"Older" Movies on DVD

[Winslow Leach]

Pretty much any movie shot in widescreen looks horrible cropped and pan & scanned on TV. As Dr. Tooth mentioned, Ghostbusters is an absolute mess. Just take a look at the elevator scene with Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis in widescreen. They're all in the shot. Then look at it in fullscreen. Pulp Fiction, as karamazov said, is another prime example. As are any of Sergio Leone's westerns, most of the Bond films, stuff like Jaws and Gladiator. These all suffer in fullscreen.

Sometimes 1.85:1 can be subtle, but there ARE differences between this ratio and fullscreen. The OAR of Dragnet is 1.85:1. Check out the back of the case. Look up the film at imdb. It was never shot in fullscreen. It played in theatres at 1.85:1, but as I said, the differences may seem subtle and hard to spot. Unless the disc specifically says something like "this film has been modified from its original version to fit your TV," then you have the film in its OAR.

 

[Winslow Leach]

Okay Snowth, I did a little checking, and ya know what? It seems the standard DVD release of Dragnet is in 1.78:1 for some reason, but the version included in the three-film "Tom Hanks Comedy Collection" box set is in 1.85:1. At least according to the packaging. Weird.

BTW, does Granny Munday's house look familiar? It was used as The Munsters' house in the 1960s.

 

[Drtooth]

Pretty much any movie shot in widescreen looks horrible cropped and pan & scanned on TV. As Dr. Tooth mentioned, Ghostbusters is an absolute mess. Just take a look at the elevator scene with Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis in widescreen. They're all in the shot. Then look at it in fullscreen. Pulp Fiction, as karamazov said, is another prime example. As are any of Sergio Leone's westerns, most of the Bond films, stuff like Jaws and Gladiator. These all suffer in fullscreen.

They also did this with the Elmo in Grouchland DVD. It's most noticible during the musical number they play when Elmo arrives in Grouchland and the Grouches start singing. To add to the horrid look of it, the motion is slowed down, making the puppet's speech out of sync with the mouth movements. It gives the illusion of bad puppetry that wasn't there. It makes me wish I did see it when it was in theaters.

 

[D'Snowth]

BTW, does Granny Munday's house look familiar? It was used as The Munsters' house in the 1960s.

With a modified front door apparently.

 

[Mokey's sweet]

Right, Muppet fans! if you want to get disgusted by muppet like puppets, see MEET THE FEEBLES! i watched it not so long ago, it's muppets meet south park!. it's banned so it's only avalable online

 

[JEANYLASER]

I remember the old Dragnet with Harry Morgan!

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I have to say that I enjoy the Widescreen viewing experience.

 

[Mokey's sweet]

Watch MEET THE FEEBLES On YouTube. if you like the muppets as i do, you'll be strongly ****** of with Peter Jackson who made it.

 

[Gonzo14]

it might be different with older stuff, but everything is shot in widescreen now, so you don't lose any of the picture

 

[D'Snowth]

*Is afraid to continue the conversation*

Will Kevin or Count kindly delete (please, don't just lock it, please delete it) this thread before I get my head bitten off again and this debate fires up again?