[whiic]

Pretty much all new content is widescreen. I know much of AMV Hell is about recycling classics, but...

A) widescreening would allow use of hardsubbed 4:3 video by cropping out the subtitles. Most of old video is hardsubbed anyway, and most of old video is 4:3 as well. This means that when cropping subtitles, it would fit on widescreen. (Or alternatively have vertical pillars as opposed to having widescreen letterboxed as it's today.)

Having 4:3 format does not offer similar hardsub cropping capabilities as no hardsub places subtitles vertically on the sides.

B) as most new content is widescreen, it's a path which AMV Minis should follow, unless we specifically want to discourage all new material and focus on recycling only.

C) many of us already have 16:10 or 16:9 monitor (or a TV connected as secondary monitor, or both)... and over 99% of new sold monitors and TV are 16:10 or 16:9. 4:3 (and 5:4) aspect ratio monitors will become rarities. (I do acknowledge the superiority of old aspect ratios for web surfing, document handling, reading text in general, etc. but that does not bring new 4:3 monitors to market. 4:3 will die and be surely missed.)

I have posted a poll:
1) I have a 4:3 (or 5:4) monitor and prefer AMV Mini aspect ratio as it is.
2) I have a 4:3 (or 5:4) monitor but would prefer AMV Mini to be released in widescreen.
3) I have a 4:3 (or 5:4) monitor but I could care less what aspect ratio AMV Minis are.
4) I have a 16:10 (or 16:9) monitor but would prefer to keep AMV Mini on current aspect ratio.
5) I have a 16:10 (or 16:9) monitor and I want AMV Mini to be released in widescreen.
6) I have a 16:10 (or 16:9) monitor but I really don't give a poop what aspect ratio AMV Minis are.

[Doomimus]

I'm not particularly fond of cropping at all, so I'd go with whichever aspect ratio the original source already used. Black bars don't bug me as much as seeing less than what the original artists intended me to see.

[whiic]

I didn't mean forced cropping by project leader but cropping by artist himself. And if AMV Mini was turned into widescreen some day, people with 4:3 would still have the option to make their entries with vertical black bars instead of cropping.

Like currently the artist can do pretty much whatever (s)he pleases in regards of cropping or letterboxing, as long as the output file has certain dimensions (including the borders in these dimensions). If cropping is done by the artist (whether it's vertical or horizontal cropping) it can be better than letterboxing, and it's definitely better than systematic cropping. I artist does the cropping him/herself, he can at least do pans on scene-by-scene decisions, and also move the picture in relation to time, as video overzoomed.

In no way do I support forced cropping because sometimes different aspect ratios are needed to catch the action... but this is usually in favour of widescreen.

[Hockey-kun]

I rarely use cropping too. Only HD Raws or raws tapped from an original dvd source (also known as a DVD rip). And I don't see the problem with the aspects of the AMV Hells. But if you want, you could propose 2 versions; One widescreen and one 4:3. But that all depens if master Zarxrax wants to.

[abyssion1337]

I really don't care but if poked hard enough I'd say; just leave everything as is

besides there have been jokes in AMV's the rely on the subs, it'd be more work for zarx and we all know he already does a ton and your arguments are pretty hollow

[Zarxrax]

In amv minis episode 1 (by a fast count, maybe im off) half of the videos were widescreen, and half were fullscreen.
In the upcoming episode 2, only 1/3 of the videos are widescreen.

If a time comes when the majority of entries are consistently widescreen, then I may move to a widescreen format.

[Doomimus]

As long as we're on the subject of forced cropping, I think cropping out subtitles constitutes forced cropping, because while it's supposedly out of necessity (makes it less of a distraction), you're still missing part of the original picture. It's much easier nowadays to choose whether you want subtitles in your footage or not, so forced cropping should only be a last resort, in my opinion.

However, if it's for an artistic reason (say, if they wanted to omit part of the image that would interfere with their own vision) that's a different story. Otherwise, I think the AMVs should use the same aspect ratios as their sources.

And yes, I believe widescreen is the way to go for future projects.

[Absolute_Apocalypse]

In amv minis episode 1 (by a fast count, maybe im off) half of the videos were widescreen, and half were fullscreen.
In the upcoming episode 2, only 1/3 of the videos are widescreen.

If a time comes when the majority of entries are consistently widescreen, then I may move to a widescreen format.

Hmm... the majority of my videos and the vast majority of my sources are widescreen. Perhaps knowing that the final is supposed to be fullscreen biases people's submissions? I know that personally, I've been tempted to crop my videos so that they wouldn't look out of place.

[Issitheus]

With older animes, 4:3 was the established aspect ratio, so the animators utilized the whole screen. I think that if you force crop, then people will crop to 16:9, therefore cutting out a significant portion of the original video as well as diminishing the quality.

[Doomimus]

Hmm... the majority of my videos and the vast majority of my sources are widescreen. Perhaps knowing that the final is supposed to be fullscreen biases people's submissions? I know that personally, I've been tempted to crop my videos so that they wouldn't look out of place.

I don't think you should let that influence your decision. Like I said above, I think you should only crop if it fits your artistic vision. That way, while AMV Minis is still 4:3, at least we'll see the entire picture of the 16:9 submissions. Letterboxing is a small price to pay for now, in my opinion.

Let's also discuss size: If the picture now is 640x480 (4:3 ratio), ideally the widescreen (16:9) would be 853x480 (same height, larger width) or bigger. Worst case scenario: the 4:3 entries won't diminish in size; We'll just pillarbox them. Best case scenario: We'll do more justice to the 16:9 entries.

[Kyle X]

I believe nothing more needs to be said.

[Zarxrax]

I'll think about changing to widescreen for season 2 (next year).
It would make more sense, I guess.

[Doomimus]

Thuper. :)

[DarkSign]

Widescreen would be interesting. Well, I think 4:3 is being used because consistency matters. But I think if the source were wide, then I wound't care for a mix of them.

Old clips are really nice to see, so I don't want with the wide fashion for them to dissapear!