How did people put up with Pan & Scan?

This was the first US release of Star Wars in letterbox format, and it came out in 1989. The Japanese letterbox version came out in December of 1986.

The aspect ratio of the US version changes throughout the film, due to the master for the Japanese disc being used and having to adjust the matte used for subtitles.

 

There ya go. I knew there had been an earlier letterboxed version -- it was all over LA.

That's goofy, because they could've just use the matte area below the image area for the titles and just reduced the size of the titles accordingly. A lot of bad judgement happens with subtitles.

 

The only anamorphic DVD release of The Green Berets is in this collection: http://www.amazon.com/TCM-Greatest-Classic-Films-Collection/dp/B001PO55LE and also the Blu-Ray is anamorphic widescreen.

 

Easy - never thought about it.

 

There is no anamorphic HD video on a BD, IIRC...

 

Something else that I find baffling is when the stand-alone DVD edition of a film is in full-screen, and the only place it's available in its proper widescreen format is in one of those multi-film DVD collections (which I dislike and try to avoid whenever possible). Some examples of this nonsense include a couple of Ivan Reitman's collaborations with Arnold Schwarzenegger (Twins and Kindergarten Cop), and a couple of Peter Hyams' collaborations with Jean-Claude Van Damme (Timecop and Sudden Death).

 

The widescreen on the standalone Green Berets DVD is letterbox taken from the LaserDisc master and it is a flipper disc.

 

It's a widescreen picture. In reality there are actually no "black bars".

 

I've said this before, but it always drove me nuts when people would refer to the "black bars", as if they were some kind of actual object placed over the image. It's just unused space on the screen due to the rectangular shape of the widescreen image. People are so stupid.

 

at least the ones mentioned are reasonably price...at least they were when I bough them...

 

or just uneducated to the format. Stupid? nah...

 

BTW, another movie that was made this way is "Coal Miner's Daughter"

 

Yep, I mastered that in the early 1980s. Pretty good movie. Many, many films are composed for 1.85 but shot in Academy Aperture (1.33), then masked off in projection. They actually translate very well to HD, since 1.85 is extremely close to 16x9 (about 2% more image top and bottom).

 

is the DVD anamorphic?

 

The DVD is anamorphic, Michael.

 

And I bet a transfer that's ten times better than what I did in the 1980s to analog 1" video. Nice-looking film -- it'd be hard to screw it up. The only thing I can remember is the Patsy Cline plane crash (at least I think this was the scene), which caught me by surprise.

 

I would much rather see the whole wide-screen image of a movie, even if it means wasted screen space top and bottom.

Some help needed though please...anyone care to explain to a layman what I should be looking out for on the back of a DVD box to get this? For example, I would much rather see a letterbox image than one where the image is 'zoomed-in' to fit the 16:9 screen ration.

Over Christmas I was looking forward to watching on TV an old favourite of mine, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, but was dismayed that it had the 'zoomed-in' quality, rather than full image letterbox! I'll have to get the DVD rather than relying on TV companies to do the righ thing! I wonder whether audiences would simply prefer not to have those 'black lines' or whether most are really that bothered.

Another pet-hate of mine... when an old 4:3 image is stratched to fit the widescreen telly! Sometimes Ifind my wife watching it like this, and Iask here if she finds it a bit weird? No, she says petulently. What if I change the screen from widescreen to pillar-box, and presto, like thus? Not bothered really!!

 

If you can do streaming video, Amazon has Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in CinemaScope ratio (2.55:1, I believe) for rental or purchase. I have the DVD deluxe edition which has both the CinemaScope version and the 1.77:1 version on separate discs. The transfer is pretty good, but seems a bit grainy. The colors are beautiful though. Be careful of the regular DVD edition: it is in 1.33:1, so it's a pan and scan version.

 

Thanks for that Joe. Should have said though I'm in the UK, so not sure if the DVD copy on sale here is the two-disc set. Will have to do some digging around!

 

Ah yes, it's easy to forget that the various region codes don't allow for US discs to play in the UK and vice versa, especially with DVD since it's a standard def format. However, you should be able to access Amazon through its UK version. I just found it here and it looks like it might be the correct aspect ratio, I know nothing of the transfer or how it was done: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seven-Bride...&keywords=seven+brides+for+seven+brothers+dvd

 

That's going on my Birthday Present wish list!

Am I right in assuming that 2:35:1 will be a proper widescreen image with the empty screen bars top and bottom (my preference) whereas a DVD with 1:85:1 for example would be the kind of image that fits onto a 16:9 HD screen with no black bars, and some picture loss?

 

My understanding was that it was filmed in two different aspect ratios: CinemaScope at 2.55:1 (though the DVDs say 2.35:1) and in a "Flat" widescreen aspect ratio of 1.77:1. The latter would fill your 16x9 display with no "bars" top or bottom, but some picture loss at the edges. (Vidiot, chime in here if I've got any of this wrong as I'm just going by what IMDB says.) So yes, you'll see the CinemaScope version on your display in it's original aspect ratio with the "bars" above and below the picture. I actually put my DVD on this morning to check to be sure because I so prefer the "Letterbox" presentation that I no longer notice the blank space on the display. In fact, I notice when they've zoomed in on a CinemaScope, Todd-Ao, or other very wide screen aspect ratio films. I think of it as a modern version of Pan & Scan because you're not seeing the image the director intended you to see.

 

Thanks Bradley...

 

Phil Anselmo swears by the 4:3 format. All of his band's dvds have been shot in that format. I like it too.

 

Did you see what they did with The Longest Day LD? If not, they letterboxed it but they put all the blacked-out area on the bottom and put the sub's down there. It seemed kind of interesting and different at first glance. I even speculated that letterbox haters might accept this style of boxing more readily, then I slapped myself and said nah....it'll be back to the same ole, "I want my screen filled". Plus, having the subs down below the picture maximizes pulling your eyes off the image.