film exists in two version on disc; which one do i want ?

[sybariten]

OK, here's a vague one.

I have two big 3 gig files in the "main movie" dir. When i preview them in dvdshrink, the one that's widescreen (i think) looks taller and more stretched than normal. The one thats "fullframe" has a normal-looking aspect ratio. They both use the same size of preview window, ofcourse.

Now, how do i determine which of these films i want to save if i want to preserve the "original film" as good as possible?

The film in discussion is Kentucky fried movie.

[sybariten]

Filling up on details here:

In essence, i have a DVD that i want to backup to DVD+R, (DVD5), and the original disc is too big so i want to know which file to take out.

Here's the deal:
This film comes from a batch that all had
- No protection
- Little or no extra material
- No problems fitting on DVD5 discs.

However, dvdshrink reports this particular film to be around 7 gigs. I knew that in this film, you had a choice between "widescreen" or "fullframe" for the main movie. I suspected that this could be the root of the problem; that the film was in a way featured two times on the disc, one for each format, and that is the conclusion i draw from dvdsrhink too.

Here's a link to a capture of the pic format choice

Here are captures of the same shot in the two different modes:
fullframe
widescreen

Now, i know that widescreen is basicly almost always "what you want", and i know that the stretch comes from a widescreen image being shown in a fullframe frame, and i guess the area of aspect ratios is big enough to write a book about it, but still.... i cant see any details missing in that nonstretched version.
Its not narrower, is it? So what would i lose by chosing to back up only the fullframe version of the film?
Does this have anything to do with anamorphism?

[guns1inger]

It looks like it was shot in a format that allows for fullscreen and widescreen to be taken from the same neg. Many directors shoot this way. They frame for both, matte it for cinema release, but have a 'true' full frame version to for TV/VHS release that doesn't need to suffer the indignity of the pan and scan process. If you look at the two images closely you can see that the full frame image has more air above the character's head. The widescreen version simply mattes this out. Similarly, in the fullscreen version he is holding a microphone and you can see three knuckles on his hand. The widscreen version crops off the hand completely.

The question is, was it originally shot and presented 4:3, or was the theatrical release widescreen ?

There is an argument here that you may in fact be losing details by going to the widescreen version, although I would suggest that these would not be important details as it would have been framed with this in mind.

Then again, why not watch both, and pick the one you prefer afterwards ?

[sybariten]

OK this is kind of interesting. I instinctively thought that widescreen would be the most complete image, but, as you point out, the knuckles aren't there.
So.. my thoughts now are, why is there a widescreen version if the negative is 4:3 in aspect ratio....

(and i suppose the fullframe version is the one i want of the two video versions.)

[rijir2001]

Some directors will shoot a full screen image and crop the image for the theatrical release (widesccreen). Then for the television broadcast they won't crop the image. This cuts out the pan and scan step all together.

An effective cost cutter. And yes results in the full screen being the "complete" version.

[guns1inger]

James Cameron shoots this way (or at least he used to), as did Kubrick.

[MackemX]

I prefer as much of the picture as possible and don't mind black bars as long as none of the sides or the top and bottom are cut off. Some directors say it's so you can be 'closer' to the scene atmosphere

rubbish, if I want extreme closeups of a particular scene or face then I just go round my mate's house and watch it on his projector

[ROF]

When they say "closer to the scene" atmosphere this means no panning / scanning which means whose talking and whose being talked to are both on the screen as opposed to panning between them.

[steptoe]

Also, if you have a single movie that has multiple endings, then DVD Shrink 'sees' this as different movies, so you might think there are 3 or 4 movies on the same disc

A good example is 'Supersize Me' that has I think 4 differemt beginnings where the first 5 or so minutes is slightky different slagging off different companies but the rest is the same

DVD Shrink thinks there are 4 different movies


Same goes for Alien Resurrection, it has two slightly different beginnings, and again for Alien vs Predator

DVD Shrink sees these are two movies, when there is actually very little difference between them all


Best way is to play them one-by-one, and try to see for yourself which one you prefer

[MackemX]

When they say "closer to the scene" atmosphere this means no panning / scanning which means whose talking and whose being talked to are both on the screen as opposed to panning between them.

I was reffering about comments I've seen about how they want to be right close to the actor so you can 'feel' what they feel . I don't need to see their nostril hairs to feel what they feel