Horse Whisperer July 3 - Pre-order

[Veronica Mars]

Do Disney catalogs drop pretty quickly? I was hoping for something closer to $13 or $12, but now I'm trying to decide if I should wait for a drop. We definitely want this one, but it's not at the top of the list (we watched it last night), although we adore the film and definitely want it in the collection.

But if Disney tends to drop quickly we'll wait, like most here, we have a bunch of things we're waiting until the holidays for, but I don't think we can wait for BF prices on this one. If you guys think it will hold steady until November, we might as well pick it up now.

Thanks.

[majorkonig41]

Originally Posted by Veronica Mars

Do Disney catalogs drop pretty quickly? I was hoping for something closer to $13 or $12, but now I'm trying to decide if I should wait for a drop. We definitely want this one, but it's not at the top of the list (we watched it last night), although we adore the film and definitely want it in the collection.

But if Disney tends to drop quickly we'll wait, like most here, we have a bunch of things we're waiting until the holidays for, but I don't think we can wait for BF prices on this one. If you guys think it will hold steady until November, we might as well pick it up now.

Thanks.

I personally think it may drop quickly because I don't think it's going to be a big seller. Mainly because it isn't available in a lot of stores. Then again it may have the reverse effect and stay at the same price if the studio wants to maximize profits from low sales. I guess that isn't much help.

I did watch it this afternoon and the pq and aq were great. However the different aspect ratio was sort of distracting as there wasn't much cut off the sides in the beginning. Seemed almost pointless. Though I do give them credit for making the attempt.

[Integra8]

Originally Posted by The Duke

Well, it still appears to be non-anamorphic on Blu-ray, but is that possible? I didn't think Blu-ray supported that?

I got my copy early from DeepDiscount and watched it last night. The back cover says the aspect ratio is 2.35, but it only filled half my screen for width. I had to zoom my projector quite a bit to get the picture to fill my screen horizontally, just like a non-anamorphic DVD. PQ is pretty nice, but I think alot of folks are going to be disappointed if they don't have a zoom feature on their player or TV.

Bought this at Costco for $12.99 (no other store in our area had it!) It appears to be anamorphic with a 2:35 aspect ratio. I hadn't seen this in a while and when I put the Blu Ray in it had a "picture frame" affect for the first 4 chapters, when chapter 5 begins, it then has the correct aspect ratio. I thought there was something wrong so I threw in the original DVD, same thing. I was wondering if this was intentional? Overall the picture quality looks excellent. Some shots appear soft, but still most of the movie is excellent.

Jeff

[plinfesty]

In the theatres, ALL the reels were formatted in "scope" meaning it was to be projected with the theatre's anamorphic lens that unsqueezed the 2 to 1 squeezed "scope" image on the frame to present the 2.4x1 aspect ratio. For it's intended effect, the first 2 reels were hard matted on the sides to give a 1.85 to 1 ratio. However, these first 2 reels were actually really scope prints to match the other reels. The intended effect was that once they hit the opened land in reel 3, their "confinement" to their normal area expanded.

Now, I THINK the entire film was shot in scope with the narrower parts pre-planned while shooting and framing appropriately. This could have happened because if a decision was later made in post NOT to do the dual AR effect, they could just realease the full AR effect, the only difference is that there would be some additional side information revealed. Just a theory of mine. But the reason I think they shot from beginning to end in scope was because when I saw this in the theatre, the frame was off revealing the negative splices of the edits of the first part of the film. A movie shot flat (1.85) would never show these as they would fall outside of the range of a printable frame. Also, if memory serves correctly, the letterboxed DVD seemed to show more image on the sides of the first part then was shown in theatres.

In summary, the BD seems to be (and I haven't had time to watch it yet) an accurate representation of the theatrical experience.

[#Darren]

Caps from my anamorphic DVD showing both ratios:

[BluShift]

I've only seen this film in a 1.78 broadcast from a year or two ago. So I assume that the pictures I saw were cropped. (Admittedly, I had to go out just over half way through the film.)

I understand the intention of the changing ratios. I think it's a good idea, though I don't think it's an entirely original idea.

