Star Trek TOS in 4:3 on any streaming services? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

I’m watching Star Trek The Original Series, and it looks like both Netflix and Amazon have it in widescreen. (Well, Amazon started in 4:3 and then went widescreen on the fourth episode.) Is TOS available in 4:3 on Netflix or Amazon? How about another streaming service?

 

[Dave Scarpa]

it's in OAR on all the services i've seen

 

[DaveF]

So, episode four was widescreen but episode five was back to OAR. Maybe Netflix shows them in OAR too, with similar few episodes in widescreen?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I just sampled a few on Netflix and they’re 4:3 there.

They are the remastered versions with the new (circa 2006 or so) digital effects.

 

[DaveF]

Huh. Netflix was widescreen for me on the original Captain Pike pilot. So I switched to Amazon which was then OAR except for the second pilot, which aired as episode four.

Maybe the two pilots are widescreen. I’ve not checked them across services.

 

[Mark-P]

Dave, your display settings are screwy. I’ve sampled the first 6 episodes on both Amazon and Netflix and everything is OAR (1.33:1). The only difference is that some episodes have the pillar box bars hard coded and some don’t.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I spot checked all of the episodes you cited and a few others on both Amazon Prime and Netflix and they are all showing as 4x3 for me. I am viewing on an older model of AppleTV.

 

[DaveF]

Interesting! I’ll take a deeper look.

 

[Tino]

Yup. All are 1:33 on all my services.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Interesting! I’ll take a deeper look.

What device are you using for streaming, Dave? I had some wackiness with aspect ratios on 1.33:1 material using my two 4K Roku devices (an Ultra and a Premiere) with Hulu, but it would work fine using my ATV4K or the built-in streaming app on the Samsung 4K display in our bedroom. I never tried the other myriad of streaming options I have available. The only way I fixed the issue was by no longer subscribing to Hulu -- I changed cell plans with Sprint, and lost our free Hulu account in the process (but saved $30 per month on my Sprint bill).

 

[DaveF]

TiVo and AppleTV.

 

[Cranston37+]

Checked the first 5 episodes on Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu on my Apple TV 4 - all show 1.33:1 for me...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

If some of the streams are hardcoded as 4x3, rather than pillarboxed as 4x3 within a 16x9 frame, it's possible that either your streaming device or TV is cropping them locally.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

When I watched 4x3 content through the Netflix app on my smart TV, I always had to adjust the settings to get 4x3 content pillarboxed rather than stretched or zoomed.

Since watching Netflix through the Roku, that hasn't been an issue.

 

[DaveF]

Thanks for the confirmations. I found a Tivo setting for stretch vs windowbox on 4:3 and toggled that, in case it's playing a role. I haven't gone back to the widescreen episodes to see if that fixed things. And I haven't checked the AppleTV since, as the wife prefers using the TiVo for streaming. But the last few episodes I've played on Amazon were 4:3 so it's looking ok so far.

 

[Bryan^H]

I just sampled a few on Netflix and they’re 4:3 there.

They are the remastered versions with the new (circa 2006 or so) digital effects.

And just to be clear, the only way to watch the original series with the original FX are physical copies of the older DVD sets, or any of the Blu-Ray sets. Streaming/digital download only offer the enhanced effects.

 

[DaveF]

And just to be clear, the only way to watch the original series with the original FX are physical copies of the older DVD sets, or any of the Blu-Ray sets. Streaming/digital download only offer the enhanced effects.

Yeah, I’d like to watch the original-original. But I’ve already paid for the streaming, and it’s so much simpler than dealing with discs.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

And just to be clear, the only way to watch the original series with the original FX are physical copies of the older DVD sets, or any of the Blu-Ray sets. Streaming/digital download only offer the enhanced effects.

To my surprise, I saw that Amazon Prime had both. But I think the original versions were in SD only.

 

[DaveF]

I didn’t see the non-altered version listed in Prime video.

 

[Cranston37+]

I didn’t see the non-altered version listed in Prime video.

Yeah, they’re both on there. 2 different listings. One says “remastered” and the other doesn’t.