TiVo Community Forum banner
  • TiVoCommunity.com Ambassador Program Now Open! >>> Click Here

The Wire is in HD and Widescreen on Amazon Prime Streaming

45K views 105 replies 33 participants last post by  Rob Helmerichs 
#1 ·
Just noticed that The Wire plays in 16:9 when viewed on Amazon's Prime Instant Streaming service.

I assumed that this was Amazon matting the original 4:3 frame, but to be sure I started S01E01 from the DVD on my TV, and the same episode from Amazon on my phone.

Amazon's image isn't cutting off anything from the top and bottom of the image - it's actually a true widescreen frame with more image on the left and right.

Also, Amazon's picture quality is better than the old DVDs (YMMV depending on bandwidth, I guess).

I skipped ahead a few seasons on Amazon and they look to be 16:9 the whole way through. Time for another rewatch!
 
#27 ·
Here's how Slate thinks the digital enhancement might go. Spoiler death of a major character.

I realize that is spoiler tagged, but if you have never seen The Wire, DO NOT CLICK ON THAT SPOILER. Seriously. No, really seriously. I'm not kidding. Do. Not. Click. :)

If you have seen The Wire, click it. :D
 
#28 ·
From HBOWatch and TVLine:

"UPDATE: HBO has finally given us a premiere date for The Wire HD! THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS 2014! December 26th, that is. Here’s the info straight from HBO:"

http://hbowatch.com/the-wire-being-remastered-rebroadcast-in-hd-by-hbo/

http://tvline.com/2014/12/02/the-wire-high-definition-remastering-december-2014-marathon/

The Wire: The Complete Series in HD will be available for the first time as a full series purchase at iTunes, Google Play, X-Box Video and Vudu on January 5. Individual episodes and seasons will be available through all of HBO’s Digital HD retailers.

To celebrate the HD launch, HBO Signature will air the entire series consecutively, one season per day starting with season 1 on Friday, December 26 at noon. The marathon will wrap with season 5 on Tuesday, December 30.

This will be the first time The Wire has aired on a linear HBO channel since Season 5 wrapped in 2008, as well as the first time that all five seasons of the entire series have aired consecutively on the network.

All 60 episodes will also be available in HD on HBO GO starting December 26.
According to the cabler, all 60 episodes of The Wire have been remastered for “a tighter fit on widescreen TVs and computer/tablet screens. The original negatives were scanned, edited, dust-busted and color-corrected with great care and attention taken to stay true to the look and feel of the original Standard-Definition 4×3 version.”
 
#29 ·
A little more info from Alan Sepinwall:

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-wa...re-gets-a-high-definition-widescreen-makeover
"The Wire" is finally entering the world of high-definition — even if it's not the way the series was originally meant to look.

HBO announced today that they had completed the high-definition re-mastering of all five seasons of "The Wire," which will debut in December on HBO Signature and HBO Go, be sold in digital HD (through iTunes, Google Play, etc.) starting January 5, and on Blu-ray starting next summer. As the press release notes, "The entire series has been beautifully re-mastered in 16x9 Full-Frame HD from more than 8,000 reels of original 35mm camera negative, allowing for a tighter fit on widescreen TVs and computer/tablet screens. The original negatives were scanned, edited, dust-busted and color-corrected with great care and attention taken to stay true to the look and feel of the original Standard-Definition 4x3 version."

This was a more complicated process than most re-masterings from that period. "The Wire" debuted in 2002, at a time when the TV business was starting to push hard into both high-def imagery and a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio. Many series that weren't yet broadcast in HD were still being shot 16:9 (leading to a letterboxed look on old projection TV sets, which I got a lot of complaints about from Star-Ledger readers back in the day), and even the ones that weren't were often being framed in such a way that the image could easily work as either 4:3 or 16:9 without any of the important imagery being lost. (If you watch a lot of TV dramas from the early part of the century, you'll notice almost all of the relevant action happens in the center of the frame for that reason. Directors were trying to serve two masters at all times.)

