TV shows and TV movies gone W I D E (1 Viewer)

[Harry-N]

That's what's so weird about Cozi. They are on second-tier subchannels and are showing nearly exclusively 4:3 old shows. Why would they letter-box and windowbox it even further?

Harry

 

[Vic Pardo]

I noticed that when Encore Western ran VILLA RIDES this morning, it was letter-boxed. Is that a first for the channel?

 

[smithbrad]

They ran Stagecoach over the weekend and it also had bars all around.

 

[DVDvision]

Documentation, especially on early 60's TV shows will always be rare in this thread, but here's a gem I recently uncovered.


This is taken from a brochure, which can be downloaded from the Avengers Declassified website here


What is interesting in this promo picture showing the monitoring gear, is that the monitoring was akin to a regular TV overscan -- however more image was captured on all four sides (as stated from the posts examples in the first page of this thread, and as smpte specs attest). The red lines around the monitors shows the total image captured by the cameras.


You can see why it's totally wrong, like Studio Canal did, to scan the complete negative (or near complete) in 4/3 and publish this on DVD or Blu-ray.


Thought the "original" format is respected, showing more image on all four sides totally destroy the intent, and especially the PERSPECTIVE.


Useless top and bottom information also make the camera work seems uncinematic and idiotic (ie the Camera move up and down to add more air above the actor's head when they wake up or sit down, when actually, it moved up and down to keep the actor's head within the action safe frame which is what they were monitoring for).


Counting the rounded corners (which obviously, would show on tube TV later in the 80's when the corners became square, even though you could argue they were not supposed to be shown, if you want real purity), the monitors present a 1.37:1 picture, not 1.33:1.


If you take the total left and right information, and sightly crop the top and bottom, the picture is 1.85:1.


This means as stated in page 1, that a widescreen version at 1.77;1 will be always more faithful to the original framing intent than current 1.33:1 masters which reveal all four sides.


I said it before, telling it again : more top and bottom is wrong and detrimental to the compositions. More left and right never is a problem.


Since current masters includes more left and right, but also more top and bottom, they are bad representations of the series. They should either be zoomboxed (to the action safe smpte specs), or converted to widescreen for current TVs, since that info is already there on the scans anyway.


Note : as you can see in the brochure, the DP use the middle monitor, which presents even less image on all four corners than two main ones, for checking the shots.

 

[Mark-P]

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel is now showing Hart to Hart in HD widescreen. It's interesting to see how they have captured more side information from the original filmed elements to present in the widescreen conversions. The pictures below are screencaps from the DVD versus camera snapshots off my TV screen (I wasn't able to make direct screencaps from the HD version)

 

[Ron1973]

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel is now showing Hart to Hart in HD widescreen. It's interesting to see how they have captured more side information from the original filmed elements to present in the widescreen conversions. The pictures below are screencaps from the DVD versus camera snapshots off my TV screen (I wasn't able to make direct screencaps from the HD version)

H2HDVD1.jpg

H2H1.jpg

H2HDVD2.jpg

H2H2.jpg

H2HDVD3.jpg

H2H3.jpg

S4 is now playing and it's back to 4x3 with bars on the side. I miss the 16x9 versions!

 

[LeoA]

I wouldn't mind the extra picture on the sides, if they didn't crop the image vertically at the same time in their quest to fill every last inch of screen real-estate.


Would be a compromise for those that get the heebie jeebies when they see black pillarboxing by minimizing their size, while not being as distasteful to most of us that prefer to respect the original presentation since portions of the picture that were meant to be seen aren't being lopped off.

 

[Vic Pardo]

I wouldn't mind the extra picture on the sides, if they didn't crop the image vertically at the same time in their quest to fill every last inch of screen real-estate.


Would be a compromise for those that get the heebie jeebies when they see black pillarboxing by minimizing their size, while not being as distasteful to most of us that prefer to respect the original presentation since portions of the picture that were meant to be seen aren't being lopped off.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't prefer it the other way (the DVD screen grabs as opposed to the HD screen shots).

 

[DVDvision]

Hart to Hart in widescreen! AWESOME!!! [emoji3]
Can't wait to revisit Moonlighting in wide --

 

[Harry-N]

Both of the early BATTLESTAR: GALACTICA series are getting the widescreen (and 4:3) treatment on Blu-ray:

 

[DVDvision]

Wow that's great! Put every preference on the same package. The way ST:TNG should have done it!

 

[bmasters9]

The Hart to Hart DVDs from Shout! of the third and fourth seasons (1981-82 and 1982-83) were also made to where if you play them in a Blu-Ray player, they are upconverted. The Sony ones of the first and second seasons (1979-81) said "Remastered in High Definition," but I didn't see the proof in the pudding, so to speak.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Wow that's great! Put every preference on the same package. The way ST:TNG should have done it!

I disagree. For OAR people like myself, I think Universal should have given US buyers a stand-alone option for the OAR presentation. The only way we can get OAR is to purchase the more-expensive set.


People like you (who would want the widescreen version), however, do get the cheaper stand-alone option.


So, I'm looking seriously at importing the UK 4:3 set instead (which, currently, would cost roughly $50 to the US, including shipping, from Amazon UK).

 

[Simon Massey]

Think this is a calculated gamble that the mass market who don't care about OAR will prefer the cheaper option and not notice any issue and the enthusiasts who do care will be willing to pay a premium to get it. I suppose at least it is available unlike The Wire.

Here's hoping the OAR version sells more though I doubt it will

 

[DVDvision]

Added a couple on the first post


- Wonder Woman 1975-1979 all three seasons available on iTunes in widescreen format apparently extended on the sides with minimal vertical cropping as usual.


- The X-Files now coming to Blu with all the original 4/3 seasons 1-4 reformated in widescreen.

 

[DVDvision]

Added more info in first post on everything wrong with the X-Files remasters here

http://www.xfilesvault.com/features/Whats-Wrong-With-The-X-Files-On-Blu-ray/

 

[Brent Reid]

Fascinating read. I'm sure Illuminate really did put their all into recreating the series in HD, but it's a shame their titanic efforts have been marred by some some pretty elementary errors. I'd have thought instead of changing fonts and titles, and letting various things slip through QC, simply asking the show's considerable fanbase for assistance would have yielded the required results.

 

[DVDvision]

The change of fonts is inexcusable. Anyone can find the original font of any film or TV show just by making a screencap of the original masters, and running it through whatthefont.com

It takes like 3 minutes to do this. I use it all the time when I'm curious about a movie credits font.

 

[TravisR]

^ I don't know if you've seen the new XF episodes yet but they use that font on the new ones too.

 

[Brent Reid]

Dear Illuminate,

The next time you're stuck for a font type, try here:

• MyFonts.com/WhatTheFont