Dark Knight Blu-ray Question (Merged)

[beefytwinkie]

I saw the DVD version of The Dark Knight and the whole movie is in widescreen. On the blueray it changes around. I know it's DVD and probably wouldn't make much of a difference but why didn't they do the same with the DVD as the blue? That is, show the movie in the original aspect ratio for all scenes?

[GGX]

Originally Posted by beefytwinkie

I saw the DVD version of The Dark Knight and the whole movie is in widescreen. On the blueray it changes around. I know it's DVD and probably wouldn't make much of a difference but why didn't they do the same with the DVD as the blue? That is, show the movie in the original aspect ratio for all scenes?

Probably for the same reason why there is still pan and scan "full screen" releases on DVD but not Blu-ray. OAR is extremely important for the enthusiast crowd that buys Blu-ray.

[Jeremy1983]

Originally Posted by beefytwinkie

I saw the DVD version of The Dark Knight and the whole movie is in widescreen. On the blueray it changes around. I know it's DVD and probably wouldn't make much of a difference but why didn't they do the same with the DVD as the blue? That is, show the movie in the original aspect ratio for all scenes?

I believe C. Nolan said that only the Blu-ray, because of the increase in resolution, would properly represent the IMAX experience. That's why the DVD is a set 2.35.

[Jamoctopus]

Same thing happened to me.
Guess we're just

[GGX]

Originally Posted by Jamoctopus

Same thing happened to me.
Guess we're just

Exactly

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by beefytwinkie

I saw the DVD version of The Dark Knight and the whole movie is in widescreen. On the blueray it changes around. I know it's DVD and probably wouldn't make much of a difference but why didn't they do the same with the DVD as the blue? That is, show the movie in the original aspect ratio for all scenes?

My guess is because if they did it in an anamorphic format as is standard for widescreen, they'd be opening the frame from 2.4:1 to 1.78:1. On an SD set, it would go from large black bars to smaller black bars. If they used the full 4:3 frame (i.e. "fullscreen" vs. anamorphic) to display more of the of the IMAX format, the DVD would be more true to the IMAX in displayed material than the BD.

And to entice people to be interested in the BD release as well obviously.