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Friday Night Lights on StarzHD

434 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Demodave, Dec 27, 2005

Demodave

Discussion Starter · Dec 27, 2005

I watched Friday Night Lights on StarzHD and something bothers me. The broadcast was in OAR (2.35:1 I beleive). My 16:9 TV still had black bars on the top and bottom, as it should with that aspect ratio. Just for kicks, I loaded up the SD version of Starz in the PIP to compare the two versions. It was pan-and-scan of course, running full frame at 4:3. While there was an obvious big chunk of the image cut off on the sides...the 4:3 image definitely had more details at the top and bottom. In other words, the HD version was actually missing parts of the scene at the top and bottom. The black bars at the top and bottom were cutting off some of the picture.

Is this normal? Did the movie studio do this on the OAR release? Or did Starz screw this up?

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oleus

· #2 · Dec 27, 2005

it's a very commmon practice for 4:3 versions of movies to use an open-matte presentation rather than panning and scanning, especially if the film was shot in super 35mm. Often, a director will shoot with both aspect ratios in mind so that if a 4:3 version is made, it won't have to be pan-and-scanned. They just "open up" the top and bottom (or sometimes just the bottom) of the negative.

you might be shocked how many movies show more on the tops and bottoms on TV when compared to your DVD.

so no, Starz didn't screw anything up. you will see black bars on 2.35:1 aspect ratio movies even on a widescreen tv/screen. but you may also see much more information on 4:3 sd presentations of the same film.

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MickeyDora

· #3 · Dec 27, 2005

IMDB shows FNL as a Super35 film so there is a chance that the 4:3 is being shown open matted with a slight crop on the sides.

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Demodave

Discussion Starter · #4 · Dec 27, 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by oleus
it's a very commmon practice for 4:3 versions of movies to use an open-matte presentation rather than panning and scanning, especially if the film was shot in super 35mm. Often, a director will shoot with both aspect ratios in mind so that if a 4:3 version is made, it won't have to be pan-and-scanned. They just "open up" the top and bottom (or sometimes just the bottom) of the negative.

Thanks for the quick reply!! That's why I love checking in to the AVS forum....I always manage to learn a little something!!

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