Quantum of Solace DVD aspect ratio

Danjaq

Does anyone know if Quantum of Solace will be released on DVD in the U.S. in Full Screen as well as Widescreen?

What with these economic times, I haven't yet splurged on a widescreen TV and my Bond DVDs are in Full Screen. And if there's one thing about movies I abhor, it is the black bars on the screen when watching Widescreen on a full frame monitor. But the pre-order pages for Quantum of Solace on sites such as Amazon, they only list the single DVD and the Special Edition 2 DVD set in Widescreen.

TonyDP

I'm pretty sure QoS will only be offered in widescreen. The official website for the video ( www.007.com ) makes no mention of a pan & scan version and I can find no trace of a pan & scan release anywhere.

While I understand your reasons for wanting a pan & scan version, the diminishing sales for standard DVDs and increasing popularity of BluRay and "on-demand" downloads means that there will be fewer and fewer pan & scan releases going forward.

spectre7

The DVD/Blu-ray will be presented in the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, so even those of us with widescreen TVs will have the black bars. I'm surprised to learn that Bond films were released on DVD in foolscreen in the US. I haven't seen any foolscreen Bond DVDs here in the UK.

Remember that for films shot with anamorphic lenses at least (which most of the widescreen Bonds were), you're actually seeing more of the action, not less. CR and QOS were shot in Super35, meaning they used spherical lenses and cropped the frame to produce the 2.35:1 image, so foolscreen versions don't really lose any horizontal information and actually gain vertical information - but it's not really how the director and cinematographer wanted you to see them.

DN, FRWL, GF, LALD and TMWTTG were shot with spherical lenses.

HowardB

I own a copy of CR in 2.35:1 widescreen but have watched the "full screen" version numerous times on cable and I can tell you that despite CR being shot in Super 35 (non anamorphic widescreen process) the "full screen" version is severely cropped in width and is panned and scanned as
opposed to having the top and bottom opened up.
Some theatrical films which are shot spherically for exhibition at the 1.85:1 or 1.66:1 ratios are opened up for full screen home video or TV but they have been carefully shot so that boom mikes, etc are out of what is referred to as a "TV Safe Frame Area". With Super 35 films composed for the 2.35:1 "scope" ratio this is much harder to achieve without completey destroying the directors composition.
Also, while I'm no expert, from what I've read, how the widescreen aspect ratio is accomplished with Super 35 is a bit more complicated than just cropping the top and bottom of the frame and apparently includes another optical process or step. I unfortunately still have an "old school" 4:3 ratio 27" TV but I would not purchase for myself a "full screen" version of QOS nor would I recommend others do so.