Widescreen or Full Frame

[Harvey]

I love the 1.33:1 compositions of old movies shot in the Academy ratio like Citizen Kane or The Third Man, but whatever the original aspect ratio happens to be is best.

Hopefully the cinematographers and the directors use the entire frame, though. Many filmmakers have become lazy, shooting in widescreen, but protecting for 1.33:1 to the point that the edges of the frame contain almost no relevant information.

[Bob The Skutter]

Yoda wrote:

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I am generally an original aspect ratio kind of guy. But things like 'open matte' where you add extra information for the 'full frame' release didn't bug me. I'd rather have that on a 4:3 screen than black bars, but since 4:3 is now obsolete, it's kind of a moot point.

Didn't the Buffy DVDs end up being widescreen in Europe or something along similar lines? That is, they didn't crop the 4:3, but just opened up what was actually filmed to create the widescreen version? If I recall Joss Whedon wasn't thrilled with that... but frankly I'd probably prefer that version even with the occasional production equipment showing up on camera. I could understand why you wouldn't.

Cropping something from one aspect ratio to fit another is a no-no in my book. As are the various ghastly stretching modes for filling out widescreen TVs with 4:3 content.

Yep, it was filmed widescreen, mastered and edited for 4:3 but the DVDs were just released in 16:9 here, from season 4 onward. Same happened with Angel season 2, where there was a couple of mistakes, like being able to see Boreanez in a mirror at one point. But I prefer having them in widescreen.

[MacLeod]

Yoda wrote:

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Didn't the Buffy DVDs end up being widescreen in Europe or something along similar lines? That is, they didn't crop the 4:3, but just opened up what was actually filmed to create the widescreen version? If I recall Joss Whedon wasn't thrilled with that... but frankly I'd probably prefer that version even with the occasional production equipment showing up on camera. I could understand why you wouldn't.

Cropping something from one aspect ratio to fit another is a no-no in my book. As are the various ghastly stretching modes for filling out widescreen TVs with 4:3 content.

My UK Buffy DVD's are in 1.33:1 Ratio (aka 4x3). Well the earlier seasons

[Bob The Skutter]

MacLeod wrote:

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My UK Buffy DVD's are in 1.33:1 Ratio (aka 4x3). Well the earlier seasons

Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are 4:3, 4-7 are 16:9, Angel season 1 4:3 the rest 16:9.

[Dream]

I spent years watching the SW movies in fullscreen on VHS. When I finally made the jump to WS dvd, the movies looked so much better. I can never go back to FS anymore.

[FordSVT]

Whatever it was originally shot in.

That being said, I prefer it when productions are originally shot in wide screen.

[C.E. Evans]

Another original aspect ratio fan here.

Originally, though, I didn't care for widescreen because I had a small older model TV at the time and stuff generally wound up being scrunched into the middle third of the screen. Sure, I could see things as a director envisioned, but it sucked having the image greatly reduced in size more than it already was.

It really wasn't until I got a TV with a bigger screen that I began to appreciate widescreen more.

[Owain Taggart]

I think the industry is getting frustrated about people who prefer full screen and complain about the black bars in widescreen. I have a copy of True Grit here, and on the box it says: "This Film is presented in 'Widescreen' format. The Black bars on the top and bottom of the screen are normal." I've seen statements before, but I've never seen it so bluntly stated on a package before.

[Sindatur]

BillJ wrote:

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But I think there are a few films out there actually shot in 4:3 then were cropped for theatrical release. It's been a while since I read the article and need to do some research...

Yea,that really sucked, when they took 16x9 converted it to 4x3 and then stretched the 4x3 back out to widescreen, I don't think they do that anymore.

I used to dislike the true "Letter Box" with smaller square screens, because the picture was only about 1/5 of the height of the screen, and on a small screen, that could be only a few inches, so, although you got the whole picture, it was too small to actually see anything.

But, yea, nowadays, definitely OAR is best. My TV has a 4x3 and a 16x9 setting (Along with a couple of other widescreen settings), so, if I want to stretch a 4x3 picture to fill up the screen, I can.

[23skidoo]

Widescreen if it was made that way. But I am offended when I come across a film or TV show produced in 4:3 that has been artificially rendered as widescreen (or worse, letterboxed). That's just as bad as pan-n-scanning a widescreen film to 4:3. Anyone who wants to see a widescreen rendering of Citizen Kane or Metropolis is pissing on the graves of Orson Welles and Fritz Lang, IMO.

@JD Yeah you have to watch when you buy at Wal-Mart. It's one of the only places that still sells both widescreen and 4:3 versions of recent movies. But the format should be clearly marked on the back of the box. Similarly, if you're buying, say, the first season of Kung Fu from the 1970s or some movie from 1939 and the box indicates 16:9 letter boxing, then you know something is amiss.

Alex

[Bob The Skutter]

Owain Taggart wrote:

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I think the industry is getting frustrated about people who prefer full screen and complain about the black bars in widescreen. I have a copy of True Grit here, and on the box it says: "This Film is presented in 'Widescreen' format. The Black bars on the top and bottom of the screen are normal." I've seen statements before, but I've never seen it so bluntly stated on a package before.

They still sell 4:3 cropped DVDs over there? They never did take off here and I haven't seen one in probably a decade. Mind you Widescreen TVs were standard here long before HD took off.

[Set Harth]

Owain Taggart wrote:

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I think the industry is getting frustrated about people who prefer full screen and complain about the black bars in widescreen.

It's understandably frustrating to be confronted by so many adults who've been going to movies their whole lives but somehow never noticed that a movie screen is not the same shape as a TV screen.

[Trekker4747]

Owain Taggart wrote:

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I think the industry is getting frustrated about people who prefer full screen and complain about the black bars in widescreen. I have a copy of True Grit here, and on the box it says: "This Film is presented in 'Widescreen' format. The Black bars on the top and bottom of the screen are normal." I've seen statements before, but I've never seen it so bluntly stated on a package before.

I've seen that statement pretty much on every DVD ever that was presented in Widescreen, hell some of them even have a titlecard with it before the movie when you hit "play."

[Sindatur]

Trekker4747 wrote:

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I've seen that statement pretty much on every DVD ever that was presented in Widescreen, hell some of them even have a titlecard with it before the movie when you hit "play."

Yea, and most of them, after you hit PLAY have the Green Screen that says something like "This Motion Picture has been formatted to fit your screen" (The assumption being that "your screen" is square)

[Aragorn]

Bob the Skutter wrote:

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They still sell 4:3 cropped DVDs over there? They never did take off here and I haven't seen one in probably a decade. Mind you Widescreen TVs were standard here long before HD took off.

Pan and scan DVDs were big when DVD was big, but now that TVs are widescreen and all Blu-rays come in OAR, I can't imagine there's still a market for two screen size versions of the same movie on DVD, especially when there's so little shelf space.