Info and forum posts by 'Martin Zandstra'

Joined on: Friday, 18th January 2002, 18:05, Last used: Monday, 23rd May 2011, 22:26

Access Level: Harmless

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This user has posted a total of 2 messages. On average, since joining, this user has posted 0 messages a day, or 0 messages a week. In the last 30 days, this user has posted 0 messages, which is on average 0 messages a day.

Recent Messages Posted:

RE: Anamorphic Aspect Ratio Con

The Lord of the rings films have been shot on Super-35, which means that a comparatively large filmframe is used to shoot the film, but before the film is projected the top and bottom are removed to get the aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
Anamorphic lenses are not used like they are in Cinemascope or Panavision films.

James Caremon always uses this sort of method.

This technique is also called "soft matting".

When transferring the film to video they restore the top and bottom of the picture, but lose some of the sides.
So when you watch "Titanic" or "Lord of the rings" or "Harry Potter" on VHS you actually see more picture than at the cinema or on the 2.35:1 DVD at the top and bottom (a whole lot more!), but a little less on the sides.
But the extra image was not supposed to be there in the end, like the director intended.

What they could do when tranferring a film to DVD is change the aspect ratio to 1.78:1
(16:9) by restoring some information at the top and bottom, without losing any info on the sides.
This way the film would fill the screen of a widescreen TV, and will only have small bars on a regular TV.
No resolution will be lost in this process, and everyone should be happy, because there`s no picture lost, only slightly gained.

Be aware that this process can only be aplied to films shot on Super-35, NOT on Cinemascope or Panavision films that were shot with anamorphic lenses!
These films would have to be pan `n scanned to fill even a 16:9 screen.

Samsung DVD M105 problem

I have a Samsung M105 DVD player which is overall very good,
but last I week I watched 4 different DVD`s and experienced the following problem:

Randomely only once every film part of the picture breaks up into little squares for
a very short moment.
When I play the sequence again there is no problem.

I witnessed the same thing with a Sony PS2.
Also when they show DVD material on TV I sometimes see the same sort of break-up.

Has anyone else experienced this?