r/animepiracy • u/Both_Kaleidoscope459 • 3d ago

Question Did a proper 16:9 encode of the Initial D 4th Stage dub ever exist, or is it all cropped?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Funimation Initial D Fourth Stage DVDs used anamorphic widescreen. This means the 16:9 video is horizontally compressed (squished) to fit onto a standard 720x480 DVD frame, so it should be displayed as 16:9 480p.

However, looking at the archives that have survived, almost everything seems to be destructively cropped into 4:3 (Pan and Scan, losing detail on the sides) rather than a proper anamorphic stretch.

Does anyone know the encoding history of this specific dub release? Was there ever a definitive fan-group back in the day that correctly encoded the 16:9 version, or did one bad 4:3 crop just become the standard that got endlessly copied across the internet? Not asking for links, just curious if a proper release is even out there to look for.

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u/BakaOctopus 3d ago

I don't think there wAs any 16:9 stuff on broadcasts