I also hate it when they take 1.33 and stretch it to 1.77 to fill our 16.9 HD screens The funny thing is most people think it looks normal when you ask them about it. I guess we are in the minority.
Roland --- On Thu, 6/11/09, Phil Edwards <[email protected]> wrote: From: Phil Edwards <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [MOPO] Slightly OT: HD DVD pan and scan To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, June 11, 2009, 11:10 AM People, sad to report that you all better get used to it. Another generation and 16.9 will be the standard ratio for everything - old and new. This is not just me talking, this is what I am hearing direct from industry insiders. In Australia, the Foxtel monopoly cable broadcaster already shows virtually all 2.35/2.40 in 16.9. There is no choice. Phil ----- Original Message ----- From: "McDaniel Kirby" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 12:36 AM Subject: [MOPO] Slightly OT: HD DVD pan and scan > This is by Glenn Erickson from the website DVD Savant: > > Hello! Well, Savant has run into something worth complaining about! I DVR'd > MGMHD's Hi-Def cablecast of Michael Powell's The Red Shoes a couple of days > ago and discovered something very disturbing. Ever since about 1970 or so > I've been a regular whiner about the practice of Pan-Scanning widescreen > movies for flat televisions, pointing out ruined compositions, squeezed > title sequences and the famous shots where we see people's noses on each > side of the frame while the Pan Scan stays firmly planted on a table lamp at > screen center. The ability to see movies in their real aspect ratios is what > pulled me into the expensive hobby of laserdisc collecting; as I'm sure > I've said too many times, I bought a 16:9 television in 1995, two years > before enhanced DVDs came around, for the express purpose of cropping > full-frame transfers of movies that were supposed to be matted for > widescreen. Now, in 2009, widescreen TVs are finally the norm and the transition is complete. > > Except with what I saw with the 1948 The Red Shoes, a flat 4x3 1:37 aspect > ratio feature film. MGMHD was showing it Tilt-Scanned to 1:78. Somebody > decided that Powell's classic looked nice at the wider ratio, you know, to > fill widescreen TV screens. MGM pillar-boxed The Quatermass Xperiment > full-frame, when it should be at least as wide as 1:66, and now they've > taken it upon themselves to chop up a widely acknowledged classic. The Red > Shoes is a ballet movie, and the first thing that happens in many shots is > that feet cross the line out of the bottom of the frame. Masking off feet in > a dance movie is a serious problem, to say the least. When Powell and > cameraman Jack Cardiff get fancy with mattes, double exposures and strange > angles, the Tilt-Scanning makes it difficult to locate our intended focus. > This movie has just had a major restoration / repremiere, and doesnot need > to be "reformatted" to fit our TV screens". > > So for heaven's sake, someone sic Martin Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker and > the disc producers at Criterion on these people ... let's not let > Tilt-Scanning get a foothold on HD video! > > > > > > > > Kirby McDaniel > > www.movieart.net > > 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. 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.
