TV shows and TV movies gone W I D E (2 Viewers)

[Shia LeRitty]

I read somewhere MASH was redone painstakingly to preserve it as best as possible. I can dig this...but what I can't dig is what happened to 3rd Rock From the Sun. It's disgusting lol. That 70's Show looks fine and I read that seinfeld and the tonight show were shot in widescreen starting in 1993 (roughly) so I have no problem with those. I watch seinfeld twice a year and I've never noticed anything wrong but having watching 3rd Rock last week I nearly threw up in my mouth lol I could just TELL something was wrong...and sure enough after checking it out...YIKES!

No excuse to convert tv shows without putting in the money FIRST.

 

[Brent Reid]

The widescreen HD remasters of Highway to Heaven have so far been released in complete US and German BD and DVD sets. Here are the relevant discussions on HTF and BD.com.

 

[DVDvision]

Cool, I also ordered and received the Lost In Space DVD set, which is all widescreen. I'll only watch one episode at a time every month or so, but I'm enjoying the new exclusive to DVD format which I find less boxy.

 

[ScottRE]

Cool, I also ordered and received the Lost In Space DVD set, which is all widescreen. I'll only watch one episode at a time every month or so, but I'm enjoying the new exclusive to DVD format which I find less boxy.

I think Lost in Space was tastefully done because they had a large safe area when filming, but I wish they did it as a blu ray release as well. The expanded screen space suffers because of the lower res image. I prefer the blu rays because the image is much sharper.

 

[Harry-N]

I think Lost in Space was tastefully done because they had a large safe area when filming, but I wish they did it as a blu ray release as well. The expanded screen space suffers because of the lower res image. I prefer the blu rays because the image is much sharper.

Agree the Blu-rays are better with clarity, sharpness, and color, but I don't find much expanded screen space on the DVDs. I'll provide an example. These pics are from not-great phone pictures, so ignore the colors and clarity, but you can see that there's very, very little in the way of left-right extra stuff, and there's a serious loss of lower-screen information.

I see a little bit of a circular gauge on the right, and a tiny bit more of the wall cutouts on the left. But what's missing are all of Penny's legs and Will's feet.

The Blu-ray 4:3 picture:

The widescreen DVD image of the same frame:

The frame is from "The Ghost Planet" from Season Two.

I had bought the Blu-ray set when it became available and then made an impulse purchase of the widescreen DVDs when Walmart had them for $25. And I will still prefer watching the Blu-rays over the DVDs any day. But I have them as a curiosity.

 

[ScottRE]

I always go back to the blu rays because at heart I'm a purist. I prefer the aspect ratio a film or TV series was original framed for.

But the DVDs of LIS look pretty good there was a lot of head and leg space even in the picture you provided.

Someone up thead mentioned the Space:1999 Super Space Theater blu rays. They provided alternate versions in widescreen and that series really works well in 16:9. As an alternative, it's great.

 

[84lion]

I am just starting to put my X-Files BR collection onto Plex. In re-looking at these episodes, I remember that the opening montage looks different than I remember seeing it on TV back in the day. I didn't know, when I bought the set, that it was done in 16:9. That was OK as far as I was concerned. The masters they used look very good and the final product is worthy of 16:9.

Another series that did the "either/or" treatment was the original (1970s) Battlestar Galactica Definitive Collection, which let the viewer choose either the original 4:3 or 16:9. I tried both. Aside from the effects of cropping, the 16:9 picture looked not quite as sharp as the 4:3, makes a bit of sense since the 16:9 is essentially "blown up" from the 4:3 source.

Personally, I think that's the way sets should be done - either the original AR or if 16:9, provide a choice.

 

[Worth]

Another series that did the "either/or" treatment was the original (1970s) Battlestar Galactica Definitive Collection, which let the viewer choose either the original 4:3 or 16:9. I tried both. Aside from the effects of cropping, the 16:9 picture looked not quite as sharp as the 4:3, makes a bit of sense since the 16:9 is essentially "blown up" from the 4:3 source.

I don’t think they made proper 16:9 transfers for Galactica. It looks like they just took the 4:3 files and zoomed in to turn them into 16:9.

 

[DVDvision]

Yes I liked the Space 1999 release, also The Persuaders film set is awesome, and the episodes are perfect in wide.
BG sadly got a bit compromised in 16/9. I also have old recordings of Space 1999 from the 00's in wide, but they look less good, framing wise, than the Network set.
I like the idea of offering both in either one set, or two sets. Especially if, unlike The Avengers Blu-ray, the 4/3 versions offers the actual 4/3 cropped framing, and aren't opened up to show the whole 35mm complete with boom mikes and other tech stuff.

 

[BobO'Link]

Agree the Blu-rays are better with clarity, sharpness, and color, but I don't find much expanded screen space on the DVDs. I'll provide an example. These pics are from not-great phone pictures, so ignore the colors and clarity, but you can see that there's very, very little in the way of left-right extra stuff, and there's a serious loss of lower-screen information.

I see a little bit of a circular gauge on the right, and a tiny bit more of the wall cutouts on the left. But what's missing are all of Penny's legs and Will's feet.

The Blu-ray 4:3 picture:
View attachment 206410

The widescreen DVD image of the same frame:
View attachment 206412

The frame is from "The Ghost Planet" from Season Two.

I had bought the Blu-ray set when it became available and then made an impulse purchase of the widescreen DVDs when Walmart had them for $25. And I will still prefer watching the Blu-rays over the DVDs any day. But I have them as a curiosity.

I, too, purchased a copy of the WS DVD edition of LIS - but mine is still in the shrink as I prefer the OAR for the vast majority of TV product shot for 4:3. Seeing that example frame, I might try watching that WS DVD set soon just to see for myself.

*IF* such TV product was shot on 35mm film *and* the cinematographer used the "rule of thirds" for shot composition then you can *generally* get a decent WS version of the program (it's quite close to a movie that was shot open matte with the intention of matting it for WS presentation). BUT there'll still be the occasional shot(s) with too tight headroom, if not cut off heads, and/or missing information on the top/bottom of the screen (typically signs/labels). It still takes occasional adjusting of the image to avoid those things but that's rarely done on these WS adaptations. Most are "zoom it in, crop it, call it done" affairs. I'll even do this myself on *some* series from that era - but not all (depends on the show and how much I like it - better liked are typically untouched, lesser will get the faux WS treatment). I get acceptable results about 50% of the time.

I did *not* like the WS version of the original Battlestar Galactica. Far too much is cut off and/or severely misframed in that one's WS presentation. It's an example of one that if I'd done it myself with my equipment I'd have unzoomed it fairly quickly and watched it in OAR.

 

[84lion]

I don’t think they made proper 16:9 transfers for Galactica. It looks like they just took the 4:3 files and zoomed in to turn them into 16:9.

Yup, I think that's exactly what they did. The 16:9 versions have just that little bit less resolution - it's noticeable. I don't see how that could happen unless they did what you suggest.

I did *not* like the WS version of the original Battlestar Galactica. Far too much is cut off and/or severely misframed in that one's WS presentation. It's an example of one that if I'd done it myself with my equipment I'd have unzoomed it fairly quickly and watched it in OAR.

I'd rather have the pillarbox black bars (OAR) than the WS. I agree, too much is missing in the WS (aside from the resolution issues).

 

[bmasters9]

I hate to think over the years badly selling titles sold that way just because buyers at stores didn't recognize the TV series name.

So basically, that means that many Walmart buyers of today are only familiar with today's series names, and don't recognize names like Marcus Welby, M.D. and L.A. Law, I take it.