I've noticed on the last couple of Paramount releases I've bought, Star Trek IV and the Hunt for Red October new release, that all the special features were in anamorphic widescreen. I can only think of a couple of other titles that got this right--Star Wars I & II and LOTR Extended edition. There is nothing more irritating to me than having to change aspect ratios on my widescreen set for special features sections. Even worse is when seamless branching switches from an anamorphic movie to non-anamorphic deleted scenes or special features--X-Men 1.5 is a pain, as was Treasure Planet. I hope this is going to be a regular feature of Paramount releases from now on--especially the long awaited Titanic SE!!!!
I second the hope of this happening for the Titanic SE, and given their track record, i'm sure it will. However, as far as SE's go, I get more worried about Titanic by the day. The Indy trilogy whilst being presented great on these upcoming dvd's, i'm not disputing that, alas only has one disc with supplemental material. IMO EACH of these films deserved their own separate releases that are as big and grand as the Pearl Harbor Vista Series dvd is. And so does Titanic. I want an edition of this film that is as huge as it has been in my imagination. Paramount, I love ya, but there are some films that deserve the really BIG royal treatment.
Do any widescreen TVs switch screen formats automatically? That's one thing that's essential on whatever one I end up buying.
Jesse, I know that a lot of 16X9's automatically lock into 'FULL' mode if your running progressive scan, but then again some don't. For those that don't, there's usually a button on the remote to scroll the different viewing modes, so it's usually only a matter of hitting a button. It's not like the Sony VVEGA's where you must actually go into the user menu, find the squeez mode and engage it. IMO, I like the sets that don't lock on Full mode, it gives you flexability to choose another mode for non anamorphic material.
I have one of those Sonys and that is one thing I find annoying. I wish it had a button on remote to change modes, but alas it doesn't. It has a button to change sound modes, but not video modes. Strange.
Dave, yeah, it's a real pain sometimes. When I had my VVEGA I used to use a universal remote that had programmable MAC keys on it, so I programmed the entire squeeze mode engaging sequence into it, so at the press of one button on the remote the tv went through the entire sequence! It was quite a trip after hitting the remote button seeing the menu on the VVEGA come up and scroll to where the squeeze mode was, scroll down to it, engage it, and then exit...all in one move by itself! That was a lifesaver let me tell you.
Not all the special features for Red October are anamorphic...the trailer still isn't. As for the televisions, changing the screen format is a simple thing but I don't know of any that do an automatic change. Couldn't they add a flagging system in the software as they do for 3:2 detection and audio? But, really, it's almost a non-issue because the vast majority of sets are controllable from the remote and switching aspects is quick and painless. Bruce
Bruce, i'm positive that some sets do change automatically while running progressive. A buddy of mine had an RCA 16X9 for a short time, and was also running progressive scan, whenever he switched to the DVD input channel the set automatically detected the progressive signal and switched and locked into FULL mode and couldn't be changed unless he switched his player from progressive to interlaced. So, in some sense, automatic switching is possible.
I understand what you're saying John. The example I was thinking of was: I have a dual tray player. Let's say I'm watching Fight Club and when I finish, I switch to the next tray which has Casablanca in it. The television screen is going to remain locked into full instead of detecting that I have a 4:3 formatted film and changing automatically. I would have to manually change the screen setting to properly display Casablanca. Not a big deal...but I could see how it would be convenient if the television could do that without me telling it to. Bruce
Ahhh, I got ya now, Bruce. Automatic switching can't be done from dvd to dvd if their formats are different.
Actually very few widescreen sets lock onto Full with progressive scan inputs these days. My Sony KP57HW40 widescreen doesn't lock onto full with a progressive scan input. The set let's you choose a default aspect ratio selection and the set will automatically go into that mode whenever you change channels or inputs. If I choose anything other than Full as the default mode, it will automatically switch to Full when fed an anamorphic dvd signal and back to the default selection for non-anamorphic material on the same disc, but it will only do this when fed 480i. With progressive scan it will still switch aspect ratios, but I must do it manually. I had a JVC progressive scan player with the scaling feature, and it would handle anamorphic discs with non-anamorphic special features seamlessly, putting black bars on the sides of 4/3 special features and scaling non-anamorphic widescreen trailers and such so they looked correct with the set on Full. I have dvds I didn't know were not anamorphic until I switched to a Panasonic CP-72 without the scaling feature.
quote... "Actually very few widescreen sets lock onto Full with progressive scan inputs these days." Yeah, I wasn't really sure about the numbers on what percentage does that, I just knew that they were out their. I have a JVC RP HDTV and it also doesn't lock onto Full using progressive scan, I prefer it that way, it opens up options.
I dug out that JVC and added it back into my system last night. My receiver has 2 component video inputs and my HD box goes straight to the tv which also has 2 component video inputs. Took about half an hour to reconfigure the receiver and relabel the inputs but I can now toggle between the 2 players with on button press. So now I can use the JVC for non-anamorphic and 4/3 stuff and do away with the gray bars or nasty tv-zoom, and use the Panny for anamorphic-only. The Panny's a 5 disc changer and the JVC holds 7, so I can load them up on a Friday night and be good to go for a whole week.
I believe the signal telling your TV what aspect ratio to use is sent from the DVD player via the Scart lead. If you're watching through progressive scan I guess you won't have the Scart connected so no signal. John
Widescreen TV's DO switch formats automatically, but sometimes they get confused and it's just easier to set it manually (it really is!) ~ John
Speaking of X-Men 1.5, does anyone else find its use of anamorphic for some of the features utterly ridiculous? It has a windowboxed 4:3 image INSIDE a 16:9 frame. I guess it would look almost as good as could be expected on a 16:9 set, but it has LESS horizontal resolution this way (and the same vertical resolution). As if that wasn't bad enough, the way it bounces between the two formats (even when branching during the special features) is just silly. I usually like it when features are in anamorphic (I have a squeeze-able Wega), but only if the features are in widescreen too. The worst was when they had letterboxed content inside the 4:3 frame that was inside the 16:9 frame. There was a small rectangle in the middle of my screen with any picture info in it! Sorry, I just watched this the other night and have been needing a good rant about it, thanks
