There has been a lot of questions about this here and some people even left because of this. I want all movies OAR and hopefully we will get them all OAR. Please read the policies about OAR movies and subtitles on HD Cinema here (http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=47719)

When it comes to aspect ratio VOOM has been playing movies with these Original Aspect Ratio:


1:37:1
1:35:1
1:37:1
1:66:1
1:75:1
1:85:1
2:00:1
2:35:1


The Question is how many of these movies are played in their OAR which will give us an answer whether every movie on "VOOM is cropped" (as some have suggested).

Methodology:

1 - I compile a list of all the movies that Voom has played on HD Cinema and Monsters HD. There are a few threads that have all this information but you can find them all here (http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=12793)

2 - Compare the OAR of the movie to what VOOM is playing. This may seem easy but it is not. I used IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/) in the beginning to find the OAR of each movie. I abandoned IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/) because

(a) the information was inaccurate or
(b) was not available.

3 - To get the OAR, I recorded the beginning of each movie using my HS2 and the PP to see what AR the movie will have in the beginning. Sometimes it was not easy to determine what was the OAR so I waited for the ending. Usually either the opening or ending credits can give you fairly accurate picture of the OAR of the movie.

4 - I recorded the information on a Spreadsheet and use an statistical analysis package to manipulate the data and get some simple frequency tables.

5 - The movies were selected as whatever was playing on HD Cinema or Monsters HD from Mid November to Mid January.

6 - As more movies becomes known what AR they are, these numbers will be changing.

Here are the preliminary results: (I have updated the analysis)

Total Movies compiled = 967 distinct titles.
Total Movies with OAR known (up to this point) = 723 distinct titles.
Total Movies with OAR unknown (up to this point) = 244 distinct titles.


Out of the 723 distinct titles, there were 591 distinct titles that were played on HD Cinema or Monsters HD in its OAR. There were 132 distinct titles that were not played in its OAR. This preliminary count gives a 81.17% of movies played in its OAR on HD Cinema or Monsters HD.

Here is a breakdown of those 591 distinct titles played in its OAR:





Cumulative Cumulative
OAR Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ
1:33:1 31 5.25 31 5.25
1:35:1 1 0.17 32 5.41
1:37:1 8 1.35 40 6.77
1:66:1 9 1.52 49 8.29
1:75:1 1 0.17 50 8.46
1:85:1 519 87.82 569 96.28
2:35:1 22 3.72 591 100.00





Here is the breakdown of those 132 titles not played in its OAR




Cumulative Cumulative
OAR Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ
1:33:1 8 6.06 8 6.06
1:37:1 9 6.82 17 12.88
1:66:1 15 11.36 32 24.24
1:75:1 3 2.27 35 26.52
2:00:1 1 0.76 36 27.27
2:20:1 1 0.76 37 28.03
2:35:1 94 71.21 131 99.24
2:55:1 1 0.76 132 100.00







Another Analysis:

Hypothesis: Suppose for a minute that I trust IMDB (www.imdb.com) 100%, will every movie in HD Cinema be cropped?

Methodology: I compared every Aspect Ratio of movies aired on HD Cinema with the Aspect Ratio on IMDB (www.imdb.com). IMDB has two locations for finding the OAR of movies. One is under "technical specs" and the other is under "DVD Details". I used "technical specs" most of the time unless was only available under "DVD Details".

Total Movies compiled = 967 distinct titles.
Total Movies with OAR known (up to this point) = 576 distinct titles.
Total Movies with OAR unknown (up to this point) = 391 distinct titles.

Out of the 576 distinct titles, there were 344 distinct titles that were played on HD Cinema or Monsters HD in its OAR. There were 232 distinct titles that were not played in its OAR. This preliminary count gives a 58.12% of movies played in its OAR on HD Cinema or Monsters HD, according to IMDB (www.imdb.com).

Here is a breakdown of those 344 distinct titles played in its OAR:




Cumulative Cumulative
OAR Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ
1:33:1 30 8.72 30 8.72
1:35:1 1 0.29 31 9.01
1:37:1 8 2.33 39 11.34
1:66:1 9 2.62 48 13.95
1:75:1 1 0.29 49 14.24
1:85:1 273 79.36 322 93.60
2:35:1 22 6.40 344 100.00






Here is the breakdown of those 232 titles not played in its OAR




Cumulative Cumulative
OAR Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ
1:33:1 30 12.93 30 12.93
1:37:1 26 11.21 56 24.14
1:66:1 34 14.66 90 38.79
1:75:1 5 2.16 95 40.95
1:78:1 8 3.45 103 44.40
2:00:1 1 0.43 104 44.83
2:20:1 1 0.43 105 45.26
2:35:1 125 53.88 230 99.14
2:55:1 2 0.86 232 100.00







This table represents the 391 UNKNOWN OAR. There are 287 titles that IMDB (www.imdb.com) does not know the OAR. The other AR I have not seen on Voom yet to make a determination.





