The Magnificent Seven (4 movies) on Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Rick Thompson]

Doe anyone know yet if this set on Blu-ray is pan-and-scan or widescreen? Amazon has a strange listing that says it's both. Does that mean both versions of all 4 on flippers? Or that some are wide screen and some are P&S? Just wide? Just P&S?

I've done Google searches and kept checking reviews and forums, but it doesn't say anywhere -- and I'm not buying till I'm sure I get widescreen on all four.

 

[sark28]

How many times do we have to go over this on these forums? PAN & SCAN DOES NOT EXIST IN 1080P. It's either a mistake on Amazon's part, or one of the sequels is a TV movie that was shot in 1.33:1.

 

[Rick Thompson]

Well, pardon me!

First, Amazon doesn't say 1080p. It says P&S and Widescreen.

Second, to say P&S is impossible in Blu-ray, or even 1080p, is ridiculous. If Universal, Paramount or anyone else thinks there's a buck to made in a "Full Screen" (my term is "partial picture") Blu-ray version, it will be made.

Third, all four "Magnificents" are theatrical films, aspect rations varying from 2.35:1 ("Magnificent Seven", "Return" and "Guns") to 1.85:1 ("Ride").

Fourth, 1080p has zip to do with aspect ratios. It's a measure of screen resolution, especially if you combine it with refresh rate.

Sorry if I upset you. We poor hicks don't pretend to know everything. When we have questions, we ask.

PS. You didn't answer my question, unless you consider snide insults an answer.

 

[Edwin-S]

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews20/magnificent_seven_dvd_review.htm

Here's a link to a review on DVDBeaver. Unfortunately, he only reviews the first film so there is no indication on whether the other three are widescreen. The first one is, so I would expect the rest to be in their OARs as well. The PQ on the other three probably won't be nearly as good as on the first one, since they are considered to be minor films compared to numero uno.

 

[Jeff Newcomb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sark28
PAN & SCAN DOES NOT EXIST IN 1080P.

Anyone who watches cable or satellite HD programming will tell you that 2.4:1 films are P&Sed to 1.78 all the time.

 

I have the set. The first three films are 2.35 and the final film is 1.85. The Magnificent Seven looks very nice, but the remaining films less and less as the series progresses. I have upconverted SD DVDs which look better than the The Magnificent Seven Ride. Maybe even when not upconverted. It is very soft.

 

[Paul_Scott]

That's disappointing to hear. I willing to take a shot on the set based on how nice the screenshots look of the first film. Never seen the sequels, but figured what the hell- they might be nice for a lazy Sunday afternoon sometime.
If anything though, I expected them to look even better than the first film since they were both newer and less likely to have the wear and tear a more popular film would.

Guess I'll just wait for MGM to release the first one on it's own in a year or two.

 

[Brian Borst]

The Magnificent Seven is available as a standalone edition in Europe, so it might be worth checking into that. I don't know whether it's region free or not, though.

 

[sark28]

That may be true for HD cable/satellite, but the studios so far have NEVER released pan & scan versions of movies on blu-ray, and they know how pointless that would be. Joe Sixpack and Soccer Mom aren't going to complain nowdays about the black bars on their 45" 16x9 HD TV, unlike back in the 90s when most screens were low-resolution 4x3.
I didn't mean to sound snide, but you have to realize that Amazon technical specs are to be taken with a major grain of salt.

 

[Ralphie_B]

Not to be contrarian, but "never" is a strong word. I believe Gulliver's Travels is one (of, admittedly, VERY few) examples where a Blu-Ray disc release is in a modified aspect ratio -- 1.78:1 versus the original 1.33:1, if I remember correctly.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Originally Posted by sark28
That may be true for HD cable/satellite, but the studios so far have NEVER released pan & scan versions of movies on blu-ray, and they know how pointless that would be. Joe Sixpack and Soccer Mom aren't going to complain nowdays about the black bars on their 45" 16x9 HD TV, unlike back in the 90s when most screens were low-resolution 4x3.
I didn't mean to sound snide, but you have to realize that Amazon technical specs are to be taken with a major grain of salt.

I believe the Blade films were released as 1.78:1 cropped (or pan & scan) in Canada. There are probably a few other cases, too.

And the general public does still complain about black bars on their 16x9 TV sets. My parents use different stretch and zoom modes on their TV (sometimes I think they just do it when I visit to annoy me /img/vbsmilies/htf/laugh.gif)

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield
I believe the Blade films were released as 1.78:1 cropped (or pan & scan) in Canada. There are probably a few other cases, too.

Only the first Blade is MAR in Canada. Blade II was shot 1.85:1 and Blade: Trinity is 2.35:1. However, Se7en was released MAR from a 1080i master, which is why I refuse to buy or rent it. I should also note that all these releases are barebones on BD25s. It always pays to 1) check the back of the box before buying; and 2) check for online reviews and screencaps. There are no guarantees.

 

[Brian McHale]

I have certainly read about a few BDs that have been reformatted to 1.78:1 from wider formats (whether they're pan and scan or just cropped, I don't know; I suspect the latter). It is very common for HD pay movie channels (ie HBO, Cinemax) to show 2.35:1 movies in 16:9 fullscreen. Is it a stretch to think that some movies will be reformatted for BD?

I have also read many complaints from people who buy a widescreen TV and still have those "damn black bars", so Joe 6P is alive and well.

That being said, I doubt that 2.35:1 movies reformatted to 1.78:1 would be marked as P&S, so a listing like this at Amazon is almost certainly going to be a mistake.

There is another possibility for getting P&S in a BD package like this: BD/DVD combo packs. It seems that some companies include whatever the existing DVD is with a BD when packaging these together. If the DVD happens to have a P&S version on the disc, it would then be accurate to list P&S and Widescreen on the packaging (though I would be pretty surprised if they actually did that).

 

[Robert Crawford]

For those interested, this BRD boxset is on sale for 33.99 at Amazon.





Crawdaddy

 

[Terry Hickey]

For those interested, the 50th Anniversary disc of "The Magnificent Seven" is $9.99 at Target. I picked my copy up
yesterday. The single disc is a Target exclusive.

 

[Persianimmortal]

I picked up the single disc 50th anniversary edition of The Magnificent Seven a few weeks ago, and got around to watching it tonight. It looks great, certainly much better than the old DVD I had and gave away a few years back. And it goes without saying that it's a superb movie.

But unfortunately, the audio has a sync issue that becomes quite noticeable towards the latter part of the film. I'm surprised that it's not mentioned in this thread, or in the review here. I did some searching and found that a large number of other people, and other reviewers, have experienced the same sync issue, so it's not my hardware or a faulty disc. Once you become aware of it, it becomes quite annoying. It only goes out of sync by a small amount, but in scenes with gunshots and dialog, it's noticeable.

Anyway, just thought it worth bringing up in case anyone else gets caught out. The sync issue does bring down an otherwise good disc, especially as I've never experienced out of sync audio on any of my other blu-rays.