JoeKewl1971
01-19-2008, 02:43 PM
Back in the day I had D*. Thier idea of on demand was just DVR. I did get to see some letterbox movies. With cable I have real on demand. The bulk of the new movies Starz has are available with both letterbox and regular. Unfortunately they are not so consistant with the HD. Movies in HD have one version only. Just the same there is often a letterbox HD. Last night I watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, HD, letterbox, and 5.1. Always love good surround sound. The cinematography was gorgeous in HD. It had authentic locations, period buildings, amazing special effects, and plenty of fighting. Some say sports have the fastest motion on HD. I beg to differ. Plenty of movies have fast action. The fighting in this movie was very fast, and really showed off the HD. I did not see any flaws in the fast action. The story too was beautiful, so sad. If it comes on again, you should check it out. Some other movies that I have come across letterbox on Starz are Rush Hour, Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Mans Chest, Cars, The Da Vinci Code, Rounders, and Alien Resurrection. Look for them. Showtime is more consistant, but IMO thier movies are not always as good. Starz has the best on demand. If you are thinking of a movie channels you might want to get Starz. Tell me about your favorite, especially if I did not think of it.
Please realize that there are lots of different aspect ratios for movies. Letterbox doesn't really refer to the aspect ratio properly and probably what you are referrring to is 2.35:1 aspect ratio movies, instead of 1.85 or similar. (1.85:1 would be considered letterbox on a 4:3 TV for example)
http://www.hdtvoice.com/voice/showthread.php?t=1052 See the last link in the post
Since you mentioned some Chinese movies, watch Hero.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299977/
JoeKewl1971
01-19-2008, 05:54 PM
My most recent job was 11 years at a movie theater. I have worked at many theaters over the years. I know these things. There are flat movies, panavision, super 35, 70 mm, even Vistavision, or Technirama. Bound to be something I forgot there, IMAX? Sure not every movie needs to be letterboxed. 2.35 in the movie theater may work very well on the 16 by 9 of the HD screen. Just the same I am a big fan of the 2.35 aspect ratio (often described as 2.40 or even 2.39). I love to see these movies presented letterbox on cable. Pan and scan is a real bummer. And I would even prefer super 35 as seen in theaters. Too bad cable is not better. But I chose cable for the convenience. For the time being too, it is my only source of HD. So I guess I will just have to live with what I get.
Letterbox to me means black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. In my previous post I spoke of SD on demand letterbox. I do understand that this could include 1.85 to 1. I used to say widescreen. But in the HD age this word becomes more misleading and that is why I chose letterbox.
