Yet another entry this week to Roger Ebert's "Answer Man" column. I urge everyone here to spread the link that Ebert mentions at the end of his reply. It is an excellent explanation for those who don't quite get it yet:

Q. I work part-time at a Blockbuster Video store. I tried to get this job because I love movies and while the job didn't pay as well as some others it offered five free rentals per week. I completely agree with nearly everything you said about Blockbuster. If they didn't give me the movies for free I wouldn't go there. Because of all this, when I saw the Answer Man question about the spread of full-frame (pan-and-scan) DVD titles, I was thrilled. This is something that has always bothered me. I cannot stand to watch pan-and-scan movies and had always loved the fact that most DVDs came as letterbox by default. But you write, "The chains give their customers little credit for intelligence, and, incredibly, still believe many of them do not understand letterboxing." While I would love to believe this, I can tell you, the chains are correct in their assumptions. I can't count how many times per day people come up to me and ask if we "have the DVDs without those black bars on the top and bottom." The vast majority of these same customers have no idea and actually believe letterbox cuts off the top and bottom, not understanding that pan-and-scan cuts off the sides. I try to explain the truth to them but they usually don't care. The assumption that the general public deserves more credit is sadly untrue.

A. I can understand why people with small screens might resist letterboxing, which is why I see nothing wrong with offering the choice of letterbox on one side of a disc and pan-and-scan on the other. It would not be that hard to offer an in-store demo of the difference. Here, recommended by reader Joao Solimeo of Valinhos, Brazil, is a Web site with an excellent explanation of letterboxing: www.ryanwright.com/ht/oar.shtml