[ryandrake]

One thing the article doesn't seem to address is why these cuts are happening? What motivates a streaming company to go out of its way to re-shape the aspect ratio of a film? It is totally possible to re-digitize film without changing aspect ratio. Look at the re-done Star Trek TNG Blu-rays, they're amazing and with the original aspect ratio preserved. All widescreen TVs I know will play 4:3 content perfectly fine. Is there some technical reason that a 4:3 video can't be streamed?

[orloffm]

There is just no feedback from viewers to managers making decisions, and people actually doing work cropping don't have authority to override them.

[colejohnson66]

People probably don’t like the black bars. Or at least the people in charge think so.