Previously on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, Chris Adams said:

> Once upon a time, Jeffrey Kaplan   said:
> >First off, where the B5 transfers are in widescreen, Crusade's aren't.
> 
> IMHO that's a good thing.  The composite and CGI scenes in B5 just don't
> look very good in cropped/zoomed fake-widescreen on a big-screen TV (and
> I just upgraded from a big-screen to a bigger-sharper-screen, although I
> haven't watched B5 or Crusade on the new TV yet).  I've been re-watching
> B5 at a friend's house on a ~25" SD (plain old CRT) TV, and even there,
> the composite scenes are noticably "soft" from the zoom (and some are
> misframed from the cropping to get a fake widescreen).

Matters of opinion and preferences more than anything else on that one.
I prefer the 16:9 wide over 4:3 since I got the HD TV.  But not at the
expense of distorted images nor obviously badly zoomed/cropped frames.

> B5 (and I believe Crusade) was shot on Super-35, which allows for either
> 4:3 or 16:9 framing to be taken from the film (not strictly
"widescreen"
> shooting).  All the computer effects were rendered in 4:3 NTSC, not
> widescreen, so to make a fake-widescreen B5 for Sci-Fi and the DVDs, all
> composite and CGI scenes were zoomed and cropped.  The pure film scenes
> look good (except for some scenes where the film deteriorated), but the
> rest is not so good.

I guess part of my "What the...?" reaction was I had just watched "A
Call To Arms" which is widescreen on the disk, and the first scene of
the first aired (and on disk) Crusade ep, "War Zone", is a recap using
the same shots... and it's 4:3 not 16:9.

> >I'm also seeing
> >more instances where it looks like "they" mis-cropped
the frame.  I've
> >seen several instances where the only character on screen is missing
> >the top of their head - usually just from the hairline up, but
> >occasionally lower.
> 
> I don't remember that off-hand (any specific scenes?).  Crusade should
> be the same on the DVDs as on TV (I don't remember there being any
> significant differences); that may just be the way the scene was framed.

Naturally, a day and a half later, I'm not recalling exactly which
scenes.  But I definitely recall seeing the top of Gideon's head
missing at least once, as well as others.

-- 
Jeffrey Kaplan                                         www.gordol.org
Double ROT13 encoded for your protection

"My children," he stood gazing out past the refinery into the depths
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Apprentice"])
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