Watching some of the last films to get released on VHS makes you realise how the films weren鈥檛 made with 4:3 in mind. I鈥檓 watching Spiderman 2 and there are loads of shots where the characters are cut off at the sides and some of the text doesn鈥檛 fully display. Either that or was just lazy pan and scan. Probably a combination of the two.
5 months ago 路 馃憤 bimzhob, xandra
@moddedbear Yeah, in Europe, they stopped releasing new prerecorded tapes that year. North America kept going for a while, though. Last (widely available) prerecorded tape released was Eragon in 2008! The format even lasted long enough for someone to make a VHS/Blu-Ray combo unit! 路 5 months ago
@bimzhob Yeah, I have the Matrix letterboxed in VHS. The quality is terrible! The format is awful as is. xP
I prefer the 4:3 versions for that reason. 路 5 months ago
@gnuserland I know, but usually, home video releases have done a decent enough job with the pan and scan that you don鈥檛 really notice anything missing, at least when you鈥檙e a casual viewer. They (understandably) stopped caring near the end. 路 5 months ago
Huh, I'm surprised they were still doing VHS releases as late as 2004. 路 5 months ago
By then, many VHS rentals and purchasable copies were available as letterboxed (at least where I am). You could sometimes choose between aspect ratios for more popular films (tho I notice USA tended towards 4:3 - maybe UK did too?). 路 5 months ago
Theaters have never been squared... 馃 路 5 months ago