The problem whereby so many cable/satellite/broadcast movie providers
use Procrustes as their role model is thankfully not universal.
HDMovieNet and Showtime, for example both show their movies uncut,
whereas HBO lops off the top and bottom or sides of almost every movie
if it's not composed in 16:9. Needless to say I subscribe to
HDMovieNet and Showtime but HBO gets none of my money.
It seems that the people running these corporations are business
people who have very little interest in movies other than as "product"
to sell to whomever is willing to buy. ITV DVD released the 60's UK
TV show Thunderbirds on Blu-ray last year and cut off the top of
everybody's head and lopped off their feet to force the image to
16:9. Most likely nobody involved in making the Blu-ray masters had
ever seen the show when it was first broadcast or knew anything of the
audience, other than the previous release on DVD had been a top-ten
bestseller so was sure to make a mint in HD. As soon as word got out
that the Blu-ray edition was cut, ITV was inundated with people
criticizing them for butchering the release and very, very few discs
sold. If Phil Edwards is right and this is where the industry is
going they're going to have a lot of unsold disks on their hands.
It would be interesting to know if ITC blamed the poor sales of
Thunderbirds on Blu-ray on general lack of interest in the title or
their own ineptitude in mastering it for HD.
Colin Hunter
On ThursdayJun 11, 2009, at 1:08 PM, Joseph Bonelli wrote:
This is precisely the reason why I refuse to pay Cable or Satellite
providers their exhorbitant fees for butchered films. When one
complains, one only gets the "that's what the majority of our
customers want" argument.
Well--- if I'm a customer and the product is substandard in my eyes,
then I'll be damned if I'll pay for it.
"The Red Shoes" should be out very soon in a Blu-ray of the restored
version and, until then, when I get the urge to watch the greatest
ballet sequence in movie history, I'll continue to so so on my still-
glorious Criterion dvd-- in the CORRECT full-screen ratio!
Can you believe we've put up with the Letterbox Lament only to have
it morph into the Cropper Crapper Clash!!!
I'll stick with off-the-air and dvd/blu-ray. Cable and Satellite
are picture-wise not up to first-class off-the-air HD
transmissions.... but the off-the-air programming is so awful (Idol,
etc.).....well, end of rant! The Viewer will never win-- except by
simply turning the damned thing off!
Joe B in NOLA
--- On Thu, 6/11/09, McDaniel Kirby <[email protected]> wrote:
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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