Kung Fu - Season 1 (March 16th) is not OAR (1 Viewer)

Warner is releasing Kung Fu - The Complete 1st Season to DVD on March 16. I posted complete info about it here (at TVShowsOnDVD.com).

Here at the HTF, we've extensively discussed OAR. As many of you know, I am pretty devout about "NO OAR = NO SALE!".

Kung Fu S1 will not be OAR. When I first posted that this was coming to DVD - back in June! - I explained that this made-for-broadcast-TV show from long before the HDTV era is being reformatted for 16x9 widescreen. I tried to put a positive-sounding spin on it at the time, even though that's not the way I felt:


I hope that Josh Clinard has stopped by to read this. Frankly, Josh, I had to wrestle with whether or not to link to you in all of this. Because your site is the "Widescreen Advocate", and not the "OAR Advocate". It occurs to me that me linking to you causes my readers to ask themselves this question:

"I thought Lambert was saying that Kung Fu being in widescreen was bad...so why is he linking us to a site that says widescreen is better?"


I think, Josh, that at some point you may have to adjust things so that it addresses items made for 4x3, but cropped top-and-bottom on DVD to fit on 16x9 televisions. I can think of a few besides Kung Fu. Among them are V: The Final Battle, Super Speedway (made for IMAX), and both volumes of Queen's Greatest Video Hits (I may have the Queen titles off by a bit, buy y'all know which ones I mean). There are certainly other exmaples, but I can't think of them right now.


For those of you wondering if I will purchase this, no I won't. However, my wife is a GIANT fan of Kung Fu, and tells me that she'll be buying this regardless. So, fume though I might, yes this box set WILL be in my house. :frowning:

I would like everyone's opinion on this. As thread-starter, I also reserve the right to ask for this thread to be closed if it gets out of hand...so let's play nice and keep the debate (if any) friendly.


Thanks,

All I'm wondering is why they would go the extra mile to make this into a widescreen presentation when that was not how it was originally intended to be seen.

Studios NEVER go out of their way to make a widescreen presentation. Don't tell me that when they finally start doing just that, they're going to be doing it to our TV shows and made-for-TV movies that were not originally intended to be seen this way!

This sets a poor precedent for future studios to follow. Is this what is going to happen when widescreen TVs become affordable enough for the majority of homes in America to have one? Are we going to be seeing all our classic TV shows in widescreen because people won't want to see bars on the LEFT and RIGHT side of their screen?

Ahhh!!!!!

I've never seen "Kung Fu", so this is not particularly troubling for me. But, as I said, the precedent bothers me. Especially now that we know Warner likes doing this. A similar but not quite the same widescreen treatment was given to ER season 1 (which I'm not 100% sure on the details of that -- even though I own it). As we know, it didn't become a widescreen show on TV until around season 7 or 8.

It's a tricky situation here that will have to be faced in the future as more sets are 16:9 and the 'square box' will slowly disappear. Is this an effort to stave off the forthcoming "I hate those grey bars on the side of the screen" comments? I don't know..

One way or another this is going to be done no matter how we may feel. It DOES pave the way for NEW shows to be shot/shown/released widescreen.. but is it worth the cost? (not necessarly the cost of doing the conversion, but the material excised..)

The phrase was 'remastered for high defination'. This DOESN'T necessarly mean cropped. Does anyone else have HDNet on their DirecTV system? Every noticed that "Hogan's Heros" is in 16:9? That's been done with the logrithmic stretch and most of the time doesn't look bad.

Are they going to 'stretch' or 'crop'?

Now, I may get lynched for this.. but IF DONE PROPERLY (and those are very powerful words) a COMBINATION of stretching and cropping would work.. but only, ONLY,ONLY if done on a scene by scene basis, by someone with some talent and eye for composition (does any one else remember the debacle with Babylon 5 the first time it ran on SciFi channel in letterbox? The wrong tapes were done and they just applied a fixed crop on the entire show. Same was done for the airings of "The Gathering").

Again the words, IF DONE PROPERLY this could turn out well, if done sloppily, quickly or without care it could be a disaster.

IF (there's that word again) Warner was SMART, they would be sending out a single disc with a coupla of episodes to the fan sites, the reviewers, the experts to let people SEE what they were doing and GIVE FEEDBACK... but then.. is that hoping for a miracle???

Next up: Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz, and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington Remastered & Modified for 16x9 HD!!

When will the madness stop????!!!

Dan

on the wizard of Oz DVD, there's a trailer for a re-release...in widescreen. lol, in the shot of the Emerald City...the top is cut off of the tower

I'm not getting it.
NO OAR = NO SALE

I will not buy this simply for the fact it was stolen from Bruce Lee because the narrow minded studio exec. were scared not to have a 'white' man play a chinese character.

Exec 1:Bruce helped create this, let's give him the part.
Exec 2:But he's Chinese
Exec 1:So is the character...
Exec 2:But he's Chinese
Exec 1:Yeah, people will revolt if they see a Chinese actor playing a Chinese main character. Better find a white guy.
:rolleyes

Chris

I posted about a year ago in one of the OAR argument threads that, because of 16:9 sets, we would eventually be fighting the opposite battle -- movies with the top and bottom chopped off. People in that thread told me it would never happen. I see it's happening already.

Someday "full frame" will be considered 1.85. And there WILL be people complaining that they "don't want those black bars on the sides of the screen."

As much as I'd like to join the picket line, I too am torn. One of my all time favorite series will be too tempting not to get regardless of the AR. But getting it may encourage future Non OAR remasterings.

Oh the agony..

It should be a no-brainer. Boycott this release.

Can't they make a 4x3 image 16x9 anamorphic by just including side-bars when they make the widescreen master?

I was looking forward for this release, but now, no way in hell am I going to pay for a butchered version.

No OAR = No Sale

I knew this was coming.

All that I'll say is that this widescreen bigot thinks that this is a really stupid move. The series was NOT meant for widescreen; therefore, is should not be shown in widescreen! This is just as bad as pan-and-scan, in my opinion.

This is so
And now our true faces are coming out. People that scream about OAR on P&S movies and Open matte movies are buying a cropped version?

Well, for me this is a NO NO. I prefer to watch my VHS tapes from TV than buy this cropped version. I I'm too had said this for years that this problem will come and it have done that too (Evil Dead for example).

too bad as I was eager to buy this season set.

now I am not

Rumors are that THE DUKES OF HAZZARD will get the same "treatment".

The age of tilt and scanning has come.

Well I'm not conflicted at all. I'd buy this if it were OAR, but I won't buy it non-OAR. I frankly don't give a damn whether you're losing picture on the top or bottom, or from the sides, you're losing picture.

If the marketing morons think this will sell more as presented 'widescreen', then they need to at least make sure it's also presented OAR. As much as it galls me to see a dvd with a MAR presentation in addition to the OAR, it galls me far more to see MAR only.

If marring a widescreen film is pan & scan, what do we call marring a 1.33 film (or tv show)? Crop & Drop?