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Posted by John Howells on 09/27/00 11:38
"Bratboy" <DontBother@Takeallthisaway.tde.com> wrote
> > I thought the aspect sounded odd myself but since couldnt find any
aspect
> > info anywhere else I just repeated the info as it was written.
> >
>
> Well wrote the author and asked about it being a typo and he said
> "The scores on the board are correct. "Doctor Who" (and all BBC product
> come to that) is shot at 14:9."
Should we now assume everything else he writes is also utter garbage?
*ALL* BBC widescreen material is, without exception, shot for 16:9, the
ratio of WS broadcast TV. When broadcast on 4:3 terrestrial it is converted
to 14:9 by chopping a bit off the sides and putting small black bars top and
bottom. If the resulting 14:9 with black bars in a 4:3 frame is what they
are getting on the DVDs in Canada and the US they have my sympathies.
It would not be the first time that 16:9 material had been butchered for the
US markets, such as the later Poirot episodes (from Murder in Mesopotamia
onwards), and the recent Miss Marple series (with Geraldine McEwan). They
were made for 16:9 and chopped to 4:3 for the US market (and, yes, they were
chopped, not open matte). If the butchering of Doctor Who is only to 14:9 I
suppose that is a bit better, but still unacceptable when you know what it
can look like as originally intended on a WS TV.
John Howells
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