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Just hired It's a bugs life (for the kids but I think I enjoyed it more). Anyway this is the first double sided disk I've come across 4:3 on side 1 and 16:9 on side 2. This is a brillant idea. Does anyone know of other disks like this?. Also why don't more DVD manufacturers do this?
ZX81
Think, from memory, that my South Park:The Movie is one with both formats
'A Bugs Life' is intended to be seen in widescreen, but the computer animation was specially re-rendered to accurately fit a 4:3 screen for the DVD release.
Many DVDs contain both widescreen and pan & scan transfers (especially R1 releases), but the pan & scan version invariably looks awful. Unlike 'A Bugs Life', a third or more of the picture is cropped off of the sides of the frame.
One of the great advantages of DVD is that films are generally released in the original aspect ratio, as the director intended them to be seen. Whilst the inclusion of full screen transfers may satisfy those non film buffs who object to 'black bars' at the top and bottom of the screen, it leaves less room on the disc for far more useful extras.
For more on the great 'Widescreen vs P&S' debate see here (http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45486) ;)
Michael Brooke
08-01-2002, 09:30
Quite a few R1 discs offer two formats, but for technical reasons you can only fit two versions on one disc if the films are relatively short - i.e. nearer 90 minutes than two hours.
And given Hollywood's increasing fondness for needlessly long films, this explains why they're the exception rather than the rule.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Michael Brooke
[B]Quite a few R1 discs offer two formats, but for technical reasons you can only fit two versions on one disc if the films are relatively short - i.e. nearer 90 minutes than two hours.
This was a double sided disc so I wouldn't have thought space was a problem. Maybe they could save the cost from the expensive artwork used on the DVD label
ZX81
I have a few in my collection that offer you the choice but I only ever watch them in widescreen
Analyze This R2
Evil Dead 2 Special Edition Tin R1
Gattaca R1
Halloween R2
Little Vampire R1
Loser R1
Once Upon A Time In China And Amercia R2
Payback R1
Shrek R1
The Whole Nine Yards R1
I believe it's a lot more popular in the States.
TheCookieMonster
08-01-2002, 15:43
'Men in Black' R2
'The Whole Nine Yards' R2
:)
Joe Pasquale
08-01-2002, 15:59
My Lock Stock R1 has both P&S and widescreen on the same side. Is there an encoding facility that lets the author decide where the 4:3 pic is inside the widescreen image for P&S? I'm sure I've seen something like that on a review, may even be the method that the Lock Stock R1 uses.
Dan Druff
08-01-2002, 16:15
The Game is another.
The Big Lebowski is on one side, but gives the option of full or wide.
Michael Brooke
08-01-2002, 16:22
<B>This was a double sided disc so I wouldn't have thought space was a problem. </B>
Virtually all these discs are double-sided single-layer discs, which offer very little additional space over a "typical" DVD (single-sided dual-layer ones being probably the most common).
True, you could go for a DVD-18 (a double-sided dual layer disc) but this would probably push up the price as there's still a high failure rate and not many pressing plants can make them.
And would you pay extra for the extremely dubious benefit of an additional version of the film that you're almost certainly not going to watch? I know I wouldn't!
<B>Maybe they could save the cost from the expensive artwork used on the DVD label </B>
If you think that artwork costs more than sourcing, encoding and producing a whole extra side of DVD information, you're obviously hiring the wrong people!
zeroCool
08-01-2002, 16:25
Is the 2 disc R1 collectors edition worth £30?
Michael Brooke
08-01-2002, 16:43
See my <A HREF="http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?html=y&id=reviews/region1/bugslifecollectors.html">review</A> - and you shouldn't have to pay anything like £30. I paid £22.99 for it from <A HREF="http://www.futureent.com">Future Entertainment</A>, and they still seem to be offering it at that price.
zeroCool
08-01-2002, 16:47
They don't seem to ship outside the UK though:mad:
Huhhh? Future Entertainment are based in the UK aren't they?
Originally posted by ZX81
This is a brillant idea. Does anyone know of other disks like this?. Also why don't more DVD manufacturers do this?
ZX81
Because it's a not a brillant idea. Discs get scratched very easily this way and disc space is limited (unless expensive DVD-18s are used) which results in less space for picture quality + extras.
They are used more in the US where the widescreen tv is extremely small, but they are not used in the UK where widescreen tv uptake is very fast (1 in 3 tvs in the UK are now widescreen).
jroadley
08-01-2002, 19:41
Single sided, widescreen only please...
Fat Man Hackett
08-01-2002, 19:44
They are used more in the US where the widescreen tv is extremely small, but they are not used in the UK where widescreen tv uptake is very fast (1 in 3 tvs in the UK are now widescreen).
How small can a widescreen TV be??? :confused: :confused: :D
zeroCool
09-01-2002, 17:20
Originally posted by Fat Man Hackett
How small can a widescreen TV be??? :confused: :confused: :D
it's very small, and there's only one of them :D :D :D
Originally posted by Joe Pasquale
My Lock Stock R1 has both P&S and widescreen on the same side. Is there an encoding facility that lets the author decide where the 4:3 pic is inside the widescreen image for P&S? I'm sure I've seen something like that on a review, may even be the method that the Lock Stock R1 uses.
The following from DVD Demystified's DVD FAQ explains it much better than I can... :)
Question 3.5 (http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.5):
For automatic pan & scan mode, the anamorphic video is unsqueezed to 16:9 and the sides are cropped off so that a portion of the image is shown at full height on a 4:3 screen by following a center of interest offset that's encoded in the video stream according to the preferences of the people who transferred the film to video. The pan & scan "window" is 75% of the full width, which reduces the horizontal pixels from 720 to 540. The pan & scan window can only travel laterally. This does not duplicate a true pan & scan process in which the window can also travel up and down and zoom in and out. Auto pan & scan has three strikes against it: 1) it doesn't provide the same artistic control as studio pan & scan, 2) there is a loss of detail when the picture is scaled up, and 3) equipment for recording picture shift information is not widely available. Therefore, no anamorphic movies have been released with auto pan & scan enabled, although a few discs use the pan & scan feature in menus so that the same menu video can be used in both widescreen and 4:3 mode. In order to present a quality full-screen picture to the vast majority of TV viewers, yet still provide the best experience for widescreen owners, some DVD producers choose to put two versions on a single disc: 4:3 studio pan & scan and 16:9 anamorphic.
Midnight Express in Region 2 and 4 uses a pan and scam version on one side and an anamorphic widescreen version in the OAR on the other.
That was the very first DVD I bought. :)
After reading this lot maybe it's not such a brilliant idea. There's probably a place for it - kids movies, music concert etc. but I'm not going to waste time hunting them down.
ZX
zeroCool
10-01-2002, 17:07
Originally posted by zeroCool
They don't seem to ship outside the UK though:mad: Turns out they do ship to Ireland...at no extra cost:D
jamie_rowe
10-01-2002, 17:20
Shawshank Redemption is also double sided with both screen formats
How about John Boorman's THE GENERAL [R1] which is 1.85:1 on one side & 2.35:1 on the other :p :D
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