"Widescreenizing" 4:3 TV Shows

[kfbkfb]

On 2019-02-05, the Lost in Space (now called classic) TV series
was released on DVD (only) with a widescreen 16:9 image.

LiS was rescanned for the Blu-ray release back on 2015-09-15,
the resulting image was 1.37:1.

(A quick check using a 13" 4:3 CRT TV and an original release
4:3 DVD revealed that almost the same amount of image is lost
due to CRT TV Overscan as is lost due to the 16:9 conversion).

Some of the (USA) TV show reruns channels (MeTV ) are doing
(almost, thin black bars on the sides of the image) a 4:3 to 16:9
conversion, is 4:3 -> 16:9 conversion of TV shows being done
elsewhere in the World?

Kirk Bayne

[A Sith Lord?]

Dragon Ball Z stuff. It's bad. Funimation sold blu-rays the first two seasons in OAR. Then started cropping and upscaling.

[BluBonnet]

There ought to be a law against this nefarious practice

[crackedknee]

It doesn't seem to be a trend, but does affect a few things here and there. I don't own this TV series, but someone posted on a thread somewhere that Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV shows was cropped and/or stretched to 16:9

[kevin87]

Originally Posted by crackedknee

It doesn't seem to be a trend, but does affect a few things here and there. I don't own this TV series, but someone posted on a thread somewhere that Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV shows was cropped and/or stretched to 16:9

The problem with Buffy is that Joss Whedon has said before that the show was intended to be in 4:3, and if the only way they have been able to make it wide is to zoom and crop, then that means it shouldn't be widescreen. I'd much rather something be 4:3 and be HD than be 16:9 and look like crap... as long as the QUALITY of the picture looks good who cares what the size is.

[Rizor]

I'm not too bothered by it so long as the creator is okay with it, and the image isn't cropped too much to fit. For example, I kinda like the open matte releases of The Wire and Freaks & Geeks.

[crackedknee]

Originally Posted by Rizor

I'm not too bothered by it so long as the creator is okay with it, and the image isn't cropped too much to fit. For example, I kinda like the open matte releases of The Wire and Freaks & Geeks.

As long as it's done fairly well like with The Wire (which I wouldn't know the difference, having never seen the original form).

But yeah, as long as they're not cropping too much, or worse, zooming (so the pic looks fuzzy). I've seen a few that were either simply stretched or zoomed, those seem to look the worst.

[BluProofie]

The Wire and The Sopranos look so good you wouldn’t know the difference.

[Canada]

Originally Posted by BluProofie

The Wire and The Sopranos look so good you wouldn’t know the difference.

The Sopranos was 1:78:1 to begin with.

[willbfree]

Star Trek, the original series with Shatner, was remastered in both 4:3 and widescreen versions. The widescreen versions were for Japanese tv and were also available for syndication if any network demanded widescreen. The BluRays were 4:3.