Alright...this was on earlier today. The first part of the movie was OAR with the appropriate letter boxing. Then, and I not sure exactly when, it went to crop and zoom.

It will be on again at 12:45. I'll check it again...

The most recent issue/change with a letter boxed film on Starz that I have witnessed was Ratatouille. Different story there though. One showing had a double wide top black bar and no black bar on the bottom. The next (and every other) showing was correct.

It has again started with the correct aspect ratio. We'll see if it changes to the crop and zoom method again.

It has again started with the correct aspect ratio. We'll see if it changes to the crop and zoom method again.

switches after the credits

...and there it goes. It is because of the credits. The letter boxing is there during the credits and we go to crop/zoom as soon as the opening credits are over. Boo...

I was looking forward to this one.

and the DVD is NOT anamorphic either :( (I have the CRiterian disc)

To make matters worse...the PQ was obviously better before the zoom...pretty good actually.

I can remember at least 15 years back watching the beginning of a movie in OAR on a 4x3 television and when the opening credits went away, full screen resumed. It's fairly common.

ABC did this with The Sound Of Music last week. The movie started in 16:9, went to 2.35:1 for the credits and back to 16:9 for the rest of the show.

I've seen quite a few movies on the HD movie channels start out OAR with the credits and then switch. Nothing new. Don't know why they do it that way.

larry

Because uninformed HDTV owners complain about the black bars and "I paid all this money for an HDTV, I want to see the whole screen full!"

This is why HBO and Cinemax almost always run all of their films zoomed/cropped to 16:9.

As mentioned above, it's that much more disturbing when the film begins and ends in OAR but zooms in after the opening credits.

Recent showings of Earthquake and The Towering Inferno on Cinemax HD also did this. :(

this is beggin for a blu-ray release.

Because uninformed HDTV owners complain about the black bars and "I paid all this money for an HDTV, I want to see the whole screen full!"

This is why HBO and Cinemax almost always run all of their films zoomed/cropped to 16:9.

(

I doubt that these broadcasters are receiving tons of complaints. After all, people have spent years buying DVDs which are almost always OAR and are much more familiar and accepting of black bars. I've never heard of the home video companies being swamped with complaints. And OAR certainly hasn't hurt Showtime.

I watched it a couple of nights ago and it didn't really look HD. Did the zooming take away the HD look? I didn't expect the peoples faces to be so wide for an HD movie.

Sound was really nice though. I don't know how my wife slept through it when I had it turned up a couple of extra notches.

I watched it a couple of nights ago and it didn't really look HD. Did the zooming take away the HD look? I didn't expect the peoples faces to be so wide for an HD movie.

Sound was really nice though. I don't know how my wife slept through it when I had it turned up a couple of extra notches.
The faces weren't any wider than they should have been. They simply cropped the image and zoomed in. It wasn't stretched. The PQ however was much better before they did this when it was still OAR during the opening credits.

There is a region 4 (PAL) version with the video in anamorphic widescreen (16x9) and audio in Dolby Digital 5.1. The running time is 147 minutes. The video quality (576i) is excellent and the audio is very active in all five speakers.

Armageddon in HD on Starz today

Armageddon in HD on Starz today

but is it OAR ?

bueller....bueller ?

i guess we will never know.

I can say without even seeing it, no. They've shown this quite a number of times over the years. If it's the same transfer in HD it's the same OAR opening at the credits and then crops right afterwards.

bummer....this is on my top 10 list of movies i wish were on blu-ray.