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jon wrote:apparently the new Paul Robeson box has not been windowboxed. looks like they are doing away with that practice... hopefully

The new Third Man re-release has the windowbox, so Criterion is still doing it.

dx23 wrote:

jon wrote:apparently the new Paul Robeson box has not been windowboxed. looks like they are doing away with that practice... hopefully

The new Third Man re-release has the windowbox, so Criterion is still doing it.

Who knows how long ago those Robeson transfers were done. The films were included in the Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films box last October.

Does it make sense to give this a bump and start contacting Criterion about it? A new petition?

I'm sure they're aware.

The problem is that Criterion's 1.78:1, 1.85:1, 2.35:1 transfer will 'suffer' from overscan, so they are wasting their time. Who exactly did they pander to? Some 21-inch 4:3 TV-owning fool who emailed them, bitching about the Orson's bonce being cropped in The Third Man? And this was in the days when the listened to hardly anyone! Bizarre.

The thing is, they go to far in windowboxing. It looks like 5% or something. Very rarely is a head cropped by 5% overscan. Warner screwed up the 1957 Hammer, Dracula and that bothers me more. DVD Maniacs members - get behind me!

Any ideas why some titles are, for lack of a better phrase, super-windowboxed in their opening titles? Warner Bros. does this frequently and the Criterion Ace in the Hole disc suffers from it as well. I think one or two of the Malle titles uses it also. I can't figure out the rationale.

Must be in the print.

What really irks me is that the windowboxing is not even. On Ace in the Hole, I zoomed in to get rid of it, but would have had to crop the bottom if I wanted to get rid of the black border on the top. I ended up having to shift the image up a little first. Rediculus!!

It is in the print. This is done to ensure, for legal reasons, that nobody's name is partly chopped off in the opening credits. Criterion's windowboxing just adds to this, making the black border even thicker at the beginning.

denti alligator wrote:Must be in the print.

What really irks me is that the windowboxing is not even. On Ace in the Hole, I zoomed in to get rid of it, but would have had to crop the bottom if I wanted to get rid of the black border on the top. I ended up having to shift the image up a little first. Rediculus!!

I'm pretty sure that the windowboxing is even. I recently had the chance to watch "A Canterbury Tale" on a projector, and the black borders were the same on all sides. Watching it on my tube, I have to zoom in slightly to get the black border away on the top, and then it indeed crops the bottom. I think it's just that your tube and mine overscan more at the bottom than at the top, for whatever reason.

I still don't understand the need to picturebox releases. I don't even know anyone who still has a CRT television. And if they still did own one, they probably would not be buying these films.

My 29" CRT TV is big, bulky and heavy as hell but I've spent years finely calibrating its beautiful picture and I'll be holding onto it until the day it goes completely kaput.

Same here, I even have a 32" CRT (widescreen), and it had a so much better image than any flatscreen TV twice or thrice the price in 2004 when I bought it. But the calibration was pretty easy: get rid of enhanced contrast, colour and brightness settings and put everything to 50 out of 100. Looks fine indeed. Absolutely no way of dispensing with it before it breaks down. And I even see the black borders on it...but a slight zooming-in will fix that.

Needless to say that I want that Rossellini set pronto...

My 65" widescreen CRT RPTV has a beautiful picture, without the jaggedness of an LCD. I'll deeply regret when it's no longer functional.

Depressing thread.

Not so depressing that it discouraged you from commenting, mind.

Caged Horse wrote:Not so depressing that it discouraged you from commenting, mind.

I wish your post made sense.

People comment on depressing things all of the time, like this thread.

It's a shame that Criterion feels the need to release something inferior because of a few people still refusing to move forward.

The only way you'll take my 29" CRT away from me is out of my... etc etc.

Can you hear that, aox? It's the smallest violin in the world.

Caged Horse wrote:The only way you'll take my 29" CRT away from me is out of my... etc etc.

Can you hear that, aox? It's the smallest violin in the world.

No one wants to take it away from you. No one wants to deny you access to something. If that is really what you discerned out of my post or its general meaning, then our school system is really in bad shape, or you are being intentionally coy. I am in no position to judge; nonetheless, your attempt at martyrdom certainly added to the general themes of the thread, as was the ending of your post with a tired cliché. Good work.

Caged Horse wrote:The only way you'll take my 29" CRT away from me is out of my... etc etc.

Can you hear that, aox? It's the smallest violin in the world.

Funny, that violin looks almost lifesize on my 50" plasma. Sounds pretty great too. That's some pretty ace violin playing right there is what that is.

Napier wrote:I still don't understand the need to picturebox releases. I don't even know anyone who still has a CRT television. And if they still did own one, they probably would not be buying these films.

I HATE picturebox releases with a passion! Thank God I own a stellar non-pictureboxed DVD of Ace in the Hole by Paramount Europe

ditto for a recent Swedish edition of Sawdust and Tinsel sporting English subtitles to boot, for instance. The transfers appear to be provided by Janus/Criterion, and I thank higher forces that they were made available as they were meant to be seen! Sorry that I can't provide caps for comparison - I sent copies of these discs to The Beaver quite some time ago - but no comparisons have showed up as of this date...

I hate it too. They aceholes.

Yeah, I could totally handle a company colorizing a movie...it just better not have any damn pictureboxing.

Cinephrenic wrote:I hate it too. Their aceholes.

Your playing with words put a smile on my face. Thank you, Sir.

Is anybody missing?

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/ye ... mart1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lol. That was me. Walmart was showing pictureboxed films.