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Posted on 12/06/2004 11:15:57 AM PST by ambrose
A plea: Avoid full screen DVDs
THE "Spider-Man 2" people sent me a "full screen" copy of their snazzy blockbuster. Glass half full: It's always nice to be remembered, especially with one of the year's best films and one of the all-time great comic-book adaptations.
Glass completely empty: I hate full screen. It's like watching only part of a movie. If paintings were presented in full screen, a Mona Lisa close-up would lack ears. Or she would appear with only half a smile.
I exaggerate, but that's my job, and you get the idea.
Most DVDs let you choose between full screen or widescreen. Some give you both options of the same disc, one on either side. Others, such as "Spider-Man 2," insist you purchase one or the other. Buyer's remorse gets you no sympathy in this business. Choose widescreen.
On standard TVs, compressed widescreen, aka letterbox, versions play across the middle of the screen. Horizontal black bands appear above and below the picture.
Reportedly, many people find the black bands annoying so they opt for full screen, which is also known as pan and scan. Pan and scan is a crime against nature. Carrying the warning, "Formatted to fit your TV screen," pan and scan fills the entire screen.
But to do so, it must cut out slices of the original images the filmmaker worked so hard to create. Often, so much of the picture is trimmed that the fragmented leftovers look like visual noise.
In "Spider-Man 2," for instance, rather than the Web-slinger swinging gracefully across vast cityscapes, he appears hemmed in by narrow passageways as he swings back and forth like a repressed pendulum. Oh, the inhumanity. When Spidey and evil Doc Ock face each other in the same frame, you sometimes get half of Doc Ock addressing half of Spidey.
This is not a horror film, but it could be. At times the camera pans from one character to the other instead of allowing you to see both at the same time.
That's not the worst sin in the universe but it comes close, especially if you view movies as art.
So let somebody else watch full-screen versions; you deserve better and so do the movies.
Buyer be aware ... If you are hunting for the perfect DVD for a holiday gift, take a peek at the Home Theater compilation of "The top 100 DVDs of all time, with a new attitude." The list was printed in the August 2004 edition of the glossy.
I'll give you the top choice in each category. You can chase down the rest on www.hometheatermag.com
Best music DVD was "The Beatles Anthology." Best TV on DVD, "Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Series Limited Edition."
"The Alien Quadrilogy" was No. 1 under best extras. "Finding Nemo" earned the top slot under best video, meaning clearest image. "Saving Private Ryan DTS" was picked as best audio.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Special Extended DVD Edition" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Special Extended DVD Edition" were chosen Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in best overall DVDs.
Keep in mind that the selections were made prior to the release of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Special Extended DVD Edition." The latter comes out Dec. 14.
Around the Bay ... Five films by San Francisco residents will be screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, which runs Jan. 20-30 in Park City, Utah.
Announced last week, the selections include three features in the documentary competition: "The Fall of Fujimori" by Ellen Perry, "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" by Henry Rosenthal and "Romantico" by Mark Becker.
"Ballets Russes," a documentary by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, will be shown in the noncompetitive "special screenings" division. "The Joy of Life," an experimental film by Jenni Olson, will play in the noncompetitive "frontiers" section.
Name that film ... Don V. wants to know the name of an old "farcical comedy." Here's what he remembers; The scene is a bishop's or priest's residence office. "The featured actor (Woody Allen?) is there to make some kind of request," Don writes. "The bishop's housekeeper, way up in age, is bringing them coffee(?), and it takes forever; she is a very slow walker, and she suffers from an extreme case of flatulence but doesn't know it because she is also deaf. Ring a bell?"
Maybe. Any of you know? Call or write; you know the drill.
DVD spotlight ... The December glut begins with an eclectic array.
"The Bourne Supremacy" should satisfy those in the mood for bloodletting and blurry car chases shot with hand-held cameras. The all-action, no-substance sequel to the superior "The Bourne Identity" plays better on the small screen than on the big. And Matt Damon succeeds for the a second time (eat your heart out, Ben Affleck) as troubled, amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne. Extras include a feature titled "Blowing Things Up."
Its goofiness is the raison d'etre for the Vince Vaughn-Ben Stiller comedy "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story." Any movie built around adults playing competitive dodgeball can find a spot in my house. The disc includes a blooper reel.
"Matrix" junkies will no doubt drool over the more than 35 hours of extras included in the 10-disc "The Ultimate Matrix Collection." Isolate them from the rest of the people at your party.
Out Tuesday on DVD ... "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid," "Bandit Queen," "The Bourne Supremacy," "The Complete Pluto (Volume One)," "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story," "The Girl from Paris," "Hermitage Masterpieces," "Hi, Mom!," "How to Steal a Million," "Infernal Affairs," "Julia Child! America's Favorite Chef" and "The Love Machine."
Also: "Maria Full of Grace" (with best-actress possibility Catalina Sandino Moreno), "The Mickey Mouse Club (Week One)," "Mickey Mouse in Black and White (Volume Two)," "The Phantom of the Opera" (with Robert Englund), "Smooth Talk," "Species III," "Transfixed," "The Ultimate Matrix Collection," "Wild at Heart Special Edition" (Nicolas Cage meet David Lynch) and "Young Doctors in Love."
