"Why Is Netflix Secretly Cropping Movies?"

[Brandon J.F.]

Original:

Netflix version:

Original:

Netflix version:

Original:

Netflix version:

Basically, as those comparisons from What Netflix Does illustrate, they’ve been cropping off the sides of 2.39:1 images to fit them into a standard 16:9 widescreen image. It is, at its essence, the same thing as “pan and scanning,” but they’re not telling you that they’re doing it

Article: http://flavorwire.com/404511/why-is-netflix-secretly-cropping-movies

Does Netflix only accept 16x9 versions of films? Do distributors crop it like this or does Netflix do it? Anyone know?

 

[Bob Gundu]

How much do you want to bet that customers get confused seeing black bars and think its their TV?

 

[Brandon J.F.]

How much do you want to bet that customers get confused seeing black bars and think its their TV?

That was the argument for pan and scan in the VHS days. It must be less of an issue now than it was then since most DVDs and virtually all Blu-rays are the original aspect ratio. Even so they could easily educate people about the difference with a simple graphic.

I sure hope REDRAY takes off.

 

[Vadim Bobkovsky]

I'd be so pissed if I was regular Netflix customer. This is some mid-2000 Cable TV pan&scan jazz right there.

 

[Björn Benckert]

Most films are made in into both 16:9 and letterboxed if shot in 2:40 or 2:35. Usually the 16:9 version is showing on airlines and such that strange enough still have a lot of 4:3 screens. So my guess it's that netflix have made the decision to go with the more square shaped pan in scan versions... why is difficult to understand as they could actually save bandwidth on streaming the widescreen versions. I think they will and should get their shit together and preferably have both versions available, if they did I think 99% of the people would prefer to see the whole film even if that means that they got black bars on their screens.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

This is not entirely the doing of Netflix. In fact, most of it comes back to the studios. As Björn points out, many films are made into dual versions by the studios, regardless of what they may put out on DVD. These days, they often have a version for DVD, a version for BluRay, a version for streaming, a slightly different version for streaming on Amazon vs. Vudu vs. Netflix....

As with most TV network and basic cable presentations of films, even today, they are often butchered for aspect ratio, time, even content at times. It's such a tangled web of approvals, licensing, contracts, etc.. Movie studios still treat IP distribution and streaming as the bottom of the barrel form of distribution. Because that's exactly what it is in terms of their revenue dollars.

...Also a huge reason why we have such varied quality in compression or even source resolution amongst various offerings on Netflix or other such services. HD is a very divided ocean on the streaming market. Some studios or license holders don't provide high quality or HD versions of their content for streaming as they want people to buy the BluRay.

 

[M Most]

Some studios or license holders don't provide high quality or HD versions of their content for streaming as they want people to buy the BluRay.

Do you have actual direct knowledge or evidence of that, or are you just expressing your personal opinion without any such knowledge?

 

[Brandon J.F.]

Original page with lots of examples: http://whatnetflixdoes.tumblr.com/

 

[Ketch Rossi]

For the record, Netflix absolutely sucks big time for streaming, I dropped their streaming services almost instantly, that is how low quality their HD is, then dropped them all together when I confirmed that they were purposely delaying shipment of tDVD's while I was o their highest plan... {Pissed me off, and dropped them all together, and so did an astonishing number of others, but the world is a big place, with lot's of need for content and not yet that m,any providing it, so Netflix is still on a good standing position, despite their HUGE no no and loss of members, but I ma sure some will step in and take a huge chunk of the business away, and that day I'll be happy, because that is what they deserve for their BAD business model.

When my movies will be out, I will be most certain that if any one such a company was to butcher (because that is what they are doing to movies) my work, reframing at will ,they'l get the raft of my Attorneys on their A$#%@,and that would be a fact!

