Why was Spartacus on Blu-Ray released with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio when the original aspect ratio was 2.35:1? Surely the 1991 65mm restoration produced at least a 2.20:1 film and not just 1.85:1. Anyone know?

This problem is easily remedied... its not on Blu-Ray.

If you've got Sparticus on Blu-ray you should auction it off on e-Bay.....;) It's a Universal title and it's on HD-DVD. They didn't do a good job with it but they got the aspect ratio right.

As others have said, it was only released on HD DVD. It's not 1.85:1... it's wider than that, with black bars on top and bottom. As far as PQ goes, it looks like a DVD to me! :(

Perhaps the o/p is confusing the original film with the 2004 TV remake, which was photographed in 1.78:1.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361240/

However, that one's not available on Blu-ray either. :confused:

My bad, I'm format neutral although most of my collection is BR. The question still stands though, even if it should have been posted on the HD board. See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/ and click on more next to aspect ratio.

Unfortunately Spartacus is one of the worst efforts at HDM transfer out there,sad really since it is a truly great film.

Art

My bad, I'm format neutral although most of my collection is BR. The question still stands though, even if it should have been posted on the HD board. See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/ and click on more next to aspect ratio.

Your question was already answered. Spartacus has only been released on HD-DVD, and that release is in the correct aspect ratio, 2.20:1. Where you are getting 1.85:1 from, I don't know.

Your question was already answered. Spartacus has only been released on HD-DVD, and that release is in the correct aspect ratio, 2.20:1. Where you are getting 1.85:1 from, I don't know.

I'm getting the info off the product description on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Spartacus-HD-DVD-Kirk-Douglas/dp/B000HT3Q0U******sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1200765047&sr=1-2

Acutally, it's worse than I thought - Amazon says it's 1.66:1. Where are you getting that it was released in 2.20:1? I know the DVD version came in that format but I can't find anything saying that for HDM. So I'm still wonderiing if anyone knows why the HDM version came out in such a limited AR and if there are plans to at least mirror the DVD AR in HDM.

1) Your link doesn't work.

2) I actually own the HD-DVD and it is 2.21:1

1) Your link doesn't work.

2) I actually own the HD-DVD and it is 2.21:1

Hmm. If you go to Amazon and search on Spartacus and pull up the HD-DVD you'll see what I mean. Glad to hear it's 2.2 on yours. Must be a misprint on Amazon and actually I could have sworn that a week ago they said it was 1.85, now they say it's 1.66. Does the package actually say 2.2?

Don't take Amazon as gospel. Sometimes they're wrong.

Even the disc packaging can be wrong. The packaging for Cast Away lists the AR as 2.35:1 when the film is actually 1.85:1, just as the DVD did years ago. I guess someone at Fox just went by that DVD package when doing the back of the BD cover.

Thanks to everyone who answered the OP's question (deleted the bickering comments)..let's close this and move on.