This seems like utter B.S. to me, but as I've received a few emails about this and caught wind of it online, I thought I'd put down some info for everybody.
Basically, someone has decided to sue MGM over DVDs they allege have incorrect or mislabeled aspect ratios.
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According to the Hollywood Reporter, ""A movie buff is suing Metro Goldwyn Mayer and several retailers, saying many so called 'widescreen' DVDs, advertised as showing the movie as seen in theatres actually show even less than already cropped 'standard' versions. Studios increasingly offer two versions of films on DVDs - a standard format cropped to fit a typical televsion screen, and a widescreen, or 'letterbox' version showing the full image as seen on a large movie screen. The letterbox version is wider left to right and has blacks bars above and below the image. But Los Angeles resident, Warren Eallonardo, 28, claims that several MGM movies he recently bought, including Rain Man and Hoosiers, falsely advertise widescreen versions of the films. 'In actuality, the DVDs provide a standard format with the top and bottom of the picture cut off", said Clifford Pearson, an attorney representing Eallonardo. "He felt like he is being ripped off." A representative of MGM did not immediately return a call for comment. The suit, which seeks class action status, was filed late Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court.""
The details of the suit are here:
http://www.mgmdvdsettlement.com/
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This is SO utterly ludicrous it's insane. Basically, this individual who filed the suit doesn't know jack about the OPEN MATTE process -- it's Widescreen 101 that not every movie is shot in a truly widescreen process. Movies shot open matte WILL have picture area added to the top and bottom of the image for TV because that's how they were filmed.
The only thing that could possibly come of this is that the "widescreen" term might be dropped from open matte instances. If a movie isn't shot in a widescreen process, maybe they'll change the terminology to simply "Theatrical Release Format" instead.
Either way, hopefully this guy won't get more than a few nickels out of MGM for this. I find the whole suit baseless, particularly when you look at some of the movies he has listed as part of the suit (REMO WILLIAMS is full screen for crying out loud!! How is that even part of the suit???).