 

[L. Langer]

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the studios stabbing ole Netflix in the back for fucking up their revenue streams - no pun intended - from DVD and Blu-Ray. I for one use Netflix to watch a lot of TV shows, so it doesn't really affect me though I will watch the occasional movie on there, if I don't have it in my collection. I did catch The Expendables 2 last night and it was poorly cropped to the corner of Fuck and You, so it looked like someone shot it with a 720p DV cam.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Do you have actual direct knowledge or evidence of that, or are you just expressing your personal opinion without any such knowledge?

I do have direct knowledge of most everything I stated in my post. As for the studios not sending out high quality versions for streaming, not sure what you're asking about specifically, that's not a new thing. Some are quite open about it. Like Disney. At least they were in the past, initially only supplying sub-HD quality for subscription-based streaming through Netflix, Amazon, etc.. as they are (or were at the time) unsure of how it would effect home video sales. Disney has pulled all their animated features from Netflix streaming, as far as I'm aware. To my knowledge, the only one they ever allowed Netflix or Amazon Instant to stream in HD was The Princess and the Frog. I know of two studios who will only allow subscription based streaming of their content through one provider, and it does indeed come back to movie sales, not necessarily DVD/ BD, but I can't talk more on that.

Same thing with general content availability on streaming providers like Netflix. Watch how movies come and go, often coordinating with other marketing efforts by the studios. It goes multiple directions too. Look at what Netflix has paid for exclusives in the form of The Avengers or other recent high profile films that are available for free streaming in HD. I believe Amazon now has the Avengers free for Prime members, but I use it as an example because Netflix paid $$? (undisclosed) to secure HD streaming rights as an exclusive and it was available the same day the DVD and BluRay went on sale.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Ketch, I agree with you... However, there is still no one out there doing it better than Netflix, so I keep them. Like L. Langer, I use Netflix to watch TV shows and a few things, the kids use it a lot. As for mailing discs, meh... But I keep doing it because it's still the best way to get ahold of some stuff. They haven't made the last season of Breaking Bad available on streaming yet.

Another thing to consider with Netflix streaming is the device you watch through. They don't allow full HD playback on computers and mobile devices.. WTF? I've found the best Netflix experience to be on the new Roku boxes or the Nintendo Wii U. The Samsung smart TV's do Netflix alright, but have terrible sync issues at times and poor adaptive quality management.

This cropping issue flared up a couple years back and Netflix responded then. Saying that they encode the content from what they are supplied. If that is true and is still the case, which I'm thinking it likely is, then Netflix needs to take a stand and not show poorly cropped or improperly presented content. Hand it back to the studio and say, "sorry we don't want to show it like this and our viewers don't want to watch it like this".

The same cropping issues exist on Amazon instant as well, btw...

 

[Nick Morrison]

Do you have actual direct knowledge or evidence of that, or are you just expressing your personal opinion without any such knowledge?

I'm not sure if this is "proof", but I can give you a real world example that suggests what Jeff is saying may be true.

3 years ago, I produced the launch promos for Star Trek The Next Generation for a major international broadcaster. The "masters" we received from the Studio were ancient dubs to Digibeta that were terrible to work with. After a quick internet search, we realized (to our suprise) the studio had released a gorgeous, completely restored set of BLU RAYS available for purchase (but we weren't sent those masters!).

At the time, it did appear as if the studio was staggering assets, and providing lower tier "licences" the digibeta masters, and preserving the HD discs for the higher return they'd get in stores.

I have to imagine that tendency to monetize and shelter the "HD" versions downstream is no different with features (if not stronger).

 

[M Most]

I'm not sure if this is "proof", but I can give you a real world example that suggests what Jeff is saying may be true.

3 years ago, I produced the launch promos for Star Trek The Next Generation for a major international broadcaster. The "masters" we received from the Studio were ancient dubs to Digibeta that were terrible to work with. After a quick internet search, we realized (to our suprise) the studio had released a gorgeous, completely restored set of BLU RAYS available for purchase (but we weren't sent those masters!).
.

