Comments on: Netflix Responds To Reports That They Are Horribly Cropping The Movies On Their Streaming Service

By: Richard Schitz

Richard Schitz — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:49 +0000

Netflix Canada, among other disasters, has full-screen versions of American Psycho and A Prophet offered. This combined with their b-s 'HD' options are a huge joke. Pirate Bay + ~4 Gig 720p Blu-Ray rips FTW.

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:49 +0000

I was shocked the other day to find that The Robe, historically known as the first ever CinemaScope film, was pan and Scan on Netflix. Disgusting.

By: Fuck Em

Fuck Em — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:49 +0000

Fuck Netflix! If you're in a sizable city many times the libraries have a very good selection and you can have them sent to your local library if not on shelf there. TV has soo many movies all the time IFC, Sundance, TCM, etc. DVDs are gettin' cheaper….Sometimes it's good not to have all movies on order or at your fingertips. You can wait. It makes the movie more of an event.

Also the cropping is beyond repair. Boycott these people that have no respect for the craft if you have respect for the craft. If you like music you gotta boycott Spotify too, who have no respect for the artist and pay them jack shit.

I'm a little older fashioned, I enjoy going to video stores and DVD stores when I can, they are few and farther between but still around out there. There's nothing like browsing around, looking at the covers of movies. It's not romantisization it's really great. So I don't like Netflix effect. Fuck 'em.

By: spassky

spassky — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:49 +0000

I've been saying this for years. If more others were paying attention, they would have gotten rid of Netflix a looooong time ago and maybe we wouldn't have this problem. But, no, so called "cinephiles" (i.e. chin beards who only notice when it happens to a Tarantino movie) are only gearing up now… why?

Regardless, the quality you sacrifice by streaming should clue you in to how much Netflix gives a shit about the presentation of movies in their streaming catalog.

By: James

James — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:49 +0000

Also, just a little error in the article – widescreen TVs are 1.78:1, not 1.85:1, which is the aspect ratio of conventional "flat" movies in theaters.

By: James

James — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:49 +0000

Another reason to buy discs. Streaming is like cable, forced to serve a mass audience who don't understand or care about "the black bars" 🙁

By: Dan S

Dan S — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:49 +0000

The aspect ratio of widescreen televisions are 1.78:1, not 1.85:1. When films composed for the latter ratio are displayed on a widescreen television, there should still be thin black bars at the top and the bottom.

I don't think Netflix is doing this, the studios are in control of mastering for television. They probably just give Netflix the same transfers created for cable movie channels. Because of the predominant use of Super 35 since the 80's, I would not be surprised if Netflix receives a lot of open-matte transfers for their library. "Prometheus" is definitely an open-matte transfer, and "Planet of the Apes" is completely re-framed (not just pan and scanned liked the others).

By: Matt Brennan

Matt Brennan — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:49 +0000

Kevin, I think this is reflective of the shift to "media behemoth" that Netflix has undergone, which you note in the first line of your piece. I originally signed up for the service because they promised a cinephile's paradise of rare (and not-so-rare) DVDs I couldn't find at my local video store; since then, they've lost that original sense that they were in it not just for the love of money, but love of the art form.

Netflix SHOULD do better, but I fully expect that they'll shrug and move on raking in the dough. I'll still stream television series, particularly their laudable slate of original content. But for some movies — There Will Be Blood is a perfect example — there's no replacement for the cinema, whatever the aspect ratio.

By: jaime

jaime — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:48 +0000

The thing I find most annoying about Netflix is the frame rate, it's too fast or something, I can't pin the problem down exactly but it has a cheap video look to it, not cinematic. Movement is too fluid or something. If they could show old titles (the ones I watch the most) in 24 fps I would be much, much happier with their service. This annoys me a lot more than any cropping, though that's pretty terrible as well.

By: TONY CARUANA

TONY CARUANA — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:48 +0000

One example is THE ENEMY BELOW, which starts with 2.35 ratio, but as soon as the title sequence is over it switches to 1.78, which I find extremely annoying, especially when I opt to watch in HD.

By: LET"S GET IT TOGETHER

LET"S GET IT TOGETHER — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:48 +0000

I've also noticed OLDBOY is dubbed in English… the worst

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:48 +0000

Netflix doesn't even have inglorious basterds or there will be blood streaming right now…

By: Mookie

Mookie — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:48 +0000

Two thoughts. One is the difference between 1:78 and 1:85 is VERY slight and an easy correction for the filmmaker to make when color-correcting and creating the TV version of a movie. You'd really never notice if they do it right. But doing it right requires the producer to spend the time and money to make sure the TV version looks, sounds, and is composed correctly. And that's a tall order since most producers care about as much as Netflix or the cable providers, which is to say they don't really give a shit, or at least enough to want to spend the money. Worse yet, these days it's hard to find a producer who even knows what they're doing and thinks about this stuff. Quality as a concept seems to have become a "quaint" idea. And with consumers watching movies on mobile phones and laptops it's easy to see why producers no longer give a shit.

Second, you only have two options to watch a "scope" (2:35) film on a 1:78 TV. Either see the whole film frame but leave black bars top and bottom or "Pan/Scan" the movie so it fills the screen but the image you see is adjusted in each shot to be the best it can be. The worst is to just blow the whole image up without going through pan/scan and the results in this article speak for themselves. Most filmmakers know well enough to frame their actors to fit in the 1:78 space so at least they don't look horrible when the TV version comes out but it's the wild west out there and, frankly, most people in the business just don't give a shit.

By: MDL

MDL — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:48 +0000

I'm pretty sure that Netflix uses the versions that are given to them by the studios or distributors. If you check out the tumblr page you'll see the cropping is all pretty inconsistent, which leads me to believe they are not purposely cropping the images. I remember that some of the Starz movies that were up on Netflix were cropped. They were all Starz's versions. So blame the countries and the distributors not Netflix.

By: Carter

Carter — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:48 +0000

Can I add that the suggestion screen that happens when the credits begin is a terrible terrible feature. Why do they do this? I'm not finished watching a film and you're telling me to watch something else. Please, Netflix, give us the option to turn this off.