Open Forum Friday: Do You Care If Netflix Alters Movie Aspect Ratios?

Posted by on July 26th, 2013   Filed under: Open Forum Friday

openforumnetflixaspectratio

Back in the days of VHS, the majority of home video releases featured versions of movies that had been significantly altered from their original theatrical presentation. Since TVs used to be a different shape than movie screens, most movies were released using a pan and scan technique, chopping off the edges of the picture to fit the smaller screen. Fortunately, after the widespread adoption of DVDs and widescreen TVs, these aspect ratio differences mostly became a non-issue. Or did they? Recently Netflix has come under fire for presenting cropped versions of certain movies with no notification whatsoever that it has been altered. They have responded by saying that it is not intentional and merely a quality control issue, but that they will try to fix the problems as they are reported.

Whether or not they do it on purpose, Netflix is not the only company pulling off this nonsense. Back in 2009, Steven Soderbergh also called out HBO and AMC for failing to respect the aspect ratios of movies they aired. It would seem that the same old problem still exists, it just hasn’t been as obvious. Ultimately it all comes back to the fact that people don’t like having black bars on their TV screens and they don’t care if that means cropping the picture. It doesn’t help that in the age of YouTube, the quality of the presentation is becoming less and less important. What do you think? How important is it to maintain the original aspect ratio of movie? Have you noticed any cropping issue with movies on Netflix? Could quality control issues like this cause you to stop subscribing? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.



  • Dan Bremner

    I want all my films to be full screen, I really don’t see the benefit of 40% of the screen being cut off by 2 black bars?
    Full screen Blu-rays look just as good, if not, better than the widescreen ones if the transfer is done right.

  • Felix

    You’ve got the problem wrong. Some movies on Netflix try to fit fullscreen at the cost of losing half of the actual filmed picture. Just google “What Netflix Does Tumblr” and look at the screenshots.

    I think it’s a huge problem and it really makes me reconsider my subscription.

  • ColinZeal

    Eh, YES I care!?!? I want to see the intended aspect ratio. Any movie buff should prefer this…

  • Sam

    I can’t tell if this is a joke response or not.

  • Owozifa

    Yeah, it’s garbage. The problem probably stems from using broadcast masters, rather than with Netflix itself, but those cropped versions shouldn’t be made in the first place.

    What’s even worse is when the movie theater does it. I went to see Prometheus and they put it on a 16:9 screen and the P and S in the title card were cut off. I never got to properly see that movie until Blu-ray.

  • Beerdude

    This is terrible! Many networks do the same and I dont watch those channels now. Even worse is if you DVR a movie, check the start and is glad to see it is letterboxed. Then one night you want to watch it and discover they start cropping 10 minutes in after the opening credits are done!

  • generic_horse

    no question about it, bad idea. and to what purpose, i ask ..most desktop lcds are now wide

  • Sean

    They are doing it for movies shot in 2.35:1 and other aspect ratios that don’t fit nicely on a widescreen TV, which would otherwise have bars along the top and bottom.

  • generic_horse

    yes, me emphasizing the fact that, atm, tvs and desktop pcs alike do have the posibility to render in wide.. now, as far as i can tell both tv aspect ratio and film (negative) itself are lagging behind, given the 4perf standard and this stupid method of cutting the movie so that ‘it would fit’. the black bars are not part of the movie, but a simple consequence of limitation partaining to given device. what..fixing my leg means cutting it huh.. i don’t get these ppl. how would they even dare to do such a thing

  • generic_horse

    so, to your point, 1.85:1 is not enough for these guys, even if the blck bar is now narrower, they still feel the need to trim the sides out, like it’s their production, yes?

    obviously, not acceptable. don’t they ask for money, like.. real money? why would anywone pay for that crap..

  • ProCynic

    Absolutely this is wrong, this is the main reason why I don’t subscribe to NF. Back in the day (Fuck I’m old) here in the UK, the great BBC once showed Stanley Kubrick’s 2001:A Space Odyssey in 2:35:1 for the very first time, but added static Stars to the top and bottom bars throughout the whole movie. Net Prix.

  • Gerry

    It’s totally wrong. I PVR’d a HD showing of Munich a few weeks ago. I deleted it when I realised it was a cropped version (plus not properly HD).

    My TV has a proper zoom function which I use occasionally to zoom a 2:35 film to 1:85 ratio or zoom a 1:33 film to 1:85, (I do the latter quite a lot) but generally I view at original ratio.

    If I were to pay money then the choice would have to be 100 percent mine

  • Wayne Regier

    Yes. Why offer a service to film buffs if you are going to DESTROY the artistic vision that the film makers intended? They show Meek’s Cutoff in Academy, why would they take more away from a larger aspect ratio? It is complete horse shit.

  • T. Heilman

    I recently watched Session 9 on Netflix and it was cropped to 1.33:1. I was surprised as I am pretty sure the dvd is letterboxed. Bizarre this is still an issue. If the bars are still a problem for Joe and Mary Average they can use the zoom feature on their t.v. and everyone wins.

  • ProCynic

    Joe and Mary and the baby Jesus watch tv! No Shit!

  • stephen_nyc

    Heck, I canceled showtime and then encore because they refused my requests to stop putting their logo and text on-screen during movies. They are premium channels and that constituted editing the movie. Showtime even sliced and diced the end credits for their ‘showtime extras’. Directv didn’t do anything about it so thy lost my money when I canceled those packages.

  • Lior

    Netflix streaming is not geared towards movie buffs, it’s aimed at the mainstream consumers, the same ones who rented at Blockbuster. No wonder Blockbuster went down.

  • Lior

    This definitely exists and it’s definitely not cool. Other than wrong aspect ratios you got issues with on-screen text missing (Iron Man 2 had no opening credits to speak of) and other odd issues. It’s all that which eventually turned me off Netflix and I no longer subscribe. I might re-subscribe at some point but if I encounter these issues again I will just cancel again. There is also this annoying thing now that end credits are being cut off for a pop-up Netflix recommendation. Sadly, Netflix behaves just like any TV network in that regard. Not cool.

  • Steve Kroodsma

    On a flight back from Europe last week I was dismayed to discover that every movie had been squeezed (not pan-and-scanned, but SQUEEZED) to 4:3, and no-one even seemed to notice. I mostly use Netflix for TV now and just watch movies on blu-ray. I hope Hulu doesn’t try to do this with their Criterion catalogue.

  • ProCynic

    All the time you all bitch and moan about it, yet still subscribe to big brother television this is never going away. Don’t watch TV simple, your life isn’t enriched in ANY WAY, it’s mind control for the masses. Go read a book, they are always in whatever aspect ratio you want.

  • Lior

    I think the discussion here went a little off topic going on about general botching of aspect ratios – nobody really expects correct framing on TV and on airplanes – but the post is specifically about Netflix which disappointingly is quite lax in it’s quality control for a service that used to tout itself as the best thing on the planet for movie lovers. And I don’t watch TV, so I agree with you there.

  • T. Heilman

    Yup. They also built my hotrod!

  • DeadInHell

    Oh boy, what a rebel you are.

  • DeadInHell

    It amazes me when people are this stupid.