Thread: Is every movie in VOOM cropped?

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

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

2 - Compare the OAR of the movie to what VOOM is playing. This may seem easy but it is not. I used
IMDB

in the beginning to find the OAR of each movie. I abandoned
IMDB


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:

Code:

   

                                                     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

Code:

                                          
                                                     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


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


. 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


.

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

Code:

   
                                                     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

Code:

                                          
                                                     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


does not know the OAR. The other AR I have not seen on Voom yet to make a determination.

Code:

                                              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


does not have OAR information.

Code:

                  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.

Code:

                                                      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.
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!

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.

Originally Posted by Walter L.

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

This thread 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.

Originally Posted by vurbano

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.