The Truman Show: Special Collector's Edition - 8/23 (1 Viewer)

[Mark Lucas]

Yeah, you can really tell a lot by highly compressed low resolution screenshots. lol

 

[Carlo_M]

I was about to say that I couldn't make heads or tails out of those tiny screencap comparisons.

DVD Beaver, we need you!

 

[DavidS]

nifty! definitely on my must-buy list.

 

[Mark Lucas]

The deleted scenes are interesting but one was left off. It was a scene directly after Truman is captured by the guys in hazmat suits that showed a set for Fiji being built complete with a faux airplane. A shot that wasn't filmed but was also in the screenplay was a shot of Truman's boat floating by gigantic wave machinery.

 

[Tom_Ca]

IGN has comparison shots in the Double Dip Digest section.

 

[Seth--L]

The teaser trailer clearly shows that a lot more footage with Harry Shearer was shot, but cut. I also recall there being some other scenes hinted at in the trailers that never made it in.

 

[MikeEckman]

I watched this last night and concur with the people who say the transfer is a mixed bag. I had really hoped that it would have looked better, considering how colorful of a film this was. I might be a little off here, but I remember this movie coming out sometime around Pleasantville which had a similarly colorful and exxagerated transfer, but that one was spectacular. I kinda expected Truman Show to be similar, and I found it a bit soft and lacking in detail. It was not horrible, and the print was clean, but it was just very average...I was expecting more.

 

[Carlo_M]

Well if the transfer is indeed a mixed bag, I may hold off until the HD upgrade (whichever format wins). Because I too remember that this film did have a bright color palette in the theaters.

Maybe if this drops to sub-$10 I'll pick it up in the future.

 

[Seth--L]

That could be a while. I'm sure the only catalogue releases in the format wars, at first, will be mega hits. I love the "The Truman Show," but do you really think fortunes are going to be bet on it?

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Can anyone please confirm the aspect ratio on the new disc?

DVDTalk indicates a 1:85:1 transfer in their review but the previous DVD was 1:65:1 and someone else in this forum mentioned that should be the correct framing.

I want to setup my projector to watch the movie, so if anyone could confirm, that would be great!

 

[Greg Black]

Marco, the new DVD does indeed have a 1.85:1 ratio.

 

[Vincent-P]

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's 1.78:1. Paramount and Warner almost always do 1.78:1 transfers of 1.85:1 films.

 

[Mark Lucas]

It's 1.78:1.

The transfer is indeed soft and filtered. It's watchable but far below what could've been achieved. The ringing is bad too. :frowning:

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Thanks guys!

For the record... how did you figure that out, is there a way to derive this info directly from the disc with your hardware?

I ask because as I mentioned in a seperate thread a few weeks ago, I find it such a hassle to have to get online and research this info prior to watching every new DVD I pick up. And as you can see going by most reviews and information sites like IMDB, the details are not always accurate...

How do you guys handle this, assuming you've got the capability to adapt framing with your setup?

 

[Carlo_M]

One of the ways that I can tell aspect ratio (and no I don't have this disc, but I've done it for others) is to grab a screencap using PowerDVD, and then pasting the image in a program like Photoshop. Then you can look at the cap properties which will tell you pixel by pixel sizes and do the arithmetic. If there are black bars you can use Photoshop's cropping tool to just capture the image size, and then do the math.

That's a really manual way to do it, I'm sure there's easier ways out there...

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

yeah, that just seems like more of a complication. Plus I lack both PowerDVD and capture software. Again I don't understand why the studios can't just print this information on the covers or discs. Or at the very least, list it in the set-up menu of the disc...

 

[Mark Lucas]

You don't need to measure the ratio. If the movie is anamorphically enhanced and it's taking up the full video frame without bars then it's 1.78:1.

 

[Carlo_M]

Well to be fair, most commercial sets have ~5% overscan, so a 1.85 would appear to fill up the whole screen. In fact, the old DVD, whose ratio was given at 1:66, appeared to fill up my 16x9 TV as well.

And most studios do print the aspect ratio on the back cover (or at least hint at it, i.e. for WB "matted format" = 1.85 and "scope" = 2.35) but even then they are mostly rounding off. Quite a few 1.78s are rounded to 1.85.

 

[Mark Lucas]

Yes, with no overscan, if the video is taking up the whole frame then it's 1.78:1. I feel bad for the poor bastards that can't see the bars on 1.85:1 films. That's just bad.

 

[Tom_Ca]

Check out the comparison shots here: http://dvd.ign.com/articles/644/644552p1.html

Look especially set number 2.
Doesn't the image look kind of squeezed?

Oh, I don't know whether to double dip or not.