Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by David Aiken (A) on November 12, 2006 at 13:43:35

In Reply to: Not correct posted by rico on November 12, 2006 at 09:05:56:

As I said, I have some DVDs which are labelled "Wide Screen". The films on these discs have a screen aspect of 2.35:1. The DVDs are mastered in letterbox format for a 4:3 screen . Displayed at full screen width on my 16:9 TV, the picture format is wider than 2.35:1 and the images are stretched in the horizontal plane. The black bars above and below the image are taller than those with an anamorphic 2.35:1 film. Correct film proportions on these discs are restored if they are displayed as a 4:3 program.

Off hand, the most interesting example of this phenomenon that I can give are my copies of Halloween and Halloween II. Both are labelled in exactly the same way on the packaging with a banner that says "Wide Screen" at the top of the front cover and are labelled as "Wide Screen 2.35:1" on the back cover. Neither package refers to display screen format anywhere and, looking at the 2 films, one would assume that both are identical in film and display screen format details. Halloween is mastered for a 16:9 display and displays correctly. Halloween II has been mastered for a 4:3 screen and only displays correctly when I set my screen to 4:3 aspect. Viewed at full screen width, everyone looks fatter than they really are and the actual image height is significantly less than the image height of Halloween.

Note that I live in Australia and these are the local PAL release versions of these 2 films so the situation may be different with NTSC copies in the States.

Wide screen labelling obviously refers only to the original film aspect ratio for some releases.

David Aiken