Chas Speed

I just recently got HDTV channels like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime etc.. and was shocked to see that most of these channels are showing widescreen 2.35:1 ratio films cropped and blown up to fill a typical widescreen TV so that no letterbox can be seen. This means a lots of missing picture information and since the film has been blown up it is not very clear. In a way it's not that great of an improvement to the way widescreen films used to be broadcast. Does it bother anybody else?

Mammal

Yes. Showtime reliably shows 2:35 films correctly, and occasionally the HBO family does it right. Very annoying.

Chas Speed

I could swear I saw "A Boy and his Dog" cropped recently on Showtime, but maybe it was The Movie Channel. It seems to defeat the whole purpose of HD, because the picture doesn't have that "crystal clear" look HD is supposed to have when they screw up the picture like that.

gmanca

I can't remember for sure, but I do think it was cropped to 1.85; it was shown on FLIX as that way.

I have noticed that more often for the older 90's films HBO and Cinemax are keeping the 2.35 ratio; the Jack Ryan films for example. However, I was pissed a few months ago when they were showing Beau Geste cropped and there were several scenes where there's like no characters in the frame. A certain scene with Leslie Nielsen and Guy Stockwell was particularly bad.

JZ1276

The dumbasses who want their screen filled are to thank for this.

Numanoid

They've been showing those movies in 4:3 pan-and-scan for thirty years. Why would they wise up now? I'm still baffled that the non-HD premium channels still crop to 4:3. What market are they serving, the octogenarians?

FinkPish

What bugs me more than the cropping to fill the screen in HD is channels like FX and AMC, who show movies in 4:3 on their HD channels. What's the point of having an HD channel if all the movies you are going to show are horribly mangled?

gmanca

Just now they had the Phantom in 2.35; I'm thinking the Viacom package of films is in OAR as the Peacemaker was also in 2.35.

If more studios would force this on HBO, that would be great.

Mammal

It is maddening. How about the History Channel? They recently showed "world war 2 in the air in HD." Incredibly, the color war footage (which was 4:3 when shot) was stretched, while the interviews with war vets was correctly shown in 1:78, because it was shot in HD.

I can fix the stretching by changing the screen format but that distorts the interview footage. It's impossible to watch the thing without distress.

gmanca

The real way to do it is how Oliver Stone does it in his biographical films where the 4:3 image is blown up so that when a 2.35 matte is laid over where he wants it framed, it doesn't look stretched, just that the image has a bit more grain and artifact to it.

Chas Speed

It's funny now days you have people watching old TV shows and movies made before 1950 stretched out to fill up a widescreen TV and you have widescreen 2.35:1 ratio films being cropped to look like films that were shot with a slight matte of 1.66:1 ratio. I almost think it was better off before as far as broadcast TV goes. Thank God you can get DVD's in the correct ratio or I would be really ticked off.

islandclaws

It kills me when a film I've been dying to see in HD is cropped. Although, recently Sho HD showed "Fright Night 2" in the proper 2.35:1 ratio which hasn't been shown since theaters. I was very pleased.

slimdude

This is exactly the reason why, I don't subscribe to any of the premium HD channels such as: Showtime, The Movie Channel, Starz, HBO, etc, because the movies are not being presented in their OAR, as they should. Its a waste of money! And besides, I prefer to rent, or buy Blu-rays due to their overall superior quality anyway. The only HD channel who broadcast 100% of their programming in its OAR is HDNet Movies.

gmanca

Actually, HD Net Movies does not broadcast in OAR 100%; they've shown films in 4:3 even though there's a 1.85 version, Oh Heavenly Dog for example.

Chas Speed

I guess HDNET and MGMHD seem to be the best of the channels. This doesn't bother me that much since I'm not a fan of the show, but I noticed the Sleuth Channel had a marathon of "letterboxed" Charlie's Angels episodes the other day. It does make me wonder what old show will be next to get the "letterbox" treatment.