Voom and original aspect ratio? (Please send your comment to VOOM)

[Dvlos]

Nice picture unfortunately I don't think 2.35:1 and 1.85:1 on CERTAIN movies will make a difference, its just yanking your own chain to some technical specs. I am not going to be inmersed more into a movie like The Wedding Singer in 1.85 or 2.35

 

[Sean Mota]

There are many links in google where you can see the difference immediately. Here's one.

http://www.rexer.com/cine/oar.htm

There's no way to justify cropping the HD Transfer to make the 16x9 screen filled. You are losing resolution and part of the image. Why not see the movie the way it was meant to be?

 

[Ilya]

Good link, Sean. Here is a 2.35:1 example:

 

[barth2k]

sean the link you posted was 404.

 

[Sean Mota]

sean the link you posted was 404.

It did the same to me. But it is back! Try it

 

[wittangamo]

OAR, OAR, OAR.

If you were only missing 10 percent of your paycheck would it bother you? Only missing 10 percent of the hair on your head, or 10 percent of your fingers and toes?

C'mon, zooming and cropping hurts PQ and robs us of visual information. You can zoom your set if you want it that way, but Voom should send the rest of us the unadulterated original.

You can easily crop it on your end to fit your preferences. But once it's gone, there's no way to put it back.

 

[Dvlos]

Again the point is content, according to that link most epic films are filmed in 2.35 : 1 but that's not always true, in Bill and Ted's case I could give two squirts that a piece of the non-speaking morons of the side get chopped. THe content of Bill and Ted's doesn't warrant high-definition high-quality views like other movies. Movies like Star Wars EP2, LOTR, T2, that have lots of detail and great cinematic approach that are TRULY artistic deservers OAR treatment.

This has nothing to do with would you ruin the Mona Lisa or paychecks, I think that if every movie in 16x9 is bogus and you'd lose out on some good movies that way. However other movies don't matter I won't make a case for a 1960's Godzilla movie being cropped and zoomed SLIGHTLY for viewing on my HDTV. WHen the film quality is crap, what am I missing? A few plastic buildings? A piece of Gozilla's plastic tail? A few extra pieces of furniture accessories behind Adam Sandler?

 

[Ilya]

It did the same to me. But it is back! Try it

Sean, the voom.custhelp.com link is abbreviated indeed...

 

[slffl]

Yeah, this non-OAR stuff is really making me jaded about HDTV and movies. I'm pretty close to cancelling TV all together and just rent from Netflix. Can't wait for HD-DVD/BluRay!!!

 

[Sean Mota]

Sean, the voom.custhelp.com link is abbreviated indeed...

Ok. I see it now. I fixed it and here's the link as well...

http://voom.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/voom.cfg/php/enduser/cci/std_cont.php?page=null

 

[slicer40]

I would like to see it the way it is intended to be seen

 

[Ilya]

However other movies don't matter...

The problem with your argument is this: Who is the one to make the decision?
You see, for some, an old boring b/w movie like "Persona" can be cropped without hesitation, but for others, cropping Bergman is like cropping Leonardo...

The way I see it, if the movie deserves to be watched at all, it deserves to be watched the way the director intended.

 

[wittangamo]

Others do resent Godzilla being cropped. How are you going to decide which movies make "the cut" and which don't get chopped? Basically this is an all-or-nothing situation.

 

[dmm]

Correct me if I'm wrong but if a movie was filmed in 1.85:1 and is shown in OAR, it does fill the entire screen. OK, I know that 16x9 is really 1.78:1 but this must be close enough to 1.85:1 where the black lines are basically nonexistent, because a 1.85:1 DVD (even if not anamorphic, after zooming in) fills the screen .

However, I agree that a movie shot in 2.35:1 should be kept in its OAR and be letterboxed. And the little promo about OAR that Voom does is insulting. They should realize that most people with Voom are tech-savvy enough to know better.

 

[DarrellP]

Most people's sets have so much overscan, you don't see black bars or very small ones anyway with 1.85:1.

 

[rollerfink]

I sent them an e-mail using the link in this thread and got this response. Not exactly sure if they understood my request...

-------------
We hope we have resolved your issue. If not, please respond to this
email and we will continue to work with you to your satisfaction.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.
---------------

Hi VOOM,

I just wanted to let you know that I prefer my movies in original aspect ratio
(even if that means black bars at the top and bottom). I think you will find
that most viewers these days prefer their movies this way (after wat...


Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (VOOM Customer Care) - 07/07/2004 12:08 AM
Thank you for contacting VOOM. Since we are a new company, we most certainly appreciate your feedback. I will be sure to pass this information to right people here at VOOM who will use it, along with all the comments and requests we receive every day to ensure we grow into the leader among all satellite and cable services. If we understand your email correctly the whole screen on your monitor has picture without black horizontal bars across the top and bottom of the screen. If you have any further questions please give us a call at 1-800-GET-VOOM and once again thank you for contacting VOOM - HDTV Delivered!
Paul J Schaefer
VOOM Email Support
---------------------------------------------------------
Customer - 07/06/2004 02:24 PM
Hi Voom,

I just wanted to let you know that I prefer my movies in original aspect ratio
(even if that means black bars at the top and bottom). I think you will find
that most viewers these days prefer their movies this way (after watching them this way on DVD).

If you could show all your movies on the Voom exclusive channels this way I
would really appreciate it.

Thanks,

 

[negreenfield]

It will be interesting to see what comes of this. It looks like most of us agree with OAR being the way to go.

Anyway, I'm upset I didn't get a chance to watch The Terminator in 2.35:1 in HD. Next time...

 

[jawilljr]

It will be interesting to see what comes of this. It looks like most of us agree with OAR being the way to go.

Anyway, I'm upset I didn't get a chance to watch The Terminator in 2.35:1 in HD. Next time...

The Terminator was filmed in 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. The Terminator 2 and 3 where shot in 2.35:1.

Jerry