It does seem to me quite nice of the studio to accommodate both audiences. However, it also occurs to me that the letterbox eliminator ain’t gonna help with this: whereas the studio can show more of the picture, the letterbox eliminator will necessarily show less, by cutting off the edges of the widescreen version.
Eh. Six of one, half dozen of the other for me.
Daniel
[QUOTE=John Harrison]
Enlighten me as to what ‘adjusted incorrectly’ would mean.
Black bars at the to and bottom of proj tv would result in those areas aging differently. If a heavy user of letterbox ( a big movie fan who watches a lot of movies) keeps watching everything in letterbox, the tv will eventually start to show the black bars when you are watching regular full screen tv, games, etc.
Sure, jacking up the color and contrast to the limit would speed the process a little bit, but watchin 60% of the total viewing time in letterbox format will ‘burn’ in those black bars.
Letterbox, depending on the TV, should be limited to about 20-25% of the total viewing time of the tv.
I cannot understand the people who prefer their movies Mutilated.
Even when I owned a 12" TV I tried to find copies of movies in their original aspect ratios. My current 27" screen is very comfortable, even on 2.35:1 films, from across the living room. 27" TVs aren’t exactly expensive these days, either.
I wish there were a way to make the mutilation of film illegal, or at least require written assent to the butchered version by both the film’s director and cinematographer.
As someone who makes digital video projects, and someday would like to make a feature film, I’d also like to say that I hate, hate, hate shooting in 4:3. Human vision is naturally much wider than it is tall, and the squarish constrains of television aspect ratios are very limiting.
Newer projection TVs that use digital light processing should be free of burn in problems. Older projection TVs use small CRT tubes, then magnify the image. Regular TVs can also have burn in problems, but usually not as bad as these older projection TVs.
Well I cannot understand the people who prefer a large portion of their screen to be filled with ugly black bars. YMMV.
The black bars aren’t ugly. They’re just there to ensure that you’re seeing the image in all it’s cinematic glory.
If you don’t watch a movie in original aspect ratio, you can’t claim to have seen the film. Pan and Scan butchers the art of visual storytelling. Open matte is not quite as bad, but even then, you’re not actually seeing the film, but some mutilated television pseudo-equivalent.
Sure I can, and no elitist film snob is gonna stop me! Mwahahahahaha! I saw Start Wars in the made-for-TV version, and I’ve seen the film!
Seriously, this is the sort of El Dorko nonsense I was talking about. What’s important to you is not important to everyone else, and talking about “mutilating” the film is a little bit hysterical.
Daniel
Good logic there. I think I can trump that, though:
Are too, are too, and no backs.
Geek.
I am holding out for the 65" widescreen LCD projection that will handle most/all formats AND cost less than $3000.00 CDN. I know I will be waiting a while… 
BTW, for the really geeky Build your own LCD projector
and another
All this talk of bigger and better TV sets reminds me of a passage from Fahrenheit 451
Pan and Scan makes baby FilmGeek cry.
Try watching Ghostbusters on TV and forever become a widescreen watcher. It is by far the worst Pan and Scan I have ever seen. It gives me headaches.
Better info can be found here.
I make films. The thought of someone ripping apart one of my films so that the unwashed hoi polloi don’t have black bars on their screens makes me want to vomit. That is so damn disrespectful to the artistry and effort that goes into making a film. Not that anyone gives a damn, because people are stupid and selfish.
Maybe what the world needs is a TV screen shaped like this:
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A friend told me about an interview she read with James Ellroy, author of LA Confidential. The novel is apparently extremely complex and rich, with multiple storylines and a large cast of well-developed characters. The movie, while quite a fine movie in its own right, necessarily cut out many characters and storylines and simplified the whole narrative.
Anyway, the interviewer asked Ellroy if he was upset about what the director had done to his book. Ellroy scowled, perplexed, and said, “What are you talking about? They haven’t done anything to my book. Look, it’s right there on my shelf, just like it’s always been.”
You have much to learn from Ellroy, young grasshopper.
Daniel
An adaption of a book to film, where it lists who did the adaption, is different. That’s at totally different medium. The film doesn’t purport to actually be the book.
Mutilated videos, however, still is the film’s cinematographer, after ruining his work. It still lists the film’s director, after cutting out 40% of her blocking and direction. It still lists the writers, even after cutting much of the non-verbal parts of their scripts. And it purports to actually be the film, when it’s not — it’s a ripped apart, addled, poorly created facsimile with little resemblance to the original work of art.
It’s like taking a poster of the Mona Lisa, cutting it in half and drawn all over by a four year old with a box of crayons and then hanging it as the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.
I’ll bet you don’t subscribe to Clearplay. Their DVD player is shipping to Wal-Mart as we speak.
So, Spectrum, what movies have you made?
I’m as pro-widescreen as any here, but you’re making this way too personal. Are you an actual working cinematographer?
And no, **LHoD[/d], I will not buy you a large-screen TV. How like a Democrat to expect to be handed things instead of working for them.
[coding corrected]
I can tell you’re an independent, because I can’t think of a political party whose platform involves telling other people what luxury items they should spend their money on, or even care about :).
Spectrum, all the hyperbolic analogies in the world won’t advance your case. If you care so much about the movies you make, don’t sell the rights to a distributor without an ironclad contract. Once the artwork leaves your control and gets into my house, I get to do what I want with it. Don’t like that? Don’t sell it to me.
Daniel