long as a Widescreen version is also made available.

[Escapay]

I'm considering trading in <strike>the majority</strike> all of my <strike>fullscreen</strike> crappy hackjob pan&scan DVDs for money at <strike>GameStop</strike> FYE or selling them online and then purchasing them again in widescreen all at once.

Much better.

I think it's a good idea, but do you think it's too late to do this?

As Brother said in The Berenstain Bears' Trouble At School, "It's never too late to correct* a mistake!"

Escapay

*it's either correct or fix, but I have no idea where our old Berenstain Bears books are...

[Disneyfreak1990]

i believe it's fix since i saw it at my school before we were let out and i only looked because i was bored.

[Ting Ting]

Thanks everybody! I'll definitely be doing that within the next few days.
I've been wanting to do it forever, but I just figured it would be too much of a hassle. I'm finally going to do it, though. It will get done sometime this week.

Oh, and Escapay, does FYE pay more than GameStop? I had every single one of my fullscreen DVDs for sale online all day yesterday, but decided I didn't want to lose any of my profits to eBay. Not to mention, I'd have to go down to the post office and have to deal with shipping...no thank you!

Thanks again, everybody!

[Escapay]

Oh, and Escapay, does FYE pay more than GameStop?

Not by much, but it's still better than GameStop. Plus, then you could use the store credit there to replace them for the widescreen counterparts.

Escapay

[Ting Ting]

Not by much, but it's still better than GameStop. Plus, then you could use the store credit there to replace them for the widescreen counterparts.

I hate to spark up a bunch of conversational posts, but doesn't FYE majorly overprice their DVDs?

[AwallaceUNC]

I hate to spark up a bunch of conversational posts, but doesn't FYE majorly overprice their DVDs?

Yes, unfortunately, however, trading there can still be worth it for a few reasons:

*They have some decent prices on some of their used DVDs (but definitely not all)
*They offer a lot of rebate deals on new DVDs, though I personally stay away from those because I never get around to mailing them off
*They sale a lot of CDs that are hard to find in places like Best Buy
*They offer you 20% more if you trade for credit rather than cash (and right now, if you go pick up one of their special brown paper bags and fill it to the top with your DVDs that you want to trade, they'll add an additional 20% to your value, whether you're doing trade or cash... this only lasts another week or so, though)

They definitely aren't the best place to shop. I rarely buy anything there. In fact, I've never even traded anything in there so maybe I shouldn't be replying (:P), but I was in there the other day asking questions about because I'm considering it.

-Aaron

[Ting Ting]

Thanks, Aaron!

Wow! This means that I'll be able to get 40% extra! The majority of my DVDs are in widescreen, but I do have plenty of fullscreen titles that I'm sure will easily stack to the top of the bag.

Whoo! I'm actually kind of excited!

[littlefuzzy]

Here are a couple of hints:

1. When you get the Widescreen version, make sure it is Anamorphically Enhanced. The back of the DVD will usually say 16X9, Anamorphic Widescreen, Enhanced for Widescreen Televisions, Anamorphically Enhanced, or something similar. In fact, you may want to see if any of your current widescreen DVDs aren't anamorphic, and consider trading them at the same time.

Anamorphic means that the picture on the Widescreen DVD is just the widescreen image, and it will play on a WS tv without having to zoom. If your DVD player is set incorrectly, an Anamorphic DVD might look squeezed on a normal TV, but that is easy to fix. Non-anamorphic discs have the "black bars" as part of the image on the DVD, so you see it correctly on a normal TV. If you play it on a widescreen TV, however, it shows as a "normal" tv picture set inside the widescreen, just like if you were playing a fullscreen DVD. So you end up with the black bars on the top and bottom, and then the WS TV adds black or grey bars on either side. You can get around this by zooming the WS TV, but that causes you to lose resolution.

http://www.widescreen.org/dvd_anamorphic.shtml

2. Consider trading in your Full-screen DVDs now (and any non-anamorphic ones if you wish,) make a list of those, and replace them with good condition used copies as you find them. I would use the credit you get for trading them in to buy something you have been wanting, but don't have...

3. If you do plan on upgrading the versions, make sure that they are available in widescreen before you start, and make sure that there aren't any new super-special editions coming in a couple of months.

4. If you have any older movies (from the 50s or earlier,) those are probably going to be in the original aspect ratio anyway, so a widescreen version won't exist, and wouldn't be wanted by anyone anyway, as it would cut off some of the original picture.

5. Consider getting used discs with your credit, as that wil stretch it quite a bit more. For example, FYE has some pretty good trade-in deals, but if you buy a new DVD from them, it might be full retail price. If you buy the same used DVD from them, it might only be half as much, and they have deals like "Buy 4 get 1 free used", etc. If you buy used, you should probably make sure the cover, inserts and disc are in good condition. Also, play through the disc as soon as possible, because most places have 7-30 day guarantees on used discs.

[littlefuzzy]

Thanks, Aaron!

Wow! This means that I'll be able to get 40% extra! The majority of my DVDs are in widescreen, but I do have plenty of fullscreen titles that I'm sure will easily stack to the top of the bag.

Whoo! I'm actually kind of excited!

You could take in a carload of DVDs, and just give them the paper bag, and it would still count... Although, you might check and make sure this deal is still going on, I *thought* it expired last saturday.

Be sure and get store credit for whatever you trade, instead of cash... Most places give quite a different amount for these two.

Gamestop totals up the DVDs, and then takes off 25%, while FYE gives 25% more for store credit (not much of a difference, probably.)

Also, depending on how much you trade in (or buy with the credit,) check to see if the store has a discount card. Gamestop has one that gives you 10% more on trade-ins, I believe, and you might save 10% on used products, as well. FYE has something similar, but it costs 25 bucks, so it may not be worth it if you don't shop there all the time.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

As pointed out by a few posters already: "Fullscreen" (whatever that means) is not the problem - P&S is. Far from few movies have an OAR of roughly 4:3.

[AwallaceUNC]

You could take in a carload of DVDs, and just give them the paper bag, and it would still count... Although, you might check and make sure this deal is still going on, I *thought* it expired last saturday.

Hmmm. The guys at the store told me they'd be honoring the deal for "the next two or three weeks" and that was about a week ago. I hope they were right.

-Aaron

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Hello, everyone! I've never been to one of these places that you can trade movies to, but, I was wondering how much do you think a used, in fantastic shape, only played a few times, with all inserts and slipcover of The Incredibles cost? I have it in foolscreen, and I desperately need it in Widescreen. What do you think?

[Ting Ting]

Thanks, littlefuzzy, as well as everyone else. I'm already aware of what anamorphic widescreen means and most of my DVDs already are anamorphic (I have a widescreen television). I actually don't buy titles in Pan & Scan anymore, but my parents, who don't really know the difference, usually buy titles in that format when I'm not with them. I'm usually the only one in my house that watches DVDs anyway, so they don't mind me trading them in.

Thanks again!