Sherlock Holmes Blockbuster Rental Aspect Ratio

[Uberfy]

I just rented Sherlock Holmes from Blockbuster, and immediately noticed the aspect ratio was playing at 1.78:1 even though the back cover states the aspect ratio is supposed to be 1.85:1. I checked all my settings, popped in other movies with 1.85:1, and Sherlock Holmes is definitely the wrong aspect ratio. I see no thin black bars at the top and bottom as I do with other 1.85:1 movies.

Is this a new technique for Blockbuster to "dumb down" their special copies of BD movies so the uninformed Blockbuster audience will see the movie in full screen with no black bars? The cover and the disc itself have "RENTAL" printed on them, so Blockbuster could have easily worked out a deal for the movie to be presented in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio too I suppose. Has anyone noticed this with other BD rentals from Blockbuster that have their special "RENTAL" label on them?

I searched the forum for a previous discussion on this and didn't see anything, sorry if it has already been covered.

[42041]

Making a video encode takes time/money, I doubt they'd make a new one for something as insignificant as that (most people probably have overscan on and wouldn't even see black bars). More likely, the back of the box is just wrong.

[Apophis906]

Its not Blockbuster, its Warner. They like to open up the matte on 1.85:1 films to 1.78:1 to fill the screen.

[Uberfy]

Well that sucks. Do you know if they stretch it out from top to bottom, or do we lose some image from the left and right sides? Either way, I think that's a bunch of crap for WB to make that a standard practice.

[42041]

Originally Posted by Uberfy

Well that sucks. Do you know if they stretch it out from top to bottom, or do we lose some image from the left and right sides? Either way, I think that's a bunch of crap for WB to make that a standard practice.

It is far more likely the image is open matte. The movie was primarily (wait, scratch that, *partially*) shot on 16:9 (1.78:1) digital cameras and the rest on super35, so the 1.85:1 ratio would be cropped from the camera's native AR.

[BStecke]

It's not cropped, so no information is lost. The frame is just opened slightly to eliminate the bars.

[steve_dave]

You see a tiny bit more on the top and bottom. The mattes that cover the picture information are nudged slightly. The difference between the 1.85:1 frame and 1.78:1 frame is neglible.

If it bothers you, then turn on the overscan and it should be in the correct 1.85:1 AR.

[Uberfy]

Thanks 42041 and steve_dave. Opening the matte on original 1.78:1 footage makes sense. It just bothered me that I wasn't seeing the image that I expected. I know my equipment, and when I see the 1.85:1 listed on the back, I expect to see the thin black bars. Now I can just be bothered by why they don't list the ratio correctly on the cover.

[steve_dave]

It is not Blockbuster who produced the disc. It is not Blockbuster who produced the disc.

Warner Home Video has always slightly opened up 1.85:1 framed films to 1.78:1 on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD, and digital download. The ideal behind this is that the overscan on most displays will correct the aspect ratio difference. It also provides protection against overscan affecting the composition of the shot.

Paramount and the Weinstein Company (when they produced their own BDs) also share the same practice.

It is not Blockbuster who produced the disc. It is not Blockbuster who produced the disc.