I tried a search, but to no avail. So sorry if this is a repeat. But I recently purchased the Four Samurai Classics CC boxset and finally got around to watching Yojimbo.

During the intro credits, words on both sides seem to be cut off. For example, when the words:
"________starring
TOSHIRO MIFUNE"
come up on screen, the "g" and the "E" are completely cut off, as are all other intro credits. This seems to be done on both sides, so obviously there is some missing picture as well. Is it possible I have my player misconfigured or is this the best/only print of Yojimbo Criterion could get? Sorry if this is common knowledge, but I just thought I'd check.

Thanks for any info,
Dave

edit: my original post did misspell Toshiro as Yoshiro, so that sucked.

The picture is right, as far as I know. I think its because of your TV's overscan, and the fact that they didn't have TV-safe back then on the cameras.

My Yojimbo DVD stars Toshiro Mifune. Your copy is clearly defective.

So does it play fine on your TV? Or would it be correct on a widescreen TV? I guess Im just wondering if my DVD is defective.

Haha yes. Obviously we know it's Toshiro, but I guess I do have a defect. It seems my keyboard has it's "T" & "Y" keys too close to each other.

Unfortunately, I don't have Yojimbo, but with a couple of other Kurosawa DVDs I have, the titles do take up the entire screen, and some letters are lost. The DVD in the pack is the same transfer as the single disc, and I don't this is a reprinting with a different transfer, so I'm leaning more towards TV overscan. I'm not even sure if a defect like this could occur on one disc, it would have to exist on the master disc first.

It's not your TV. The image was cropped which has been the major complaint of the Criterion disc.

I don't think the image was cropped. It seems it's overscan that's the issue. When I use the zoom/reduce feature of my dvd player to reduce the image size, I see the credits without them being "cropped". Now it still may be that the framing is different than what was originally intended by Kurosawa but the credits aren't chopped off.

In fact, I usually "reduce" the size when I watch most 1:33 movies.

Your copy is NOT defective!

When Toho supplied Criterion with a master copy,
They did not compensate for television overscan,
so some of it looks misframed on normal TVs

If you play Yojimbo on a computer,
you will notice that the sides are NOT chopped off.

just picked up the set, and yea the opening credits are cut off.

good to see its not a disc problem.

I've read several reviews stating that the Criterion YOJIMBO and SANJURO discs do have cropping on the sides. The aspect ratio is not quite right on these. Unfortunately, these were the only masters supplied to them by Toho, so they had to make due. From what I hear, the Toho R2 discs do not have this problem, and look much better overall (but alas, no English subs).

Thanks for all the imput guys. You are correct, it must be overscan. Because(as suggested) when played in my computer, the image is fine. When played on my DVD player's "default" settings, the image seems to be slightly cropped on both sides(when watching on my 1.33 full frame TV). But again, thanks for all the responses, I guess I'll tinker with my DVD settings and/or watch it on my computer. Does anyone know why this happens? Have I been missing out on image on other widescreen DVD's because of overscan?

This is true of about 99% of all DVDs. Very few titles I've seen have black space on the sides to help with overscan. There are some titles that are anamorphic and 1.66:1, but in those cases the black space on the sides is to preserve the correct aspect ratio, not to compensate for overscan.

Criterion's Sanjuro is vary cropped compared to what
recently played on Indepentant Film Channel.
Toho must have let out a better version for network replay
vs. what they let Criterion use for the DVD.

I have a Philips 727, would using the zoom feature, to zoom out help with the cropping to the Sanjuro/Yojimbo DVDs?

You've been missing out on image on everything due to overscan. Consumer televisions have approximately 5% overscan on all four sides of the frame. This is normal. It's only when movies/TV shows have important information positioned on the extreme edges of the frame that you'll notice.

Yet another reason to love my cherished Malata n996!!!

X/Y Scaling!!!