Pet Shop Boys Community

I just received the Canadian DVD and can confirm the all of the clips are in the correct aspect ratio. All the early clips are 4:3 with the image reaching the top and bottom. Also, the later clips are are all correct 16x9.

Mr Love wrote:

boyjohn wrote: Well, since there is both 4:3 and 16:9 content, they probably had to do it that way. That way all the videos show correctly on 16:9 TVs (which is most of them these days)

Not true, you can mix anamorphic 16:9 and full screen 4:3 content (which will also look correct on a 16:9 telly), the DVD author was just too lazy.

Are you sure? Time ago when I tried to author some DVDs, I couldn´t do that with different chapters on the same 'track' (that´s the technical name for group of chapters on the same 'menu' page). If I wanted to keep the correct ratio (without distortion nor black bars anywhere) I needed to create another new 'track'... doing it that way is possible, but the videos aren´t grouped together anymore (I mean they're now in different entries on the menu).
Just a couple of years ago, when the standard TV was still considered the 'old-square' 4:3 TVs, anybody was angry because 16:9 videos had black bars on top and bottom of the image...now that the standard changed to the widescreen, the obvious consequence when the correct aspect ratio is respected (And I Celebrate That!!!!!) is black bars on the side of the 4:3 videos. I think it´s the complete best option over the zooming in (loosing the top and bottom portions of the image, a disgrace!) or the direct distortion to make it fit the anamorphic screen and looking fat and blurry.
When you look them on an LCD TV some of the screen is black, yes...but that´s the way it is!! They´re old videos, that´s the format they were recorded and the way they must be seen...what other solution is possible without distortion?

Boring90 wrote:I just received the Canadian DVD and can confirm the all of the clips are in the correct aspect ratio. All the early clips are 4:3 with the image reaching the top and bottom. Also, the later clips are are all correct 16x9.

True - however, the black bars on the sides of the 4:3 videos are hard coded, which unnecessarily reduces the horizontal resolution.

A good thing that should be pointed out is that both this and the Pandemonium DVD were released in PAL, offering 20% higher resolution than NTSC, which many record companies sadly have turned to during the last few years (including Parlophone for Cubism).

Oznerol wrote:Are you sure?

Yes I am, I've compiled some video collections myself mixing full screen 4:3 and anamorphic 16:9 content - the aspect ratio simply changes between the videos. The underlying DVD structure may be a bit different but there's no problem to have all videos in the same menu and to have them play in sequence - I had. (Now I haven't watched all of the PSB BBC DVD, but isn't there just 4:3 videos to start with, then just 16:9 videos, i.e the aspect ratio changes just once? Makes it even stranger they re-encoded the 4:3 ones into 16:9 with black side-bars.)

The new Ultimate Dvd. You all know it. Well the Top of the Pots part of it is ok. Very nice historical look back at the PSB.
And the live show is nice too. But:

The Live show is missing a track. The Way It Used To Be is on the DVD track list but totally not payed on the show. And secondly the Se A Vida É Mix is split into 2 different chapters. Both of these things are not shown on the PSB BBC DVD that came with the ultimate package. I ordered mine through the official PSB online store. And it dies not look like the track is missing cause at the end of Kings Cross (the previous track) Neil says "This song is called Jealousy. I may be wrong but to me it seems the song TTIUTB was never played at the show. But incorrectly put on the set list on the DVD slip case that came with the Ultimate package.

I just wanted to point this out.

And otherwise I really liked that dvd. The live concert is pretty much an outdoor clone of the released Pandemonium show. But I enjoyed watching the outdoor one too. And as I said above I liked the Top of the Pops songs too.

Both have been mentioned already. The way it used to be was in the regular Pandemonium setlist but both it and the title track were removed for Glastonbury. It's a typo.

Oznerol wrote:
Are you sure? Time ago when I tried to author some DVDs, I couldn´t do that with different chapters on the same 'track' (that´s the technical name for group of chapters on the same 'menu' page). If I wanted to keep the correct ratio (without distortion nor black bars anywhere) I needed to create another new 'track'... doing it that way is possible, but the videos aren´t grouped together anymore (I mean they're now in different entries on the menu).
Just a couple of years ago, when the standard TV was still considered the 'old-square' 4:3 TVs, anybody was angry because 16:9 videos had black bars on top and bottom of the image...now that the standard changed to the widescreen, the obvious consequence when the correct aspect ratio is respected (And I Celebrate That!!!!!) is black bars on the side of the 4:3 videos. I think it´s the complete best option over the zooming in (loosing the top and bottom portions of the image, a disgrace!) or the direct distortion to make it fit the anamorphic screen and looking fat and blurry.
When you look them on an LCD TV some of the screen is black, yes...but that´s the way it is!! They´re old videos, that´s the format they were recorded and the way they must be seen...what other solution is possible without distortion?

Agree completely.

The BBC ''Top of the Pops'' compilation shows ''Top of the Pops 2'' have used the same 4.3 format too for 'old clips' so i was not suprised that this was the format for this DVD release.

@Sandy Shaw: Yet again, the 4:3 clips should have been presented in true 4:3 and not black barred 16:9 which decreases the horizontal resolution quite a lot (and make them look awful on a 4:3 screen with black bars on all sides).

Mr Love wrote:@Sandy Shaw: Yet again, the 4:3 clips should have been presented in true 4:3 and not black barred 16:9 which decreases the horizontal resolution quite a lot (and make them look awful on a 4:3 screen with black bars on all sides).

But without bars they´ll look distorted on 16:9 screens...wich are more and more common on this days, and the complete standard in the near future... people is used to see distorted images on this screens, and I celebrate that the people who made this DVD did something to prevent that, facing the fact that the days for the 4:3 screens are numbered...sadly as it is.... Those videos will look on the right 4:3 proportions always, there is no way for them to look distorted on any screen, that´s the good thing...

Mr Love wrote:Yet again, the 4:3 clips should have been presented in true 4:3

We live in an anamorphic world. No authoring agency in its right mind would prioritize a 4:3 display. It's like expecting a mobile app to work on your rotary phone.

There is supposedly a flag that can be set within a video so that you can author 4:3 clips as their original aspect ratio, then the DVD player adds the pillar (side) black bars when sending the picture to a 16:9 display (that's why you tell the DVD player what type of display your have in it's setup). That way you keep all the horizontal resolution of the clip. Unfortunately not all DVD players handle this correctly though, some just stretch everything no matter what. Since most people have 16:9 displays these days, they just took the easy way out and hard-coded the 4:3 frame within a 16:9 picture.

Well my copy arrived down under (was bundled with Together) and I watched
the DVD last weekend.

I really enjoyed the Glastonbury show, more than the O2 one. More atmosphere,
or maybe its just me.

The BBC vids are great also, but why didnt they add Later Tonight ?

Hello! A bit late for the party!
I just bought the Ultimate package with the extra DVD from eBay (I live in Brazil) but sadly I can't play it because it's in PAL mode and my player only likes NTSC... Who would think of it as a problem in 2025?! Because of that, up to this day, I still didn't watch the TOTP clips or the Glastonbury show...

Just to clarify, this BBC DVD is Ultimate 2010, no?

Xakrij wrote: Fri 31 Oct 2025, 3:33 pm Just to clarify, this BBC DVD is Ultimate 2010, no?

Yes.