"Enhanced" means what now?

[kita]

I was looking around online and I came across an old favorite: "Predator", on DVD. The original, Governator version. However it was the pan&scan version (eww), so I looked around and I found two more. One was a widescreen version, the other was a enhanced widescreen version.

Anyone know what the difference would be?

[Forum Troll]

Letterboxed Widescreen (non-anamorphic) on a standard TV


Anamporphic-encoded (enhanced 16:9) on a widescreen tv

The "enhanced for 16:9" version offers a sharper and improved picture, over the non-enhanced version.

[kita]

I've never had a more clear, direct, simple response to a question. Thank you. Course, pictures helped

[lumis]

the picture improvment is due to the fact the black bars above & below arent a part of the video, they're generated by the dvd player.. leaving more bitrate for actual video instead of black bars..

it looks the same on a regular tv (as far as display, not quality), but on a 16:9 tv, the improvment is much greater..

i dont understand why anyone would release a 16:9 AR movie as LB/WS.

[garryheather]

Cost and compatibility, mainly.

A lot of older titles (and most noticeably in my opinion, the R2 release of Titanic which I am still suprised to this day was released as a widescreen movie in a 4x3 frame) were released in this format because for whatever reason they were never reformatted.

Some studios claim that widescreen isn't popular outside of Europe (doesn't explain the R2 discs, then...) and that would be the case if this site is anything to go by and the amount of Americans who seem to prefer cropped versions of a film because it fills their whole screen, the peasants !!

The issue these studios claim is that if someone has a fairly small, 4x3 screen, that a widescreen presentation is often returned to them as being inferior quality because the image is too small. I have watched 2.35:1 presentations on a 14" portable before now and yes. it is a bit narrow, but I'd rather see the whole movie than a cropped off part in the center.

If done properly, Pan and Scan (where the video is recoded and the viewing window is moved to where the action or important plot element is) is not too distracting to the viewer, but then you're getting one person's interpretation of what is important. This is where the cost escalates and you're still not getting all the content of the original movie.

Returns also go back to the studios because people don't set up their hardware correctly. If you have a 4x3 television but tell your DVD player it's 16x9 for example, the "enhanced" version will display the whole video on the screen making people look tall and thin - it's the digital equivalent of an anamorphic lens at the cinema, basically.

Personally in this day and age I can't see why studios release in this format either, but then I can't see why people BUY conentent in this format since it's inferior (less video for your money !). If people refused to buy it, it would die out.

[lumis]

i'm guessing its the "fill up my screen guys" who go out and buy an 400inch HDTV, and use SD dish service and squish everything to fit on the screen and sit back in their easy chair with a feeling of satisfaction.. and when you go over to their house and tell them about it, they just look at you stupid and forget about it..

[guns1inger]

They have it squished at home because that's what it looked like in the store. There are many large appliance/electrical goods stores than I just can't walk into now because all I want to do is yell at the morons selling the stuff and tell them to set it up correctly. They show dvds or HD broadcasts and have the ARs completely screwed up. No wonder joe pleb doesn't know he's got it wrong, he "jus dun it like I seen 'em do it in th' store"