Which aspect ratio is better for 3D movies? Fullscreen, widescreen, variable etc

[Suntory_Times]

Originally Posted by film11

Not so...there are others. DARK KNIGHT, DARK KNIGHT RISES, HUNGER GAMES 2, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY,

All of which are cropped. TDK, TDKR, HG2 are 1.44:1 in their imax ratio, but at home are 1.78:1. GOTG is 1.89:1 and at home is 1.78:1 (they cut off the sides of the image). Star Trek ID was 1.66:1 and at home is cropped to 1.78:1 for the imax release.

[ahmedreda]

That is only partially true. Scope is supposed to be larger than 16:9 but IMAX 16x9 (or whatever aspect ratio they use) is supposed to be larger than scope.

I am not religious about which aspect ratio is supposed to be larger.. I have a 16x9 screen which is what worked best for my setup. If I had a wider wall, I would have gone with a scope screen but given that my screen is 16x9, I have no problem watching 16x9 content in a size bigger than scope whether it is Imax or not.

Originally Posted by Suntory_Times

You are wrong. Films are intended to be at their largest in the scope format and for 1.85:1 to be shown with less picture information to the sides. This isn't actually up for debate, you can prefer a 1.78:1 screen etc, but that is not what was being said or discussed. Those with scope setups really should consider getting a video processor to crop the image back to scope.

[levcore]

I was posting on a mad Max Forum and I started a thread discussing the 3D release of Fury Road. Unfortunately most of the contributions to the thread were basically "3D is crap, it's pointless, it doesn't add anything blah blah" ie the usual nonsense.

Fortunately one forum member did have a 3D TV, unfortunately this was his response:

"I love 3D but avoid it in the cinema if possible, seems to work better for me in the home setting.

The only issue I have it is that most home releases are cropped which is the peak of stupidity. Compare the full screen glory of I Robot to the cropped view of nearly everything else. Rights owners please take note.

Not sure if its even technically viable to do 3D in black and white but a 3D version of Black and Chrome Fury Road would rock my world for sure and possibly be enough to sway some mindsets on the format."

So I responded saying:

"Most 3D releases aren't cropped, it's just the aspect ratio they were shot in. You cite I, Robot as a non cropped example but they actually opened up the aspect ratio for the 3D blu ray especially. The previous 2D version and the way it was shot was with the widescreen black bars at the top and bottom.

The same was done for Avatar and Titanic 3D blu rays.

It just depends what ratio the director wanted to shoot in. I agree fullscreen 3D looks better but a lot of directors still opt for the letterboxed widescreen look."

Which he responded with:

"Cropped was a poor choice of words, its all about aspect ratios.
I`ve got 14 BR 3D disc`s and only I Robot has the correct aspect ratio, the rest are letterboxed, which is fine for a 2D release but not this format. Not gunna change
real soon as they have started to include small scenes of action to bleed out of the letterboxing briefly to "enhance" the 3D experience and totally missing the point."

Just wanted to share it. It's funny how some people see things and I would have assumed that as a 3D fan he might be fairly film savvy and understand about artistic choice of aspect ratios. This person in particular is actually complaining about pop outs breaking the bars, saying it's missing the point.

[nycomet]

In another thread I read that Captain America Civil War 3D blu-ray will include shifting aspect ratios.

[BozQ]

This is actually an old thread.
But anyway, although not confirmed yet, Ghostbusters 2016 should be have variable aspect ratio.