Do any of the movie stations run OAR?

[innocentfreak]

I just signed up for hbo since fios is offering 3 months free just in time for true blood. Does hbo or cinemax or any movie station these days run every movie in the original aspect ratio? I know in the past hbo was supposed to be one of the worst with regards to open matte and cropped movies but I can't find any local references whether this is still the case.

[RGM1138]

It's been my experience that Starz Cinema will occasionally run movies in almost OAR. Recently aired one of the LoTRs in what looked to be close to 2.35:1. The HD channels will run films in widescreen, but not necessarily OAR.

DirecTV has a bundle of channels: SONYHD, MGMHD and UHD that air films that are closest to OAR.

[wmcbrine]

Lots of them do it some of the time, but as a rule? I dunno... HDNet Movies? TCM?

[Stephen Tu]

I think Showtime is the only one that usually does OAR. HBO reformats everything to 16:9 (cropping or open-matte depending on the original).

Between this and the general lack of selection, I gave up movie stations in favor of Netflix (and now also Redbox) many years ago. IMO premium channels are only worth subscribing for their original programming, if you don't want to wait for the Blu-ray/DVD to come out for those.

[Tivo_60]

EPIX runs almost all in close to OAR.