Which aspect ratio to buy? (1 Viewer)

[JohnJB]

Just to confuse the issue, I beleive Boogie Nights & U571 were released 2:35 in region 1 but cropped to 1:85 in region 2, go figure ?

 

[Richard Travale]

Just to add more fuel to this. I was at Futureshop the other day and they had two different versions of Castaway. One was 1.85:1 and the other was 2.35:1. I think the 2.35:1 version was a two disc SE.

 

[Jeremy Allin]

I believe the 2.35:1 AR for Cast Away was a misprint. It's always been 1.85:1.

 

[GlennH]

That's correct, the original 2-disc release of Cast Away had a misprint on the box. It should be 1.85:1.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I know 1.78:1 isn't either ratio

It's got its roots in Buddism. The "golden ratio" of the 2 is 1.78:1

 

[Garrett Lundy]

I thought that the Greek "Golden Ratio" was 1.66:1?

But I'm probably misinformed.

Anyway, Just out of curiosity, what are some movies that have an OAR of 1.78:1? Just for checking-out when I get my new 16x9 tv?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

16:9 is a good compromise between 1.33:1 and the widescreen ratios. If they built TVs at 2.35:1 everything except 'scope films would have to be windowboxed.

I've also read that from an engineering standpoint, when working out the widescreen format, it was simpler to take 4:3 and multiply the width by four and the height by three to come up with the new format. Tweaking it to hit 1.85:1 exactly would have been pointless, if not impossible. Overscan would likely make it impossible to see the difference anyway. Same reason that current TVs are 1.33:1 instead of exactly 1.37:1. In designing and mass-producing early cathode ray tubes it was easier to make the display 1.33:1 than to hit 1.37:1 on the nose, and that was deemed "close enough"

Given that the material we watch is going to range in aspect ratio from 1.33:1 to 2.60:1 or thereabouts, there is no single shape that is going to be "ideal" for all of it. Certainly 1.78:1 is a better choice than 1.33:1 for widescreen material, and it is probably a better compromise than a wider ratio given that we have nearly 100 years worth of films and over 50 years worth of television shows that were created for a narrower ratio - and which we'll still be watching for the next hundred years, at least.

Regards,

Joe

 

[KlausWinkler]

@JohnB:
To make things even more complicated, only the UK RC2 was cropped (maybe they deleted the parts that were especially offensive to the Brits )

@Brian:
I think "virtually never" allowed some exceptions anyway, but the point that there is no movie, that is intentionally released in two WS ARs remains.