Jake 2.0 DVD is pan-and-scan, sadly.

[Katie Boundary]

Today, almost 17 years after the show's cancellation, my Jake 2.0 DVDs finally arrived in the mail. I'm sad to report that they are an abominably bad release with hard pulldown, no subtitles, and a variety of other sins. Perhaps the biggest sin is the cropping. For several years, I've had pirated copies of all of the episodes from Bittorrent, which were derived from the original broadcasts. However, some of the pirated episodes were fullscreen and some were widescreen, so I was never sure which one the show was originally made in. The DVDs are fullscreen. Comparing the pirated episodes to the DVD shows that the series was in fact made and broadcast in widescreen, and got panned-and-scanned to make the DVDs.

https://i.imgur.com/5aqM1mD.jpg


Motherf:eek::eek:ers.

[Ghitulescu]

I am sure the DVD was labelled Fit to your TV screen.

[FranceBB]

Oh dear, why...?
When I read "pan & scan" I thought they cropped scene by scene to make it 16:9 from 4:3. I've done it in the past as some channels were asking for it. For instance, back when FOX / National Geographic were still a thing before the big D acquisition, their policy was to use pan and scan most of the time whenever was possible (and they of course would have had to see the results and approve it). Same goes for Yamato for which I cropped a lot of old anime before air time before they closed their TV channel. Anyway, in this case it's different. I'm not a fan of the show and I've never watched it but from the screenshot it seems that they cropped a perfectly valid 1.77 FF 16:9 to the left and to the right to get a 1.33 FS 4:3? O_o
Why would anyone do that, considering that the DVD could have easily been flagged 16:9...?!
I really hope they weren't using some built in preset that brutally cropped (not even pan and scan) and then they burned it to DVDs...
Another more reasonable explanation for this outcome would be that the company originally producing it and the company making DVDs are different and as such perhaps they had two different master files at the time, so perhaps whoever aired the TX Master (probably an IMX50 or a DV25) at the time didn't make the DVD and the company who did make the DVD had an older 1.33 master file for whatever reason.
I don't know, I'm just speculating, but yeah, I understand your frustration in this case.

[Ghitulescu]

A lot of "less known" companies are given low quality sources, so that the buyer buys first the cheapest, then says "Motherfers!" then buys the more expensive, brandname DVD, ending by paying twice for the same thing.

[wonkey_monkey]

Oh dear, why...?

Because it's 17 years old, and it was an awkward time for widescreen TV (in the US, at least). IMDb lists its aspect ratio as 1.33:1 so it was probably shot with 4:3 safety in mind, at the very least, and as such may be pure center cut-out rather than pan and scan. The DVDs are probably from 4:3 broadcast masters.

We have no idea where KB got the widescreen versions from. They may be from later or international broadcasts where someone decided to use the wider version. See Buffy the Vampire Slayer - season 4 onwards was shown in expanded 16:9 in the UK despite the fact that it was meant to be seen in 4:3 throughout its entire run (Joss Whedon is rather adamant on this point). Since then I believe they've also expanded the previous seasons to 16:9, leaving all kinds of crew and equipment visible.

Look on the bright side: you're probably seeing everything you were meant to see, and it's higher horizontal resolution that it would have been if it had been anamorphic.

[Katie Boundary]

Oh dear, why...?
When I read "pan & scan" I thought they cropped scene by scene to make it 16:9 from 4:3.

The correct name for that is "tilt and scan"

[SeeMoreDigital]

The correct name for that is "tilt and scan"
Pan and Scan refers to horizontal (left/right side) image adjustments. Tilt and Scan refers to vertical (top/bottom) image adjustments.

[FranceBB]

Ah, I see. I've been referring to those two cropping techniques with the same word. I didn't know that.
I guess you'll always learn something new on Doom9, which is why I like it. Thanks. ;)