View Full Version : The Wire dvd boxset, widescreen or fullscreen?
chromosome
09-01-2006, 12:58
Hi
Ive heard great things about the series and gonna get the boxset. I just wanna know which region to get.
Am i right in saying region 1 is fullscreen and region 2 is widescreen?
Season 1?
DVD Compare: http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=7779
All releases appear to be the same.
saw S1 on region 2, and I'm pretty sure it was widescreen (some time ago) - unlike the TV transmission on FX
chromosome
09-01-2006, 14:39
some website says region 2 is widescreen and some say fullscreen, wanna make sure.
karellen
09-01-2006, 14:55
I saw season 1 on R2 DVD and am sure it was 4:3.
I have seen the other two series and they are both 4:3.
That is how they shoot the show.
SIMON ADEBISI
09-01-2006, 15:29
They are all in 4:3. Have both boxsets on R2.
Barney_Tabasco
27-09-2006, 15:37
Upping this just to check. Are all releases (all regions, every season) 4:3?
gareth101
27-09-2006, 15:40
R1 S1 & S2 4:3. As far as I understand show has always been 4:3.
Barney_Tabasco
27-09-2006, 15:46
R1 S1 & S2 4:3. As far as I understand show has always been 4:3.
They should get with the program and 'get wide' as it's referred to by people (well...me)!
LeftHandedGuitarist
27-09-2006, 16:10
I can't understand why a TV show made these days wouldn't be filmed in widescreen. Scrubs, I'm looking at YOU!
Not all shows actually suit widescreen. 'The Wire' is one (for the simple reason that 4:3 'squeezes' the characters into a narrower space making it more claustrophobic and it suits the show's intense feeling), 'Gilmore Girls' is another (it just looks plain 'wrong' in widescreen in the HD broadcast, as it's a show intended to be 4:3. All the purely dead space on the sides ruins the lovely cozy feel of the show).
Imho 'Six Feet Under' was ruined when it went widescreen in it's 3rd season. All the compositions (especially those in Ruth's kitchen) had to change and the very intimate feeling created and sustained over the first 2 seasons was lost forever.
Anyway that's enough examples as to why wider isn't always better... :dork:
karellen
27-09-2006, 20:49
I'd also add The Shield to that list.
I have always watched the 4:3 US releases and a while ago I caught an episode on Channel 5 that was 16:9 - it just didn't look right. It had lost all of it's "intensity".
gareth101
28-09-2006, 19:27
I think that it was shot in 4:3 because Americans unlike Brits hadn't shifted over to widescreen TV's. Instead they got giant sized 4:3's. Lots of films are released in the US in widescreen and fullscreen dvds. I suppose with plasma and LCD this is changing and more Yanks are going widescreen.
If you've got a widescreen telly and are watching a show thats filmed in 4:3 just hit the ration button on your remote and it will make the image widescren ... is brill!
;)
karellen
28-09-2006, 19:35
From David Simon himself in a recent Q&A-
Q: Are there any plans to switch to High Definition?
A: No. We considered it before third season and chose not to do so. We began the show without HD and created a visual template for a story that we intend as a single, five-volume narrative. To adjust that template in the middle of the story seems arbitrary and destructive to the integrated whole that we are trying to create. Next narrative we can play with the new technology. This one needs to finish on the same terms and utilizing the same visual choices with which we began. If that means denying ourselves some of the power and glory of HD and letterbox, then so be it. It's more important to us that The Wire exist -- all five arcs -- as a unified entity.
Yeah, all 4:3. Just finished the second season boxset and all this Wire talk's got me hankering for the next. Just wish they weren't so expensive though :(
Random question but does anyone know exactly why we in R2 get denied the episode previews and recaps on the dvd? I know it happens a lot with HBO releases in the UK (and elsewhere outside R1) but I just wondered why!
Random question but does anyone know exactly why we in R2 get denied the episode previews and recaps on the dvd? I know it happens a lot with HBO releases in the UK (and elsewhere outside R1) but I just wondered why!
This is annoying, I agree. The assumption seems to be that you're watching the shows one after the other on the same night and don't need a recap - whereas I - especially with a show like Deadwood - sometimes watch them over a few months and would find the recap pretty useful. No doubt we'd be told it's all done in order to serve the customers' best interests.
Season 3 is 4:3 on R2 - but it is such a good show, who cares.
It's meant to be 4:3 and will always be 4:3 all the way to the end of Season 5 (see post#15).
Barney_Tabasco
10-02-2007, 23:57
It's meant to be 4:3 and will always be 4:3 all the way to the end of Season 5 (see post#15).
Shows the makers of the The Wire don't always make wise choices.
SIMON ADEBISI
11-02-2007, 00:20
4:3 suits the show.
Shows the makers of the The Wire don't always make wise choices.
:?: Making the show wide screen would make the show better why and how? taking in mind they have explained why in their eyes they want to keep it full screen.
Barney_Tabasco
11-02-2007, 16:45
:?: Making the show wide screen would make the show better why and how? taking in mind they have explained why in their eyes they want to keep it full screen.
Why do you think?
Most people have widescreen TVs. I'd rather have a full screen image rather then black bars down each side.
They didn't really explain the reasons, they just said to keep continuity with previous seasons but as with a lot of US shows why weren't they filming it in 16:9 from the start?
I don't think the makers are keeping it 4:3 because it somehow enhances the grittiness; 'We like the fact everything looks square and that it utilises less space on peoples screens. We particular like to make people think it was a show made in the early nineties. We also record sound in mono and allow no references to cell phones or the internet.'
This is ridiculous! It's the same argument in reverse as people who used to complain about those "black bars" when films started to get letterboxed. :oh-hum:
4:3 suits the show and it's visual style was developed with that frame shape in mind. End of. Like I've said in a previous post in this thread, opening out some shows is detrimental ('Six Feet Under' being the most obvious example where all intimacy was lost thanks to the complete change in framing).
Unlike 'The Shield' or 'Buffy' this isn't a case where there's an argument over which aspect ratio is "correct" as there is only one on offer worldwide. I respect their decision not to provide multiple versions (which just ends up confusing people) and it proves that it's made to be seen a certain way.
SIMON ADEBISI
12-02-2007, 11:03
Most people have widescreen TVs.
Where did you get that from. Im pretty sure its still the other way around.
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