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‘Seinfeld’ fans upset that Netflix’s aspect ratio cuts out jokes

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Re: ‘Seinfeld’ fans upset that Netflix’s aspect ratio cuts out jokes

#71

Post by navjack27 »

pessimizer wrote: post #22

I have to believe that this has been rigorously tested, and that a lot of viewers are lost when they see black bars on their television. I remember back in 4:3 when it was far harder to find letterboxed VHS tapes, and when filmmakers often would make sure their scope movies also worked in 4:3 by filming in 4:3 and cropping to scope (with the exception of a few hundred accidentally revealed boom mics.) I have to belie…

The whole concept of black bars has always confused me. I know what they are I know what people generally accept the concept of what they are. but they aren't actually what they are. There are no black bars. The content is the size that it is and it's just stretching undistorted to your screen. It's not adding black bars. You're just not using parts of your screen because you shouldn't be using those parts of your screen. Maybe if content like that had a old console TV bezel on the side that had channel dials and the power button and a speaker on one side and half of a bezel and a blurry living room background with a picture of a family on the other that would make people feel more comfortable?

Re: ‘Seinfeld’ fans upset that Netflix’s aspect ratio cuts out jokes

#72

Post by TheCoelacanth »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #50
jefftk wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Done well, aspect ratio conversion involves editorial decisions: what part of the frame is most important to preserve? This isn't something TVs can automate. (Not advocating for cropping, though)

Just another reason not to do it. The only person who has the right to make those decisions is the original creator and they’d more likely just say ship it as intended.

I don't think most of them are going to object in cases like this where they have access to the original film and can include footage that was cut off in the original broadcast, assuming the re-framing is done with the same care that the original framing was.

They were making decisions based on a certain set of constraints that they didn't choose. They aren't going to have a problem with making different decisions when those constraints change.

Taking what was originally broadcast and cropping that is always a travesty, though.

Re: ‘Seinfeld’ fans upset that Netflix’s aspect ratio cuts out jokes

#73

Post by nickthegreek »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #58
everyone wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the tragic effects of the MAFIAA's legal efforts to stop piracy, was that, though they could never reduce the amount of popular stuff being pirated, they did manage to shut down a lot of niche sites or private trackers, where people had meticulously curated rare and obscure content that was impossible to get anywhere else.

I recently discoveree the "kai" version of popular animes, meaning a recut of the hundred of episodes by fans to remove repeatitions, fillers, useless flashbacks and long stares or empty dialogs that just waste time. You can now watch the entire Dragon Ball and DBZ in half the time it should take, missing nothing from the original, saving on frustration. There are gigabytes of content, it's crazy to me some people sp…

Naruto Kai made the series watchable for me.

Re: ‘Seinfeld’ fans upset that Netflix’s aspect ratio cuts out jokes

#75

Post by 0xdeadb00f »

flotzam wrote: post #51

Just to put a bit of competitive pressure on the butchers at Netflix, for Seinfeld S01-S04 there are 1080p torrents with the correct 4:3 aspect ratio: https://thepiratebay.org/search.php?q=seinfeld+aspect

At this point Netflix is practically begging us to use TPB :)

Re: ‘Seinfeld’ fans upset that Netflix’s aspect ratio cuts out jokes

#76

Post by Brian_K_White »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #43
krispyfi wrote: post #20

It's times like this that I think that piracy is the only way to preserve pop culture.

Absolutely. Preservation can only be achieved properly through passion not money. The copyright holders of these cultural artifacts don’t care about them enough to properly preserve them. Only passionate fans or enthusiasts care enough to make sure things are preserved to an acceptable quality. Companies will always do dumb things like change aspect ratio, remove scenes, ship low quality video, audio or subtitles.

BBC throwing away or taping over all those Dr Who tapes.

Re: ‘Seinfeld’ fans upset that Netflix’s aspect ratio cuts out jokes

#77

Post by ConceptJunkie »

noisem4ker wrote: post #46
goldenkey wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mainstream media disagrees. In fact, cropping context is their main technique :-)

I'm actually horrified to see stretching on the rise, especially in news broadcasts. "Oh, this singer just died? Let's have a disfiguring retrospective of their 80s music videos where they appear 2x as wide now."

That reminds me of how TV stations in the 70s would play cartoons formatted for movie screens and just squash them down to the 4:3 aspect ratio. I didn't understand why at the time, but I suppose it's better than editing out a huge chunk of the material. It's less disrespectful to the material than what they do today, even if it looked awful.

Re: ‘Seinfeld’ fans upset that Netflix’s aspect ratio cuts out jokes

#78

Post by Brian_K_White »

bananamerica wrote: post #47

Longtime fan since the 90s. Have rewatched in 16:9 many times. I don't care. Seinfeld is just not this kind of show.

It's a show about nothing, watched by people who choose to watch a show about nothing. Such people indeed would not care.

Re: ‘Seinfeld’ fans upset that Netflix’s aspect ratio cuts out jokes

#79

Post by Brian_K_White »

gandalfian wrote: post #25

First world irritation - when I finally got a 16:9 television they started making TV shows even wider so still letterboxed! Why? Grrr.

Why do you even care that there are letterboxes? Why must every pixel be lit just because they exist?

Think of the screen like a wall in your house. You hang a painting on the wall. "Why do they make paintings in all these random sizes instead of filling this wall edge egde? Why? Grrr."

Re: ‘Seinfeld’ fans upset that Netflix’s aspect ratio cuts out jokes

#80

Post by dogma1138 »

foob wrote: post #13

There's a great blog post by David Simon on the conversion of The Wire from 4:3 to 16:9 [1]. It goes into a lot of depth about some of the trade-offs and considerations as well as the lack of communication from HBO. Unfortunately, the video examples don't seem to work anymore. I can't help but wonder if HBO sent YouTube a DMCA takedown for David Simon's clips from the post (or they got taken down automatically). It's…

It’s quite strange because even if he wasn’t the creator it seems that it should fall very much under fair use because you critique the editing / remastering of the show from its original broadcast aspect ratio to a new one.
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