Just a heads up that if you're thinking about buying the "Overcoming" DVD from World Cycling Productions, you might want to think twice.
The big problem with the DVD is that the film was shot with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and instead of letterboxing the video WCP has simply SCALED the image to 4:3. Actually, it looks like they took the transfer from the Danish DVD release (which is 16:9 anamorphic) and then scaled that to 4:3.
What this means is that the film looks "squished" -- the image, and all of the people, are tall and thin. When watching the DVD, you get a claustrophobic feeling since the film has been squeezed into a smaller viewable area. I've attached a screen capture from each DVD so that you can compare the two.
Ironically, it looks like the DVD box states that the film's aspect ratio is 1.85:1 (the type on the WCP box is very, very small and hard to see). Regardless of what it says, however, it's really scaled to 4:3 (it's not even "pan and scan").
If you have a region-free DVD player that can perform PAL to NTSC conversion, you might want to pick up the Danish DVD release (which DOES have English subtitles). You can find out more about the Danish release by visiting:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews19/overcoming_dvd_review.htm
There is a link on the page where you can order the DVD from a shop in Denmark. I've ordered DVDs from this shop before and never had a problem getting DVDs delivered to the U.S.
After the problems with audio on the TDF 2005 DVDs, and now with the horrible video on "Overcoming", I'd recommend being extremely cautious before buying DVDs from WCP.
The big problem with the DVD is that the film was shot with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and instead of letterboxing the video WCP has simply SCALED the image to 4:3. Actually, it looks like they took the transfer from the Danish DVD release (which is 16:9 anamorphic) and then scaled that to 4:3.
What this means is that the film looks "squished" -- the image, and all of the people, are tall and thin. When watching the DVD, you get a claustrophobic feeling since the film has been squeezed into a smaller viewable area. I've attached a screen capture from each DVD so that you can compare the two.
Ironically, it looks like the DVD box states that the film's aspect ratio is 1.85:1 (the type on the WCP box is very, very small and hard to see). Regardless of what it says, however, it's really scaled to 4:3 (it's not even "pan and scan").
If you have a region-free DVD player that can perform PAL to NTSC conversion, you might want to pick up the Danish DVD release (which DOES have English subtitles). You can find out more about the Danish release by visiting:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews19/overcoming_dvd_review.htm
There is a link on the page where you can order the DVD from a shop in Denmark. I've ordered DVDs from this shop before and never had a problem getting DVDs delivered to the U.S.
After the problems with audio on the TDF 2005 DVDs, and now with the horrible video on "Overcoming", I'd recommend being extremely cautious before buying DVDs from WCP.
