Confession time: As someone who has reviewed movies on home video for more than two decades, I simply cannot stand to watch most DVD or Blu-ray bonus features. The days when I might get excited for a director’s audio commentary or a lengthy making-of documentary about the film I just watched feel like a distant… Read More Remember When DVD and Blu-ray “Special Features” Actually Used to Be Special?
I’ve been a movie collector for close to thirty years, and have seen the evolution of the home theater hobby across multiple video formats. During that time, I have bought into every new state-of-the-art format as it came along, and regularly upgraded my favorite movies hoping to gain some measurable improvement in quality. As a… Read More From DVD to Blu-ray, 4K, and More – Is “Good Enough” Ever Good Enough?
Hardly all that long ago, all TV series were photographed in a common, standardized aspect ratio designed to fill a television screen. The idea that anything intended for home viewing on a TV might, intentionally, not fit the screen seemed almost inconceivable. Nowadays, however, we’ve experienced an explosion of shows presented in widescreen ratios that… Read More List of TV Shows with Aspect Ratios Wider Than 16:9
IMAX is neither the first nor the only film format to incorporate the concept of a variable aspect ratio. Filmmakers have toyed with the shape of their projected images at least as far back as Abel Gance’s 1927 silent epic Napoléon. In a separate post, I maintain a list of movies that alternate from a… Read More List of Other Variable Aspect Ratio Movies (Not IMAX)
This post contains a reference list of movies that played in IMAX theaters with either a Variable Aspect Ratio (VAR) or otherwise alternate aspect ratio presentation that differed from their appearance on regular cinema screens, along with details of each title’s availability on home video. As explained in Part 3 of my Philosophy of 2.35:1… Read More List of IMAX Variable Aspect Ratio Movies
In my article series The Philosophy of 2.35:1 Constant Image Height, I attempted to explain what Constant Image Height (CIH) display is, how it differs from watching content on a traditional 16:9 television or home theater screen, and why it’s important. For this first addendum, we’ll examine the mechanics of setting up a CIH system… Read More Best Practices for 2.35:1 Constant Image Height
Home theater has come such a long way since the days of VCRs and cathode ray tubes. Today it’s possible to watch movies in your own house approaching or even exceeding the quality of a commercial cinema. Yet for as many strides forward as home video technology has taken, almost the entire consumer electronics industry… Read More The Philosophy of 2.35:1 Constant Image Height Display – Part 1
My home theater may forever be a work in progress. Although I’ve come a long way since the early days of cramming a projection screen and 5.1 sound system into the spare bedroom of a small apartment, I still feel like the theater room may never be finished. I often find myself thinking of ways… Read More A Walkthrough Tour of the Cinema Zyberdiso
Welcome to The Video File, a new home theater blog for anyone who loves watching movies and TV, and cares about presenting them in the best possible quality at home. That means a big screen, surround sound, and – when you really get into the weeds of it – a dedicated custom-built room. Of course,… Read More The Video File: Mission Statement
The Video File Blog 