I was whinging earlier (and here as well) about MGM releasing low cost Region 4 DVDs in non-anamorphic widescreen, while claiming on their boxes that they are actually ’16:9′ (ie. anamorphic) transfers. Now, it seems, Universal is up to the same old trick.
The offending title this time is the well-regarded 1998 Elmore Leonard/Steven Soderbergh crime thriller Out of Sight. In Australia this title was first distributed on Universal’s behalf by Columbia TriStar. At the time I drew to the company’s attention some misleading suggestings in a very informative information screen on the disc (it is hard to find — you go to ‘Bonus Materials’, then select the right-hand pointy end of the yellow arrow above ‘Menu’. You will know you have selected it because the point will turn orange. Press ‘Enter’ and repeat on the next screen. Then choose ‘Technical Information’.)
Here are a couple of snippets from this:
Four D-1 component videotape submasters were “downconverted” from the OUT OF SIGHT HD master: NTSC and PAL 3:4 hard-matted widescreen, plus NTSC and PAL 16:9 which are the source elements for DVD release.
Well, it looks like we scored the 3:4 hard-matted widescreen, not the 16:9. It goes on to say:
The 5.1 master … was then transferred to the AC-3 Dolby Digital coding at a rate of 448kbits/sec via a Dolby 561B encoder.
Sorry, the PAL DVD uses 384kb/s.
Now the Columbia TriStar release of this title did not suggest on its cover that the DVD was an anamorphic transfer. But now that Universal has taken over distribution of its own titles, things have got worse.
First, the DVD itself seems to be identical in every way to that previously distributed by Columbia TriStar. Yet the cover is different. Here is the disc information block in its entirety:
Note, in particular, the aspect ratio claim near the top-right: ‘1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen’. This is wrong and misleading. The movie on the disc is in 4:3 hard-matted widescreen. The quality is, therefore, substandard.