Vudu Aspect Ratios for Streaming (2 Viewers)

[Todd_Z]

Curious what your take is on so many titles digitally being in the wrong aspect ratio. Maybe I am too much of a purist but when purchasing a title I expect it to be the correct aspect ratio (unless of course it's been noted than one doesn't exist). I guess 1:78:1 when it should be 1:85:1 isn't that big of a deal but even still why? I mean the prints in many cases have been mastered for disc so why aren't they the same on sites likes VUDU and Movies Anywhere. Of course the 1:78:1 prints that are 2:35-2:39:1 are the biggest offenders. Titles like History Of The World Part I, Speed 2, Towering Inferno, Cellular etc are some that are all incorrect on VUDU, yet correct on MA, Unfortunately we are all buying blindly as no OAR data is listed in the information. I've tried in some cases to get some titles corrected and surprisingly most recently noticed 3 titles I contact support about were fixed (MGM and Warner - 2 Elvis titles and Jeremiah Johnson).
I'm just more so curious what you all think, does the OAR bother you or is it a non issue when purchasing digitally.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yes, it bothers me because it’s wrong and it’s part of a larger problem with this home video format with its lack of uniformity across the different digital platforms.

 

[Worth]

I couldn't care less whether it's 1.78 or 1.85, but cropped scope films are definitely annoying.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Vudu (and Amazon even longer before) used to let you play the first 2 minutes of any title for free but that stopped a few years ago. That was very good for checking the quality except for a few that had just the opening credits in the proper ratio then switched to cropped afterwards.

 

[Todd Erwin]

Vudu (and Amazon even longer before) used to let you play the first 2 minutes of any title for free but that stopped a few years ago. That was very good for checking the quality except for a few that had just the opening credits in the proper ratio then switched to cropped afterwards.

Except Vudu's first two minutes were often from a completely different master - some previews were 1.78:1 while the movie was correct, and there were a few that were the opposite.

The Vudu Forum's Incorrect Aspect Ratio Thread

I have been complaining to Vudu for years now to get those in my library corrected, but support keeps deleting my ticket every few months. The few I have had success with is where I e-mailed Paramount Digital Support and after several e-mails back and forth, they eventually sent the corrected files over to Vudu, and a few weeks later (after letting Vudu know that Paramount had sent them a corrected file) the movie was fixed. But generally, Vudu has no interest in correcting these and other errors (such as no HDR or a missing Atmos track), and would prefer to simply blame the studio for these mistakes.

 

[Todd Erwin]

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Ultimately this is why Movies Anywhere is such a useful tool for the films/studios that support it. If Vudu doesn’t have the master you want to view, you simply view it on one of the other services.

For the instances where it’s a film not supported by Movies Anywhere, the best thing to do in my experience is to treat the purchase the same as you would any defective physical item, and immediately return it for a refund, or dispute the credit card charge in a rare instance when customer service isn’t acknowledging an issue. I don’t think it’s worth trying to get a service to go to the studio for a different master; better to just purchase elsewhere.

 

[Todd Erwin]

Ultimately this is why Movies Anywhere is such a useful tool for the films/studios that support it. If Vudu doesn’t have the master you want to view, you simply view it on one of the other services.

For the instances where it’s a film not supported by Movies Anywhere, the best thing to do in my experience is to treat the purchase the same as you would any defective physical item, and immediately return it for a refund, or dispute the credit card charge in a rare instance when customer service isn’t acknowledging an issue. I don’t think it’s worth trying to get a service to go to the studio for a different master; better to just purchase elsewhere.

Yeah, but even Movies Anywhere gets movies in the wrong aspect ratio. I just redeemed points on Sony Rewards for Tears of the Sun, and Sony sent them the 1.78:1 version rather than the 2.39:1 theatrical version found on Vudu and Apple TV.

 

[Todd Erwin]

dispute the credit card charge in a rare instance when customer service isn’t acknowledging an issue.

From what I have seen on Vudu Forums, some have had their accounts closed immediately when disputing a purchase due to a technical issue, so proceed with caution if one decides to go down that road.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Yeah, but even Movies Anywhere gets movies in the wrong aspect ratio. I just redeemed points on Sony Rewards for Tears of the Sun, and Sony sent them the 1.78:1 version rather than the 2.39:1 theatrical version found on Vudu and Apple TV.

Of course, I meant Movies Anywhere as the conduit for accessing the movie on multiple platforms, not necessarily on MA itself.

I’d say my biggest frustration with “streaming” is that too many things share the same name so it makes discussion and communication burdensome because we’re all using the same words and terms but meaning different things.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

From what I have seen on Vudu Forums, some have had their accounts closed immediately when disputing a purchase due to a technical issue, so proceed with caution if one decides to go down that road.

If Vudu isn’t providing properly viewable content, it doesn’t seem like having or not having a Vudu account really matters all that much. A credit card dispute should be the last ditch effort. My experience has been more like Tino’s in that if a purchase isn’t right, they’ve just refunded me. But I mean - and I guess it’s probably true for Tino - you can’t watch the whole movie in the wrong ratio and complain a week later. I’ve started the movie, seen it was wrong within a minute, turned it off right away and then immediately asked for a refund. I understand others have had varying experiences.

 

[JPCinema]

I bought THE RAT RACE 1960 in HDX and the playback is in SD. Months ago VUDU said it would be fixed......so far ...nope!

