New York: Center Of The World DVD Problem? (1 Viewer)

[Jim*F]

I read about this elsewhere, and thought the problem was solved, but it seems like it wasn't.

Episode 8 of the Ric Burns series New York: A Documentary Film, entitled The Center Of The World, chronicles the rise and fall of the World Trade Center. The 3-hour film was broadcast widescreen on PBS, and supposedly released on widescreen DVD last month.

I just purchased the DVD, and it seems there was a mastering/transfer mistake -- the film is presented full frame (and before anyone asks, my DVD player is configured properly -- I tested several widescreen DVD's right after, and they all displayed fine with top and bottom black bars). It is very obvious -- you can tell pictures looked "zoomed in," and names and text are partially cut off.

Has anyone else had this problem? Or not had this problem? I notice on the Shop PBS website that this DVD is on 2-4 week backorder. Has anyone heard about PBS fixing the problem?

Thanks for any information.

 

[Jonathan_]

The dvd displayed in widescreen on my TV. I had heard about this problem and was worried that mine would be the same. I never notice any zooming in on the DVD. If a disc is full frame my player will automatically display it with bars on the sides of the picture. This disc looked to me like a properly mastered 16x9 transfer. Hopefully you can get a replacement disc. FYI I bought mine at Best Buy.

 

[Jim*F]

I can now explain the "problem" with this DVD, but it seems a bit strange.

I finally went deep into my DVD menus, and the setting for type of TV was 4:3 (correct!), but an almost hidden menu for "4:3 viewing mode" was set to "pan & scan" instead of "letterbox" -- meaning that the DVD player would chop the sides off widescreen films when sent out to a 4:3 TV. So, I changed it to "letterbox" and the New York DVD appears properly in widescreen on my 4:3 TV.

The strange thing is that if my DVD player had presumably been set to "pan & scan" mode (and today is the first time I've ever gone to that menu), shouldn't all the widescreen DVDs I've watched over the past 4 years have appeared full frame? This New York DVD is the only time this has happened -- could there be some kind of coding on the DVD that automatically sets the player to "pan & scan" if the TV is 4:3?

I still can't figure out how I could have had the wrong setting for the past 4 years, but had every widescreen DVD up until New York show the right way (it's almost as if every DVD except for New York ignored the fact that my player was set for "pan & scan").

I'm interested now to see if this happens to anyone else with a 4:3 TV (or if I have a possessed DVD player!).

 

[Jonathan_]

The DVD must be encoded with whats called pan & scan on the fly. Basically the dvd tells the player what part of the picture to show. Very few dvd's are encoded this way. That's why to always be sure to set your dvd player to 4x3 widescreen if you have a 4x3 tv.

 

[Jim*F]

This "pan and scan on the fly" really exists? I can't believe it! Why would anyone encode a DVD like that?

Well, at least I can now enjoy the last part of the incredible New York set.

 

[David Von Pein]

Jim .... I today played this disc on my 4x3 HDTV for the first time. And had the exact same difficulties you had. .... Was FORCED to go into Set-Up and change the ratio setting from 16x9 to "4x3 Letterbox" (which I've never had to do before for any non-anamorphic disc). Very odd.

After switching to 4x3 Letter Mode, the disc plays correctly (in 1.78 AR).

 

[Kevin Porter]

When I first read the thread title I thought it mean't that New York is the center of our DVD problems. :b

Thanks for bringing this to attention. I might have to Netflix this one. Though the 9/11 documentary to beat is "9/11" with the two French brothers.

 

[Jim*F]

Kevin, now I see exactly why one of the "Elements Of Style" in the English language is to use quotes, italics, or underlining for titles!! I've done that on written papers since grade school, but surprisingly many people don't use quotation marks that often on the internet.

And you're right that the French filmmakers "9/11" is perhaps the best 9/11 documentary, I like how "Center Of The World" spends plenty of time describing the birth and growth of the towers (about 2 hours), then moves to the end of the towers (about 1 hour). And it complements the original 7-DVD New York set perfectly -- after 9/11, Burns' history of the city would have been glaringly incomplete without this 8th episode.

David, thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one who experienced this. Why do I think that this was the one and only time we'll ever see this happen???

 

[David Von Pein]

The DVD must be encoded with whats called pan & scan on the fly. Basically the dvd tells the player what part of the picture to show. Very few dvd's are encoded this way. That's why to always be sure to set your dvd player to 4x3 widescreen if you have a 4x3 tv.

But I was under the impression that if a person has a 4x3 TV (with 16x9 squeeze mode), that it was never necessary to touch the "AR" setting in the set-up menu of the player.

Is the above statement correct, EXCEPT for the oddball 1 in a million "P&S on fly" disc like NY-Part 8? Seems very strange that a 2003-produced disc would have this weird kind of transfer.

Can anyone clarify this madness further?

 

[Jason Borchers]

.

 

[David Von Pein]

and I'm pretty sure it's anamorphic.

I don't think it is.
Packaging does not say it is either.

 

[nousername]

I have this disc, and it is indeed 16:9 anamorphic...

 

[David Von Pein]

and it is indeed 16:9 anamorphic...

Mine's not.
At least it cannot be played in 16x9 mode (properly) on a 4x3 TV with "squeeze".
This is one weird-o disc...that's for sure.

 

[nousername]

My TV is a 4:3 one as well, and it has the 16:9 "squeeze" feature.

What TV/DVD player combo do you have?

 

[David Von Pein]

What TV/DVD player combo do you have?

Toshiba HDTV (4x3 with 16x9 Compression) + Panasonic Player.

Disc MUST be played, as thread-author Jim*F has also suggested, via the Player's 4x3 "Letterbox" mode ONLY, in order to get the proper AR (of 1.78:1).

Using Compression Mode, with Player set to 16x9 (which it should always be on except apparently for THIS singularly-oddball disc) will result in a ratio on screen of about 2.20:1 (approx.), which is obviously squeezed too tight.

With Player in 16x9 setting and TV in "Normal" mode, the DVD is Full Screen (no bars at all). Which is also incorrect AR.

It's a oddity alright. Must've been produced by someone very fond of Practical Jokes (or by someone with a penchant for driving the disc owner slowwwww-ly mad. MAD I TELL YOU!! ).

I'm nearly positive, as Jim*F also eluded, that this particular disc will be the ONLY one I'll ever receive to be programmed in such an odd fashion.


Allan M.: Your disc might be from a "newer/corrected" batch of "New York; Part 8" discs. Thus, yours displays correctly without having to dig deep into the bowels of the DVD Player settings.

Is your copy, Allan, showing the correct 1.78:1 ratio with "Squeeze" mode on?

(Another oddity, to confuse us even further it would seem, is the lack of "Anamorphic"/"Enhanced" labelling on the back of the packaging.)

 

[nousername]

I have a Panasonic DVD-RP82 DVD player and Sony KV-36XBR450 TV.

On the Panny, I have it set to "16:9 TV Aspect". The other two settings are 4:3 Pan & Scan and 4:3 Letterbox.

On the Sony, I have the "16:9 Enhanced Mode" on. With this setup, I get a nicely detailed 1.78:1 picture, with black bars at the top and bottom. With the TV's 16:9 Enhanced Mode off, the picture stretches vertically to fill the screen, but the people now look thin and stretched vertically. So it appears that my copy is definitely 16:9 anamorphic.

You might be right, David--I might have a more recent copy. However, there is no anamorphic labelling on the back cover whatsoever, so there's no way to tell which copies are old and which ones are more recent.

I guess I just lucked out (I got mine through Amazon in October if that means anything).