Aspect Ratio Documentation (3 Viewers)

[Douglas R]

WAR OF THE WORLDS 2005 Just watched this today and there is no doubt it was being shown 2:35.Also SIDEWAYS. :

WAR OF THE WORLDS was shown sideways? How does that happen? Is there no end to the incompetence of these TV stations?

 

[FoxyMulder]

WAR OF THE WORLDS 2005 Just watched this today and there is no doubt it was being shown 2:35.Also SIDEWAYS. Just keep watching HBO and you will see some 1:85 films letterboxed to 2:35. Go figure.:

Thats a 1.85:1 aspect ratio film, sideways, wow, i bet some people didn't even know there was anything wrong with the broadcast, that's funny.

 

[Charles Smith]

Are you sure you aren't stating the two ratios in reverse?

How could they even be doing that without distorting the picture beyond all recognition? Or where would the additional side information come from?

As someone else already said, they're unfortunately "full-screening" wide movies all the time. It's today's Pan & Scan. Everything old is new again...

 

[Moe Dickstein]

hmm.did the image look stretched? any way your TV is squeezing down the 1.78 image to appear 2.4?

 

[trajan]

hmm.did the image look stretched? any way your TV is squeezing down the 1.78 image to appear 2.4?

I'll get back to you on this. The 2:35 image looked quite normal. I have never seen this before.

 

[trajan]

The movie SIDEWAYS. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[trajan]

Some other films fill the entire screen, so I no evidence of strectching.

 

[Gary16]

Watching WAR OF THE WORLDS now on HBO2 and it perfectly fills the 16:9 TV screen. Definitely not 2.35:1.

 

[Douglas R]

The movie SIDEWAYS. Sorry for the confusion.

I realised that. I was trying to be funny!

 

[Vic Pardo]

I realised that. I was trying to be funny!

You were. I laughed.

 

[trajan]

Watching OUTBREAK right now on two different HBO channels. One is 2:35 the other channel around 1:85.

 

[Gary16]

I see it now on one HBO channel and it perfectly fits the 16:9 format. Are you sure one of the channels where you're seeing the odd ratios isn't standard definition? If so that would explain it because you would be seeing a 1.85 picture letterboxed in the 4:3 format. Otherwise this really makes no sense.

 

[TravisR]

Studios provide HBO/all channels with a copy of the movie (either cropped or in its OAR) to play. Channels don't crop movies on their own and since there's no way that a studio is matting 1.78 movies to 2.35, the problem is related to your cable provider or TV and not HBO.

 

[john a hunter]

You were. I laughed.

So did I. 10/10

 

[Rob W]

Studios provide HBO/all channels with a copy of the movie (either cropped or in its OAR) to play. Channels don't crop movies on their own and since there's no way that a studio is matting 1.78 movies to 2.35, the problem is related to your cable provider or TV and not HBO.

Fox's forthcoming Son of God, which uses footage from the miniseries The Bible, is 2:35 in the theatrical version while the miniseries ran at 1:78.

 

[Vic Pardo]

What do you do when a TV station runs a classic show in HD format, resulting in a stretched-out image? How does one get the TV station (in this case, Cartoon Network) to pay attention to what they're doing?

Cartoon Network is now running classic episodes of Pokémon from 1998, the standard def era. But they're stretching it out to "look" HD. This is a screen grab from watching it on the HD channel:

This is a screen grab from watching it on the SD channel:

Same distortion.

This is an image I found on Google that offers an example of how they're supposed to look:

(Ash and Misty in their proper dimensions)

Also, the two images at top were taken from my picture file on my computer. There was no means provided to reduce the picture size. Every time I've done it in the past here, I've taken the pictures from Flickr and they were considerably smaller. Flickr seems to have changed its embed codes and this forum will no longer recognize them, so I can't post pix from there. I get the message, "You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community." Yet it worked fine when I did the MAD MAD WORLD screen grabs three weeks ago and I did exactly the same thing this time. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

P.S. for comparison purposes, I wanted to post an image from a new episode of Pokemon in HD, but now the image upload feature here isn't working for me at all.

 

[schan1269]

Cartoon Network isn't the only one doing it.They get away with it with "edited for content and fit the screen". I've seen that added to episodes of M.A.S.H.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

Funny - I don't know those shows but they look more cropped than stretched to me, since the circles don't look distorted.Some shows have been redone ground up for 16x9 - Seinfeld for example was re-scanned from 35mm and actually has added picture on the sides from what was broadcast, as well as being cropped mostly at the bottom of the frame. This future was planned for when they shot so it's actually a pretty good way to watch the reruns in HD.

 

[ahollis]

Funny - I don't know those shows but they look more cropped than stretched to me, since the circles don't look distorted.Some shows have been redone ground up for 16x9 - Seinfeld for example was re-scanned from 35mm and actually has added picture on the sides from what was broadcast, as well as being cropped mostly at the bottom of the frame. This future was planned for when they shot so it's actually a pretty good way to watch the reruns in HD.

Well SEINFELD had the credit at the end that said FILMED IN PANAVISION. I guess we know why. Lol.

 

[Matt Hough]

I happened on a rerun of WILL & GRACE the other day, and the image was stretched to fill the 16:9 screen. How can people actually watch shows this way? I couldn't change the channel fast enough.