Anamorphic transfers verification (1 Viewer)

Can anyone verify if there are 16x9 anamorphic standard DVD transfers (not blu) of the following titles available in the U.S. or other parts of the world? Going through my large collection I've discovered these titles are 4x3 letterbox and not 16x9. Any responses are appreciated. After buying a R2 DVD of Baby Boom from England which the Amazon site clearly stated was 16x9 but I received a 4x3 letterbox transfer similar to the U.S. disc so I'm leery of trusting Amazon's "verification" and their site's reviews rarely discuss the film's specifications.

The Abyss
Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
Albino Alligator
Always
American President
Annie Hall
Anna Lucasta
The Apostle
Assassination In Rome
Baby Boom
Badman's River
Beloved
Barocco
Barry Lyndon
The Bat
Beach Red
Beautiful Girls
Bikini Beach
Bird On A Wire
Birdman Of Alcatraz
Best Man
Betrayed (1988)
Beverly Hills Brats
Beyond All Limits
Black Stallion
Black Tights
Brave One (1956)
Breakfast Of Champions
Bride Wore Black
Bridge At Remagen
Bullets Over Broadway
the Burglars
Burn
By Love Possessed
Cabo Blanco
Cage Aux Folles II
Camille Claudel
The Caretakers
Carve Her Name With Pride
Celebrity (Woody Allen)
Chalk Garden
Chamade
Chato's Land
Cherry Orchard (1999)
Child Is Waiting
Children's Hour
Coming Soon
Company Of Wolves
Conan The Destroyer
Cookie's Fortune
Creature From The Haunted Sea
Countess Dracula
Cousin Bette
Crime Of Passion
Crossing Guard
Crossplot
Cry Freedom
Custer Of The West

What happened to D through Z?

Thomas T said:

Can anyone verify if there are 16x9 anamorphic standard DVD transfers (not blu) of the following titles available in the U.S. or other parts of the world? Going through my large collection I've discovered these titles are 4x3 letterbox and not 16x9. Any responses are appreciated. After buying a R2 DVD of Baby Boom from England which the Amazon site clearly stated was 16x9 but I received a 4x3 letterbox transfer similar to the U.S. disc so I'm leery of trusting Amazon's "verification" and their site's reviews rarely discuss the film's specifications.

The Abyss
Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
Albino Alligator
Always
American President
Annie Hall
Anna Lucasta
The Apostle
Assassination In Rome
Baby Boom
Badman's River
Beloved
Barocco
Barry Lyndon
The Bat
Beach Red
Beautiful Girls
Bikini Beach
Bird On A Wire
Birdman Of Alcatraz
Best Man
Betrayed (1988)
Beverly Hills Brats
Beyond All Limits
Black Stallion
Black Tights
Brave One (1956)
Breakfast Of Champions
Bride Wore Black
Bridge At Remagen
Bullets Over Broadway
the Burglars
Burn
By Love Possessed
Cabo Blanco
Cage Aux Folles II
Camille Claudel
The Caretakers
Carve Her Name With Pride
Celebrity (Woody Allen)
Chalk Garden
Chamade
Chato's Land
Cherry Orchard (1999)
Child Is Waiting
Children's Hour
Coming Soon
Company Of Wolves
Conan The Destroyer
Cookie's Fortune
Creature From The Haunted Sea
Countess Dracula
Cousin Bette
Crime Of Passion
Crossing Guard
Crossplot
Cry Freedom
Custer Of The West

Click to expand...

I can vouch for THE BAT, which Film Chest re-issued as a 1.78:1 anamorphic release, and it looks quite good, finally.

http://www.amazon.com/Bat-Film-Chest-Restored-Version/dp/B00FMVV416/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1396900978&sr=1-1&keywords=the+bat

Hen's Tooth released A COMPANY OF WOLVES some years ago in anamorphic wide:

http://www.amazon.com/Company-Wolves-Sarah-Patterson/dp/B00006G8H3/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1396901170&sr=1-1&keywords=company+of+wolves

If you order THE BEST MAN from the Fox MOD series, you will get an anamorphic remaster. It was originally letterboxed, but they re-did it two years ago. Looks good.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Man-Henry-Fonda/dp/B003B3O5FY/ref=sr_1_9?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1396901304&sr=1-9&keywords=the+best+man

I can't imagine you're not wanting the new Blu-ray of THE BLACK STALLION... no DVD can capture the beauty of that film.

Of all your list above (obviously only a small portion of what you seek), those are the only three I know about for sure.

Hope that helps.

Vic Pardo said:

What happened to D through Z?

Click to expand...

I'm still slogging through my collection going through the titles. At 4,000, it's quite an ordeal!

Dick, thank you for your response. Good to know about The Bat and The Best Man but I have the Hens Tooth Company Of Wolves and mine is definitely 4x3 letterbox. Have they remastered it?

I'm pretty sure that 4x3 letterbox is the best there is on DVD for The American President and Barry Lyndon -- there are new Blu-rays which are far better by comparison, but I don't believe they went back and redid the DVDs when the did the Blus. Unfortunately, The Abyss is still 4x3 on DVD and there isn't a Blu for that at all.

Josh, I expect I'll get a blu (but it has to be a region free blu) by the year's end if I can find one for a decent price that won't bust my budget I realize that many 4x3 DVD titles have been mastered for 16x9 blu which will, of course, solve most of my problems. I actually purchased a DVD of The American President that clearly had "enhanced for wide screen TVs" marked on the back jacket but when I put it on, it was the same 4x3 transfer so, of course, I returned it. Incredible that something like that could be mismarked.

Minor correction: THE BEST MAN is a MGM MOD, not FOX.

The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert was reissued in the "Extra Frills Edition" and was indeed anamorphic.
HTF Reviewer confirms it: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/254505-htf-review-the-adventures-of-priscilla-queen-of-the-desert-extra-frills-edition/

Thomas T said:

Dick, thank you for your response. Good to know about The Bat and The Best Man but I have the Hens Tooth Company Of Wolves and mine is definitely 4x3 letterbox. Have they remastered it?

Click to expand...

Perhaps. I am surprised it was letterbox. The other two are definitely 16x9. COMPANY OF WOLVES is available from the UK on a region-free Blu-ray.

Thanks for the tip on Priscilla, Mark. Apparently it's out of print. Amazon is selling it for $28 for a sealed DVD. I put it in my cart as I'm expecting a small check in about two weeks.

This edition of Custer of the West is anamorphic.

Thanks, Livius. I wish all sites would display the back of the jackets like Amazon Spain did so we can see the exact specifications. Do you own the that particular transfer?

Yes Thomas, the back cover scans are quite useful and Amazon.it often do the same.
I have that edition of Custer of the West and it's a reasonable enough transfer, better than any of the others I've seen anyway. You can see a few captures I madea while back here.

Back covers are full of mistakes. Do not trust them if you really want to be sure.

True enough. I've been burned a few times with errors regarding aspect ratios.

One problem is that they write stuff like "16:9" and "full frame", but mean different things. Sometimes 16:9 means that the film is anamorphic, but sometimes that it's in "widescreen" (1.66? 1.78? 1.85? Even 2.35?). "Full frame" can also mean = anamorphic in some cases, but somemes it means 1.33 ratio. I recently saw one back cover that said: "4:3 full frame 1.66:1". The actual DVD had non-anamorphic 1.33:1 image. I basically ignore all the back covers and stick to the reviews and forum reports.