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| Registered: March 14, 2007 |  Posts: 555 |
| | Posted: | | | | The last couple of weeks I've bought TWO fairly new UK region 2 DVDs which have been cropped from the original 2.35:1/2.40:1 aspect ratio to 1.78:1, namely "A Prairie Home Companion" (released by Universal Home Entertainment) and "Seraphim Falls" (released by Icon Home Entertainment). In both cases I didn't check the aspect ratios before purchasing the DVDs, as I didn't think this would be an issue. I noticed the cropping pretty fast while watching "Seraphim Falls", though, and a quick internet search confirmed my suspicion. I know this cropping has also been done on UK DVDs of "Gosford Park" and "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story".
This seems to be mainly a UK phenomenon, as I know that at least the 3 first movies I've mentioned have been released in their correct aspect ratios in Scandinavia (also region 2). Does anyone know why on earth they're cropping the movies like this? | | | | Last edited: by Behemot |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 20,111 |
| | Posted: | | | | I hate when they do that!!! No clue as to why they do it.  The one DVD Studio I truly dislike doing shady business with aspects ratios is Sony. With many R1 DVD's they'll often silently reissue DVD's with the same exact UPC (!!!), but only use the Fullscreen version...when previously it had both Widescreen and Fullscreen versions. And it isn't only the obvious "Walmart $5 discount bins" they'll do this practice with, but every store and online retailer.  | | | | Corey |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 2,217 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Behemot: Quote:
The last couple of weeks I've bought TWO fairly new UK region 2 DVDs which have been cropped from the original 2.35:1/2.40:1 aspect ratio to 1.78:1, namely "A Prairie Home Companion" (released by Universal Home Entertainment) Well, according to a certain database that is not to be named 1,78:1 is the negative aspect ratio, so maybe it isn't cropped but just a opened transfer, as the original is HDTV (1080p/24). cya, Mithi | | | | Mithi's little XSLT tinkering - the power of XML --- DVD-Profiler Mini-Wiki |
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| Registered: May 22, 2007 | Reputation:  | | Posts: 1,033 |
| | Posted: | | | | Some cable channels here in the US that have hd channels do this. The reason is giving at the start of the movie. "This film has been modified to fit your TV" 1.78 is 16:9. They are now formatting to fit widescreen tv's. I guess you could say its the 'new fullscreen'
-Agrare | | | | Last edited: by Agrare |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Posts: 555 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Mithi: Quote:
Quoting Behemot:
Quote:
The last couple of weeks I've bought TWO fairly new UK region 2 DVDs which have been cropped from the original 2.35:1/2.40:1 aspect ratio to 1.78:1, namely "A Prairie Home Companion" (released by Universal Home Entertainment)
Well, according to a certain database that is not to be named 1,78:1 is the negative aspect ratio, so maybe it isn't cropped but just a opened transfer, as the original is HDTV (1080p/24).
cya, Mithi I guess this is possible for "A Prairie Home Companion", but I'm pretty sure "Seraphim Falls" was shot in 2.35:1. Even the "Making of featurette" showed clips from the movie in that aspect ratio, which looked WAY better than the 1.78 AR found in the actual movie. It may be a 16X9 TV issue, as Agrare mentions. The horror!  |
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| Registered: June 21, 2007 | Reputation:  | | Posts: 2,621 |
| | Posted: | | | | The first batches of Lions Gate's Lord of War in region 1 were in 1.78 when the movie was 2.40 scope. Enough people complained that it was replaced, but I still see the old 1.78 discs in Wal-Mart and a couple other stores.
Sony's silent replacing ws/fs flipper discs with the fs only side is the worst though, esp. with the same UPC's making any online order a gamble. |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: |  Posts: 1,946 |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 291 |
| | Posted: | | | | it's going on in the u.s. as well. as Agrare said, it's the new full screen. lazy studios, lazy tv networks, ignorant public. just cuz the tv screen got wide doesn't mean anything's going to get better. krik  [that man, such an optimist...]  | | | | "Vampirism is still not a disease, Julia. Vampires are the living dead...dead...dead..." | | | | Last edited: by Krikarian |
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  | T!M | | Profiling since Dec. 2000 |
| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: |  Posts: 8,736 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting cvermeylen: Quote:
This isn't a UK only problem. A lot of Netherlands/Belgium releases suffer from this also. Indeed. Mostly by a few of the low-cost/low-quality DVD distributors, though: it's very rare to see this happen with DVD's released by one of the major labels. That's why I was genuinly surprised to see that Behemot encountered this on a Universal Home Entertainment release. I really hope this doesn't mean we're going to see this more and more... |
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