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Verizon's OnDemand movie policy

Jusr as an FYI, the current FIOS policy for all widescreen movies they offer via OnDemand/Flex are altered and cropped, losing 25% - 30% of the picture information. This includes everything from indies (ROBOT & FRANK), comedies (THIS IS 40) and (most heinously) visual-effects films which suffer the most from the alterations. Do you really want to see THE HOBBIT or CLOUD ATLAS with a good portion of the picture eliminated? And to be charged $5.99 (or more if purchased) for it? Other streaming sites (Vudu, Amazon, CinemaNow, etc.) don't do this. A shame that Verizon feels the need to rip-off consumers in such a manner.. Personally I will never order an OnDemand movie from FIOS again.

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One of the reasons that in all the years I have been a FiOS TV customer I have never ordered (and probably never will) a VOD movie. Unless they add a line to the description indicating OAR (original aspect ratio) or state the aspect ratio it's going to be a cold day in Hades when I pay for a movie.

film111

What is even more deceitful is that if, before ordering, one checks out the trailer...it shows the movie displayed properly. It isn't until one orders the movie and it begins playing that you realize that you've been ripped off. It would also be helpful if the audio format would be listed. (5..1 audio or just stereo). But considering that they con us into paying for a movie that's been altered, I doubt that will happen.

(Who the heck do they have working in the programming department...Snooki and friends???) Doesn't bode well for the new Verizon/Redbox Instant Streaming option...I, for one, will certainly not be signing-up until I know they stop the cropping and zooming. Nor will other movie fans I've spoken to. A danged shame really.

Chitchatjf

The last two PPVs were BOTH scope OAR

OTOH they were On the Road (IFC) and Brass Teapot (Magnolia,was supposed to be on 746 for free)

mm112

Verizon's problem with the information that is on the guide is now affecting their on demand too. There are movies that are on the new release wall and in other areas of the on demand where it claims to be one movie but it really is another one. Then there is the matter of not being able to hear the actor's voices in the movie trailers that are there. A perfect example of this is one of the new movie releases on the new release wall is a movie called "open road" that has the image of jeff bridges that is a movie from 2009 but it turns out that it is not the jeff bridges movie it is actually another movie called "open road" with andy garcia from 2013. Now if you rent that movie or any other movie that has a similar issue to this one and it turns out to not be the movie that you had thought it was going to be then how do you prove to the billing department that it was a verizon error that made you believe that it was one movie when in fact it was another? Something else that is an issue is when you play movie trailers on some of these movies you do not hear the voices of the actors in the movie trailers. There are too many of these to list but one of them is that jack nicholson movie called "the departed" where if you go into the search menu and put in the departed to play the movie trailer in either hd or sd you will see the actor's lips moving but you do not hear their voices. I have pointed this out on numerous occasions about the guide data being wrong but if it is now going to start affecting the on demand then you are going to have a lot of angry customers who will be demanding refunds for things that they had no intention of renting because of these errors. It is like a virus that has yet to be contained and things continue to get worse and worse while no one does a thing about it. As i said before it is not only the on demand it is the guide itself where there is a program called forensic files on hln channel 101 on saturdays from 3pm-11pm but in fact the program that will be there is actually another one called mystery detectives. The same goes for nightline on abc monday through friday at 12:37am-1:07am where the information that is listed there is from a long time ago about a guest who was interviewed but that description appears as if it were that single episode for every single show. If verizon wants to have more people rent from their on demand section then they need to address the issues i brought up on here and if they want to expand their customer base beyond what it currently is then they have to fix the problems with the guide data always beiing wrong.

film111

@Chitchatjf wrote:
The last two PPVs were BOTH scope OAR
OTOH they were On the Road (IFC) and Brass Teapot (Magnolia,was supposed to be on 746 for free)

As you note, Brass Teapot was supposed to be on HDNet Movies and they never alter movies. And I assume the same might be true of IFC,..probably why those were the exceptions and didn't get altered. A shame that is not the case with all the rest.

JS3313

I absolutely HATE this practice. We paid to see ARGO. I know that Ben Affleck used different ratios and film stock to convey the different impressions ge wanted to convey...all lost on the Verizon version which kept everything the same. We won't use OnDemand again, that's for sure. When we pay for a movie, we expect to see it the way it was intended. (And nowhere does it indicate the movies are altered. Sure, they have trailers, but they make it seem like the movie will be presented properly. It isn't until you've ordered it that we get the altered version.) I know most people probably don't care, but some of us don't like losing the picture. Why the heck do they do this??

MS131

Does anyone know if the Unrated HANSEL & GRETEL movie is cropped too? The preview shows it to be normal, but from what I've read, that might be false and I don't want to spend the bucks if I'm not getting the entire picture.

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