Dave Hahn

HOUSE: Season One -- Letter-boxed???

I'm hoping that someone who owns this set can clear this up for me. When you watch this how does it look on your display? Do you get a full 16:9 image or is it letter-boxed?

I don't know if it is the formatting of the dvd, or if I'm having a hardware issue, but it's driving me crazy. When I load the dvd the menus are in full 16:9, but when I watch an episode it is letter-boxed top and bottom.

If I change the output format on my dvd player from 16:9 to 4:3 Letterbox and then switch my projector from native to Letterbox, I get a full 16:9 image, but it is not nearly as sharp.

Thanks!

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Jean Louise, Jean Louise stand up; Your father's passing.
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My DVD Collection

Johnny Jr.

Re: HOUSE: Season One -- Letter-boxed???

This has been answered a few times. Season One of House M.D. is not anamorphic. The explanation at the time was that they were rushing the box set to market. A lot of fans voiced their displeasure and subsequent sets have been released in anamorphic widescreen. If you look at the back of the box of season one vs. season two you will see that season one is just listed in "widescreen" while season two is listed as "anamorphic widescreen." There have been no attempts to fix the season one box set.

"When ninehundred years old you reach, look as good, you will not..mmm?"........YODA - RETURN OF THE JEDI

Dave Hahn

Re: HOUSE: Season One -- Letter-boxed???

Thanks Johnny! I did a google search, read a couple of reviews of the dvd set, and ded a search here, but couldn't find anything on it. Thanks for clearing that up.

I was going crazy; I knew I had my dvd player and projector set properly, the box said 1.78:1, and yet I was getting those damn letter boxes and couldn't figure out why, especially because the menus were 16:9.

So, in the end, once again the studio screwed us. Glad I got the HOUSE: Season One and HOUSE: Season Two from a BOGO sale at DeepDiscount.com, otherwise I'd really be pissed.

__________________________________________

Jean Louise, Jean Louise stand up; Your father's passing.
__________________________________________

My DVD Collection

Mary_P

Re: HOUSE: Season One -- Letter-boxed???

Here's the best explanation I've seen on this set, with lots of good illustrative graphics:

House DVD news: Difference between Widescreen and Anamorphic Widescreen (with studio statement) | TVShowsOnDVD.com

It's a shame Universal couldn't be bothered to do this correctly, supposedly due to "tight schedule," an excuse that seems to get trotted out every time there are customer complaints about a product. So apparently it's our insatiable appetite for new releases that causes Universal to mess up a setting when mastering DVDs. Um. Yeah.

I'm sure this is not the last time the question will come up, especially with the coming switchover to all-digital and many people replacing their current 4:3 sets with digital-tuner widescreen sets. A lot of people are going to have a "Hey, what the...." moment when they first try playing this on their new widescreen TV.

Dave, if it's any consolation, I believe this was fixed for seasons 2 and 3, but to my knowledge they've never fixed it in S1 nor offered replacement discs.