Shawshank Redemption- not full screen in HD?

[mhowie]

I started watching this movie on Encore, ch 340 HD and was surprised to find it is scaled 4x3 (black bars on both sides). Is this common for the premium HD channels not to present movies in this fashion? Seems they would reserve the ones in this aspect ratio to the non-HD channels?

[dahenny]

Every now and then I see a movie on EncoreHD that's 4x3, but I don't think it's too common. I don't remember ever seeing 4x3 on any of the StarzHD channels.

[DishSubLA]

I think Cinemax has now guaranteed that ALL the movies it airs will be (real) HD.

[HDRoberts]

I think Cinemax has now guaranteed that ALL the movies it airs will be (real) HD.

Hmm, a few weeks ago, I was disappointed to find that my recording of The Last Starfighter was not HD on Cinemax. Seems they are not there yet.

[LER]

I was watching the Bond Unbound marathon on Sunday, and "You only live twice" was in letterbox. All the others I saw on Sunday were full screen HD.

[skottey]

I started watching this movie on Encore, ch 340 HD and was surprised to find it is scaled 4x3 (black bars on both sides). Is this common for the premium HD channels not to present movies in this fashion? Seems they would reserve the ones in this aspect ratio to the non-HD channels?

Crazy, isn't it? I saw them airing Die Hard of all things in 4:3 on the Enocre HD channel. This is not typical of the HD premiums at all. I have them all with FIOS and most of what they air is good. They do pan and scan on some to be 16x9 for movies that are wider such as Transformers. The Showtimes are the best at maintaining OAR. One guy on another board asked me 'what do you expect from Starz Encore?' when I spoke out about Die Hard being in 4:3 pan and scan on Enocore HD. We went back and forth for a while. He thinks Starz looks like crap but pretty much everything I have seen on Starz loooked good.

Keep in mind that Encore is the low end part of the Starz Encore family. Where Starz is the CEO of the company, Encore is the janitor. They will never be as good as Starz but having two very popular movies (Die Hard and Shawshank) cropped to 4:3 on an HD station is just unacceptable. Maybe as time goes by they will stop doing this.

[Fredinva]

I started watching this movie on Encore, ch 340 HD and was surprised to find it is scaled 4x3 (black bars on both sides). Is this common for the premium HD channels not to present movies in this fashion? Seems they would reserve the ones in this aspect ratio to the non-HD channels?

Funny!!!
I watched it in Full screen 16-9 HD yesterday!!!!!!!!!

[8bitbytes]

Full screen is the industry term for 4:3
Widescreen is the term for 16:9 or wider.

[Sammy033]

4x3 for Alien every time they showed it also. Oh... and of the James Bond movies, You Only Live twice was both 4x3 and letterboxed. TCM doing this I can understand. But if Encore is going to avoid widescreen they should at least also avoid the silliness of letterbox. The zoomed picture was terrible and no better than a zoomed SD channel. Certainly worse than a zoomed DVD. I dont know how it works but do stations have to pay more to show movies in HD widescreen as opposed to 4x3 (HD or not)?

So far I have only watched Dr No and Goldfinger on the DVR so I dont know if any of the others are 4x3 either. I hope not.

[skottey]

4x3 for Alien every time they showed it also. Oh... and of the James Bond movies, You Only Live twice was both 4x3 and letterboxed. TCM doing this I can understand. But if Encore is going to avoid widescreen they should at least also avoid the silliness of letterbox. The zoomed picture was terrible and no better than a zoomed SD channel. Certainly worse than a zoomed DVD. I dont know how it works but do stations have to pay more to show movies in HD widescreen as opposed to 4x3 (HD or not)?

So far I have only watched Dr No and Goldfinger on the DVR so I dont know if any of the others are 4x3 either. I hope not.

Encore HD is pointless if they are going to show crap in 4:3 all the time. They need to cough up the cash for the 16x9 HD rights.