I can only think of one that was 16X9 and that was the TV teaser for Peter Jackson's 'King Kong'

All other trailers notably, the ones for the upcoming 'Poseidon' are windowboxed so severly, that any sort of excitement is considerably diminished.

I would assume this will change in the future, but I find it odd that while some adds are full 16X9, and some pillar-boxed, Hollywood hasn't jumped on the trend to use 16X9 aspect ratio to a film's visual advantage.

as a trailer and tv spot editor (amongst other things) i can tell you why 16x9 transfers of trailers are so rare. nearly every editor works with 4x3 material when cutting trailers and tv spots; we're talking dailies, rough cuts of the feature, etc. for trailers, it doesn't matter that it isn't 16x9 because you're going to recreate the cut using film elements anyway. when the finished trailer is transfered back to video, its done at 4x3 so that it matches everything else editors use for cutting tv spots, trailer cutdowns, revisions, etc.

so when a home video department decides to include the trailer, its cheaper to grab a digitbeta off the shelf than to re-transfer it at 16x9. same is true for deleted scenes, and other elements -- its cheaper to use what already exists -- most of which is going to have a 4x3 transfer.

over the coming years, as 16x9 and HD become the standard, you'll see a change.

I just find it odd, when a movie like the film I mentioned Poseidon is projected on a standard 4:3 screen it's in it's OAR of 2:35, yet on my HiDef monitor it's windowboxed drastically, can't a film that is advertised at such an aspect ratio be flagged so that the image is at least pulled forward... ??

that would be like using the zoom feature on your dvd player or hd monitor.

Not to contradict Cygnet, but many recent commercials, and pretty much all trailers are made in HD. They just don't bother to transmit them to use in HD. I was watching TV the other night. First, an Apple commercial comes on, not HD even though they are available that way. The very next commercial was for Toyota and it was HD.

I don't know if this is the network's fault, Apple's fault, or what. But there are hundreds of examples just like this one.

yes, but DVDs are not HD. so even if an HD finish of a trailer exists, they are more likely to just grab the SD digibeta which is unlikely to be 16x9 for the reasons I mentioned earlier, rather than to pay the expense of a downconvert.

with HD-DVD or Blu-Ray you will start to see more of the bonus features in HD (and 16x9) as well.

That would be nice. The current crop of movies out or announced is doing SD extras, though.

Pretty sure the OP meant on HDTV channels, not on DVD. Obviously there wouldn't be HD trailers on DVD.

right, forgot what forum i was in.

I actually would love to know why trailers aren't 16x9 on DVD/HD. makes absolutely no sense. I love catching trailers in HD on UniversalHD. It's the way it SHOULD be.

Here is the reason: They are just lazy there is no other reason.

just to bitch a little more - the recent HiDef airing of HBO's Poseidon: First Look was pillar boxed and alternated from 1.85 to 2.35 - WTF?

All the "first look" specials are full screen 4x3.

Another thing I love about my 360 is the ability to download some HD trailers and store them on the HDD. The LIVE Marketplace needs to hurry their ass up and add Superman Returns.

Most of the trailers are in 720p. I haven't noticed too many in 1080i.

that's really too bad that these specials are shot and presented as such, given if they were 16x9 they could showcase the films with more spectacular video quality.

HDNet's presentation of the Visual Effects Society Awards show featured numerous clips in their OAR - Goblet of Fire's clips looked crappy, but Narnia's snippets looked incredible.