El Kabong

I've looked at Metro (Eddie Murphy) many times, but never got it because it wasn't anamorphic. I was just at BJs & saw it for 6.99 & it said anamorphic on the back. They had some of the old ones that weren't too. I know Good Will Hunting & some others were repackaged & labeled anamorphic when they weren't & searching now I saw Metro is on that list. But the weird thing is I thought it was anamorphic at first. It was in the proper ratio, but I noticed a slight jump before it started & it did it again when I exited to the menu (which was definitely stretched). When I went back to the movie I went to FF through the opening credits & noticed the "FF1" that comes on screen was cut off. I got my tv remote out & checked the setting & it was on zoom- which would make a non-anamorphic movie fill the screen properly. This is the first non-anamorphic disc I've watched for quite a while, so it was definitely set to full. How did the disc make my tv settings change when the movie was on & switch back when I went to the menu (because the menu wasn't cut off at all). Is this something new they did to half-ass fix the fact they have it labeled as 16x9?

dvd_luver

I actually repurchased Metro for $5.50 at Target awhile back because it said it was Anamorphic 16x9 and what do you know, it's not. Metro is a great little underrated action flick, it's not Beverly Hills Cop but it's not supposed to be. Roper is a hostage negotiator in San Francisco and I really enjoyed Murphy's performance in this. Michael Wincott and Eddie Murphy going at it was worth the price of admission alone, and the DVD purchase as well. I would triple-dip on this if they ever released a Special Edition with Anamorphic WS. This is a nice little find for Murphy fans and fans of action films.

The Infidel

Apparently they didn't count on you catching that. You have foiled their plot. Well done, grasshopper.

Supermallet

So how are they getting the disc to send a message that changes his TV display? Or is it changing the player display?

El Kabong

It's definitely changing the tv settings. I just hit play to resume it & right before it started playing I hit the display button & it said full. For a split second when it started it was stretched, then it switched to "zoom" mode- when I hit the display again it said zoom now. And when I stop it or go to the menu, it switches back to full. I've always had to manually zoom non-anamorphic movies, so I don't think it's my tv doing it automatically. This is definitely weird. Maybe the next version will make your tv change stations to find other subpar Eddie Murphy movies.

Drexl

Could it be improperly flagged as automatic pan and scan?

Kevin M. Dean

DVDs flagged to switch tvs to the zoom mode have been around since the beginning of dvd, just not all dvds had the flag on their non-anamorphic material.

toddly6666

I had a wierd experience with the first DVD release of OFFICE SPACE. It always filled my HDTV as if it was anamorphic and it certainly looked like an excellent anamorphic video too. Does anyone have any other DVD players that do this with non-anamorphic DVDs? I assume it's just coincidence that the first DVD release of OFFICE SPACE was of excellent non-anamorphic quality. Every single other non-anamorphic DVD I have obviously looks pixilated or zoomed in when it fills the HDTV

Drexl

Well, my first DVD player would display menus as 4:3 (with the extraneous image on the sides cut off) even though it was set for 16:9 (I used vertical squeeze back in the day). My second player would display the whole menu in 16:9. So, there could be some differences between players as to how they handle certain material.

manicsounds

Disc 2 of the Lost Highway DVD is the same thing.
The menus are anamorphic, but the supplements are fullscreen, and the DVD player automatically zooms in to fill the screen.