Zombie (Flesh Eaters) showing in widescreen on the Film On TV channel (Freesat ch 410). The eye splinter scene is shortened and there are advert breaks every 10 minutes. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME

I caught a few mins of that last time they screened it - even the naked diving scene is pixelated

Funny Girl on BBC2 was in widescreen

The Darkest Hour on Channel 5 cropped to 1:78.1.

According to some reports, the version channel 4 screened of Evil Dead (2013) had additional material included in neither the UK nor US BD...

Yes they did and it was an error that the extended version was broadcast, with Channel 4 saying only the theatrical version will be shown from now on, which is a shame as it was a better version.

Anyone know if Lady and the Tramp was shown in 2.55:1 on C5? I forgot to check and it was shown that way, for the first time, on BBC1 just before Xmas 2013. Hasn't been shown since, though.


Didn't realise they showed the extended version, or that there was one. I saw the regular version, and it wasn't brilliant, but it wasn't terrible, either. I was surprised it aired so soon, though.

Yes it was shown in full 2.55:1 widescreen. THICK black bars! Exactly like the Blu-ray.
I've never known Ch5 show a Cinemascope film as such!

Wow maybe the studio told them to or they didn't check it and they expected the studio to send a cropped to 16:9 version? Or maybe just maybe Viacom have decided that they want to do things properly! Like BBC and channel 4 have been doing for a while!

Probably a mistake like you said! I was very surprised at the thickness of the letterbox bars! (Overscan switched off, obviously)Looks exactly the same aspect ratio of the current Blu-ray disc. Slightly OT question, but can TV studies use a Blu-ray disc or transfer for a TV transmission? Obviously it would need speeding up to 25fps.

I don't know, I imagine that it would be possible for a broadcaster to use a BluRay and speed it up but more likely they get a H.264(MPEG 4) file at high quality from the film studio at 25fps already.
They might get given the full 2k version like a cinema, but not in a DCP file as that would be unplayable on TV!
Like I said I don't know I'm only guessing, but its unlikely that they use a BluRay.

In HD 1920*1080 frame (or container) a 2.55 film would have a resolution of 1920*753, as a 2K file it would be 2048*803, the latter being what you would most likely see in a cinema. Unless it was a 4K transfer from the 35mm film, in which case it would be 4096*1606 res.

I would like to see what a broadcaster would do with the Grand Budapest Hotel! Being in 3 different aspect ratios for different parts of the film! It would need a tremendous amount of work to get a copy that always has a 16:9 full frame picture on top of the fact it would be an absolute mess!
I can imagine that only broadcasters that are happy to show it as is would bother! Broadcasters like ITV and channel 5 would leave it alone!

Channel 5 showed The Bounty Hunter in 2.35.1 last week and back in January, they did the same with Forrest Gump but they started doing it with Lionsgate films a few years back.

I've heard (and I don't know how true this is) that Lionsgate makes it a condition of it's contracts that films are aired OAR.

At one point they were the only film company who weren't panned and scanned by HBO. I don't think HBO have the rights to Lionsgate any more, and I don't know if HBO still insist on panning and scanning, but at the time it was believed Lionsgate put a clause in insisting films were aired OAR.

Good for Lionsgate. I hope all studios follow suit when new contracts or renewals are up with the current terrestrial broadcasters.

Yes you are right

Since Sony bought out the Movies4Men channel and the True channels (except True Entertainment which shows is STILL showing 14:9 anamorphic widescreen and 4:3 pillarbox, even 14:9 on adverts when most other channels have gone 16:9 for commercial breaks), they have gone full 16:9 for films where widescreen is used. Obviously older american made-for-TV movies and older non-widescreen format films which are shown on Movies4Men and True Movies/True Drama aren't widescreen and are shown in their full 4:3 frame format as they should be. Movies4Men show widescreen films in their original letterbox format when they come that way.

The Horror channel likewise is showing films largely in the correct ratio as well. Funny how ITV is now one of the worst offenders.

Excellent. I don't have C5 HD (the are arses for not having a Freeview HD channel. Will Viacom change that?)


The trouble with the BBC is that they've got a lot of old prints which they won't replace wholesale, whereas C4 replaced almost all of the cropped prints with OAR ones.


I think they'd be in deep doo-doo for doing so. I expect they'd be sent a print by the studio, they'd upload it onto their system for playback and then play that. Otherwise, you'd have to stop/start a Blu-ray player, which will lead to all sorts of problems.


In the cinema, and on Blu-ray (and DVD presumably), it revolves around 16:9. The Blu-ray tells you to set your TV to 16:9 so nothing gets cropped. Would've been nice if, in the cinema, it had been across the full 2.35:1 width for those scenes. That said, the majority of it was 4:3, so it would've been a hell of a juxtaposition if it had.

True Entertainment is odd I agree! Why they don't fix the adverts is beyond me especially when the competition bits are anamorphic widescreen!
Their idents could easily be redone as its just simple graphics too!
Trailers are easy they usually get cropped if the wrong shape but there is no reason why trailers can't be pillarboxed with blurred repeated bits at the sides!

Anyone watch Hell and High Water on Film4 this afternoon? Its been shown in unintended ultra-wide vision! Should be 2.35:1 but its actually closer to Cinerama.

Not seen that one but I'll check it out when it's next on C4, as I can see in HD, then. IMDB lists it as 2.55:1

The ratio as you say is stated as 2.55:1. Richard Widmark just looked far too square-headed, that's what alerted me to the image looking slightly off.

As I'm sure you know there are people on these forums who want their screens filled. When ITV had films transferred at the start of the widescreen era those people were the most vociferous, many still wanted pan and scan for their old 4X3 TVs (most VHS tapes were in that format). The cropped films are usually quite old and often shown at off peak times, it presumably is not considered viable to retransfer them at the present time, unlike the BBC commercial TV is a business not a service.

Mention has been made in this thread about prints but so far as I know broadcasters no longer do their own transfer work. It used to be done by ITFC who are now owned by Deluxe, not sure who does it now.

Yes, and we're trying to have as many of them put down as soon as is humanly possible. Bear with, and we will get round to them all.