You Could Have Knocked Me Over With a Feather... (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

A friend of my wife's wanted to do something nice for her.

The other day a package arrived in the mail for her containing a DVD of the film Chicago.

Now...I already have Chicago (one of Peg's favorite musicals) on Blu-ray. Twice, in fact:

But "it's the thought that counts," right?

But here's the thing (and reason behind the thread). Here's what was delivered:

Full screen?? Where did THAT come from?

I laughed and was amazed that someone would even still be able to find an MAR disc of a movie (Best Picture winner, no less) in 2018.

Amazon tells me that an MAR DVD of Chicago was released as recently as April 2011. Boy that seems recent in terms of home video releases (even though the film dates back to 2002).

Chicago was first released on DVD 8-19-2003. Here's one of the last non-Frezon Weekly RoundUps reporting that fact.

All those dual-MAR releases seem so long ago...

 

[Robert Crawford]

The other day as I was comparing the DVD vs Blu-ray on "The Man That Never Was", I accidentally played the full screen side of the DVD. I quickly realized my mistake, but I still have several such DVDs in my collection that don't have a Blu-ray release yet.

 

[Sam Posten]

Uh, what is MAR?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Uh, what is MAR?

How short our memories!

MAR was nothing short of the scourge of the HTF for years! Right up their with DIVX and thread-killers!

Modified Aspect Ratio.

 

[Sam Posten]

Sorry, there is OAR and nothing else. Not sure what you could be talking about.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I figured that was the case...

 

[Stan]

How short our memories!

MAR was nothing short of the scourge of the HTF for years! Right up their with DIVX and thread-killers!

Modified Aspect Ratio.

A lot of people probably don't remember DIVX. Thankfully it died a quick and painful death. Wasn't it also related to the demise of Circuit City?

20+ years ago, so memories of that situation tend to fade away. I remember something about silver and gold versions of DVDs, somehow the silvers were set to expire after 48 hours or some weird procedure where they timed out. Or you could purchase a much more expensive gold version that was re-watchable. Memory is fuzzy on the whole thing.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Both my wife and I love this film. We usually watch it once a year. The Diamond Edition BD was a noticeable improvement over the original BD release, IMO. I long ago sold the old BD -- and DVD -- copy that I owned.

The other day as I was comparing the DVD vs Blu-ray on "The Man That Never Was", I accidentally played the full screen side of the DVD. I quickly realized my mistake, but I still have several such DVDs in my collection that don't have a Blu-ray release yet.

I still have some "flipper" DVDs like that, too, with the OAR on one side and the MAR on the other. Those labels on the spindle can be tough to read sometimes, too!

 

[Sam Posten]

A lot of people probably don't remember DIVX.

Heh...
https://www.wired.com/1999/06/ding-dong-divx-is-dead/

 

[Mike Frezon]

The Diamond Edition BD was a noticeable improvement over the original BD release, IMO.

The audio on this disc is just superb. I only wish all musicals could have been recorded this well. When I want to test out some new component in my audio chain, this is usually my first go-to disc. The opening sequence of All That Jazz with the immersive surround music mix with the ambient club noise layered-in is worth the price of admission alone!

I still have some "flipper" DVDs like that, too, with the OAR on one side and the MAR on the other. Those labels on the spindle can be tough to read sometimes, too!

Ain't that the truth! And the more difficult the older I get...

 

[Stan]

Heh...
https://www.wired.com/1999/06/ding-dong-divx-is-dead/

Good article, thank you.

I despised DIVX and hope I contributed to its death. Had no idea there was so much hatred of the system. But all I can say is good riddance, major greedy corporate product failure.

Thankfully I never spent a penny on it. Bad idea that was doomed from day one.

 

[John Dirk]

Good article, thank you.

I despised DIVX and hope I contributed to its death. Had no idea there was so much hatred of the system. But all I can say is good riddance, major greedy corporate product failure.

Thankfully I never spent a penny on it. Bad idea that was doomed from day one.

Perhaps a bit off topic but the amazing part of the Circuit City story for my dollar is that they actually spun off the still thriving Car Max before breathing their last. Who saw that coming??? I actually miss them. Where I live, if you want serious computer tech you have only a couple of choices. There's Micro Center [only a few in all of metro ATL] and Frys Electronics [also only a few and returns can be a pain]. Best Buy's are everywhere but they aren't the same.

 

[Sam Posten]

Good article, thank you.

Did you read the whole thing?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Did you read the whole thing?

I saw quotes from some crazy guy named Sam Posten and couldn't read anymore.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

The audio on this disc is just superb. I only wish all musicals could have been recorded this well. When I want to test out some new component in my audio chain, this is usually my first go-to disc. The opening sequence of All That Jazz with the immersive surround music mix with the ambient club noise layered-in is worth the price of admission alone!

Mike, if you don't have it already I would recommend getting a SACD copy of the soundtrack. It's a great listen in lossless 5.1.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Oh, I've got it, Scott! You're right. Phenomenal.

The big difference from the movie disc, of course, is the removal of the sfx and dialogue. They make for two such remarkably different listens.

 

[BobO'Link]

I still have some "flipper" DVDs like that, too, with the OAR on one side and the MAR on the other. Those labels on the spindle can be tough to read sometimes, too!

Ain't that the truth! And the more difficult the older I get...

Which is why I keep a small magnifying glass close to the TV just in case.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

How short our memories!

MAR was nothing short of the scourge of the HTF for years! Right up their with DIVX and thread-killers!

Modified Aspect Ratio.

Alternatively:
Marred Aspect Ratio
Mangled Aspect Ratio
Mutilated Aspect Ratio
Misguided Aspect Ratio
Monstrous Aspect Ratio
Malformed Aspect Ratio
Mangy Aspect Ratio
Miserable Aspect Ratio
Mournful Aspect Ratio
Meager Aspect Ratio

 

[Stan]

Both my wife and I love this film. We usually watch it once a year. The Diamond Edition BD was a noticeable improvement over the original BD release, IMO. I long ago sold the old BD -- and DVD -- copy that I owned.



I still have some "flipper" DVDs like that, too, with the OAR on one side and the MAR on the other. Those labels on the spindle can be tough to read sometimes, too!

Still have a few "flippers". Don't know if they're still being made any longer. Even a couple of early DVDs where films wouldn't fit on one side, you had to flip them manually. Forget what the phrase when that issue was fixed. Things have certainly gotten better.

Probably ticked off some of the seniors when flippers started vanishing. My mom used to watch everything in full-screen. OAR and letter-boxing with black bars not allowed. It had to fill every inch of the TV, regardless of whether you were losing X% of the picture or how distorted it was if stretched. Painful to watch.

 

[Malcolm R]

Forget what the phrase when that issue was fixed.

Dual layer, with that wonderful brief freeze-frame when the shift would occur.

I don't watch many DVD movies any more and had largely forgotten about the layer shift change. I watched one a couple weeks ago and thought for a second the disc had frozen up on me ... then it continued.