Mail your movie-related questions, answers or insights to The Movie Guy, c/o Bay Area Living, 4770 Willow Road, Pleasanton, CA 94588. Faxes can be sent to (925) 416-4874. E-mail The Movie Guy at bcaine@angnewspapers.com or call him at (925) 416-4806.
Unwatchable unsmatchable... back in my college days, all I had was a small 13 inch TV, and a gigantic 10 year-old VCR. Back then, Music Plus was renting videos for 49 cents a pop. I'd get boatloads of them, and enjoyed watching them even with the crummy setup.
If I can learn how to set up an entertainment system with a TV; DVD player; two satellite receivers; a DVHS player; an audio video receiver and seven speakers with coax and toslink and component video and the regular red white and yellow audio video cables... anyone can.
Also, btw, does anyone know how DVD information is stored? In particular, is everything strictly pixel-based, or is everything drawn using a 'stretchblt' concept? If the latter, would it be possible to have one stream of picture data played by two or more 'angles' which set the positioning and scaling differently? This might be useful for allowing people to have three choices: (1) philistine mode, (2) small-screen mode [letterboxed when necessary, but zoomed in when composition allows], or (3) full-width mode.
I definately try to purchase Widescreen DVD's whenever possible, and I'm very happy that DVD rental and retail outlets are beginning to see the benefits of WS as opposed to the minimally cropped, slightly damaged Pan and Scan (or "Fullscreen") prints.
There's just no comparison as to which one offers the crispest, most complete, most "theatrical" experience, and with a full-blooded epic (like the Searchers, East of Eden, Braveheart, the Godfather, Schindler's List, LOTR: ROTK or Gangs of New York) I would accept no substitutions.
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Broadcast NTSC TV used 440 for broadcast while NTSC Laser Disc had 565. In practical usage, broadcast was about 400 and Laser Disc about 500.
I have about 600 Laser Discs. I bought out a rental company when they went out of business.
VHS - 240 - 260 lines BETA - 325 - 350 lines Broadcast TV - 400-440 lines Laser Disc - 500 565 lines
"Amazon Women on the Moon", IIRC
YESSS! BTW, my first ever post using Firefox. I like the tabs.
>>Problem is I wouldn't know how to set it up. With a TV, I can just plug it into the wall, stereo to the DVD output..<<
That makes sense. I use a laptop and projector to teach programmers all over the country and I've brought the projectors home on a couple of occasions to watch movies. I'm sort of used to them.
BTW, they are MUCH sharper than a good tv even using standard S-video. With component connections and progressive scan, it's just too much like a real theater.
Many 35mm cameras shoot an academy-ratio (1.37:1) frame. Some mask off the top and bottom; others simply leave it in and expect it will get cropped either in projection or in video conversion, or else that it will simply not get cropped but hopefully won't contain anything too annoying.
I am actually somewhat puzzled by why it would be so common to use a camera that uses an academy-ratio area of film for each frame and masks off the top and bottom; it would seem that one could save 25% on film costs if one were to make camera and projection equipment that could be set to advance film by three sprockets per frame instead of four. It would seem a simple standard to define and to implement mechanically.
On a related note, does anyone know if a full-frame El Mariachi is available? Since that film was shot on 16mm for video use, letterboxing it cuts out picture that was supposed to be seen. In Rodriguez's "Ten Minute Film School" clip he shows some of his original edited video (he originally shot the film on 16mm, then copied it to video and edited that); the framing is much better than in the "real" movie version which is cropped on the top and bottom.
Have you had any problems with laser rot? I only had two discs that started showing signs, but I haven't had a laser disc in seven years.
BTW, has anyone noticed that I can't make up my mind between "disk" and "disc?" 8^>
Seems to me that laser rot was finally traced to one asian pressing plant that did not sufficiently filter the water used to wash the aluminum surface before it was pressed between the plastic. Once that was "solved" the problem was licked for new discs from that source.
When Sound of Music was debuted in Hong Kong, the theater operator wanted to get more showings per day... so he cut out all the musical numbers.
Anybody remember the CED (Capacitance Electronic Disk) RCA disks? Vinyl, grooved disks that required a needle to be played!
Or, you can build your own as I have for about half of that cost... and the replacement lamps don't break the bank every year or so.
Check out Lumenlab DIY projection TV
And, no, this isn't the old scam about putting a big lens in front of an upside down 17" TV with cardboard and duct tape... This actually works. In fact, results are superior to many commercial projectors: more lumen and better rez.
According to the THX theater standard, the proper seating distance would 1.6 times the screen diagonal. Thus if you want a 10 foot diagonal screen, you should be able to sit 16 feet away from it.
Yes, I had several go bad... some only one side was compromised. Lots of snow.
See my response in #212
That is a fascinating concept. Too much time rounding up stuff before you even begin to build though. It looks like it would be a fun hobby project.
I wonder about things like component video inputs and all the screen adjustment controls I get on a commercially available projector. I scanned the web site and couldn't find any real detail there.
You can drive your projector with a third party adaptor... or you can drive it with a computer with DVD... or you can buy a LCD screen that has TV inputs (including component video) (I did)... or you can find a DVD player that has DVI or XVGA output (I did.)
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