Colin Hunter said: 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.
That's completely correct. And another 10-20 years and the number of people who remember what this and other series and films are supposed to look like will be considerably diminished... and of course the delivery system of data for entertainment will different again. Blue Ray is just another way of going back to the same wells again. There would be enough THUNDERBIRDS fans left to rapidly pass the word around about the current fiasco of a release. Phil ----- Original Message ----- From: Colin Hunter To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 4:50 AM Subject: Re: [MOPO] Slightly OT: HD DVD pan and scan 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 ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
