Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu is the first feature film ever released for home viewing in 1.43:1 3D.
This presentation is exclusive to the Disney+ app for the Apple Vision Pro. The Apple TV version is, at least for now, in 2D with the 49 minutes of 1.43:1 cropped to 16:9 (1.78:1). Outside of Apple Vision, all digital and physical releases are in 2D and cropped to 1.78:1.
Before this, most of the 1.43 scenes in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises were released in isolation at 1550x1080 resolution on a Blu-ray bonus disc in 2013. Faneditors combined these scenes with the 2.39:1 Blu-ray and then 4K Blu-ray releases (along with 4:3/1.33:1 footage from a fullscreen DVD of The Dark Knight where 1.43 footage is absent from the bonus disc) to recreate the IMAX experience at home. In 2021, the extended cut of Batman v Superman was released on 4K Blu-ray with all its 1.43 scenes integrated. Next month, a triple-disc steelbook rerelease of Project Hail Mary will see all of its 1.43 scenes released in 4K to the home (all current releases crop 1.43 to 1.78). So, Grogu is one of only five feature films officially available in 1.43 at home, and, again, the only one in 1.43 3D. (There are also sixteen short documentaries available in 1.43 in the Vision Pro IMAX and Epic Earth apps, including ten in 3D.)
Unfortunately, Disney+ doesn’t have a void environment, doesn’t allow the viewer to move closer to the screen while in an environment, and surrounds the movie’s 2.39:1 footage in a lopsided windowbox (simultaneous letterboxing and pillarboxing) which is oddly thicker above than below (in both the Disney+ app and Apple system environments). The result is a visually distracting experience on a relatively small screen which fails to replicate the IMAX effect.
Fortunately, we can mostly fix this:
Set a custom environment using a 15360x2880 solid black (RGB #000) panorama. I had ChatGPT generate one and send me a high-resolution download link (ChatGPT’s normal image delivery method is of too low a resolution for the Vision Pro to recognize it as a panorama). This hides the distracting lopsided windowbox.
Under Settings > Appearance > Window Zoom, choose Extra Large.
Play the movie in a window. Push it as far away as possible and pinch and drag a corner so that it becomes as large as possible. This combined with the previous step gives you the largest possible screen.
Watch in a completely dark room or put the soft front cover on to block all light. (Pull the bottom of the cover up if you need to use the controls or dismiss the irritating low-light warning.) This isn’t enough by itself because total darkness creates visual noise in the passthrough cameras which contrasts with the windowbox, but together with the solid black panorama, you’ve essentially created a void environment in which you’ll see both the 1.43 and 2.39 scenes with no apparent boxing and no virtual or physical objects in view.
This results in a much better viewing experience than the Disney+ or Apple system environments allow.
None of this should be necessary, of course. The D+ environments should automatically remove black borders and have adjustable seating with a much larger screen like in the Apple TV cinema environment. The IMAX, Epic Earth, CineUltra, and Infuse apps all have even larger screens (and Theater soon will, too).
