Roger Ebert chimes in on Wonka controversy (1 Viewer)

[Marc Carra]

JerryW,
Since the transfer is full frame, open-matte, those with widescreen TVs(like myself) will not be getting the 33% increase in resolution that 16x9 enhanced widescreen transfers provide. To view a full-frame open-matte disc in it's OAR, one must 'zoom' in on the picture, allowing the TV (or DVD player in some instatnces), to crop the top and bottom of the image. This results in a generally softer image. With a 16x9 widescreen DVD, the disc is anamorphically encoded to provide a widescreen image and give us the extra 33% resolution, and image quality that is closer to film, than to video. Apparently, the the newly announced Wonka widescreen DVD will be enhanced for 16x9 screens.
Marc.
[Edited last by Marc Carra on August 27, 2001 at 08:45 AM]

 

[Tom Boucher]

Roger posted that comment almost the day after the whole contraversy started on Wonka. It was posted in that monster thread a while back.
So he wasn't late to the party, he was right there with it.
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[Jack Briggs]

I wonder if Roger Ebert browses HTF from time to time?
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[Keith Paynter]

Jerry, a little more into why open-matte films should still be cropped to proper theatrical OAR...
Just because the open matte film has more information doesn't make that information of value. In theaters, projectors use matte apature plates to block off the unusable area to fit the screen for a 1.85:1 screen (North America) or 1.66:1 screen (Europe). Motion picture cameras use hairline borders on their internal (and external video) viewfinder in order to keep the scene composition within this 'safe area'.
You can sometimes see an open matte transfer of a film carry visual flaws - some examples included The Shining, where the opening shot of the Overlook Hotel exposes the helicopter shot's rotating blades, and flms such as The Sunshine Boys and Evel Knievel (starring George Hamilton) where occasionally the boom mic enters the shot - this would not be seen in theaters because the apature plate covers the material.
Modern motion pictures shot full frame get it in a double whammy, because digital effects work layered over the image costs a lot of money, and filmmakers try to save money by having effects painted only for what shows up onscreen. As a result of this, effects shots will be zoomed in on video to cover up for their budget restraint, however the clean footage remains fully exposed. Try comparing full-frame and widescreen versions of Jurassic Park.
Preserving theatrical presentation is what widescreen videos are all about, and the 16x9 television enhancement is icing on the cake in terms of resolution.
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"Fearless Freep?! That's mmma boy!"

 

[Richard Kim]

You can sometimes see an open matte transfer of a film carry visual flaws - some examples included The Shining, where the opening shot of the Overlook Hotel exposes the helicopter shot's rotating blades

I don't mean to nitpick, but the blades still appear even when the image is matted.

 

[Iain Lambert]

One other thing that 16x9 zooming has a problem with is that whenever I've done this I've not been entirely convinced that I've framed it correctly. About twice as much off the bottom as the top seems normal, but some films have a common top line and some are in the middle, so even if you're zooming its quite difficult to achieve the correct framing.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

On newer transfers they always zoom-in to hide boom mikes and other things you're not supposed to see, so cropping the top and bottom of these on a 16x9 TV is just going to crop even more off the top and bottom.

 

[Iain Lambert]

Thats true, Jesse, but if they are doing that then its not full-frame but Pan 'n' Scan...

 

[James D S]

"Full-frame" is Orwellian doublespeak...

Classic!