Why on Earth does George Lucas allow this Garbage!? (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

True, Dave. 480p is part of the digital tv standard, just as 720p and 1080i are, but it is not HD.

Fox has deliberately chosen not to do anything in HD.

 

[bill lopez]

Just think of the J6Pers who bought the dvd and are fuming because their dvd doesn't look like FOX's broadcast.

 

[Darren Davis]

this was my first time seeing the movie (I think that was a mistake) and it was a horrible crop. I figured if anything he'd push it to be in OAR with the whole 9 yards seeing as how IT'S STAR WARS (I'm not a huge fanatic but it's definitely a staple of Americana). Did anyone else also notice that the picture quality was horrible? The football game I watched before looked 10x better.

 

[Danny Knapp]

I can't believe there are people out there who still prefer pan and scan...I'm GLAD I missed the fox showing now.
Oh, by the way, on black friday I was at Best Buy and a woman told me (standing in line, you know, forever) she was going to return her DVD player because the movies have "black bars" on them. I explained to her that it was called "widescreen" and that's how movies are originally intended to be shown but she didn't even listen to me! I think some people simply don't understand what they're missing with Pan and Scan.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

My daughter (8) kept saying "pause it" or "rewind that part", and I had to say "sorry sweetie, we can't do that with HD", to which she replied "well, that's dumb!"
Children make their parents proud sometime

...as long as they don't keep asking for that same luxury during trips to the movie theater, that is.
Regards,

 

[Kevin Coleman]

Although 480P is not HDTV I heard from many people on AVS Forum who saw it on FOX said it was a much better transfer than the DVD. Alot less EE and it was brighter. Lucasfilm and FOX should be ashamed at the quality of the transfer on the DVD. THX my ass.
Kevin C.

 

[Pete-D]

OK for starters, you're being pretty naive if you think the Fox TV broadcast is for the home theater crowd. Its for the average schmuck who wants to sit around with his family on the last day of the Thanksgiving weekend and watch some Star Wars. Most people don't even understand why there are black lines on the top and bottom it has to be explained to them and even then a lot of people aren't happy about it, especailly if they have a smaller TV screen.

When NBC had the rights the original Star Wars trilogy it was shown in pan & scan. When TBS shows Star Wars: ANH, its also p&s. How many movies shown on Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, TBS, etc. are shown in widescreen.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

The irony I found was although the feature was pan & scan, many of the commercials shown during breaks were letterboxed.

Except the commercials for The Phantom Menace DVD, which is only available as a widescreen DVD.

Neil

 

[Nathan_R]

I'll agree that the OTA 480p letterboxed FOX broadcast (at least in my neck of the woods) did at times look better than the dvd. Hey, it wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darned good for FOX.

~~Nathan

 

[MikeCD]

Why show the film on TV so close after the DVD release? So people who haven't yet bought the DVD will now be inclined to. And the prices did drop for Black Friday.

 

[Paul Jenkins]

just a note, i didn't say it was HD, i said it was on the HD side, meaning that only my HD reciever could pick it up on the Fox HD feed, and that the normal Fox broadcast was not...

As for it being a lot better than the DVD, I disagree, as I was A/B'ing it (yes, I'm a geek) during the commercials and the quality was similar.

As for 16:9 480p being bad, it just isn't so, 16:9 480p looks great, much better than 4:3 480i. It isn't true HD, but it sure beats the regular crap...

 

[Brian Lawrence]

I really don't see the big deal here, We are talking about network television. Those of us who care about seeing the films as they where intended usually don't watch movies this way anyhow.

The sad but true fact is that many of you probably tuned in just because it was Pan & Scan, You wanted to see just how bad it looked (Like a car accident that you don't want to see yet can't take your eyes off of). Had it been in widescreen, what would be the reason to even bother checking the thing out if you happen to own the dvd anyhow? (Which most though not all of you do).

To me this griping about Fox showing Phantom Menace in Pan and Scan is akin to those preachers screaming about every morsel of vulgar content in the latest issue of HUSTLER.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Why show the film on TV so close after the DVD release? So people who haven't yet bought the DVD will now be inclined to. And the prices did drop for Black Friday.

This really doesn't have anything to do with it. Lucas sold the rights about a year ago for the Fox window and then the cable window (which a Turner channel got... TBS or TNT) They were going to broadcast this in April, but held off since the ad market was poor. The sweet irony is that now the ad market has TOTALLY bottomed out. This is most likely the same reason the movie is P&S... once he sold the rights, it was out of his hands.
EDIT: If anything, this will hurt DVD sales... All the J6Ps who would have bought it instead just tape it off Fox.

 

[Hubert]

I agree. While it looked horrible in terms of the cutting to fit a 4:3 screen, did anyone expect Fox to show letterbox? Of course they were gonna show it P&S because they knew 90+ percent of the audience wanted it that way, and preferred it that way. We are a rare breed. True home theater enthusiasts are a very small percentage of the population. So it makes no nevermind to me whether they show it in P&S. I'd rather watch the DVD anyway. The only movie I've seen shown in widescreen and uncut on TV was I believe Schindler's List. I can't even remember that one too well. Maybe it was shown in P&S. I can't remember. But I remember it being widescreen.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I didn't turn it on expecting it to be in it's OAR, even i'm not that blind! But as Brian Lawrence said I couldn't help but look out of morbid curiosity, to see what this film looked like mutilated, and what I saw made me sick!
I didn't even have to put it on for it to cheese me off, simply KNOWING that it's on, and millions of peope are seeing this travesty en mass, would have been enough to do it to me.
And just for the record, I DO NOT under any circumstances watch movies on network television, always dvd.

 

[Keith Paynter]

Why show the film on TV so close after the DVD release?

Beacuse the film's been out on home video longer than that.

People who bought the original full-frame VHS got to see the same show again.

 

[mark_d]

Which version did they show? Theatrical or DVD cut?

Mark

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I believe that it was the theatrical cut, and I use that term EXTREMLY loosly.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Who watches movies on TV anyhow?

BTW the topic header is very unfair. To single out George Lucas for something that has been going on since movies have been broadcast on TV is illogical.

Might as well blame him for all movies that have bad direction, editing, dialogue etc that is shown on TV as well.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Lou, I singled him out because he is one of a very few director's who has complete control over his movies. It was within his power to never allow 'EP I' to be seen in pan n scan at all, either on home video or cable. Not illogical at all.