 

[Todd Erwin]

I bought THE RAT RACE 1960 in HDX and the playback is in SD. Months ago VUDU said it would be fixed......so far ...nope!

I would contact Paramount Digital Support by sending an email to [email protected].

Something odd is going on between Vudu and Paramount. A customer recently tried to purchase Tin Star in HDX, but at checkout, it showed the purchase would be in SD. When he flagged a moderator on Vudu Forums, the mod told him that for that particular title, Paramount only wanted customers to be able to purchase in SD, but rent in HDX. Something very similar is going on with Hannie Caulder, another Paramount title on Vudu that appears as if it can only be purchased in SD.

 

[JPCinema]

Because I purchased it, I can no longer rent it. That sucks!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Ultimately this is why Movies Anywhere is such a useful tool for the films/studios that support it. If Vudu doesn’t have the master you want to view, you simply view it on one of the other services.

For the instances where it’s a film not supported by Movies Anywhere, the best thing to do in my experience is to treat the purchase the same as you would any defective physical item, and immediately return it for a refund, or dispute the credit card charge in a rare instance when customer service isn’t acknowledging an issue. I don’t think it’s worth trying to get a service to go to the studio for a different master; better to just purchase elsewhere.

I've had good luck with Apple support when requesting a refund for a title that is not correct. As for Vudu, I 've had as much luck talking to a wall as dealing with their customer support. I stopped buying from them a long time ago because of their lousy CS.

 

[Todd Erwin]

Because I purchased it, I can no longer rent it. That sucks!

Which is why I suggested you contact Paramount.

 

[Todd_Z]

I couldn't care less whether it's 1.78 or 1.85, but cropped scope films are definitely annoying.

I agree on any scope titles. I was actually surprised to see that three of the titles I had inquired about with VUDU actually got fixed recently. Jeremiah Johnson, Kissin' Cousins and It Happened At The World's Fair. I almost fell out of my chair to see that something actually got fixed on their site when MA had the correct prints from day one.

 

[Todd_Z]

Except Vudu's first two minutes were often from a completely different master - some previews were 1.78:1 while the movie was correct, and there were a few that were the opposite.

The Vudu Forum's Incorrect Aspect Ratio Thread

The problem with this thread is the original author hasn't updated it in a long time. I thought about starting a new one that would be kept up to date, more so for information purposes as a "buyer beware" for others who may just be starting a digital library.

 

[zoetmb]

Curious what your take is on so many titles digitally being in the wrong aspect ratio. Maybe I am too much of a purist but when purchasing a title I expect it to be the correct aspect ratio (unless of course it's been noted than one doesn't exist). I guess 1:78:1 when it should be 1:85:1 isn't that big of a deal but even still why? I mean the prints in many cases have been mastered for disc so why aren't they the same on sites likes VUDU and Movies Anywhere. Of course the 1:78:1 prints that are 2:35-2:39:1 are the biggest offenders. Titles like History Of The World Part I, Speed 2, Towering Inferno, Cellular etc are some that are all incorrect on VUDU, yet correct on MA, Unfortunately we are all buying blindly as no OAR data is listed in the information. I've tried in some cases to get some titles corrected and surprisingly most recently noticed 3 titles I contact support about were fixed (MGM and Warner - 2 Elvis titles and Jeremiah Johnson).
I'm just more so curious what you all think, does the OAR bother you or is it a non issue when purchasing digitally.

I used to complain about 1.85 movies being "expanded" to 1.78 as well. But then I saw that Robert A. Harris wrote and said he was perfectly okay with it. And if "Sir Restorian" is okay with it, then so am I.

One thing to remember is that we almost never see a completely accurate frame (and therefore AR) in theaters. Film gates were cut to account for both the dimensions of the theater, the projection lens focal length used and parallax distortion. Even at the Museum of Modern Art, the projected dimensions are not perfect. Film projection lenses only came in 1" increments. So for a 1.85 image which has a projected horizontal dimension of 0.825" (in 35mm film) and where F=DA/W where F=focal length of the lens, D=distance to the screen in feet, A=aperture (0.825") and W=horizontal projected image in feet, if the distance to the screen is 45' and you want the width of the image to be 30' wide, you would need a 1.24" lens. If you use a 1" lens, the image will be 37.125', so in that case, the image will be cropped by over 3.5' on each side. If you use a 2" lens, the image would be only 18.56' wide.

At the Dolby theater I go to, even though it's a 2.4:1 screen, I can tell that there's some cropping of the bottom of the image.

It's a little better with digital projection because many digital projectors have some zooming capability but it's still rarely if ever exact. If you have a high booth, the parallax distortion needs to be cropped via gate or tape on the projection window (the bottom of the image will be wider than the top).

I don't think I've seen a 1.85 film that was presented at 2.35-2.39 on TV (although I've seen widescreen films at 1.78), but maybe I was just unaware. If there was a closeup in a 1.85 film that was cropped to 2.35, someone's head would be cut off.

One thing I've seen lately in theaters are films at odd aspect ratios. Much of Maestro was 1.33:1 and I saw a Wim Wenders/Japanese film the other night that was also 1.33 (or maybe even 1.0:1. I didn't perceive any reason why Maestro was shot at 1.33 instead of 1.85. And films like The French Dispatch had constantly changing ARs.

The funny thing is that we have 1.85 films expanded to 1.78 for Blu-ray, but we have shows shot exclusively for TV that are 1.85, not 1.78.

 

[Matt Hough]

Saltburn was filmed in Academy ratio, too, for no reason I could detect.