Did you ask for them? All I'm saying is that conspiracy theories are lots of fun and very popular, especially where it concerns motion picture studios. And while some of them might have elements of truth, most of them are like most conspiracy theories - namely, some fanciful story that people come up with to explain things they aren't involved in and don't really understand. Business decisions are made for a lot of reasons, and sometimes what one might interpret as a deliberate business decision is in fact the unfortunate result of someone sending out the wrong element, or ordering up something they didn't mean to, or just not understanding the need of the buyer, or.... well, lots of things. It's not always some money-grubbing studio person conspiring to keep quality images away from their viewers while they're twirling their mustache and laughing evil laughter. In fact, it's NEVER that.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Did you ask for them? All I'm saying is that conspiracy theories are lots of fun and very popular, especially where it concerns motion picture studios. And while some of them might have elements of truth, most of them are like most conspiracy theories - namely, some fanciful story that people come up with to explain things they aren't involved in and don't really understand. Business decisions are made for a lot of reasons, and sometimes what one might interpret as a deliberate business decision is in fact the unfortunate result of someone sending out the wrong element, or ordering up something they didn't mean to, or just not understanding the need of the buyer, or.... well, lots of things. It's not always some money-grubbing studio person conspiring to keep quality images away from their viewers while they're twirling their mustache and laughing evil laughter. In fact, it's NEVER that.

I think "NEVER" is a big word. While I agree, generally most of the clients I work with prefer to give their audiences as GOOD a product as possible. On the other hand I've also seen what happens to executives who earn immense power and make decisions that...are hard to understand. To be blunt, nothing surprises me anymore. It's possible one department is posting high quality quicktimes (because it's good for THEM), while another is sending out crappy tapes (because it's good for them; they charge more for the HD tapes). Often one hand doesn't know what the other is doing as these operations are huge.

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

Netflix is the end of the line for distribution of any film after theatrical, DVD, pay-per-view, premium cable...then finally to Netflix.

Haven't you ever noticed that all their "NEW" releases are often 4-5 years old..that is why their service is so much cheaper.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

When asked to choose between an explanation that involves a complex conspiracy theory and one that involves complacency, ineptitude, laziness, and disorganization driving things... some people tend to fall towards the first, I tend to fall towards the second. Probably some cable channels ask the studio for full-frame HD transfers for their movie channels, and the distributors, rather than take the time to figure out who should get a letterboxed version and who should get a pan-and-scan version, opt to just send out the pan-and-scan version until someone complains to them on the theory that most people aren't going to notice as long as the movie image fills their TV screen. No conspiracy, just laziness mainly, taking the path of least resistance. It would take a few seconds of thinking and looking things up -- oh no! -- to figure out whether a movie was released in 2.40 theatrically and then to see if they should be sending out a letterboxed version.

 

[Chase M. Wrenn]

Yeah, a lot of this comes from the studios, or a lack of organization, or just laziness and pricing. If one channel or platform ordered a 16x9 FF version of a film, and that is all the servicing house currently has of a film, and another platform requests of the studio the same title, they'll often go with whatever is in-house already to get it out quicker and cheaper. Or they just don't realize it is not the desired version. Or the wrong version is sent on accident.

There are really so many variables when it comes to this. Based on previous work with Netflix, I'm fairly certain they don't crop into films intentionally.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." -- Hanlon

I usually subscribe to that, but in this case I have witnessed quite a bit first-hand. I'm not trying to promote conspiracy theories here. The fact is, movie studios and content providers alike will often take drastic, even stupid, measures to protect existing revenue streams. Even if it means they may ultimately cut their own throats doing so. I don't work for Netflix, I don't work for any major studio, but I do get to see quite a few things that happen in between entities like that from a technical side. And I have seen examples of this with my own eyes on more than one occasion.

 

[Jason Comparetto]

How much do you want to bet that customers get confused seeing black bars and think its their TV?

I'll bet on that.