That's probably because it's matted widescreen, and all they did was stick black bars over a Full-Frame cut of the movie. I bought the same disc and was very very disappointed in that, as I love the movie and was hoping to finally see it in the OAR.

Shagrath

1.85:1 is the OAR. You misunderstand the matting process. Here is an explanation:

http://www.widescreen.org/widescreen_matted.shtml

I'm not sure I know what you mean here. With which movies has this been done?

I think he was referring to movies like Back To the Future 2 & 3 where they took a pan and scanned version and then cropped the top and bottom to make it look like it's widescreen.

I think you're both a little confused, and need to read the link Josh provided.

Many movies are made by exposing the full 1.33 negative and matting the top and bottom to create the widescreen image. During filming, the camera's viewfinder has marks that show where the mattes will go. The picture at the top and bottom was never intended to be seen, so you're not missing anything that wasn't seen in theater anyways.

No, I think this disc is messed up since many parts are covered up by the bars, including credits, so instead of creating a widescreen master, they just put bars over the pan and scan version.

I couldn't buy a P&S film, knowing that there is a widescreen version out there. That's why the only Godzilla DVDs I have so far are the Simitar discs and the Universe discs of G vs Megaguirus and GMK. (I would love to get the Japanese R2 discs, they look gorgeous, but no English subs and very expensive. :( )

But as for some of the older kung fu films, widescreen prints don't even exist anymore, so its P&S or nothing. :(

I should probably stay out of this, but here goes:

I am staunchly in favor of OAR, but recently I have made two exceptions. The first was The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. Apparently, Disney movies of this vintage were shot to be diplayed anywhere from 1.33:1 to 1.85:1. I also figured that movies as minor as this may never be released again, so waiting for an OAR version would likely prove futile.

The second was My fellow Americans. While this will likely see a re-release someday, it was available for $5.88 from Wal-Mart, so what the heck...

When viewing both of these, I used the Theaterwide 2 mode on my widescreen Toshiba. This is the mode that zooms in equally and is the best mode for watching non-anamorphic widescreen. Guess what? Both of these looked fine when zoomed in, so I think it's safe to say they were both shot open matte. Also, the exisitng Christmas Story looks fine (other than the bad transfer) when zoomed in.

I still will always fight to get OAR, but there are definitely cases where I find it worthwhile to make an exception. If a movie is open matte and does not contain much in the way of visual effects, it can probably be zoomed on a widescreen set to get OAR. You lose resolution, but you get the proper framing.

Yeah, generally I'm a big OAR supporter, but I'll buy a P&S release if that's all there is.

In fact, there was even one case wherer I made a P&S purchase where a WS version is available (but relatively expensive and difficult to get). This case would be Happy Gilmore. Since I have a region-free PAL anamorphic capable player, I could've ordered the WS R4 Australian version for around $17 shipped, but I figured it wasn't worth the extra expense and hassle. Instead I bought the P&S version from CH for about $7. If Happy Gilmore ever gets released in WS format in the US, I'll gladly double dip on it, but for now I can live with the P&S version. After all, we're only talking about Happy Gilmore here, and it's not exactly considered the pinnacle of cinemetography.

I dont think letterboxing is "overrated", as I always choose OAR when given a choice. But the rare times that I do buy a P&S/Full Screen disk is when it is not available in OAR & its a movie that I absolutely love...ie NL Vacation. And if you think this site is snobbish get a load of HTF!

Buy a used P&S off ebay. That way you get "something" to watch until an OAR version is released. This way the studios can't get paid for it or count it as a sale and you can feel like a smarty-man for having beaten the system.

Next.

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I'm glad you were able to add something to this discussion :rolleyes: On topic- I agree with dammit, if you must own a P&S DVD buy if from e-bay so you don't help the sales figures and mak studios think you want P&S