P&S on TCM (1 Viewer)

[SteveK]

I was very surprised and highly disappointed yesterday when I turned on "Coal Miner's Daughter" on Turner Classic Movies and found it was in full frame P&S! I was in the process of recording it on my Dish PVR501, but immediately erased it without watching it. Then I started the recording for "Breaker Morant", also from TCM, and was again disappointed that it was also in full frame! :frowning: Since Coal Miner's Daughter is not on DVD, I wasn't able to check its OAR, but I'm certain it wasn't 4:3. You could tell from several quick camera pans that it was originally a wider image. Breaker Morant was DEFINITELY not in 4:3. So I was very disappointed that both of these P&S movies were on TCM. It wouldn't have surprised me to see them on AMC or Fox Movie Channel, but it did surprise me to see them on TCM.
I certainly hope that TCM isn't starting to go down the well-travelled P&S road!
Steve K.

 

[AndrewD]

Steve -
The folks at TCM are die-hard OAR lovers. They try to air as many films as possible in OAR, but it's not always possible. Sometimes the "elements" they're able to secure are only in P&S. I've seen the same movie aired in both formats within a few months of one another. It all comes down to what they're able to obtain for that telecast. You'd be hard-pressed to find another network on television that airs as many films in OAR as TCM, so don't worry about them giving in to the dark side.

 

[SteveK]

Andrew- Thanks for the reply. I certainly agree that TCM is by far the best channel for OAR. Nobody else is even close. It just concerned me that they had several P&S films on within a day or two. I understand that they may not always be able to get rights to the version they'd prefer to show- the OAR version. I just hope that is indeed the reason, not some new "trial" with P&S.

I wish there were more channels like TCM. No commercial breaks during the movies, limited channel bug screen time, mostly OAR presentations, etc. I watch far more movies on TCM than any other channel, even including Sundance Channel (part of the Showtime package). It is definitely my favorite channel.

Steve K.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Off topic, but is it true that Fox Movie Channel is now showing flicks with commercial interruptions? (I dumped cable more than three months ago.) Thanks.

And, yes, TCM is still one of the best film channels around.

 

[Ryan L B]

lets just say this, you will never see ben hur on tcm in pan and scan.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Off topic, but is it true that Fox Movie Channel is now showing flicks with commercial interruptions? (I dumped cable more than three months ago.)

Not on anything I've watched recently on FMC (Bedazzled, Predator 2).

M.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Jack,

I've seen some ads on FOX MOVIE CHANNEL recently, but not during the films (or during other programming, like FOX HOUR OF STARS or their documentary programs). They throw a few ads in during the between-film filler time (amongst trailers, short subjects, newsreels, etc). However, unlike when AMC used to do this, the ads don't push the next film's start time past what it's said to be in the program listings. That is to say, the ads don't delay a film that is supposed to begin at, say, 8 PM, to 8:05 or 8:07 PM, like AMC would. I've seen no sign of censored content on FMC these days, either (another difference from AMC). BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1970) was shown letterboxed on FMC last week, with nudity a-plenty, for example.

Perhaps FMC will eventually go the way of AMC, or maybe they've struck some unique bargain to gain a little extra revenue by selling some of their filler time to outside advertising, but without compromising their normal programming format. Who knows. FMC does have an advantage over AMC, in that they own all of their own programming (and doesn't normally employ hosts), whereas AMC has had to license pretty much everything they show, which strains their budget, I'm sure.

 

[Steve Enemark]

And, yes, TCM is still one of the best film channels around.

One of? Hell, I could lose access to every other film channel on the dial and not realize it for months! TCM is the channel, bar none!