"The Wire," though, wasn't shot that way. David Simon and company had requested that "The Wire" be shot in 16:9, but HBO executives instead insisted on 4:3 and standard-def (possibly as a cost-controlling measure). Simon, the late Robert Colesberry and the show's directors quickly learned to make that frame and the lower-quality image work for the series, giving it a rawer immediacy than might have been possible at the time in a widescreen, high-def image. Where other series were framing for both aspect ratios at once, "Wire" directors weren't even worrying about 16:9, and instead sought to create the best 4:3 image they could. By the time HBO offered to let them do a changeover to 16:9 and high-def after the third season, the show's producers declined, with Simon preferring to stick with one visual template the whole way through.

Because of that, and because of other creative and technical decisions made over the course of those five seasons, "The Wire" proved an especially tricky beast to tame for this new format. HBO has been teasing this re-mastering for months now, with an HBO Signature marathon of the altered episodes listed in various programming schedules in late summer/early fall. At a certain point, Simon himself got involved, along with some other "Wire" alums, to be sure it was done right. If he wasn't happy with the finished product, HBO wouldn't have made the announcement today.
David Simon writes about "The Wire in HD":

http://davidsimon.com/the-wire-in-hd/
 
#32 ·
After reading the Simon article, I think I'll just stick with the DVDs.

It's a little sad how we've come full-circle...there was a time when the public insisted on 16:9 movies being cropped to 4:3 so there wouldn't be "wasted space" on their TVs. Now, it seems HBO believes the public insists on 4:3 shows being reformatted to 16:9. Now as then, I wonder why we can't just accept the image as it was created and intended to be seen. I would buy an HD 4:3 The Wire if it was scanned from the original film.
 
#33 ·
After reading the Simon article, I think I'll just stick with the DVDs.

It's a little sad how we've come full-circle...there was a time when the public insisted on 16:9 movies being cropped to 4:3 so there wouldn't be "wasted space" on their TVs. Now, it seems HBO believes the public insists on 4:3 shows being reformatted to 16:9. Now as then, I wonder why we can't just accept the image as it was created and intended to be seen. I would buy an HD 4:3 The Wire if it was scanned from the original film.
People are dumb.
 
#37 ·
After reading the Simon article, I think I'll just stick with the DVDs.

It's a little sad how we've come full-circle...there was a time when the public insisted on 16:9 movies being cropped to 4:3 so there wouldn't be "wasted space" on their TVs. Now, it seems HBO believes the public insists on 4:3 shows being reformatted to 16:9. Now as then, I wonder why we can't just accept the image as it was created and intended to be seen. I would buy an HD 4:3 The Wire if it was scanned from the original film.
But the original film contains more content as shown by the screenshot above. Seinfeld also got the 16:9 treatment and wished my collection was WS. And no it is not dumb to feel that way.
 
#41 ·
Looks like HBO Go replaced the original ones with the widescreen HD version. So now you can't see the original ones.

I would have thought they would have put both up there, but I guess the public is too stupid to deal with that.
I can only hope that someday they'll do a 4:3 HD blu-ray, so I can upgrade my DVDs. Which I would gladly do.

Until then, my money stays in my pocket!

(Well, that's not true. It just goes somewhere else...)
 
#44 ·
They do look better. More pleasant to watch, etc. I've only watched maybe 30 minutes so far.

I am recording them all. I'm not really sure why.

I do find myself looking at how the shots were framed. I'm surprised that some of the framing still worked in 4:3.
 
#46 ·
I'm recording them all. I'd rather watch them from a TiVo recording than streaming.

I watched the pilot yesterday. Pretty darn good, especially considering all the attendant challenges that come with a pilot episode. It moves so fast I'm not sure I know who's who yet. Ya' feel me?

1 down, 59 to go...

:):up:
 
#48 ·
I watched the pilot yesterday. Pretty darn good, especially considering all the attendant challenges that come with a pilot episode. It moves so fast I'm not sure I know who's who yet. Ya' feel me?
I ended up watching the pilot episode three or four times. It really helped with understanding who was who.

This was due to various attempts at starting the series, but then never getting to it so starting over again after months of not watching.
 
#49 ·
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top