Doing super important research today.

#QuarantineLife #TheXFiles #FightTheFuture
So, as many OG X-Philes know, the first movie was shot to accommodate both the 2.40:1 aspect ratio for the theatrical release, as well as the 4:3 format that was still the television standard at the time for the home video release, avoiding the need for pan and scan.
(And yes, there was also a widescreen release of the movie on VHS in a fancy clamshell case, but the fullscreen version was the more common of the two.)
But as our televisions got wider, so did our standard video formats, and the DVD, Blu-ray, and digital releases have all been the widescreen version of the movie, leaving the 4:3 version lost to time unless you still have a functional VCR and a collection of chunky plastic tapes.
Why would anyone still want to watch the 4:3 version, though? Obviously, the widescreen version is going to give it that more cinematic feel and look best on modern screens. But we X-Philes are suckers for detail, and there's a lot of set detail and lower extremities cropped out.
Which brings me to the whole point of this post:

The widescreen version, as gorgeous as it is in all of its HD glory, deprives us of some serious Mulder arm porn.
Now, sadly, there is no HD version in the 4:3 format, so we're stuck with blurry, slowly decaying VHS tapes. But we can try combining the two formats to better imagine what that might look like.
And here they are in motion.

The last time I did a side-by side comparison of the two formats was over 15 years ago and required 2 TVs, a VCR, and a DVD player. Now I've just got a VCR hooked up to a laptop. 😅
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