Old stuff made for TV is often in 4:3, the modern stuff is in 16:9 or even wider like for cinema. Sometimes older stuff was filmed in something closer to 16:9 and was cropped to 4:3, you can just crop it differently for a remaster without losing anything. You can see that in the picture, there’s a lot more space to the right of the characters, which unfortunately places them closer to the center instead of the side of the screen.
I remember watching an early episode of Angel that clearly had been un-cropped, because you can very clearly see a camera man filming an action scene from a different angle.
Exactly. A lot of times there is footage to pull out that got cropped out of the original broadcast, BUT the original shot was made with the crop in mind and there was a decision made about how to crop that particular scene. Just tossing in the full frame without any thought about the result can really change the feel of a scene.
Good analogy, but it is not nearly as close. Movie aspect ratios are actually variable. Most movies today switch several times over the course of the movies depending on what the director wants to convey. The problem is that they can easily do that on theaters, where the screens seamlessly accommodate the different aspect ratios almost imperceptibly for the audience, but to great emotional impact. However, the same is not true for home TVs, it is a little less flexible and far more noticeable.
They messed with the aspect ratio too didn’t they? Shots are framed wrong now
Old stuff made for TV is often in 4:3, the modern stuff is in 16:9 or even wider like for cinema. Sometimes older stuff was filmed in something closer to 16:9 and was cropped to 4:3, you can just crop it differently for a remaster without losing anything. You can see that in the picture, there’s a lot more space to the right of the characters, which unfortunately places them closer to the center instead of the side of the screen.
I remember watching an early episode of Angel that clearly had been un-cropped, because you can very clearly see a camera man filming an action scene from a different angle.
Yeah, cropping was a pretty big issue too.
Mel Brookes probably loved seeing this.
Exactly. A lot of times there is footage to pull out that got cropped out of the original broadcast, BUT the original shot was made with the crop in mind and there was a decision made about how to crop that particular scene. Just tossing in the full frame without any thought about the result can really change the feel of a scene.
Our 21:9 cinema (or whatever the 1:xyz is) and 16:9 home ratio is the equivalent to the old school 16:9 cinema and 4:3 old ratio.
Good analogy, but it is not nearly as close. Movie aspect ratios are actually variable. Most movies today switch several times over the course of the movies depending on what the director wants to convey. The problem is that they can easily do that on theaters, where the screens seamlessly accommodate the different aspect ratios almost imperceptibly for the audience, but to great emotional impact. However, the same is not true for home TVs, it is a little less flexible and far more noticeable.
Yeah but most formats come very close around 21:9 where the bars are less distracting than on a 16:9 monitor