Well as far as I'm concerned, all 10 seasons of 'Friends' were originally broadcast on NBC using the 4:3 ratio.....even after other shows switched to 1:78:1.  I've seen some of the HD airings, and there were times where I did see the odd camera in the shot.  There were also a lot of inconsistencies where in the wide shot, an actor would be standing in a certain direction, and then in a completely different one when the scene cut to said actor.  If 'Friends' was REALLY intended be shown as a widescreen show, don't you think things such as the aforementioned would have been taken into account?

It's like telling people that it's OK to watch a film "open matte" because that's how it was originally shot.  The reason directors put mattes over certain films was to remove from view objects, etc that were not meant to be seen.  The same can be applied here.  The film was shot in 1:78:1 but composed as 4:3 for television, therefore removing equipment and gaffes from sight.  Warner's stance on this release is the fact that the widescreen transfers ARE available, and their utilizing that for the sheer fact that they'll make a mint selling this set on Blu Ray.  It still doesn't mean that 1:78:1 is how they were intended to be seen in the first place.

On a different note altogether, this set will not contain the extended episodes that were on the existing DVD sets, but the shorter network versions.  I personally prefer the longer versions, as they added a little more meat to the storylines.

thedaz wrote: That is one seriously mega set.

How could you possibly find time to watch it all?


well i guess it depends how much free time you have. lol

i got the dvd complete series and made it through everthing in about 4 weeks or so. it helps that each episode is only 22ish mins so you can watch a lot in a short amount of time. though 4-5 weeks seems to be the average for me getting through complete series collections of shows that lasted 6 seasons or more.

but like i suggested, i do have a lot of free time so yeah. lol i'm not much of a going out type so if i aint at work, i'm usually home. i'm just that darn tootin exciting!!!

Well from the one screen cap I saw, its definitely better than Seinfeld's HDTV offerings. But, to me, its like preferring to watch a soft-matted 1.85:1 movie opened up to 4:3 for the reason that "you see more image" - you're never meant to see the open-matte version.

From the sounds of it, they shot Friends widescreen but made it 4:3 safe - so there is no real benefit in presenting them in widescreen with empty spaces left and right, the composition will look unnatural, surely?

nderhjs wrote: Gav, in the 90s all warner sitcoms were filmed widescreen then cut to fullscreen. every single episode of friends is preserved as if film, because warner foreshadowed the switch to widescreen before other companies.

Sure, but the shots were obviously framed for 4:3

Quote: WARNING, though, you will see some actors just standing there doing nothing on the sides, as well as some cameras, but thats few and far between.

My point exactly. If they were shooting widescreen seriously, they would have made sure none of those rogue elements were present. I want to see my shows as they were originally aired.

Dragun wrote: GavSalkeld, the widescreen version of Friends isn't cropped from 4:3. I think some shots may have some vertical cropping, bu they also show more on the sides.

So... it's cropped in some way, then.

Gav, in the 90s all warner sitcoms were filmed widescreen then cut to fullscreen. every single episode of friends is preserved as if film, because warner foreshadowed the switch to widescreen before other companies.

WARNING, though, you will see some actors just standing there doing nothing on the sides, as well as some cameras, but thats few and far between.

I'm not a Friends fan at all, but cropping 4:3 images to 16:9 is an outrage. If it's shot on film (which I think it is), I understand that can crop the top and bottom of the image and open up the sides a bit, but it's not true to the original shows. You get tight frames with empty areas left and right. They do it with Seinfeld on TBS-HD; no doubt they will do it for the Blu-ray releases too. That's why I doubt I'll get rid of my DVDs; the OAR or nothing else, please!

Came so close to buying the complete series DVD collection, now I'm glad I held off. With the promise of fully restored and uncut WIDESCREEN presentations of all episodes plus 3 hours of new bonus features, this thing looks worth every penny of that $279.98 SRP, first-day buy for me definitely, better start thinking about saving up soon.