I really do not know why is VOOM debating so much this topic. I sent an email to a contact at the programming department and he fowarded my email to someome in charge of HD Cinema. Here's my correspondence. Everyone in favor of OAR should follow the link above and send in your comment. I really hope we get this. Here's the link:
http://voom.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/voom.cfg/php/enduser/cci/std_cont.php?page=null
My Comment/Question to VOOM:
I see that HD Cinema has made quite excellent improvements. Now 2 movies
per channel per day. Some of the channels has been named to show specific
movie gendre. These are good improvements but one improvement that will
greatly enhanced the HD Cinema experience will be keeping the Original
Aspect Ratio (OAR) of the movie. For example, "The Woman in Red" and "The
Towering Inferno" have 1.85 as the OAR of the 35mm film. When the HD
tranfer of these movies is done, it should be kept at 1.85 (OAR) and
therefore it will show letterbox (black bars top and bottom). This will
greatly enhanced the viewing because the resolution of the HD Transfer will
be better and some parts of the movie are not lost.
The way it is right now every HD Cinema movie is filling the 16x9 HDTV
screen. This is not good if the OAR of the movie was not meant to fill the
16x9 HDTV screen. What is happening is that some parts of the movie is lost
and quality of the movie also loses because it has to be strecthed
vertically and horizontally to fill the screen. Most people that get VOOM
are well knowledge in Home Theater and can tell the difference between the
two methods. Please pass this information along because this is one
drawback that is keeping people from signing or dissapoint a lot of people
once they sign on and find out this. These people will eventually end up
leaving the service.
Hope we can talk once more.
My Answer from VOOM:
I was passed your comment along to me and I am glad to hear from you.
This aspect ratio for movies has been a lively debate here at VOOM, will
all of the movie enthusiasts lined up squarely on your side. Your
comment gives me renewed support to shift this policy, which I hope to
do within the next month. I'll keep you posted.