Dawn of the Dead in 4:3 SD?

[who_the]

I saw the end this morning on Monsters, looked fantastic, clearly in widescreen HD.

But tonight, it's 4:3, and looks no better than (poor) DVD quality.

Very disappointing! This is my first chance to see this movie in HD, I was looking forward to it as a huge Romero fan.

Maybe someone from Voom can let us know what happened? Very rare to see 4:3 SD on any Voom exclusive channel. Maybe a re-schedule too, since it doesn't play that often (once a month?).

 

[Sean Mota]

There are two ratios as far as aspect ratio.

Aspect ratio
1.37 : 1 (negative ratio)
1.85 : 1 (intended ratio)

I have seen the 1:85:1 and this is the first time I see the 1:37:1 being played. Now even though it is a 1:37:1, the transfer is still HD and not and upconvert. Just taking a look at the or remembering both versions I can see that both are HD transfers but playing in different Aspect Ratios. It is good to see that they have both OAR so that they can satisfied both the purist and those that want their 16x9 screen filled.

 

[Sean Mota]

The same happened with Coup de Torchon. I have seen the crop version of 1:85:1 played on HD Cinema but tonight they are playing the OAR version of 1:66:1. The other.

The other night Dagora the Space Monster was played 1:85:1 although I remembered it seen it 2:35:1. I was quite perplexed since I thought that maybe I was mistaken but now I can clearly see that they may be playing both Aspects Ratio. Now it will be good if they could provide some indication in the PG as to what aspect ratio will be playing (long shot since it is zap2it.). But I think this is a good move as they are moving to bring the OAR of movies that were only aired as 1:85:1 (cropped) before.

 

[who_the]

Thanks, Sean. You are definitely the AR authority around here!

But why would they play the 4:3 tonight if they played the 16:9 this morning? Looked infinitely better this morning, I'm now seeing the same scenes over and there's really no comparison.

 

[Sean Mota]

Not sure why they decided to do it this way. It is the first time I have seen it this way. It will be good to have some type of information in the PG about it. I am not sure why one would look superior than the other. They will show again the 16x9 version. There's another airing at 6:30am tomorrow. I will record to see what version they show.

 

[who_the]

Watching it now in glorious 16:9 HD. Just like Saturday morning. But Saturday night's showing was definitely 4:3 and not nearly as nice. Oh well.

BTW I think this was an amazing transfer, along with Night of the Living Dead, which looked smashing as well. Have they/will they/can they play "Day of the Dead" as well?

 

[Sean Mota]

Yeah... saw the 6:30am airing and it was 1:85:1 and much better looking than the 1:33:1.

 

[Sean Mota]

Here's another one. Body Part showed in two different version today. The first time at 3pm cropped 1:85:1 and the second time at night time 2:35:1

 

[who_the]

Strange, Sean...

You know, somebody at Voom is just trying to catch you sleeping. Obviously hasn't worked!

U the man!