Disney and anamorphic DVD

JBoogie · Post by **JBoogie** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 3:49 pm

I have been considering getting a widescreen tv lately sometime real soon, and have been researching it. I took my list of movies, and have started sifting through...sorting out the anamorphic, non-anamorphic, full screen, etc. My conclusion, why the heck does Disney choose to release their movies in full screen only or even, non-anamorphic. They are about the only studio doing it these days. They don't even give you the option, at least some studios are starting to give you the option of full screen or widescreen. I think the really irritating thing is the non-anamorphic widescreen. What's the point of it? I think I would rather have full screen. Correct me if I am wrong, but a non-anamorphic DVD is going to have bars on the side and top and bottom on a widescreen tv? You guys have probably talked this to death. But I am relatively new, and since I am considering getting a widescreen here real soon, I was wondering about everyone else's opinion.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 5:57 pm

I'm sure everyone here agrees with you that either having a fullscreen-only release or a non-animorphic release these days is ridiculous. In fact, I'm sure nobody is going to disagree with you - there should always be an option for animorphic widescreen.

However, I think its obvious that Disney is getting better. Most of their recent titles (including their catalogue ones) have been in their original theatrical aspect ratio, and many are animorphic.

As for me, I would choose non-animorphic over foolscreen - though my decision is much easier considering I don't have a widescreen TV anyway.

Disneykid · Post by **Disneykid** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 6:01 pm

Personally, I'd take a non-anamorphic DVD over a fullscreen one anyday. With a non-anamorphic DVD, the TV reads it like if the black bars were part of the picture, but you can solve this by changing your tv's aspect ratio to "4:3 cropped". This zooms the picture in so the black bars are chopped in half and the picture itself fits perfectly width-wise, simulating a sort of mock anamorphic image. Anamorphic is of course better, though, not just because you won't have to toggle with your tv's aspect ratio, but also because anamorphic pictures have an enhanced edge to them that gives you a clearer picture whereas non-anamorphic images are very flat looking and can come out kinda fuzzy.

And yes, it's rare (and stupid) for studios to release non-anamorphic DVD's these days. Wanna know just how common it's getting? I recently ordered the DVD of an independent Jesus film called The Gospel of John. Not only is the image itself enhanced, but so are the menus and all the bonus features minus the trailer. If a small independent studio like that can give us an excellent DVD that's virtually all anamorphic, then Disney has absolutely no excuse not to, as well.

wizzer · Post by **wizzer** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 6:10 pm

i was looking into buying a widescreen tv and i looked at all kinds of tvs in the 1500-2500 dollar range and i ended up purchasing an infocus x1 projector for 999 bucks. i have it shone onto my wall at more than 150 inches diagonal and the picture looksway way better than any of the HD sets i was looking at. full screen, non anamorphic, anamorphic, it doesn't matter to me. they all look great and it is the real theater expirience i was looking for. the reason best buy does not have any projectors set up like a demo is because people would buy way less expensive big tv sets. i love my projector and me and the wife and kids all watch movies together again. i say, sleeping beauty is playing at 7:00 and everyone gets ready for the 'home theater' to please us and it hasn't failed yet. with the money i saved, i bought a brand new home theater system too. the sound and picture is awsome-- i have a movie theater at my house

Udvarnoky · Post by **Udvarnoky** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 7:30 pm

Wasn't Buena Vista one of the last companies to make anamorphic discs? I think Criterion was late in the game as well...

GOGOinVegas · Post by **GOGOinVegas** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 11:25 pm

I understand your frustration with Disney, I recently got a 55in Philips Widescreen and its funny to see many Disneys are full screen only.
One thing to keep in mind is that although you can change the ratio of your picture with most signals,(TV, DIGITAL TV,VCR...) With most Progressive scan DVD Players (which is incredibly better,check out Nemo!!) you are stuck with what your DVD players output ratios are. Usually only 2-4 choices. I recommend Toshiba by the way having bought 5 DVD players and tested them all. but thats just my opinion! Of course this all depends on the TV too so do your research and remember theres a lot more than just Disney movies!Although I'll never watch Lady and the Tramp on anything other than WIDE from now on!

MickeyMouseboy · Post by **MickeyMouseboy** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 1:32 am

I love Anamorphic DVDs! I never buy foolscreen or Non-anamorphic DVD unless i find them in the wal-mart dump bin for $5.88

gotta love the wal-mart dump bin you actually find good new movies in there for that price!

I want to buy a projector and a new WS TV any recommendations on projectors? I would like a projector and use my wall that way i can get a bigger frame on my wall, also I've heard projector can get expensive when getting replacement bulbs? any idea? Thanks

MMBoy

rodis · Post by **rodis** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 2:14 am

I never understand what's the difference between anamorphic and non-anamorphic

I know "Beauty and the Beast", "The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame" and "Mulan" are all non-anamorphic but what does it mean? That the top and bottom of the picture are cropped?

2099net · Post by **2099net** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 2:57 am

With a non-anamorphic picture, the black bars are included in the picture - ie the normal 4:3 area of the television is encoded onto the discs, with the black bars included.

This has the disadvantage that when displayed on a widescreen TV the image has to be zoomed in, this the picture is made bigger and any inperfections are more visible.

If you play a non-anamorphic DVD on a widescreen television without zooming, it would be a windowboxed rectangle with black bars all around.

An anamorphic picture doesn't have the black bars included as part of the image, but instead "squeezes" the full widescreen image into the 4:3 picture. This has the advantage of using all the available picture space for detail, so when shown on a widescreen tv, the picture quality is better (when shown on a normal tv, these extra lines are simply removed).

