Ben-Hur: Proper aspect ratio?

Hey folks,
Somewhere I read that someone was complaining that the existing DVD
version of Ben-Hur didn't have the aspect ration correct. The writer had
hoped that the new version got it right.
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks.
Eddie

PS I saw Ramon Navvaro (who plays Ben Hur in the silent version) last night
in Mata Hari with Greta Garbo. He plays a Russian military pilot and has
THE most pronounced Mexican accent I ever heard. It's a riot.

Edward Holub

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:19:04 GMT, "Edward Holub" <>
wrote:

>Somewhere I read that someone was complaining that the existing DVD
>version of Ben-Hur didn't have the aspect ration correct. The writer had
>hoped that the new version got it right.
> Any thoughts on this?

Like the widescreen laser disc, the image on the new release is VERY "wide." In
fact, if I shrink the image using my Toshiba player so that I can see the
absolute left and right in a window-box format, it measures at something like
2.97:1!!! (Does this make sense?) When viewing with the "default" image, it is
approximately 2.52:1.

Mr. Mike

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:28:05 GMT in alt.video.dvd, Mr. Mike favored
us with...
> On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:19:04 GMT, "Edward Holub" <>
> wrote:
>
> >Somewhere I read that someone was complaining that the existing DVD
> >version of Ben-Hur didn't have the aspect ration correct. The writer had
> >hoped that the new version got it right.
> > Any thoughts on this?
>
> Like the widescreen laser disc, the image on the new release is VERY "wide." In
> fact, if I shrink the image using my Toshiba player so that I can see the
> absolute left and right in a window-box format, it measures at something like
> 2.97:1!!! (Does this make sense?) When viewing with the "default" image, it is
> approximately 2.52:1.

Gee, if only there were some sort of Web site that listed movie
aspect ratios.

http://us.imdb.com, search Ben-Hur, then click "Technical specs" to
go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052618/technical



--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
DVD FAQ: http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html
other FAQs: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/faqget.htm

Stan Brown

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 14:26:57 -0400, Stan Brown <>
wrote:

>Gee, if only there were some sort of Web site that listed movie
>aspect ratios.
>
>http://us.imdb.com, search Ben-Hur, then click "Technical specs" to
>go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052618/technical

The IMBD says this about the length of Ben-Hur:

Runtime: 212 min / Sweden:219 min (1970) / Sweden:224 min (1962) / UK:222 min
(1993 re-release) / 214 min

The deluxe version to be released on Tuesday is 222 minutes long, supposedly
about 10 minutes longer than the previous DVD issue ... so what was missing from
that one?

Mr. Mike

Stan Brown wrote:
|| On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:28:05 GMT in alt.video.dvd, Mr. Mike favored
|| us with...
||| On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:19:04 GMT, "Edward Holub"
||| <> wrote:
|||
|||| Somewhere I read that someone was complaining that the existing DVD
|||| version of Ben-Hur didn't have the aspect ration correct. The
|||| writer had hoped that the new version got it right.
|||| Any thoughts on this?
|||
||| Like the widescreen laser disc, the image on the new release is
||| VERY "wide." In fact, if I shrink the image using my Toshiba player
||| so that I can see the absolute left and right in a window-box
||| format, it measures at something like
||| 2.97:1!!! (Does this make sense?) When viewing with the "default"
||| image, it is approximately 2.52:1.
||
|| Gee, if only there were some sort of Web site that listed movie
|| aspect ratios.
||
|| http://us.imdb.com, search Ben-Hur, then click "Technical specs" to
|| go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052618/technical
||


and http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wingup4.htm is worth a look,
too....

paul

P Pron

"Mr. Mike" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:19:04 GMT, "Edward Holub"
> <>
> wrote:
>
>>Somewhere I read that someone was complaining that the existing DVD
>>version of Ben-Hur didn't have the aspect ration correct. The writer had
>>hoped that the new version got it right.
>> Any thoughts on this?
>
> Like the widescreen laser disc, the image on the new release is VERY
> "wide." In
> fact, if I shrink the image using my Toshiba player so that I can see the
> absolute left and right in a window-box format, it measures at something
> like
> 2.97:1!!! (Does this make sense?) When viewing with the "default" image,
> it is
> approximately 2.52:1.
>

The obvious solution to DVD releases of old movies that were made in very
very wide aspect ratios is this:
Cut the image in two halves, left and right. The DVD image would have the
left hand side of the screen at the top, and the right hand side at the
bottom.
Perhaps some special glasses could be included in the case to, like,
reassemble the picture.

Wasn't there some odd film format that involved three projectors, showing
the left, middle and right portions of the final picture?

Mark W

> Wasn't there some odd film format that involved three projectors, showing
> the left, middle and right portions of the final picture?
>
see How the West was Won

Alpha

Mr. Mike wrote:

> The deluxe version to be released on Tuesday is 222 minutes long, supposedly
> about 10 minutes longer than the previous DVD issue ... so what was missing from
> that one?

Shots of Charlton Heston polishing his gun.



John

--


Von Herzen, moge es wieder zu Herzen gehen. --Beethoven

The Man Behind The Curtain

Yeah. It was called Cinerama and used a curved screen. How the West
Was Won was one of the Cinerama films.

On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 18:27:33 +0100, "Mark W" <s@o> wrote:

>

JazzGuyy

"JazzGuyy" <> wrote in message
news: rdnews.com...
> Yeah. It was called Cinerama and used a curved screen. How the West
> Was Won was one of the Cinerama films.
>
> On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 18:27:33 +0100, "Mark W" <s@o> wrote:
>
>>

Actually, far more obviously, in Abel Gance's silent epic of Napoleon, the
final battle scenes feature three images side by side (sometimes combing to
form one enormous image, sometimes showing three seperate images. Also, in
some shots, the left image is tinted blue, the middle image is black &
white, and the right image is tinted red (colors of the French flag.)

The Man With No Name