A question for PAL B5 DVD folks

[James13666]

I must admit I wait for PAL R2 disc's because you can see the difference between PAL & NTSC I think. Both my DVD player & TV have no trouble with NTSC/R1 discs but I like R2. Though I will admit I may get the Crusade DVD's in R1 if they take toooooo long to release them here in the UK !!!

[Jump Now]

Yes and no. Actually, PAL is 576 lines horizontal vs 480 lines for NTSC, but NTSC is 30 frames per second vs 25 frames per second for PAL.

Thanks for the info, Zeno, and the article was interesting.

I take the point with enhanced images vs. non-enhanced, and the different frame rates... but there's a certain "sharpness" - and a more natural shading of colours - with PAL that I happen to prefer. Like James, I see the difference.

It'd be lovely to have the 2 extra commentaries on the R1 movies set - and I could play them on my PC - but I'll still go for the better picture (in my opinion) on R2, and live without them.

[alex_t]

R2 sucks
There are no plans for "In the Beginning" with commentaries, and 1998 cut of "The Gathering".

Why in the world are they going to release MovieSet for R2 only with three movies instead of five?

[Firebird]

Originally posted by Jump Now
But isn't a PAL picture always better than an NTSC one (625 lines vs. 525 etc.)? That's why I wait. Well, that and the fact that I don't have a multi-region player. But even if I did, I'd always wait for discs which have a better picture quality.

Though it is obvious to say that there are techincal differences, the actual 'to-the-eye' differences are much harder to spot. So much so that I will go as far as saying that (even on ordinary, mid-range equipment like ours...Phillips, Sanyo and JVC TVs, Sony + Panasonic players, Phillips DVD recorder, Pioneer AV amp, Eltax Speakers and active sub) a well made NTSC disk will be more or less indestinguishable from a well made PAL one. Some of the B5 titles were actually higher quality in R1 than R2 in our opinion.

As an example, if we take two otherwise region Identical disks of a film, eg:- A R1 and an R2 version of Tim Buton's Planet Of The Apes to compare. Whilst you may be able to tell that the two pictures are different, neither is really any better or worse that the other. To my eye, PAL has a slightly higher over-all definition with little bleeding of colour - but it can look cold. Whereas NTSC has a slightly lower definition but a very rich and warm picture. Who is to say which is 'better'.

LightStorm and I have so many R1 DVDs now that we don't even think about it anymore.

[Ranger1]

I have many PAL and NTSC dvd's here,and for some reason one thing that really bothers me is that PAL movies are playing faster (you can really tell it from the way the sound is playing).

One annoying example is the Star Wars box,the only reason i didn't get it as NTSC is because i needed the subtitles in my own language for the rest of my family,and the audio is pitched up,playing too fast (ok not that fast,but its noticeable).

Same goes for season 2 and 3 of B5 that i got in PAL version.

[Isis Black]

I got all my B5 DVDs R2!! got thefirst on region 2 so just waited the extra annoying little time for the rest to come out!!
I got my season 5 yesterday (not in shops till Monday but Play got it out quick) so am already 1 disc into it all, finally managed to find uot that we will be getting Crusade over here in March so then that will be my collection finished, well until the Ranger movie is released

I do have a mix of region 1 and 2 DVDs though becasue some just couldnt wait for te film or it could only come from the US like i have my eye on the From teh Earth To The Moon box set that is only available in the but i just have to wait till i have a little extra money to be able to pay the flaming VAT and Duty i will get charged!!

[Isis Black]

to anyone who owns the region 1 season 5 box set!!! you episode Fall of Centauri Prime how does it open out?? does it have anything al all or does it just go straight into the opening credits????

[Jan]

Originally posted by Isis Black
to anyone who owns the region 1 season 5 box set!!! you episode Fall of Centauri Prime how does it open out?? does it have anything al all or does it just go straight into the opening credits????

No, my set starts with the teaser. Sorry to hear about the issues the other regions are experiencing.

Jan

[cornholio1980]

Originally posted by Isis Black
to anyone who owns the region 1 season 5 box set!!! you episode Fall of Centauri Prime how does it open out?? does it have anything al all or does it just go straight into the opening credits????

