Info Wanted: Star Trek VI - open-matte VHS preservation; anyone have them?

Star Trek VI was the only Trek film to be shot on Super-35, with a negative aspect ratio of 1.66.

Apparently, according to Memory-Alpha, early full screen TV broadcasts and VHS releases were reduced to 1.33 using the original 1.66 print, opening up the top and bottom but cropping the sides.

Does anyone own any of these VHS releases and/or broadcasts? I’d love to see how it was originally framed and if a 1.78 release would ever be possible.

It would be interesting to see if there is more vertical picture information on the vhs than on the 2.00:1 collector’s edition dvd from 2004. The older dvd from the late 90’s, which was also 2.00:1, was non-anamorphic.

The laserdisc was also 2.00:1 if I’m not mistaken.

I always assumed the 2.00:1 framing was the result of it being the tallest AR that all shots in the movie were protected for if you include the vistavision vfx shots. Either that or Nick Meyer and Hiro Narita simply found it an aesthetically pleasing alternative ratio to the theatrical scope framing.

Fang Zei said:

It would be interesting to see if there is more vertical picture information on the vhs than on the 2.00:1 collector’s edition dvd from 2004. The older dvd from the late 90’s, which was also 2.00:1, was non-anamorphic.

The laserdisc was also 2.00:1 if I’m not mistaken.

I always assumed the 2.00:1 framing was the result of it being the tallest AR that all shots in the movie were protected for if you include the vistavision vfx shots. Either that or Nick Meyer and Hiro Narita simply found it an aesthetically pleasing alternative ratio to the theatrical scope framing.

I believe the non-widescreen VHS releases opened up the top and bottom fully, hence having to crop a bit off the sides of the full 1.66 frame. I could be wrong though, but that’s really the point of this thread, to find out if it’s utilizing the full height from the negative or is more like the DVD releases.

VistaVision is suitable for any aspect ratio between 1.66 and 2.00. I imagine that’s why the live-action shots were also shot at 1.66 for consistency with the special effects shots.

SilverWook said:

There was a full frame version released on Laserdisc.
http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/24026/LV32301/Star-Trek-VI:-The-Undiscovered-Country

TUC was among the very few Paramount films released on Super VHS in the early 90’s, but the packaging is almost impossible to tell apart from the regular VHS version save for the format logo on the box.

Oh wow, good find.

Hope someone can preserve this.

Shalashaska said:

SilverWook said:

There was a full frame version released on Laserdisc.
http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/24026/LV32301/Star-Trek-VI:-The-Undiscovered-Country

TUC was among the very few Paramount films released on Super VHS in the early 90’s, but the packaging is almost impossible to tell apart from the regular VHS version save for the format logo on the box.

Oh wow, good find.

Hope someone can preserve this.

You could always purchase the Fullscreen VHS. It goes fairly cheap on eBay.

I have a BBC TV broadcast on VHS and will post some screen shots soon.

SwissArmyTin said:

A long while back I did a similar comparison between the Bluray, director’s edition DVD, and the fullscreen VHS. There is a good bit more vertical picture information on the VHS. Kinda interesting.
Here’s the comparisons:
http://imgur.com/a/94kBs

Thanks! Interesting stuff here.

I have a Widescreen release of the Special Home Video version.

Was an open-matte version of the Director’s Cut ever released? Thanks.