Howiefan

I saw recently that the first season of Friends has been airing in HD on TNT and the show looks REALLY good. It seems like the episodes have been remastered in widescreen with no zoom or black bars on the sides. Will the show be released on Blu-ray in the near future?

JimRochester

I have the entire series on DVD. It was one of my wifes favorite shows. I would consider upgrading if it mattered but I always catch her watching it on cable with all the commercials and leaving the sets I bought her collecting dust.

Howiefan

I haven't watched my DVDs in a long time. I remember they didn't look too good on my plasma TV though. Here's some screen caps of the new HD versions:

lamphorn

Hm. That would be tempting, but I wouldn't just want Season 1... I'd want at least seasons 1-6, which would get expensive. I do have several of the DVD sets and they don't look good at all on an HDTV. I'll look for these on TNT.

danyanez

Got this from blu-ray.com...



http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=5846

mzupeman2

Well, it looks like the new airings are opened up and not cropped. Wonderful!

LorenzoL

It is an improvement but I don't think that I want to pay an increase in price for it

bluetoast

But it's stilll probably not what they framed the shots for.

calhoun07

Not a Friends fan...but I clicked on the thread to see how possible this was. Because I really want Seinfeld on Blu-Ray. I can't bring myself to watch the DVDs anymore after seeing the high def versions on TV now.

I just hope they realize there is a market for this. Perhaps more limited than the original DVD releases, but a market just the same.

MTRodaba2468

I don't like Friends at all, but I do hope the show sells well on Blu, if only for the potential of opening a door for more catalog TV on Blu-Ray.

For similar reasons, I hope they keep it in it's original 4x3 aspect ratio, rather than reframe it or crop it (which, unfortunately, will probably not happen).

GenPion

If it's not released on Blu-ray in it's OAR that would be a huge mistake. I sincerely hope they don't go this route.

BSTNFAN

The purist in me agrees 100%. My concern is that I think an opened up 16x9 might actually look better to TNT (or whoever) for HD syndication and sell better on BD, which at least would make future seasons and other catalog titles more likely. I definitely don't want a cropped widescreen (is that what Seinfeld did or is it opened up?).

calhoun07

But if releasing it in HD and in widescreen adds more to the image why would it be an issue?

calhoun07

Seinfeld is definitely opened up. Nothing's cropped, nothing's missing from the original 4:3 versions. And I read the show was actually shot on film, so it is ideal for an HD Blu-Ray transfer.

I suspect from the screen caps above that Friends is similar.

But this should ONLY be done with shows that can be opened up like that. Cropping should never be an alternative to force something into widescreen.

nando820

I love how Seinfeld looks broadcast in HD. Kinda glad I never got to buy the DVDs.
I like the idea of being available in Blu-Ray but then again I don't really need to buy it anytime soon since they play the episodes on TV all the time

GenPion

Unless the series Director's actually wanted wide-screen framing this is just as bad and an important issue to discuss. The 4:3 framing may have been the intended ratio, and opening it up can interfere with what they intended for audiences to focus on in any given scene. That's altering their hard work.

lamphorn

On a film, I agree 100%, but on an episodic TV series, especially a multi-cam sitcom... I kind of doubt the aspect ratio is really truly that important or labored over in the way that it is for a feature film. Network TV operates at such a breakneck pace, that I doubt those guys were busy composing Kubrick-perfect shots and were going more for just making sure the actors were visible. So, if the BD's feature transfers that open up to the original camera negative (as opposed to cropping the tops and bottoms), I'm perfectly okay and even delighted with this change so long as there aren't stressed-out PA's or camera gear in the shot.

Eddie W

So is this some Canadian version of TNT that's showing these? I can't find any upcoming showing of Friends on TNT. TBS shows two episodes daily but it's the same old blurry strech-o-vision they call "HD".

tronmaster

Darn it I bought the entire Friends dvd set couple months ago when it was on sale for $99. The HD looks pretty good. I might consider upgrading if the quality is really good and the price is rather reasonable.

b2net

Maybe they were shot in 16x9... but since at that time, many people were almost violently opposed to Widescreen on their 4x3 TVs, they broadcast it in 4x3 to appease the masses.. I remember when Star Trek Enterprise came out... in 16x9, there were all kinds of articles and disclaimers that the reason it was letterbox was it was filmed in prep for 16x9 HD... where today aspects are what aspects are...

bluetoast

The 16x9 television ratio was introduced as "the future standard" in around 1994 (Friends's first season). There was a cinematographers round table discussion where they were all scratching their heads, saying "WTF? Why this ratio?" in an American Cinematographer article from back then.

So I'm guessing Friends was shot in a regular 35 mm stock or something like that with a 1.85 ratio.

Because what was in the frame was what was intended to be seen, what wasn't was not necessarily framed for the shots. Now I'm not saying that it's as extreme a case as those open matte movies released in Full Screen (A Fish Called Wanda, Terminator 3). This is a sitcom with a multi-camera set-up on a soundstage, so it's not like you're going to be seeing accidental nudity or ruined jokes, boom mikes or unfinished effects. But it's still not the OAR. A similar thing happened with DBZ around 5 years ago.

As for a more recent example, The Shield was re-released by Sony in16x9. Prior to this, only one episode was framed with 16x9 in mind. This is a show intended and framed for 4x3, and makes full use of a cramped, documentary style of filming. Opening it up loses that effect.

critterdvd

I really love this show and have the entire series on DVD. But with that said I don't know if I could justify sending another small fortune on a series I already own especially for a sitcom that was actually intended to be seen in 4:3.

But with that said like others are saying I've very curious so see how this set would potientially sell to open up more catalog TV-on-DVD being released in blu-ray.

calhoun07

Why so serious?

It seems nobody has complained about the integrity of the show in HD on TV so why do you think it would be an issue if it was released to Blu-Ray? And as has been pointed out, this is a TV show, not a movie. I am all for the OAR in movies as well, but I've seen several episodes of the show in HD and put in the DVDs I have to compare. I'd take it in widescreen HD any day of the week.

davidh777

Count me as another who's very interested in seeing if there's a market for a hugely popular series that everyone bought on DVD years ago and is still watchable in syndication. But the demographic is even less receptive to BD than Seinfeld's.

calhoun07

Then don't watch it on TV and don't buy it if (when) it comes out on Blu-Ray.