OAR

Cumulative Cumulative
OAR Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ
1:33:1 5 1.28 5 1.28
1:37:1 20 5.13 25 6.41
1:66:1 5 1.28 30 7.69
1:75:1 1 0.26 31 7.95
1:77:1 1 0.26 32 8.21
1:78:1 2 0.51 34 8.72
1:96:1 1 0.26 35 8.97
2:00:1 1 0.26 36 9.23
2:35:1 65 16.67 101 25.90
2:55:1 2 0.51 103 26.41
???? 287 73.59 390 100.00

Frequency Missing = 1



These are the 287 titles that IMDB (www.imdb.com) does not have OAR information.






AR Cumulative Cumulative
Voom Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ
1:33:1 1 0.35 1 0.35
1:85:1 175 60.98 176 61.32
???? 111 38.68 287 100.00



How old are these titles?

How about the Era of these movies. Some claim that these movies are old before 1960. Let's see.





Cumulative Cumulative
ERA Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ
1959 <= 122 12.95 122 12.95
1960s 153 16.24 275 29.19
1970s 199 21.13 474 50.32
1980s 221 23.46 695 73.78
1990s 197 20.91 892 94.69
>= 2000 50 5.31 942 100.00

Frequency Missing = 25


Missing means that I do not have the year of the movie.

As expected very small distribution after 2000 but very uniform distribution on each decade.

Huh? I might need you to dumb that down for me. :confused:
The way I read that, of the movies that we know the OAR of, close to eighty percent (238 of 302)of them are shown OAR on Voom?

If I'm interpreting that right, it's a far cry from all movies being cropped. Which is good, of course. Me likey the OAR! :p

That is correct. 79% of them are shown OAR. It is quite a fallacy to say that every movie on VOOM is cropped. I am sure the same happens with the Movie Premium Channels (such as HBO, Cinemax, Starz, etc) but I am not going to venture into that. What makes the number jump to you is that there are far more 1:85:1 movies played on than any other aspect ratio.

Sean:
Excellent job. Can you tell if there is tendency toward more OAR lately?

Outstanding work Sean. very impressed here. That must have been quite a bit of work.

Can you tell if there is tendency toward more OAR lately?

This thread (http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=12793) should give us the answer when new titles are added each month. I am keeping track of them. It seems like there are two type of titles that can be considered "new" to us. Those that are really new and those that were never played because of PG misinformation. Luckily it looks like the PG information has been more reliable than ever but I still found one channel that was playing the incorrect movie the other day.

In a nutshell, I'll keep track of them. I have requested to VOOM to re-do the HD transfers of all 2:35:1 movies. I even offered to give them the list of movies with this aspect ratio. It is the only way to really enjoy these movies in this aspect ratio. Those are the ones that seemed to be the most obvious problem in getting them in OAR.


P.S. I wanted to add the following. I have also kept the month in which the movie appeared for the first time. So we can definetly run some numbers later on in the year to see how it looks.

Outstanding work Sean. very impressed here. That must have been quite a bit of work.

It has been. The most difficult part has been to compile them in a spreadsheet. Later on I will print in HTML format the list of movies in details that are OAR and those that are not. Even though it involved some work, I felt it was the only way to know for sure what was going on with this issue. There are still 600 titles more that need to be categorized and will probably get them all. I suspect that the % of OAR movies will be within (70-80)% as more are categorized. This is just my assumption.

Updated...

Updated... and add it a new analysis on the first post.

From January 1, 2005 through March 12, 2005, there has been 144 titles new titles added to HD Cinema. 135 Titles have been presented in its OAR. Only 9 titles were not.




OAR Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ
0 9 6.25 9 6.25
1 135 93.75 144 100.00

How old are these titles?

How about the Era of these movies. Some claim that these movies are old before 1960. Let's see.





Cumulative Cumulative
ERA Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ
1959 <= 122 12.95 122 12.95
1960s 153 16.24 275 29.19
1970s 199 21.13 474 50.32
1980s 221 23.46 695 73.78
1990s 197 20.91 892 94.69
>= 2000 50 5.31 942 100.00

Frequency Missing = 25


Missing means that I do not have the year of the movie.

As expected very small distribution after 2000 but very uniform distribution on each decade.Thanks for all your work, Sean.
Very interesting stuff on the years the movies were made. Looks to me like almost half the movies were made since 1980 -- and fully a quarter of them since 1990. That's a long way from only showing old movies. Of course, it would behoove us all to remember that just because a movie is old doesn't mean it's bad -- nor that it's good just because it's new.