DVD Review HTF REVIEW: ALIAS (TV series, Season One -- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) (1 Viewer)

[DaViD Boulet]

James,

Thanks for adding some good input!

The lack of LFE you notice is exactly what I heard...basically very little deep bass response. Glad to know it wasn't my system!

 

[Gabe Oppenheim]

When the first season of Alias was originally broadcast, were subtitles provided when characters speak foreign languages? I have watched about 9 episodes, and only once were there burned-in subtitles during the electroshock scene in the Romanian hospital
. I have seen snippets of the show on ABC, and, IIRC, foreign languages were subbed.

Sometimes, the context makes it easy to figure out, but sometimes Sydney will spout something fairly complex and I, the poor ignorant viewer, will be essentially out in the cold.

I am really enjoying the show otherwise, but the lack of subtitles seems to be either a poor stylistic choice on the part of the creators or an error in the DVD creation process. Anyone have any idea which it is?

 

[Jack_TN]

Nice review, but I found the white type on black background a little hard to read.

Jack

 

[Walter Kittel]

Yes, but a good aesthetic match for the series being reviewed when one considers the credits for each week's episode.

- Walter.

 

[Jack_TN]

Yes, but a good aesthetic match for the series being reviewed when one considers the credits for each week's episode.

True. I hadn't thought about that

Jack

 

[Gwon Chang]

What discs are the extras on? Can't find 'em on disc one... Will check the others.

edit: nevermind, found the bulk of them on Disc 6. There are other extras on Discs 1 and 5, but the "advertised" stuff is on 6.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Looking forward to getting the season.

Whenever the show goes to a new location (couple of times an episode), the location title appears with one letter highlighted. I heard somewhere that, if you keep track of each highlighted letter, at the end of the season they spell out a message - unsure if this is true or what the message is, but it would be interesting to find out.

 

[Marti D.]

Guys,
The reason that “Alias” sounds different after the first two episodes is because the Re-Recording Mixers Robert Appere and Ed Carre moved to another company and were mixing on a different console and new equipment. I will contact them to see how much of a 5.1 mix they do every show. I can't comment on the picture aspect of these shows but I do know the sound aspect! My system consists of 3 JBL 3342T Triamped Speakers for Left, Center, Right and 6 JBL Surround speakers. The room EQ is 2 BSS Digital EQ/Crossovers tuned by Dolby Labs with 2 18" JBL THX Subs powered by 6 QSC Amps. I mix TV and Film for a living and I enjoy the comments on the soundtrack, with very broad descriptions in regard to sound. I eagerly wait to hear the reviews of “24”.
Check out the links to my homepage and click under “Facility” for pictures of the room.
Take Care,
Marti D. Humphrey C.A.S.
thedubstage.com

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Marti,

Thanks for that info...Very interesting. Your expertise is of great value to all of us! Neat how HTF seems to be such a fount of knowledge

Jack,

My attempt to do the white on black was trying to match the shnazzy look of the cover...trying *desperately* to make my reveiws "look cool" since I can't take any screen shots at present :frowning: (though I agree it is a little harder to read with the white on black).

I'll certainly take the overall feedback I get into account for future review. Thanks for the input!

 

[JamesY]

Thanks for the info, Marti D.!

IMHO,
I liked the look of the white on black - but then again I have a nice big calibrated CRT monitor Either way it's nice to look at something different every once in awhile, but I wished that they would have kept the other cover for the box set. I'm not looking forward to season 2's box art either.

I'm still a little disappointed by the bass extension, but I turned up my bass shakers a few notches, and it's getting a better response.

The episodes have been great, especially in widescreen, and no commercials - you don't have to wait to see the conclusions of any of the cliffhangers. Just hit "play all" and you're done!

 

[richardWI]

Another unusual aspect about the show is that each episode ends on a cliffhanger

Nope. There were several episodes that ended with Syd looking wistfully at someone in slow motion as some sappy song played.

 

[Joel C]

Most of those endings were in the latter part of the season or in season two. They sort of dropped the "cliffhanger" idea mid-way through after it started to get a little old.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

Actually, I believe it was dropped so people could get more into the show each week.

If you missed one episode, it felt like you missed a ton more.

In the second season when they revamped a lot of the stories to make them easy to understand for new viewers, ABC asked them to focus on more stand-alone episodes that had a beginning-middle-end. Personally, if the ratings are up for season 3, I hope they go back. I liked the little cliffhangers.

 

[rich_d]

I think to be successfuly there needs to be concrete conclusions as well as threaded stories that work through. This way more complex stories can be allowed to develop as well as shorter wins and losses (so to speak).

To me the smartest thing they did was kill the Sydney working at two rival agency thing. Suspension of disbelief is one thing but that had to go.

It's funny about suspension of disbelief. For example, I take it pretty easily that Sydney can speak fluent Slavic languages but have a huge problem with her being based in L.A. when so many of her assignments occur in Europe. Go figure.

 

[David Susilo]

is it just me or is the bass sound on this series is not too deep?

 

[R. Kay]

IS there a 'Play-All' Function on each of the dvds?

Thanks.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

is it just me or is the bass sound on this series is not too deep?

Oh...according to the several of us who've mentioned that already in the thread ...I'd say it's not just you

 

[John Simon]

Although my set hasn't arrived yet, I can tell you I've seen a number of posts on various message boards indicating that it does have a play all feature.

 

[nick_rh]

Is it just me? I've only watched the pilot so far, but to me the picture quality looked horrendous...and this is on my 27" non-HD Wega. There are MPEG artifacts all over the place in the darker scenes; at times Syd's red wig just looked like a giant red smear. Daytime scenes looked fine, but all in all the PQ didn't seem much better than DirecTV. Certainly it was nowhere near the quality of the downconverted HD feed I've been watching with my HD tuner.

I almost never have any complaints about picture quality on ANY discs, but this one really stood out. I watched the 24 season one set not that long ago, and if memory serves, the PQ on those discs was stellar even in the darkest nighttime scenes (of which there are, of course, many on that show).

Anyone else agree?

 

[David Susilo]

I just watched the pilot episode last night on a Sony 46" RPTV (ISF calibrated) and I didn't see what you see. But I have 'problem' with the bass (or the lack thereof).