"THIS FILM HAS BEEN MODIFIED FROM ITS ORIGINAL VERSION. IT HAS BEEN FORMATTED TO FIT YOUR TV."

Remember this disclaimer? It used to appear before the main feature of most home video media back in the days when CRTs were the norm. It indicated that the film you were about to watch was changed in some way so that it would fill your screen.

Various techniques are used to achieve this. A picture can be squeezed, Zoomed & Cropped, or otherwise re-formatted using a technique known as Open Matte. Zoomed & Cropped Full Screen videos display no more vertical info than the Widescreen aspect ratio version, and anywhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of the original image is lost due to cropping. But this is not so with Open Matte.

Many are surprised to learn that a great number of Full Screen home video releases are Open Matte transfers, and actually display more vertical image than their Widescreen counterparts. As of late, there has been increased interest in Open Matte versions of films due to this very fact.

Unfortunately, home video media packaging never indicates the type of Full Screen re-formatting used. Therefore, original and re-formatted versions must be viewed side-by-side in order to tell. Thankfully, DVDs (which used to often come with both versions of the film) make this a rather simple process.

This is a short video demonstrating the difference between various Full Screen and Widescreen DVD releases and the differences between the various Full Screen techniques employed. The films surveyed are Batman & Robin, The Fifth Element, Tango & Cash, The Matrix Reloaded, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and Jurassic Park.

Enjoy!

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All the videos, songs, images, and graphics used in the video belong to their respective owners and I or this channel does not claim any right over them.

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

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