There's no excuse for that. The clips should have been letterboxed. The people who made it should be ashamed of themselves and should not be working in the film/video industry, when they just distort a picture like that.
shareYes, awful. How did anyone think it was a good idea?
shareChange the setting on your TV. I did and now I'm not having the "stretching" problem you described.
shareWow. 'Unwatchable'? 'filmmakers should be ashamed of themselves'?
Again, wow.
Are you serious? Is life that unendurable that something like a 4:3 being stretched 16:9 is 'unwatchable' even though you seem to be oblivious to the fact it wasn't shot on a 35mm cine but rather with a cheap 8mm or 16mm hand crank cam?
The supreme irony here is, this series' focus is about suffering and surviving a bad situation and never giving up, and here you guys are throwing in the towel because it's not formatted to your liking. In other words, "Game over, man. Game over!" Yes, with that attitude you remind me of Hudson in "Aliens". But at least he redeemed himself in the end.
My goodness, how did you ever survive before 16:9 HD? How did you ever survive before cable? How did you ever survive before television? How did you ever survive before...
Ever see a stage play? I guess not, because you can't seem to get past the technical limitations of a production. It's a pity. It's a great series.
By the way, the series is Vietnam HD, so the original clips that were shot in 4:3 can only be stretched to fit the HD format. Either that, or display them squished (pre-anamorphic) and have them resolve at 4:3 on a wide screen TV. But not everyone had a widescreen 16:9 TV when this was made. Consider that.
Cheers.
One more transfusion, and I'll be a full-blooded Irishman.
-Peter Cushing in Island of Terror