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"BABYLON 5" Delayed (1 Viewer)

Michael TLV

THX Video Instructor/Calibrator
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Greetings

The CGI stuff looks so much better on laserdisc as compared to the DVD's.

It makes me wish that they would make all the processed shots 4:3 in upcoming releases to preserve the resolution rather than cropping it and zooming it for the sake of 16:9.

Regards
 

MikeSilver

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Apr 17, 2002
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It makes me wish that they would make all the processed shots 4:3 in upcoming releases to preserve the resolution rather than cropping it and zooming it for the sake of 16:9.
Or... they could just give us matted 4:3 widescreen presentations and forego the anamorphic enhancement. Those people with widescreen televisions might be a bit miffed, but the CGI would look a LOT better just hard matted. Thank goodness I didn't dump my LDs. :)
 

Blu

Screenwriter
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Oct 6, 2001
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Yep I am new to the series. If people who weren't fans (like me) buy this set then sales must be better than expected I would think.
I am looking forward to the remaining seasons eagerly.
 

Max Leung

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I thought the CGI-only scenes (spaceships and such) looked pretty bad. Lots of pixellation, shimmering, and whatnot. I was expecting this however. I'll live with it.
 

Jimmy M

Second Unit
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Feb 3, 2001
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309
Hi,

Has anyone (in the USA) who ordered their Season 1 set from Total Action Universe gotten it yet? I hav another order from Canada ship a day sooner than Babylon 5, and I received that about a week ago. I've never ordered from TAU, so I don't know if this is normal or if I should start to worry.

Jimmy!
 

Bob Pierce

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Aug 24, 2001
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145
Haven't gotten mine yet, unfortunately. :frowning:
TAU customers, please post here when yours arrives, if only to give us hope! I'll do the same.
Thanks,
- Bob P.
 

Andy_Bu

Supporting Actor
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I don't think I will ever do business at TAU again.
I still have not received my order yet :frowning:
I thought the CGI-only scenes (spaceships and such) looked pretty bad. Lots of pixellation, shimmering, and whatnot
I need a reference point here. Do these shots look worse or better than what I have watched on the SCI Fi channel?
Andy
 

Aaron_Brez

Supporting Actor
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Apr 22, 2000
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Depends. Were there nasty blue streaks in the Downbelow scenes in Soul Hunter on SciFi? If there were, I guess the images are about the same-- probably a bit better on live images, since you're getting 480 lines of resolution.
On CGI, the images are pretty bad. About what you'd expect if you blew up a non-anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 letterboxed video to a 16:9 TV.
Which is, essentially, what WB did. :frowning:
 

John Graves

Agent
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Feb 26, 2000
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Hi Folks,
I'm wondering what kind of monitor/display most of you folks are viewing B5 on?

While several posts in this thread have noted problems with the CGI sequences, the majority of the reviews are very positive.

As a long time fan of the show, I have to say that the transfers are disappointing when viewed on a large display device. The CGI shots are very blurry and the composite shots are just as bad.

One person commented that they prefer the 4x3 LV copies. If you are viewing on a large display device, I would have to agree.

The "ideal" solution would be to release seasons 2-5 with the widescreen transfers on one side, and the 4x3 versions on the other.

The scenes with just principal photography (and no CGI compositing) look pretty good. But the minute they cut to a composite or outer space scene, well...on a large display, they looked pretty bad.

For reference sake, I'm viewing these on front projection system (Sim2/Seleco HT-300Plus, HD-2chip) with a built-in Faroujda scaler and feeding it with an interlaced signal via component interconnects. The 16x9 screen measures 93" diagonal. Other anamorphic DVD's generally look absolutely fabulous on this system.

Oh, well, it looks like I can only view these discs on my old 40" Mitsubishi direct-view tv.
Good Viewing,
John G
 

LarryH

Supporting Actor
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Sep 5, 2000
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DDD also said they would send me a new disk 5, but I'm concerned that with so many sets having a bad disk 5, how can they get enough replacements? They didn't give an estimate of delivery time to me, but I think today was day number 4.
 

