M

Modeman

Among the top of it's class!

Impressive.

Pretty good but close to average.

Below average. There are problems with this one.

Have they even tried to make this work?

DUCK!!!

OAR

Original Aspect Ratio or very close to it (common: old 1.37:1 movie reframed for a 1.33:1 TV). None or almost none of the original image has been lost due to reframing of the original image (see pan & scan). This designation is only for 1.33:1 images in order to avoid any confusion on the aspect ratio. If a movie is already presented in an unaltered widescreen format, nothing more will be said.

Anamorphic widescreen

Enhanced for 16x9 televisions. On a square TV and depending on the DVD player, the picture might look softer than expected due to the DVD player's infamous "anamorphic downconversion". On a properly calibrated 16x9 TV, the image is breathtaking!

Non-anamorphic widescreen

Not enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Expect a 25% loss of vertical resolution on those specialized sets. On a properly calibrated square TV, the image could look better than anything else you've ever seen short of an anamorphic transfer or an HDTV broadcast played back on a 16x9 TV.

Open-matte

Originally photographed at 1.33:1 on 35mm film but partially covered up or "matted" for widescreen presentations. The video release usually removes the matte which in turn shows more image information at the top and bottom of the screen, possibly more than the director intended to show in the first place. Other times there is garbage in the "covered" parts of the image and the only alternative for displaying a full-screen image on a square TV is a pan & scan transfer.

Pan & Scan

Originally a widescreen presentation, part of the picture's width is cut off and panned in order to show a full image height on a square TV. On some movies, you're losing almost half of the original image width.  This could have severe consequences on the general mood of the picture and what the filmmaker originally wanted to express. Unless the disc contains the proper aspect ratio of a widescreen movie, I usually don't touch these titles.  If I do buy one, it's by accident.

Super-35

The split-personality-disorder format. With a single film format, multiple aspect ratios can be produced. The results are not always what one would hope for. It's a compromise format where no one is happy with what they get. Note however that in certain widescreen movies, Super-35 was used because of the wide availability of spherical (non-anamorphic) lenses and cameras, and not to create multiple aspect ratios of the same movie. For example: during the production of the high-speed-car-chase movie "Ronin" which was filmed in Super-35, if you lose a lens or a camera in an accident, you can easily replace it. Anamorphic movie cameras and lenses are difficult to obtain and wouldn't be lent out if there was the remote chance of losing any one of them.

B&W

Black & white. I'm as strict with black & white material as I am strict with colour material. As far as my personal taste is concerned, I have absolutely no problems if a movie is made today in black & white. With some subject matter, it just looks so much better. And on a properly calibrated TV, it is so beautiful!

Dolby Digital

From one channel to seven channels. The format support all different combinations of speaker configurations, and all existing decoders are required to support these variations. Bass management however seems to be a free-for-all at times and can be totally inconsistent.

DTS

The "other" multichannel format. I may never review these titles simply because I don't have a DTS capable system. It's a matter of too little, too late.  Latest addition.  I will review the DTS track whenever possible since I now have access to a proper DTS system for evaluation purposes.  This new sound format should not affect the sound rating all that much since I evaluate the quality of the sound mix as much as the quality of the sound.  But if there's a significant difference between the DTS and Dolby Digital tracks, I'll mention it.

PCM

Pulse Code Modulation.  The same format as compact discs. There are a few titles encoded this way.

24/96

24 bit 96 KHz audio signal. The James Taylor concert DVD is a good example.  Note however that this does not necessarily mean the DVD will sound better than other DVDs encoded with a lower resolution audio track.  The original source elements still play a determining factor on how good an audio track will sound.

Quebec Friendly

A category which will be assigned to any title that makes available on the same disc the same content in French as it is available in it's original language.  This includes the availability of a French language soundtrack presented in the same format as the original language version.  This category does not include commentary tracks or documentaries which are rarely available in more than one language.  This category also does not take into account the quality of the French dialect used in the translation, but there can be exceptions especially if a particular dialect is only used by a very restricted group and is totally incomprehensible to everyone else.

Video based transfer

This category is used to distinguish the occasional video based transfers from the dominant film based transfers and applies only to computer based DVD players.  With film based transfers, the image is recorded on the DVD at 24 frames per second instead of the normal 30 frames per second (or 60 interlaced fields per second) that the NTSC video system normally handles.  When a film based DVD is played back on a standalone DVD player, the player will automatically convert the image to the 30 frames per second (60 fields per second) rate needed to properly show the image on your TV.  The image from video based DVDs are just sent directly to the TV with no conversion whatsoever.  Standalone DVD players have no problems dealing with both types of transfers.  But it's a totally different story with a computer based DVD player even if you have a hardware MPEG decoder card.  Film based transfers are normally not a problem for a computer and look incredibly beautiful on a properly calibrated computer screen set to a minimum 1024x768 resolution.  However, there are many software and hardware DVD players out there that can't properly handle a video based transfer.  It's as if the player gets confused with the interlaced video transfer and doesn't quite know how to handle it.  This results in interlace artifacts, a "stuttering" of the image and vertical "jumps" from time to time.  Some players or third-party software will allow you to change the processing of video based transfers (with InterVideo based players, try changing the BOB/Weave setting), but there's usually some kind of drawback such as a loss of resolution and a slight softening of the picture which is still preferable to the distorted picture you would normally see under the player's default settings.