[JP] Tokyo Godfathers

[FruitPunchSamurai]

Paprika was also window boxed like that.

Although i am always on for more Satoshi Kon on Blu Ray!

[Damius]

Originally Posted by russ869

Kind of like Perfect Blue. Intentionally ugly. I don't know what's up with that huge black border though... And how can you call it "laziness?" It's not like it's something that can occur accidentally.

I would be curious to know how it can end up being "windowbox"...? Is there any reason for letting it like this...

[Just Passing Through]

Originally Posted by Damius

I would be curious to know how it can end up being "windowbox"...? Is there any reason for letting it like this...

Long ago, when HD was new, manufacturers were still making CRT televisions. Some of those were HD, and a lot of people connected their brand new Blu-ray players to old SD screens. CRT sets had overscan, meaning they cut the image off at the edges (old TV shows used to be filmed with that in mind. When I watched Star Trek TNG on my flat panel screen, I was surprised to see boom mikes hanging in shot, which I never saw on the CRT set, they've had to reframe it for its Blu-ray release) Those first Blu-ray discs were windowboxed so that anyone watching on a CRT set would get the whole picture. I agree there's no reason for it to happen now though, and it might be an indication that the Blu-rays are mastered from the same source as the DVD. The Ghibli DVDs are windowboxed, but for the new Blu-rays they fill the screen, so if they can do it...

[Buster Darkwings]

Originally Posted by FruitPunchSamurai

Paprika was also window boxed like that.

Not quite like that. The border on Paprika was only 38 pixels thick all around. On Tokyo Godfathers, it's about 67 pixels on top, 78 on the bottom, and 95 pixels on the left and right. That's... a whole damn lot of resolution lost. I don't think there's ever been a windowbox this thick, at least not for the main feature on a BD. I'd be demanding my money back for a screw-up like this if I had pre-ordered.

Originally Posted by Damius

I would be curious to know how it can end up being "windowbox"...? Is there any reason for letting it like this...

I don't think there's ever been an official explanation, but I assume it's to protect against overscan (or maybe some idiot technician thought he had to encode all of the video within the maximum "safe area"), even though it's not really needed as most modern TVs can be set to eliminate it. I guess Japan did have higher penetration rate of CRT HDTVs, where overscan is probably a slightly more serious issue. But I really doubt if anyone would care about a slight loss of picture.

[Damius]

I see, I didn't know that. Thanks for taking the time to explain to both of you.

[muhootsaver]

Originally Posted by russ869

And how can you call it "laziness?" It's not like it's something that can occur accidentally.

I said laziness because judging from the windowbox, it's probably a master they've been sitting on for a long time. They didn't do a new transfer, I think the least they can do is trim the friggin windowbox and re-encode. They didn't even bother.

[Buster Darkwings]

Currently down to 56% off on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B009AOX8JC/

I guess that's cheap enough for me to buy this POS Blu-ray, considering I don't currently own the film on DVD.