cropping of oar

[shelly]

I realize that Voom has no control over premium movie channel services that crop their movies from oar to fill the 16:9 screen. Starz, and usually HBO are major players in this.

But, why does Voom have to do this with their proprietary channels?
This seems so contrary to what a hd service should provide. Pan and scan just to fill the screen is terrible. Formatted to fit my screen is terrible.

This morning, I tried to watch one of my favorite movies, Broadway Danny Rose. But I had to stop because it was not showing in its original aspect ratio. The photographic beauty of the movie was gone. It has so many wide shots. I am surprised that Woody Allen has not filed a lawsuit against Voom, as he usually insists that his movies not be altered in any way.

Even the cartoons on Animania are cropped and zoomed so much that often heads are cut off.

I would rather that older 4:3 movies and cartoons be cleaned, restored and transferred to hd, if possible, but left in their original 4:3 aspect ratio.

Shelly

 

[Sean Mota]

I am with you since I myself love all movies in OAR. To me the PQ is affected when you zoom the picture to fit the 16x9 screen. I have seen one or two movies in OAR in cinema 10 and it was fantastic. Monsters-HD and Epics-HD have done OAR and it is a beauty when it is done.

Again, I have a 60" display and to me it looks ok. Others will say that they do not like it because it makes their TVs viewing smaller.

 

[aarton]

I am contemplating getting Voom and now I am leaning towards not getting it at all because of this issue. For years it was a fight to find movies that were letterboxed on VHS since I didn't want to watch anything pan and scan, this is the same thing, I'd not waste my time watching things other than what the director intended. Even the cartoons that are messed with on Voom I couldn't watch that channel because of that, it's a waste. Just how much of the content on Voom would be useless to me because of this practice? Is this only on the HD content or do they do anything to the SD channels as well? My kids and I watch lot of Boomerang and Cartoon Network, are those stretched or zoomed in any way by Voom? I guess I wouldn't care if they stretched things because I can set my TV to show the OAR anyhow and just make it look correct, but cropping is just insane. If anyone could clue me in on what content is zoomed and what isn't I'd be grateful.. This post makes it seem like some movies are cropped and some are not, but I have not seen anything about the SD channels? Thanks.

 

[madpoet]

I know several people, including Alan over at AVS, have been complaining to Voom about OAR. Hopefully we'll see some movement in that direction.

-MP

 

[Sean Mota]

Can you guys take a poll to see how many people are in favor of this? I for one want OAR all the time but some are not in favor of it or have no opinion one way or the other. Rang1995 will give the results of the Poll to VOOM management.

 

[madpoet]

Poll created

 

[aarton]

I still was wondering just how much of their programming is effected by this practice?

 

[trugel]

OAR Zooming

Does this cropping issue apply to all channels including OTA channels?

I have noticed the cropping of images on the following channels:

Voom News Channel
WorldSport
Rave
WCBS
WABC

I can understand changing the OAR for movies but why would Voom change the aspect ratio for their own channels and OTA programming? OTA programing (regular TV shows, not movies) are filmed and intented to be shown on a regular 16x9 screen so that no cropping is required.

Is this an issue with Voom or my TV? I have a Mitsubishi 55" Widescreen TV, model #: WS55613.

Any help in understanding this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[wasch_24]

I hope it's not a Mitsubishi issue

In reference to trugel's reply. I too have noticed cropping on my Mitsubishi WS65711 on the same channels. I have the STB outputting 1080i so I know there is no zooming or expanding being done by the TV. I just noticed this anomoly after reading a couple of threads on this yesterday. Tonight after work I am going to try all sources coming into my TV to troubleshoot the cause. If it is the STB I wonder if there are any settings I can fanangle in the settings menu?

 

[Sean Mota]

I still was wondering just how much of their programming is effected by this practice?

Cropping is only affected on the Cinema 10, Animania, Epics & Monsters. All other channels follow the 16x9 widescreen format that everyone follows. OTA is not affected by this and VOOM has no control over how HBO, Starz, Showtime and other premium channels send their signal. So we are just talking about Cinema 10, Animania, Epics, & Monsters

 

[trugel]

In reference to trugel's reply. I too have noticed cropping on my Mitsubishi WS65711 on the same channels. I have the STB outputting 1080i so I know there is no zooming or expanding being done by the TV. I just noticed this anomoly after reading a couple of threads on this yesterday. Tonight after work I am going to try all sources coming into my TV to troubleshoot the cause. If it is the STB I wonder if there are any settings I can fanangle in the settings menu?

I would be very interested to hear about the results of your test. Feel free to send me an email directly at trugel@optonline.net.

Thanks,

 

[aarton]

Cropping is only affected on the Cinema 10, Epics & Monsters. All other channels follow the 16x9 widescreen format that everyone follows. OTA is not affected by this and VOOM has no control over how HBO, Starz, Showtime and other premium channels send their signal. So we are just talking about Cinema 10, Epics, & Monsters

Thanks for the answer. I never thought I'd see the day that I'd have to worry about this issue the other way around.. And now I read that dvd sets are being cropped too with that Kung Fu set. Disturbing.. I wonder if in 10 years we'll be having a hard time finding stuff on dvd that's in original 4:3