Some studios released non-anamorphic DVDs, because if the DVD player is not set up correctly, an anamorphic image can appear squashed on a normal tv.

I didn't explain that very well, so check out the following link (which includes images)

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... lcome.html

MickeyMouseboy · Post by **MickeyMouseboy** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 3:16 am

stop before you hurt youself netty

let's make this easy

Anamorphic- fills the whole 16x9 frame of a Widescreen TV on its own cause the picture is encoded on the DVD to do this (no black bars) when you watch this kind of DVD you Full screen TV overscan pulls more on the picture causing minimal picture lose.

Non-Anamorphic - the Widescreen frame is encoded into a fullscreen frame that looks like on your fullscreen tv when you watch a WS movie so when you watch this DVD on a WS TV, you get a fullscreen frame with the widescreen movie in it which makes it annoying when watched on a WS TV. this kind of DVD on your fullscreen tv will have little to no overscan picture lose.

another thing. Beauty and the beast and hunchback are anamorphic DVDs

Mulan is non-anamorphic DVD

rodis · Post by **rodis** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 3:19 am

Thanks (both of you)

MickeyMouseboy · Post by **MickeyMouseboy** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 3:49 am

Welcome! Anamorphic is hella better! so is W I D E S C R E E N !

Joshua Clinard · Post by **Joshua Clinard** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:42 am

Disney is not the only company releasing full screen DVD's. MGM and Columbia Tristar are also guilty of such crimes. On a positive note, Disney usually releases seperate 16x9 widescreen and fullscreen versions. Sometimes, they are both included on the same disc. On the other hand, companies like MGM and Columbia/Tristar are relasing DVD's that are fullscreen ONLY. They have both announced quite a few fullscreen only family films that will be released soon. Matilda and Little Monsters are two recent examples, but there are several more. Disney seems to be getting better. With Disney though, we often don't know if a catalogue title will be fullscreen only or widescreen until it hits stores.

wizzer · Post by **wizzer** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 9:14 am

MickeyMouseboy wrote:I love Anamorphic DVDs! I never buy foolscreen or Non-anamorphic DVD unless i find them in the wal-mart dump bin for $5.88 gotta love the wal-mart dump bin you actually find good new movies in there for that price! I want to buy a projector and a new WS TV any recommendations on projectors? I would like a projector and use my wall that way i can get a bigger frame on my wall, also I've heard projector can get expensive when getting replacement bulbs? any idea? Thanks

MMBoy

i bought the infocus x1 for 999 bucks at best buy bulbs are good for 4000 hours on my projector and right now i can get replacement bulbs for 275 bucks.one bulb should be good for about 1 movie a night for 5 and a half years but i figure for me it's closer to 5 and a half movies for 1 year

anyway, my buddy had the x1 and i looked into something that was a little different because i didn't want to have the same projector. so i got the optoma 731 i think and i got it home and plugged it in and i saw the image for about 10 seconds and then the lamp blew up and i brought it back to best buy and got the x1 and some money back. i just hooked it up with the s-video cable so i'm not even using the progressive scan and i was totaly blown away with an image that i couldn't believe. and that shone onto my not fresly painted wall. i still have a good regugular 27 incher in the front room and the kids have tvs in their rooms for regular tv watching but we all gather for the main event in the evenings.

mikovich · Post by **mikovich** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 1:17 pm

I can only say that I feel your pain... 4:3 sux... plain and simple... having a widescreen tv myself, I almost never buy 4:3 dvds for the very same reason.

Luckily... for me that is... I live in Denmark... I may not get my disney dvds as fast as you guys, but the are always anamorphic widescreen...

The only non-anamorphic Disney dvds I own are as follows... "The black Cauldron, Pocahontas, and Hercules" these are all non-anamorphic widescreen... Come on Disney... You can do better than this...

But generally I am very pleased with the Disney releases...

On the other hand... you often get DTS soundtracks, where we are left with DD 5.1

Is it really true that "Mulan" is non-anamorphic???

Post by **Luke** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 1:30 pm

mikovich wrote:Is it really true that "Mulan" is non-anamorphic???

Yes, it's true. Welcome to the forum.

wizzer · Post by **wizzer** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 1:40 pm

also the little mermaid. 101 dalmations, the old bugs life and i don't know is lady and the tramp non anamorphic?

JBoogie · Post by **JBoogie** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 4:54 pm

Thanks for your opinions! I have so many DVDs and I have been sifting through them all, trying to figure out which ones were anamorphic, non-anamorphic etc. The vast majority of my non-anamorphic ones are Disney/Buena Vista and Fox. After I didn the research, it really blew my mind that movies like Armaggedon, Titanic, Hercules, Lady & the Tramp, are all non-anamorphic. I think of all my movies I only have 2 that I initially bought as non-anamorphic, that I can replace with anamorphic. That's 2 out of around 30...

It's gotta be irritating as heck to watch those non-anamorphic movies on a widescreen. Does it bother anyone watching full screen movies on a widescreen. Like the movies made in widescreen and tv shows. Am I right in thinking that my DVDs of Snow White, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Friends, Buffy would have the black bars on the side instead of the top?

Joe Carioca · Post by **Joe Carioca** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 6:39 pm

I have a widescreen television set and wouldn't trade it even for the best-looking 3X4 TV. You can be asured it is the way to go.

JBoogie · Post by **JBoogie** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:48 pm

Thanks for your input Joe! I think I am leaning towards the widescreen!!

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