stanice

I am surprised how much better looking the full-screen DVD is compared to the wide-screen DVD! (I haven’t gotten the links to the remaster yet, just chatting about the physical releases.) I had a chance to rent 28 Days Later on blu-ray, and compare it to both US DVD releases - wide-screen and full-screen.

The wide-screen DVD is noticeably softer and has more distracting heavy film grain texture than the full-screen DVD. When I watch the full-screen DVD, I feel like I’m seeing the original video image. But the wide-screen DVD looks like a video copied onto film, it manages to combine both the worst aspects of film and digital video at the same time. It makes me think that the full-screen DVD was sourced from the Avid digital master before it was printed onto film, while the wide-screen DVD was sourced from a scan of the theatrical film release print. I just can’t understand why the two contemporary releases would have such noticeably different levels of quality.

The blu-ray image quality is much better than the wide-screen DVD, but I’m surprised how close the full-screen DVD and the blu-ray are to each other. On the blu-ray I can see a fine film grain in the image, which is not visible in the full-screen DVD. On my TV and 4K blu-ray player, the full-screen DVD manages to upscale pretty well on the screen. While the 1080p blu-ray gets less upscaling treatment as it’s already an HD source.

The biggest difference is in the final scene of course, the one shot on film, the blu-ray image is much sharper than either DVD. But again strangely even the final scene looks worse on the wide-screen DVD than it does on the full-screen, making me think the two DVDs were sourced from very different masters. And the full-screen DVD also shows an open gate image for the filmed final scenes as well, so those film elements were apparently shot in 1.33:1 too.

Actually the blu-ray’s dramatic difference in quality between the HD film final scene and the rest of the SD video movie might make me lean toward the full-screen DVD as being my favorite overall version of the three. While the ending does get noticeably cleaner looking on the DVD, the image still feels a little more coherent with the rest of the SD world of the film. On the blu-ray the jump into HD film imagery feels more like going from sepia to technicolor — a striking, dramatic break from one to the other.

I also enjoyed seeing the cinematography in open gate, the compositions held up very well in 1.33:1 framing, in fact I think I even preferred the full-screen framing most of the time. All the CGI shots fill the frame naturally, they were clearly planning all along to accommodate a full-screen home video release as well as the theatrical wide-screen.

The full-screen version overall felt more honest to the medium. It’s a movie made on Y2K digital video, it felt natural to see it in the 1.33:1 frame that a Y2K digital camera would capture. I was less distracted in that framing by the many shortcomings of its terrible digital video quality, it just felt more like a product of that era.

But in the 1.85:1 blu-ray, it felt a little more like digital video trying to pretend it’s film, or compete with film. The wide-screen letterboxing and film grain texture of the blu-ray made me instinctively want to judge it against today’s 4K digital releases, and of course it falls very short in that regard. I felt more disappointed watching it on blu-ray, in a way I didn’t with the full-screen DVD.

One place the blu-ray wins is audio quality, theoretically, but I don’t know that I personally can really notice a major difference.

I’m glad to have copies of all the formats, but I definitely recommend the full-screen DVD as a solid choice, and it’s much cheaper than the blu-ray now, with pretty comparable image quality that’s a close match to the original source material.

(Tip for anyone looking for a blu-ray right now, they seem to be currently retailing them in Japan, and the Yen is pretty weak right now, it’s probably cheaper to import a new Japanese blu-ray than a used one from your home country! The blu-ray I watched was an old USA release.)

From the screenshots this looks like great work! This MiniDV movie needs all the help it can get 😃

Also thanks for confirming that the “full screen” DVD is actually open gate, the original 4:3 camera sensor image before it was then matted / cropped to 1.85:1 widescreen for theatrical release.

Now that DVD prices have come back down to earth after its digital re-release, I was able to find a thrift store full-screen copy online for a good price, looking forward to checking it out.

I wonder whether the 4:3 open gate aspect ratio will actually suit the Y2K camcorder video aesthetic better, as seen from the perspective of a 2025 audience with 4K screens, even though 4:3 wasn’t the filmmakers original intent.

PS - DM sent - thank you!