Aspect ratios on Netflix

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• wakey Posts: 3,073

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  11/01/14 - 00:57 #2

  len112 wrote: »

  I freely admit the subject of aspect ratios leaves me confused but I've recently subscribed to Netflix and watching "Buffy the vampire slayer " is full screen when watching on Sky or DVD or vhs for that matter but has huge black bars when watching on Netflix , no matter what I do with my aspect control on the TV , is there anything that I can do to fix this ?

  
  By fullscreen do you mean widescreen? Just that usually when the term fullscreen is used its usually referring to 4:3
  
  Anyway with Buffy it was framed for 4:3 and this is how Joss Whedon intended for it to be viewed (apart from Once More With Feeling which was framed for 16:9/Widescreen). When it came to selling it internationally however the decision was taken to not mask it in 4:3 so its presented in widescreen.
  
  As it wasn't framed for widescreen these widescreen versions have issues, such as boom mics showing and crew members being visible at the edge of the screen. There is also lots of empty space at the sides as there was no point placing actors in this space
  
  It should be viewed in 4:3 as this is how it was intended

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• len112 Posts: 4,156

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  11/01/14 - 18:42 #3

  wakey wrote: »

  By fullscreen do you mean widescreen? Just that usually when the term fullscreen is used its usually referring to 4:3
  
  Anyway with Buffy it was framed for 4:3 and this is how Joss Whedon intended for it to be viewed (apart from Once More With Feeling which was framed for 16:9/Widescreen). When it came to selling it internationally however the decision was taken to not mask it in 4:3 so its presented in widescreen.
  
  As it wasn't framed for widescreen these widescreen versions have issues, such as boom mics showing and crew members being visible at the edge of the screen. There is also lots of empty space at the sides as there was no point placing actors in this space
  
  It should be viewed in 4:3 as this is how it was intended

  
  Could you explain to me why the TV broadcasts and DVD are displayed in fullscreen with no black bars, as I still can't get my head around this ?

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• wakey Posts: 3,073

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  11/01/14 - 21:12 #4

  len112 wrote: »

  [/B]
  Could you explain to me why the TV broadcasts and DVD are displayed in fullscreen with no black bars, as I still can't get my head around this ?

  
  The foreign distributor just decided to ignore the original framing. I would imagine its due to the switch the widescreen happened much sooner outside the US. The US didn't switch until HD broadcasts started but outside the US programming starter being produced in widescreen before the HD switch.
  
  People even today get confused with 4:3 content on a Widescreen TV with it not being unusual to see or hear people talking about using Zoom to remove the left and right black bars to make the content widescreen. So it was almost certainly a marketing reason outside the US
  
  The Widescreen prints can be made because it was shot on 16mm film so it was captured in widescreen but was framed for 4:3 that US TV was using.
  
  
  On Buffy when the complete series box set was released in the US Whedon included a note explaining why the widesceen version weren't used. He also did an interview with IGN discussing it! the original article isn't at the URL it used to be but the important section was
  

  IGNFF: Did it surprise you the reaction that the lack of widescreen for Buffy season four on DVD got here in the U.S.?
  
  WHEDON: People were upset, right? I haven't seen the season four package ... it contains a disclaimer from me as to why it's not in widescreen, that I wrote. It's on it, it comes with it. It's not a widescreen show. We shot it in a TV ratio, and I am very, very specific with the way I frame things. To arbitrarily throw – and I love widescreen, but Buffy was never a widescreen show. It was an intimate, TV-shaped show. To arbitrarily throw wider borders on it, to make it more cinematic when I very specifically framed it. Think of "The Body" – the episode "The Body"...
  
  IGNFF: Right, which I've seen in widescreen and full frame...
  
  WHEDON: How could you have seen it in widescreen?
  
  IGNFF: The U.K. sets are in widescreen.
  
  WHEDON: Good. See, that is not the way I framed it. That's not the way it was meant to be seen, and therefore that's not the way I shot it. I'm preserving what I shot. The DVD is there to preserve what we made, for eternity. What we made, very specifically, was a certain shape. So I'm sure there'll be widescreen copies and there'll be arguments about what's better, but I'm not interested in – and I mean, I love widescreen. I'm a widescreen fanatic, when something's wide. When it's not, then I want to see it the way it was meant to be seen.
  
  IGNFF: Were you not consulted for the U.K. sets?
  
  WHEDON: No, I was not. Buffy was never widescreen. Angel is, Firefly was – and was not aired that way. That'll be nice, that it can be shown the way it was meant to be seen. For me, Buffy is a different animal.

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