The slight problem I have with showing it "window boxed" is this decreases the resolution of the 1.78 image in comparison to a full TV widescreen resolution.

One possible way round it would be to sort of do what the Herostratus Blu-Ray release does and have the release in "two" ratios. One of the ratios would be 1.78 all the way through while the other would be the mixture of the both the 1.78 and 2.39 ratios.

Even though I have only seen it in 1.78, I still really enjoyed the film. But I should have spotted the main metaphor in the film much earlier on...

[BluShift]

Originally Posted by #Darren

Caps from my anamorphic DVD showing both ratios:

I only noticed your post after posting my reply.

I think the ratio of the "window boxed" image is 2.0 while the ratio of the other image is 2.35. Neither of them look bad. I thought it was much worse (i.e. the "window boxed" image felt more like a 1.33 ratio image) and therefore the "complaints" earlier on in this thread.

In theory, there is more of the picture that is seen in the 2.0 image than what I saw from the 1.78 broadcast.

[WiWavelength]

Originally Posted by Integra8

Bought this at Costco for $12.99 (no other store in our area had it!) It appears to be anamorphic with a 2:35 aspect ratio.

The BD format does not contain an anamorphic enhancement mode. In other words, all BDs have square pixels, and all BDs are full frame, letterboxed, pillarboxed, or windowboxed.

AJ

[WiWavelength]

Originally Posted by plinfesty

Now, I THINK the entire film was shot in scope with the narrower parts pre-planned while shooting and framing appropriately.

You are correct. The opening reals were not shot 1.85 flat. Rather, all principal photography was 2.35 anamorphic Panavision. Characteristics evident in anamorphic photography are present even in the opening reels. And the footage that comprises the opening reels was side matted to 1.85.

Furthermore, presenting the 1.85 segments windowboxed on BD is entirely the intended treatment, as the 1.85 footage on negative and film print is the same height as the 2.35 footage but just not as wide.

AJ

[obriensg1]

Finally got around to watching this (well I'm about halfway through lol). The opening scenes weren't as drastic as I thought. There was an inch, or an inch and a half on either side during the first part of the movie but it wasn't even noticeable.

[BluShift]

For the record, the recently Blu-Ray.com reviewed Brainstorm changes between 1.85 to 2.40 aspect ratios in the same way that Horse Whisperer does. However, the changes occur much more frequently.

[koover]

Originally Posted by BluShift

For the record, the recently Blu-Ray.com reviewed Brainstorm changes between 1.85 to 2.40 aspect ratios in the same way that Horse Whisperer does. However, the changes occur much more frequently.

And drastically

[The80s]

How come the first 20 minutes of the movie have black bars on the sides of the screen but they go away after that? Why are they there at all?

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by The80s

How come the first 20 minutes of the movie have black bars on the sides of the screen but they go away after that? Why are they there at all?

It’s intentional...all the scenes in New York are 1.85:1, as soon as they get to Montana it opens up to 2.35:1. It’s supposed to reflect the confined space of the city vs the open spaces of the country. It’s been a long time since I’ve watched the Blu-ray, I assume they’ve pillarboxed the 1.85:1 sections (black bars on the sides) and the 2.35:1 sections will have black bars on the top and bottom.

[The80s]

Originally Posted by lemonski

It’s intentional...all the scenes in New York are 1.85:1, as soon as they get to Montana it opens up to 2.35:1. It’s supposed to reflect the confined space of the city vs the open spaces of the country. It’s been a long time since I’ve watched the Blu-ray, I assume they’ve pillarboxed the 1.85:1 sections (black bars on the sides) and the 2.35:1 sections will have black bars on the top and bottom.

It was pretty strange until I realized what was going on. The first 20 minutes have black bars on top and bottom AND both sides. Then in Montana the bars on the sides go away. Top and bottom were there throughout.

I don't mind top and bottom. I vastly prefer widescreen to fullscreen so I'm used to that part.

At first I thought my BD was super old (like how some DVDs have terrible aspect ratios) and so I zoomed in to try and get a better overall picture and after a certain point I realized I was missing stuff on the sides (things were being cut out just like the old days on TV when everything was presented in full screen). Thankfully I zoomed out again and discovered the side ones had went away.