Blu Ray Aspect Ratio problem

trcanberra

"Pompous" - seeing the whole movie is pompous?

If they cut off the sides then that would be smaller quality.

This is why I watch on a projector - no squinting with a picture filling most of the opposite wall

chadergeist

I have Poltergeist 1 and 2 on dvd and it's ratio is 2:35:1. The blu ray of Poltergeist is now 2:40:1 and Poltergeist 2 on blu ray is 2:35:1. Why? Why is Poltergeist 1 on blu ray's aspect ratio changed and part 2 is left at 2:35:1?

Why was part 1 changed anyway?
I find this odd and uncomfortable like what happened to the Back To The Future 2 and 3 dvds in the boxset years ago.

larrythefatcat

I don't know, but I would guess it's because Poltergeist 1 is more popular and the 2.4:1 aspect ratio is becoming more popular... so it just got cropped for "funsies"...?

Things like this are slightly annoying, but I'm more annoyed by Blu-ray discs of movies that were originally shot at 1.66:1 or 1.85:1 that get cropped to 1.78:1. They're the new version of "fullscreen" DVDs... it's lame!

HD Goofnut

Most of the BDs that are 1.78:1, but were 1.85:1 theatrically were not cropped. Alliance out of Canada is the only studio that I know of that regularly crops down to 1.78:1 from wider ratios. Warner and a few other studios in the U.S. usually take the 1.85:1 frame and open matte it to 1.78:1 so that more information is visible. With a cropped 1.85:1 to 1.78:1 image you're basically zooming in until the bars are gone, which causes information to be lost on all four sides particularly on the left and right. With open matte you're going back to the original negative and opening up the information that was seen on the camera, but was lost due to the director choosing a 1.85:1 ratio. A perfect recent example of this was Sherlock Holmes in 2009.

__________________