You mean, they didn't already correct that mistake before the UK-release? Well... after all those problems with the B5-releases I already figured that Warner doesn't employ the brightest people in Europe, but hell, I had no idea that it's THAT bad...

The reason why I say this:
As you may know, the german DVD-Set has already been released at the beginning of december. Soon, many B5-fans noticed that the teaser of the Episode "The Fall of Centauri Prime" is missing, and contacted Warner and/or their retailers. We now have official word that the faulty disc is going to be exchanged. Why they weren't clever enough to already include the correct discs for the UK-release or at least stopped delivery after that mistake was noticed is beyond me. Guess Warner's just aren't too keen on this whole "internal communication"'s thingee...

Anyway, since an exchange has already been announced for Germany, you should write Warner UK and my guess is that they will do the same.

And just for the "fun" of it: The missing teaser is not the only mistake that you are going to encounter. In the 3rd Episode "The paragorn of Animals" during the CGI-scenes in the council the picture was again stretched (you may still remember that mistake from the transfer of the S1-episode "And the sky full of stars"), and unfortunately the "Psi-Corps"-Intro is missing from the episode "The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father". And while Warner Germany agreed to an exchange for "The Fall of Centauri Prime", those two faults are considered too unimportant...

Now don't get me wrong... I'm really happy that Warner Germany released B5 over here AT ALL... or at least I really really try... but damn, they don't make it easy for us.

[tvih]

I'm contemplating getting all the 5 German B5 Season sets. Thing is I just recently watched the whole series... And for some reason the idea of German case covers bother me But UK version is insanely more expensive, I wonder why

[Isis Black]

Originally posted by tvih
I'm contemplating getting all the 5 German B5 Season sets. Thing is I just recently watched the whole series... And for some reason the idea of German case covers bother me But UK version is insanely more expensive, I wonder why

that because every thing is too expensive here!!!

[cornholio1980]

Originally posted by tvih
I'm contemplating getting all the 5 German B5 Season sets.

Just a short note concerning the german sets: It seems that the faulty discs of Season 1 are sold again! So if you buy the boxes in german, consider that you will have to exchange 1 Season 1 as well as 1 Season 5 disc - which of course will have to be sent to Warner Germany.

Originally posted by tvih
But UK version is insanely more expensive, I wonder why

Well, B5 has never been a hit over here, so I guess Warner figured if they are releasing the series on DVD they do it with a price that makes it more likely that some people that have heard of B5 but don't know it will check it out - a strategy that definitely paid off. The S1 box set was the bestselling Season box of a tv-series on amazon.de in 2002, even beating The X-Files and Star Trek: The Next Generation!

[Jump Now]

They're really, really extracting the urine here. I don't even really want to start on how stupid this is, losing everything before the opening credits because someone thought it would be a good idea that the "previously" part should be removed... Did no-one look at the other 21 episodes in the set and see that there was some sort of format there, for how the shows are presented...?

Anyway, I really can't be bothered, as I said, rattling on about the laziness involved in these ****-ups. The main point of the message is that as soon as I find the address for the nice lady who sent me a replacement season 1 disc, I think I'll post it here to help anyone else out. Or perhaps someone can come up with it quicker than that.

By the way, I'm talking about the R2 sets here - season 5 of which I haven't bought yet, but I'm in no way hopeful that any of them will be fault-free, as the season 1 set I bought about 6 months ago still had the faulted "Sky Full of Stars" in it.

I'm off to look for that piece of paper, or to track down the e-mail on my old PC, or even find it in an old thread here...

[alex_t]

I will get my season 5 only tomorrow, but since I bought it in UK, I guess I'm doomed as everybody else...


Tomorrow evening I'm going to "dissect" the video files on responsible DVD - it maybe error in DVD structure, and the actual video data may be still there.

[cornholio1980]

Originally posted by alex_t
I will get my season 5 only tomorrow, but since I bought it in UK, I guess I'm doomed as everybody else...

May I ask why you ordered the UK-set when the german box is so much cheaper?