Babylon 5 and HD tv

[Pedrith]

Hi everybody. With the seemingly impossibility of B5 blurays (universe prove me wrong) I started to rewatch some of my favourite episodes from season 3 on my new 46 inch HD tv. Needless to say my xbox 360 upscaled the picture so bad that it was nearly unwatchable. I was very upset as B5 is one of my comfort shows along with Buffy and Angel. So since I also am in the process of setting up my new computer I decided to play around with a program called handbrake to digitize it and see if that made a difference. My first few tries were horrible but then I though what if I max every setting out (except constant quality which I set at 17). So I did and the result was amazing. Even better each episode was about 600mb.

It may not be bluray but I think the picture looks even better than the dvd source. Just watched Voices of Authority and the effects of the first one ship along with all the other effects look mind blowing.

Just thought I'd share. Been along while since I posted and hope I'm not breaking any rules.

Cheers,

David

P.S. Forgot to mention that play back is through my Western Digital TV Box.

[Ubik]

Good to know Pendrith. Thanks for sharing.

I own the DVD box sets, as well as a digital copy on my external 'media' drive that I keep all my films and TV shows on. Would be interesting to try digitizing it myself if there are gains to be had. My current digital copy is about 350 mb per episode, looks okay, but not stunning. I usually use my DVDs, the digital copy is there as a back up or if I'm travelling.

I guess these are issues with advances in TV technology and older shows, especially if a lot of the new hardware automaticall upscales things. My experiences with HD haven't been great and I found that a lot of films looked almost too real, and as a result looked 'cheap'. This may be something to do with the HD sets that I've seen, or the way they were set up, but it didn't really do much for me.

[Pedrith]

I watched a few more episodes (Severed Dreams, Shadow Dancing) and there are a few problems, mostly with the effects. Some of them aren't as sharp as they could be during the battle sequences where the motion is fast. There is a tiny bit of blurring and flickering. Also the scene with Franklin meeting himself there was some breakup in the shadows that surround Franklin.

The only other thing I noticed is that there is a little fuzzing if the camera moves to fast.

It is possible that these problems are a result of upscanning. Like I said, not bluray but still beautiful.

Cheers,

David

[valens_shadow]

I recently watched In The Beginning (from the region 1 movies box set) recently on my 40" screen and noticed the picture quality was not very good at all. Luckily I still have my original region 2 DVD and I guess because of the extra lines from 480 NTSC(R1) to 576 PAL(R2) looked noticeably better.

[Jonas]

The quality of your blu-ray/DVD player and its ability to scale the image up properly makes a big difference. We rewatched B5 on a pretty big screen and it looked quite good, for the most part.

[DGTWoodward]

I am glad that I have most of the B5 laserdiscs. True, they are 4:3, but when you look at all the flack making them 1.78:1 introduced and just how little clean up was done to the 'live' material, I am kind of glad of it.

And to date, they remain the definitive way to watch the show, shame on WB for not completing the run.

[Triple F]

Ironically it seems a part of the reason for stopping was the drop in sales due to the on-line rumours the show would be released on DVD - so folks were opting to wait for them rather than buy the Laserdiscs. Funny huh.

You did well tracking so many of them down.

[JDSValen]

I am glad that I have most of the B5 laserdiscs. True, they are 4:3, but when you look at all the flack making them 1.78:1 introduced and just how little clean up was done to the 'live' material, I am kind of glad of it.

And to date, they remain the definitive way to watch the show, shame on WB for not completing the run.

Wow, never knew that the show was released, albeit in part, on LaserDisc. That's kind of awesome. How much of the show was released, and are the discs standard or CAV?

Unless the franchise gets resurrected in a big way, I doubt the show will ever get a blu-ray release. If WB still has the original CG files, they'd all have to be re-textured and re-rendered in HD. If they don't, then everything would have to be done from scratch. Either way, its a very expensive undertaking. Not to mention all of the film would have to be scanned and color calibrated.

But, we can dream. And we should never surrender dreams

[Looney]

Ironically it seems a part of the reason for stopping was the drop in sales due to the on-line rumours the show would be released on DVD - so folks were opting to wait for them rather than buy the Laserdiscs. Funny huh.

Yep, that is one of many things that suck about this type of technology. Something new is coming so something current suffers. I myself only ended up with three Laser Discs, but that is because I never bought Laser Dicss when they were around. I have a friend who had hundreds, but no B5. I only picked the three I have because I found them in a collector's shop back around 2000 for less than $5 each. So I'll be able to watch Signs and Portents, TKO, Survivors, By Any Means Necessary, Phoenix Rising, and The Ragged Edge as soon as I get an LD player and someone convinces me it is worth it to open them up and watch them.

[Triple F]

TheyÆre easily the highest quality recordings of the show which the public will see û 4:3 before the widescreen nonsense so the FX shots are a lot better than DVD, and I think (though not sure) the live action may have the correct transfers as well. Seems the US DVDÆs were converted from region 2 PAL copies!!

@JDSVALEN
No idea of the format. But in true B5 style whatÆs available is a bit strange as well û due to a decision to simultaneously release the first and last seasons then work their way in. So along with In The Beginning and the special edition of The Gathering, thereÆs all of season 1 & 5, first twelve episodes of season 2, first six of season 4 and nothing of season 3!

[JDSValen]

@JDSVALEN
No idea of the format.

LaserDisc formats were like old VHS recording modes: CAV was like a standard play mode and CLV was like an extended play mode (more footage over the same amount of space). I've seen some CAV LaserDiscs that easily blow away DVDs of the same film, visually. Problem was that you could only fit 30 mins per side CAV as opposed to 60-70 mins CLV.

So, if you're not constantly flipping your discs over, they're most likely CLV. Still, I don't doubt that they best the DVDs. In The Beginning probably looks amazing.