And Now For A Word...

[ElScorcho]

I've been pacing myself through the S2 DVDs and have reached this episode with trepidation yesterday. Several moments into the show, my expectations were disappointingly fulfilled. The letterbox transfer of the episode is as botched as the one that airs on TV.

I'm sure a few of you know what I'm talking about. Since the episode is laden with on-screen graphics, it is plain to see that the original framing was NOT for the widescreen format. When captions are shown at the bottom of the screen, the actors' heads are cut off at the forehead and then miraculously centred the next time the camera cuts too them. In cases where the scene is longer, the frame actually pans up after the graphics come off the screen. And there is one shot with Londo where the graphics themselves are cut off at the top and bottom of the screen.

It seems, however, that when the actors were filmed, it was in widescreen because clips interspersed in the interview segments appear to have the camera set further back. My only guess is that the graphics/captions were only added to the full-screen version of the show, thus requiring a pseudo pan+scan technique to crop the shots.

It's disappointing that no effort was made to rectify this obvious blunder when releasing this episode on DVD. After all, the credits and title sequences were altered. If anything, they could have offered us a full-screen version of the episode if they weren't going to bother fixing it.

 

[Recoil]

Your eye is keener than mine. I have a 65" 16:9 HDTV and I didnt see squat wrong with any of the DVD episodes...

Bring on Season 3!

 

[vacantlook]

I know exactly what you mean. There are so many shots that were cropped due to the graphic overlays, for whatever reason they really needed to do it and couldn't rebuild it (Didn't Warners like trash a buttload of the files for B5? Maybe that's why it was done the way it was on the DVDs.). It kind of got annoying after a while. There were a few times the same cropping was done in other episodes, but they're nowhere near as frequent as in "And Now For A Word."

<sigh>

 

[ElScorcho]

There are two other instances (I have yet to see on DVD) where I can remember visual mistakes in the letterbox format.

One is the footage from Keffer's Starfury when the Shadow vessel attacked him. In the full-screen version, there is a graphic that frames the view. In the letterbox version, the top and bottom of the frame are cut off.

The second is a closeup of a torn Ministry of Peace poster that says something like "Traitors can't hide". In letterbox, you can't read it. (Since this instance does not include graphics, this one might have been accidental in the original transfer and since been rectified.)

 

[kin_of_zathras]

I think it would have been much better if they left this episode in 4:3 format. It would have added to the feel of the news broadcast. Why the frell can't trek fans get screwed with inferior products Its always us...

 

[Elric]

I have just watched this ep too and was going to make a post and saw you had already beaten me to it

Although I'm overjoyed that B5 is getting the DVD treatment, things like this really p*ss me off - there is really no excuse for this kind of crappy release . I would have thought that after the blunder on S1 (And the Stars...) that they would make sure they didn't screw things up again.

Fingers crossed that they don't arse up S3...

I think it would have been much better if they left this episode in 4:3 format. It would have added to the feel of the news broadcast.

I was had the same thought - but then perhaps widescreen is the standard format in the future

 

[kin_of_zathras]

perhaps widescreen is the standard format in the future

It would make sense, the greater proportion of widescreens tv sets there are, more likely it is news and other programs will be in widescreen.

I was just wandering, when theatrical movies are shown on tv in other countries, is it in letter-boxed or pan and scan format?

 

[zantarous]

All digital broadcasts (terestrial) in the UK are widescreen (if a widescreen version exist). Most films are shown in widescreen, it probably depends on if the broadcaster has bought the rights to show it in W/S. Lengend of the Rangers was on the other night and that was in W/S.

It is better that B5 has been released in W/S as this will be the format of the future and will help it survive in years to come. I was imagining the wrost for And Now for a Word and and I have to say they handled it the onyl way they could, apart from making the font a lot smaller or cramming the on screen graphics on to another part of the screen.