Pulp Fiction in HDTV (1 Viewer)

[JerryIII]

Just wanted to let everyone know that Pulp Fiction will be on HBO tonight(2/6/03) in glorious HDTV. I can't wait to see how good it looks.


Jerry

 

[John Stone]

Is it me, or does HBO crop most (if not all) scope movies to 1.78:1? At least Showtime seems to have a little more respect (I have noticed quite a few scope films presented correctly on HD Showtime).

Anyway, as much as I'd love to see PF in HD, I won't watch it unless it's broadcast in its OAR.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Cooool, dude! I missed it the other night.

RE: HBO's lack of respect for OAR, I'm not quite sure. Seems like they are better about it lately. Of course, I haven't seen that many movies on HBO HD yet.

_Man_

 

[Alex Spindler]

I don't think I can recall an HBO HD movie that wasn't 1.85:1/16:9 yet. As far as I can tell, they still crop everything.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I'm not sure, but I seem to recall seeing a couple movies in 2.35:1 on HBO HD. They might have been late night or something. Might they switch to OAR for late night, instead of day-time through prime-time?

Was The Mexican shown in OAR 2.35:1 on HBO HD at anytime recently?

_Man_

 

[James Stierman]

HBO still crops everything to 16:9 unfortunatly.

 

[Thomas H G]

So how was it?

 

[JerryIII]

HBO definately cropped it which pissed me off. However it looked fantastic in 1080i. I could not believe how much better it looked than my new collectors edition DVD. At least we know that when the time comes we will have a pristine copy of PF on HD-DVD. Man, I love that movie.


Jerry

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I have HD-HBO, but I don't watch pan-and-scan films on it. I'm surprised any of us do!

edit: I may be surprised any of us do, but please don't be offended. I have apparently offended people at other forums. My surprise is not a value judgement of your worth as an individual.

 

[Doug Schiller]

Michael it was cropped, not Pan & Scanned. I'm not saying that is a good thing but let's tell it like it is.

I never had a huge problem with HBO cropping 2:35 movies to 1:85 but man, it really hurt Pulp Fiction. Tarantino uses the entire screen and the cropping was very obvious in:

The scene with the drug dealer on the bed (Stoltz). Actually, this scene is a little cropped on the DVD as well.

When Mia makes the square with her fingers.

On the flip side... It looked flat out stunning! Better than some of the newer films HBOHD is showing like The Majestic. I saw details that I have never saw before and I saw it on the big screen. I have never seen the black tuxedos that they wear look so perfect. They always were too black to me before. I don't remember seeing the leather collars before either. Hair and eye color was also perfect and none of the edge enhancement that I had to suffer with since the first LD release.
It is hard to believe that a print is laying around that looks this good. I doubt if it was the one used for the last DVD release.

If you missed it, you owe it to yourself to check it out the next time they show it.

Doug

 

[JerryIII]

Doug,
I could not agree with you more about cropping having a very noticable effect on this film. You pointed out the most obvious scenes, however I found myself noticing it in every scene. Tarantino really does use every inch of the screen.

I have to say that I am going to have a hard time going back to the DVD after seeing this copy of this film. It was pretty close to perfect. Usually, the films on HD-HBO don't look THIS much better than the DVD.

Jerry

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Isn't 'cropped' just the same thing as pan-and-scan but they are too lazy to move the small frame around?

 

[Doug Schiller]

Michael,
I think Pan & Scan is worse. It is so noticeable it ruins the film watching experience for me.
I'd rather have a small zoom in of the director's framing than some paid monkey moving an imaginary frame to areas that they think are important.
Jerry,
I'm also in the Tampa area and thought HBOHD was lackluster most of the time. I thought it was just me. I also thought it was the limitation of Time Warner cable. I compared the OTA HDTV ABC signal from Alias to the Time Warner HDTV ABC and there is no comparison. The OTA was rock solid in sharpness and color, TW had red push and compression artifacts. I would have thought digital = digital but that is not so.
That said, Pulp Fiction rivaled the best HD I have seen on my system and it comes from cable. So go figure?

Doug

 

[Richard Kim]

What really hurts Pulp Fiction is that it's filmed anamorphic, so the picture has to be cropped to fit a 16:9 screen. Awhile back, ABC showed The Rock on HD, and since it was filmed in Super35, all they did was open up the mattes to fill the screen.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Awhile back, ABC showed The Rock on HD, and since it was filmed in Super35, all they did was open up the mattes to fill the screen.

That typically doesn't work on the numerous effects shots in so many films (probably including The Rock).