Is Channel 4's "The Snowman" No Longer Broadcast in its Original 4:3 Aspect Ratio?
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I missed this year's "The Snowman" broadcast on Channel 4, this morning. I was seeking to acquire it in its original 4:3 aspect ratio, having bought the 'Special Edition' DVD, where it has been cropped to 16:9.
I have just heard it would have made no difference if I had recorded this morning's broadcast or not, as, apparently, since last year, Channel 4 are now showing it in a cropped 16:9 aspect ratio. Is this true?
If so, I suppose the only way to get it in 4:3 would be to get the "The Snowman/Father Christmas" double DVD, where it is described as being transferred in its original 4:3 aspect ratio.
I have just heard it would have made no difference if I had recorded this morning's broadcast or not, as, apparently, since last year, Channel 4 are now showing it in a cropped 16:9 aspect ratio. Is this true?
If so, I suppose the only way to get it in 4:3 would be to get the "The Snowman/Father Christmas" double DVD, where it is described as being transferred in its original 4:3 aspect ratio.
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It's on tonight at 18:25.
Oh, you're right! I got confused with the Radio Times layout. I only buy this for the Christmas schedules these days, and had forgotten that the schedules for the start of the day 'til mid-afternoon is now printed in concise form on the left edge of the page!
I will certainly set my hard drive to record it, but it looks as if it will be in 16:9 aspect ratio, in which case, I'll abort the recording.
It does not matter to me as much, now, because I have found that I've got an S-VHS copy of "The Snowman" which I taped years ago. I haven't looked yet but, like all my S-VHS recordings, it has been well cared for, and I remember it has the original introduction with Raymond Briggs walking in the bleak forest scene. Nice.
It certainly has, IMO, been partially spoilt by the unnatural 16:9 crop. It is simply framed too tight, in places, for it to be acceptable when cropped like this. Heads, faces, legs, hands chopped off when they should be clearly in view.
I can see that in this era of 16:9 TV, Channel 4 may feel it a good idea to crop to this ratio, but only if the picture content is framed throughout in such a way that you can apply a 16:9 crop and 'get away with it'. This is certainly not one such programme.
Please, Channel 4, show it in its original glory, next Christmas.
There isnt much plot to it either.
PJ
The matter has been escalated now, but the first reply advised me to 'check my set-up' and make sure that I am viewing in the correct aspect ratio, as nothing has been cropped and there is no missing picture information :rolleyes:
They are my employer now and i can tel you myself, its a new remastered print that was cropped to 16:9.
Agreed though, it looked stupid and no need to have been cropped in the remastering process but its how alot is done now-a-days.
They did the same with the Star Trek that was run on CBS Action.
Hi popeye13. Merry Christmas!
As they are your employer, could you tell them, from me, that they have made a ridiculous broadcasting decision today! The Christmas Day repeat of "The Snowman and the Snowdog" was preceded by one of their regular idents :eek:
Granted, the special "The Snowman and the Snowdog" ident was used with the film's first TX, yesterday, but not with the Christmas Day repeat. Do you think that the making of this ident was particularly good value-for-money, considering it was not used by Channel 4 on both occasions with the film that the ident is most naturally going to be used with?
They didn't want to over-use it but i think, using it into the repeat, would have been a smarter thing, but, eh!
There have been a fair few folks emailing about the cropping but when remastering is done, for TV versions in particular, the delivery standard is 99 times out of 100, widescreen.
So this got the cropping but they were trying to be smart with it but its not going to be to everyone's tastes.
It worked a fair bit on the remastered Star Trek, but some scenes you feel its a little in-your-face close
I found a copy of the 2005 re-released edition on DVD in 4:3 which I've ordered from Amazon for about £5, the remastered Blu Ray copy is also widescreen. I did catch a repeat yesterday on 4seven of both Father Christmas and The Snowman, must admit about half of it looked ok but there were noticable scenes with the 'safe area' cropped which didn't quite work.
Personally I think both introductions do not compare to the original introduction by Raymond Briggs, this coming from someone who grew up watching the Bowie one. The Bowie one in particular is ridiculous really.
Ah, interesting. Seems a bit strange if that's the reason.
I've never seen the original intro, I also grew up withy the Bowie version.
I still have my S-VHS copy of this version
Blame wide screen tvs then.
Challenge have many shows they they show them full screen.
Last thing we need are those horrible black lines on the screen.
Black bars are exactly what is needed when the source material and TV have different aspect ratios.
Anyway, it's Christmas, so I digress.
Why is it never the broadcaster's fault?
Why is it always the punter's fault?