When's the Blu-Ray !?

[Triple F]

Just as Joe says, unless WB has a divine happening on the road to Domestos, I cannot see it happening. Which is sad.

Domestos. lol
(I’m assuming that was intentional)

[KoshN]

Though I don't have them, I've seen them in stores and no, they're much better. The ones I saw were like the repackaged StarGate SG1 discs (version 2, not version 3*) and Supernatural seasons 1-5 discs ... A plastic shell about the size of one and a half normal dvd cases, with plastic hanging things (sleeves?) inside, with one or two discs per "page". No cardboard, no glue.

and no hard, brittle, scratch-causing, "plastic".... and better hubs.

[KoshN]

Is the repackaging as inferior as the first? I haven't seen them.

The repackaging SOLVES the problems of the initial packaging. Guess they got tired of all the returns due to loose, scratched discs. It certainly took them long enough to do the right thing!

[KoshN]

Just as Joe says, unless WB has a divine happening on the road to Domestos, I cannot see it happening. Which is sad.

The odds of that happening are billions of times worse than Powerball Jackpot odds.

[valens_shadow]

I read that Farscape is getting a BluRay release very soon so maybe there's hope for Babylon 5 yet?

[OmahaStar]

I read that Farscape is getting a BluRay release very soon so maybe there's hope for Babylon 5 yet?

Doubtful. The studio behind Farscape has always been supportive of that series. Also, they didn't use a ton of computer fx, choosing to use muppets instead. B5 got rid of their muppets after the pilot.

[Joe Nazzaro]

I'm assuming that was a semi-jokey response. Farscape did actually have quite a healthy number of visual FX shots, which I believe were done by Animal Logic (if somebody knows otherwise, feel free to correct me). While the series did use a lot of physical creature FX, a lot of the Muppet-type creatures were phased out in seasons one and two, in favor of much more complicated creations in later seasons.

[OmahaStar]

I'm assuming that was a semi-jokey response.

How long have you known me? :P

[DGTWoodward]

I read that Farscape is getting a BluRay release very soon so maybe there's hope for Babylon 5 yet?

Great! At least you'd think, right?

Sadly the truth is somewhat different. The Blurays will be made using PAL625 masters as their source. They are the best original source that there is available, it seems.

The series was originally shot on 35mm, but either the film-masters no longer exist (due to how easily they degrade), or no one really wants to give two hoots about actually finding them. They talk of a gymnasium sized roon full of footage to find, and then probably remaster.

Here's

http://www.timtoon.com/2009/11/07/farscape-will-not-be-released-in-high-def/

and.....

http://uk.dvd.ign.com/articles/100/1009930p2.html

[Biffy Clyro]

The odds of that happening are billions of times worse than Powerball Jackpot odds.

I had an urge to put this in here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCFB2akLh4s#t=0m15s

For me the DVDs are enough.

[valens_shadow]

Great! At least you'd think, right?

Sadly the truth is somewhat different. The Blurays will be made using PAL625 masters as their source. They are the best original source that there is available, it seems.

The series was originally shot on 35mm, but either the film-masters no longer exist (due to how easily they degrade), or no one really wants to give two hoots about actually finding them. They talk of a gymnasium sized roon full of footage to find, and then probably remaster.

Here's

http://www.timtoon.com/2009/11/07/farscape-will-not-be-released-in-high-def/

and.....

http://uk.dvd.ign.com/articles/100/1009930p2.html

Thanks for that information, so while it may not be high definition it would be an improvement. But the thought that crossed my mind is while the US DVD will be 480p won't the UK Farscape DVDs already have a higher resolution than that?

[DGTWoodward]

Domestos. lol
(IÆm assuming that was intentional)

What...little old me?

[Sidrack Marinho]

What about the movies? Specially Lost Tales?

Has anyone asked Warner in the HFT chat (if not, maybe in another one planned)? *

* http://events.hometheaterforum.com/chat/warner07.txt (example)

About Farscape:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Farscape-The-Complete-Series-Blu-ray/26648/#Review

It is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of A&E with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.33:1 for the series' first three seasons and 1.78:1 for the last season (I"ve included screencaps of both aspect ratios so that you can see the difference). Farscape was filmed in Australia and presented there in the PAL standard. The series' creators are insisting that the 35mm prints are nowhere to be found, plus the visual effects were created in SD (meaning they'd have to be recreated for a true HD master), so this is an upconversion which unfortunately does not look great a lot of the time. I'd actually rank the 1.33:1 seasons at somewhere between a 2.5 and 3.0 and the fourth season moderately higher at between a 3.0 and 3.5, for an average score of 3.0. The image is frequently fuzzy, with less than appealing color and some very spotty contrast. The series is often quite dark, regularly taking place within Moya's labyrinthine confines, and crush is rampant throughout these sequences. Things have at least a moderate improvement in the final season of the series, though even at a wider aspect ratio, the image is still distressingly soft a lot of the time, with little of the pop that one would hope for with a series of this relatively recent vintage and one which boasts such an impressive production design and sometimes staggering visual effects. In fact it's the visual effects that probably come off best in the series, with the animated sequences of Moya or other interstellar sequences achieving a modicum of clarity and precision which the rest of this presentation lacks.

[valens_shadow]

unfortunately that review is missing critical information which is how it compares to Farscape DVDs.

[Jan]

There's a fan-originated petition on Facebook in case anybody wants to join that. Can't hurt, anyway.

https://www.facebook.com/Babylon5HDRemasterPetition

Jan