Dave Scarpa

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My Set from Amazon.CA came today but unfortunately the PO made no attempt to deliver it so I have to go Pick ip up tommorrow, we'll see if it survived the Trip
 

Aaron_Brez

Supporting Actor
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Apr 22, 2000
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792
John G,

As a huge fan of the show, I think that a lot of people are just so pleased to see the show on DVD after all this time that they might be seeing the show through rose-colored glasses. I know I did, first run through. After the second run I started to notice the flaws, and now they're kinda glaring.
 

Randy Korstick

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LarryH
I was wondering about all the bad replacement disk also but Deep Discount told me that they have not had very many reports of bad disks so I guess we will have to wait and see. Today is my day 4 but I haven't received my mail yet. I will let you know when I receive mine and how it works out.
 

John Graves

Agent
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Feb 26, 2000
Messages
38
Max,
Thank you Very Much for pointing out this other thread. I'm going to follow the advice posted and see what happens.
Good Viewing,
John G
 

John Graves

Agent
Joined
Feb 26, 2000
Messages
38
IT WORKED!
Switching my projector from Film/Auto mode to 'Video' completely changed the look of the CGI and Composite scenes. It is now very watchable on my 93" screen.

Thanks so much to Joe DeMartino who posted this to the list.
Good Viewing,
John G
 

Jimmy M

Second Unit
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Feb 3, 2001
Messages
309
On Wednesday, I sent the following e-mail to Total Action Universe:
There is nothing to worry about just yet. Originally there was a delay on: "Babylon 5: First Season" into Canada, it's release was delayed until November.12/2002. I do apologize for being charged first, but with big releases it is not unusual. So it would not have left the warehouse until November.12/2002, and thus has delayed your shipment. Once again I do apologize for the delay, and not notifying you sooner. But I am sure that you will receive your DVD's by the end of this week. I hope that this settles your worries, but if there is anything else please let me know.
Then today (Friday) I got the DVD set in the mail. Disc 3 was a floater with a few scuffs, but so far it plays OK.
However, Disc 2 is really disc 4. I'll need to do a swap.
:frowning:
Jimmy!
 

Joseph DeMartino

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Yesterday Dave Lambert posted excerpts from a list of upcoming Warner Bros. releases in the U.K. that was originally posted at The DVD File Message Board. I'll mention the important stuff here. ;)
The list starts with January, but only goes as far as November 2003 for some reason. You'll see why this is important in a minute. :) Naturally I scanned it for mentions of B5.
May DVD - Retail Babylon 5 Series 2
(Remember that "series" is a Britishism for what Americans would call a "season") OK, no surprise here. Even when JMS mentioned that April was the tenative R1 release date I assumed that he meant the end of the month, because that would put the release 6 months ahead of the November S3 release, and that's the pattern the studios have followed for this kind of thing. (X-Files ships in May and November each year, for instance.) So I skipped down to November. No B5. I went back to May and scanned down the list, slowly. This is what I saw:
September DVD - Retail Babylon 5 series 3
Wait a second, that's two months early. That only puts four months between releases. And it means that S4 could be released in late December 2003. Not April 2004. Which in turn means that S5 (and possibly the TV movies) could be out in the spring of 2004 instead of two full years from now. :)
I wish the list had included their December releases. This is going to bug me.
Now mind you none of this is confirmed. This is a post from some guy who says he's in London, and says he has access to this list. I don't spend enough time on the DVD File Forum to have any sense of this guy. (I only found his post because somebody mentioned it on The Home Theater Forum.) Even if he and the list are both totally legitimate, people at video companies make mistakes and plans change.
But I have a feeling this may be accurate information. And that feeling is only partially based on the fact that I predicted that something like this might happen. :) Now we'll have to wait and see if I'm going to be proven right.
Still, it is a hopeful sign, and could indicate that Warner Bros. is at long last seeing the profit potential in its redheaded step-child. ;)
Regards,
Joe
 

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