Am I ever going to see Aliens in HD?

The americans are going crazy about the LOTR trilogy. In the US Amazon site the trilogy has 1184 reviews...1002 of those are 1 star because of this.
 
16:9 aspect ratio will never happen for (blu-ray release of) "The Abyss". It was filmed in 2.39:1 which is, from my understanding, the widest of all aspect ratios. So when "The Abyss" is eventually released on Blu-ray, it will still have the black bars on top & bottom - even on Widescreen TVs.
 
If you had said that the problem was that The Abyss was a non anamorphic dvd I would have known what you meant.

However , as all widescreen tv's have a zoom mode to allow for this you wont have any problems apart from the obvious drop in quality.

I'm surprised you seem unaware that all Blurays are 16:9 .
Those few titles released in 4:3 are actually widescreen with sidebars , so the chances of The Abyss being in 4:3 are nil.

Region 6 China has just released The Abyss to dvd in its first ever anamorphic release
 
A lot of dvd's in the early days were not anamorphic.
The Abyss was released during the Fox transition to 16:9 which is why the film is not 16:9 but the menus are.

The Planet of the Apes films were released letterboxed in the US the first time but the delay in UK release meant we got them anamorphic from the off.

Many films are shot open matte these days to allow for 4:3 framing aswell as options for 2.35:1 and 1.85:1.

Thats why you will often see 2 white boxes on the screen the director is viewing while filming .
SO while the film may be in cinemas and on dvd in 2.35:1 it may well appear on tv in 1.85:1 without the panning and scanning required for older films.

Likewise outtakes might be in a different ratio to the completed film



I was talking movies really not tv - however there are always exceptions.

The pratts at ITV DVD pandered to those who don't care about 1/3 image missing as long as the screen is filled and the same might be on the way with UFO.

Luckily most of the ITC film series are licenced to Network who know whats what and release things properly like they recently did with The Prisoner on Bluray
 
Shame. though I've got it on VHS and the last time I watched it was on a 25" 4:3 telly and I do remember it being narrow, big black bars even on widescreen tellies then.
 
How do you come to the conclusion that im unaware?
I simply just said that it would be nice to have the Abyss in a 16:9 format and not what has been previously released.
 
Nothing changed much with the DVD release as you still get that very narrow picture with big black bars.
On the plus side at least I could enlarge the picture with one of my tv's settings.
 
By doing that you cut off parts of the side image.

Can I assume you don't have Bluray - otherwise you would find a problem with most film releases.

All Blurays are in the correct ratio so most have black bars and many tv's will not allow you to zoom in when connected via HDMI so you're stuck with it
 
You assume wrong as I do have Blu Ray.
I dont have any problems with most film releases as black bars are part of the norm for widescreen films.
The Abyss DVD is the only film that ive ever owned that has a very narrow picture with very large black bars because its aspect ratio is 2.35:1 widescreen 4:3 and not 16:9(not anamorphic) so depending on what size screen you have can cause problems with seeing a descent sized image on screen thus using zoom to give more image and less black bars.
On my previous TV it had a setting that could enlarge the image without loosing any side image and not distorting the picture.
My current TV via HDMI also allows me to zoom the image without cutting off any side image so im not stuck with it if I wish to use it.
As it happens though I use the Screen Fit option which gives 1:1 picture mapping.

What I would like to see with The Abyss Blu Ray release is that its a 16:9 widescreen format and not 4:3 widescreen like the DVD.
Have a read HERE regarding the Abyss DVD aspect ratio.
 
The Thing released by Universal on DVD a few years ago is the same, 2.35:1 in a 4:3 frame so it has deep black bars. Watching via a HDMI upscaling DVD player my TV won't allow me to zoom in on the image so I'm stuck with thick black bars and very narrow field to concentrate on.

Man On The Moon on the other hand is a 2.35:1 movie released as 1.85:1 despite the deleted scenes and outtakes on the disc being shown in 2.35:1. Nice going Universal, maybe they'll get it right some day...?
 
You aren't making any sense to me. You can't zoom a 2.35 to 16:9 without cutting off the sides, its simply impossible. If you don't cut off the sides you'd have to squash the picture from the sides.

Bluray was made for 16:9 from the start, it would never be coded for 4:3 hard coded bars wide screen, that simply doesn't make any sense. Dvd only had to do that because it came out before wide screen tv's were common. Don't apply dvd information to bluray. The only reason to have animorphic bluray would be if we had 2.35 flat panels with beyond hd resolution we had to take advantage of, and we don't. Why beyond hd resolution you ask? Because for everything else not 2.35 you'd lose resolution on such a screen.
 
I think he may be confusing things with the Aliens Special Edition.

When it first came out there was talk that the additional scenes were only available from an NTSC tape source.

However , the dvd release already clarified that the entire film exists on 35mm
 
He is referring to the dvd of The Abyss .
This 2.35:1 film is only available as a non anamorphic letterboxed release so in order for the film to fill the width of your screen you need to use the ZOOM mode of your tv otherwise the dvd will play with borders on all 4 sides.

Bluray does not need anamorphic enhancement like dvd as Bluray is 16:9.

DVD is standard def which is always 4:3 .
Widescreen dvd's (and 16:9 sd tv) are all 4:3 images but with a widescreen flag which tells the tv to stretch the image out to its correct proportions.

Take a widescreen dvd and then change your dvd player setting to 4:3 instead of 16:9.
If you play the dvd on a wide tv you will have an image with borders on all 4 sides - thats an example of the problem with The Abyss dvd
 
Agreed.
I like The Abyss and would love to watch it again but the letterboxed picture of the dvd is just so bad .

It's very surprising that with The Abyss having been released so long ago that there has never been a reissue.

Typical that they don't reissue one of the few films that really could have justified one.

But at least the Bluray is on the way although I guess the UK one will be cut as usual.

Thank heaven for multiregion
 
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