Originally posted by: DanielB
Zion, because of the limitations of some widescreen TV's you'll let that dictate the quality of the transfers? I've said it before, and I'll say it again. There are DVD Players on the market that will output a 16:9 Anamorphic picture from non-anamorphic sources, people can use them if it's that important to have a 16:9 picture.
Zion, because of the limitations of some widescreen TV's you'll let that dictate the quality of the transfers? I've said it before, and I'll say it again. There are DVD Players on the market that will output a 16:9 Anamorphic picture from non-anamorphic sources, people can use them if it's that important to have a 16:9 picture.
I have been very busy with projects at work and at home so I haven't been following this conversation all that much but after catching up this morning I felt I should chime in.
No offense to DanielB but comments like the above sound absolutely insane. For years I have followed threads at the DVD Talk forum and the one thing I have learned is that DVD Fans believe that "anamorphic" video is the best new invention since sliced bread and a true audio/video aficionado would be absolutely insulted if you told them that 4:3 letterboxed video was better and that they should upgrade their DVD Player to a model that can "trick" the video into filling out the entire screen by stretching it via some sort of pseudo automatic mechanism.
I have seen a lot of posts in the OT forum where people suggest that widescreen TV owners should use their DVD Player's "zoom" function to make up for the fact that 4:3 letterboxed video will not fill out the screen the way anamorphic video will. Both the idea of using the "zoom" function or a DVD Player that does this automagically for you as a means of fooling the viewer into believing they are actually seeing the "full" widescreen presentation is preposterous.
I guess I come at this from a different angle. Since I come from the world of an A/V aficionado who has spent way too much time at places like DVD Talk I have grown to detest 4:3 letterboxed video. DVD video and modern day A/V equipment just screams for anamorphic video. I have seen numerous threads over at DVD Talk where people actually boycott purchasing DVDs just because they are presented in 4:3 letterbox instead of anamorphic widescreen.
With that said, I do realize that since the source of this and other such transfers is coming from a less superior, analog source, the resolution is not what we would expect from DVD, however, I do not feel that making transferring a widescreen video to an anamorphic format will degrade it to such a noticeable extent that it will detract from the presentation. A lot of the people here at the OT forum that have made comments to the contrary do not ahve HDTV or otherwise Widescreen TVs and typically view their DVDs on a Computer monitor to judge the quality. While a computer is great for inspecting DVDs and has the potential of much higher image quality than any TV, the experience is much different from watching on a real TV. Along with that, comparing anamorphic widescreen and letterboxed widescreen video on a 4:3 TV is not a true test of the quality of the video presentation. This so called "standard" 4:3 scale television is an abomination of the video medium and restricting viewing to this old and outdated format by utilizing burned in black bars to "frame" a video down from its original aspect ratio to fit into a smaller viewing area is just absurd.
If given the choice between being forced to sit down and clicking the "zoom" button a few times to fill out my widescreen TV to view a 4:3 letterboxed presentation or sitting back and enjoying the wonders of modern technology at work by providing anamorphically sized 16:9 video, you can bet my finger will be no where near the "zoom" button
Zion, I think you made a great decision in going with an anamorphic widescreen presentation. The only anamorphic transfers that are out there right now are the Dr Gonzo and Farsight transfers.... both of which are fuzzy, whitewashed transfers of the inferior "Definitive Collection" set of laserdiscs. Because of the fact that the available anamorphic transfers are rather poor when held against the highly coveted TR47 transfer, a lot of people believe it is the anamorphic transfer that makes them inferior. As we have seen in your screenshots, your transfer is worlds apart from Dr Gonzo, Farsight and even TR47. I think we are all going to be pleasantly surprised
