No Advanced Babylon 5 Reviews? (1 Viewer)

[todd s]

I wouldn't be surprised if either of the F/X companies still had some of the missing files. If you created something like an artist. I find it hard to believe you would destroy or delete all of your work. Even if you gave masters to the owner.
I have mine on order from Total Action Universe. And was told it shipped out today.

 

[Paul McElligott]

I wouldn't be surprised if either of the F/X companies still had some of the missing files. If you created something like an artist. I find it hard to believe you would destroy or delete all of your work. Even if you gave masters to the owner.

I'm sure they'd be very happy to step forward and say, "Oh, by the way, we've been violating the terms of the contract for the last several years."

And since Netter Digital is no more, even if they did save the files, they'd be gone now.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Yeah, that line that said the Centauri were "like Gypsies" had me on the floor.

I was kinda scratching my head over that one, too. OTOH, the Gypsies claim a connection to the Romans (in contrast to the Greek influence in central and eastern Europe) and I've been told that their language is called Romany and bears an apparent relationship to Latin. And Centauri society definitely bears an intentional resemblance to the Roman Empire. So I guess if you really want to stretch things...
Nah, forget it. Nothing stretches that far. Maybe the writer was distracted by the Centauri wardrobe. (Which is more like French court garb of the Napoleonic period - another deliberate effort to evoke the legacy of Rome, come to think of it. )
Regards,
Joe

 

[Brian E]

I Finally decided to buy it from Amazon.Ca I don't think anyone will beat the $48.25 price on this set.

Me too. Ended up getting this and Band of Brothers for about $104 shipped after using the CANADASMAG5T coupon to get $10 off.

 

[SpenceJT]

With the exception perhaps being one of the six Centauri ...um...
[edited so as not to offend any Minbaries (or Centauries) in the forum. Thanks to Paul McElligott for setting me straight. Yet another reason that I must have the DVD collection! I can't remember who is who anymore!]

 

[Paul McElligott]

With the exception perhaps being one of a Minbari's ...um...
...well they have, what... five of them? ;-)

It's the Centauri who have, uh, six...
At least, that's what I've heard.:alien:

 

[David Williams]

Yeah, that line that said the Centauri were "like Gypsies" had me on the floor.

It gets better! The reviewer also describes the Narn as 'reptilian'. A careful viewer of Babylon 5 would note that the Narn are mammals, and are very much like kangaroos in the fact that they have pouches to carry their young. (At this point, I seem to remember its the males that have the pouches...)

 

[Iain Lambert]

Well, my UK copy finally arrived this morning (they tried to deliver it when I was out, and I had to pick it up today from the sorting office). I've not got a disc to a player yet, but I will give Warners major kudos points for the way the box is designed. The 'book' format for the holders is much nicer than the fold-out method used by Fox titles like The X-Files and 24.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Derek:

I've seen a couple of reviews/usenet post about the R2 set that say the CGI/live action composite shots in "...And the Sky Full of Stars" appear to be the 4:3 originals "stretched" horizontally to 16:9. That is they aren't cropped and then zoomed, as you've described for the CGI generally, but actually distorted geometrically. The 100% CGI exteriors appear to be OK, from what these folks are describing. As far as I know both the PAL and NTSC DVD versions were taken from the same new widescreen masters created for The Sci-Fi Channel, so the DVDs should be identical. Can you take another look at that episode and confirm or deny this report? As I recall the first batch of widescreen shows produced had a number of glitches in them, including some FX screw ups (a cut to a CGI spaceship went to a live action teapot instead, at one point), but these were all fixed by about the third rerun cycle on Sci-Fi. I'm wondering if one of these "bad" masters was somehow used for at least the PAL edition and somehow missed in QA, and if the same problem exists on the R1 version.

Thanks,

Joe

 

[Matt Whealton]

Joseph:
(Though a tad off topic)
As for Romany, the language of the gypsies: it is closer to Sanskrit (and therefore Hindi and Bengali) than Latin:
Family: Indo-European
Sub-Family: Indo-Iranian
Branch: Indic
A link:
http://www.worldlanguage.com/Languages/Romany.htm
My copy of B5 Season 1 has been on pre-order for months. I am eager to get this one..

 

[TheoGB]

Major weirdness:
Okay, can you guys check your R1's and see if you've got a problem with the lack of anamorphic image in bits of episode 8: And the Sky Full of Stars?
In the opening section, at about 1:24 when we are in the guys' quarters we suddenly get a 4:3 image. Then the credits are definitely in 4:3!!
Then after the opening CG effect after the credits its all anamorphic again.
WHAT???

EDIT: Should make it clear that I have the R2!!

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Theo:

Are you watching on a 4:3 or a 16:9 set?

Regards,

Joe

 

[TheoGB]

On a 16:9 set (but of course - this is the UK! ) however, I switched to see what the 4:3 version looks like and it's just as bad. The only difference is you can't flick back to non-anamorphic mode to absolutely verify.
However, after 7 anamorphic credits that bits bound to be noticed as it suddenly looks like a 2.40:1 rather than 1.85:1 credits sequence. Someone over at The DVD Forums confirmed that it was like that on their copy, though they hadn't quite noticed the 'chunky' people like I had all the way through.
It almost seems like it's something to do with whatever they've done to the visual effects shots maybe to make them seem 16:9.
Thing is, they look fine on the other eps and considering 90% of the CGI is already used in the 16:9 'In The Beginning' it would seem perverse that they'd have problems???
I'd hope to get a recall on this disc but I've not even gone through most of the episodes. Just Midnight on the Firing Line, Signs and Portents, B Squared and Chrysalis before this one. :frowning:

 

[Derek M Germano]

Let me chime in on the R1 disc, which I double checked for the episode "...And the Sky Full of Stars" at the 1:24 mark.

The defect that is described as being present in the R2 disc does not carry over to its R1 counterpart. The effect shots are blown up and cropped to the proper 16:9 format, without any distortion.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

DVD File has their Review up, it's kinda luke warmat best.One confusing thing I thought the series got a 5.1 remix.they say the sound is strictly 2.0 What's up with that?

 

[Michael Sliger]

The whole DVDFile review is sloppy. There is no controversy about the show's true aspect ratio (it just takes a few minutes to comprehend it). Stewart Copeland didn't write the score. The problems with the CGI section resolution is fully explained in the site that Dan Ramer lists, but he doesn't use that info. I would have to take the DD 2.0 comment as an error on the author's part for now.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I missed the reference to Stuart Copeland. I just noticed that he had Johnny Sekka playing Dr. Benjamin Kyle (a character replaced by Richard Biggs's Dr. Stephen Franklin after the original 2-hour pilot, which isn't included in the S1 set, never to be seen again), that he doesn't understand that the show was shot on Super35 and therefore cropped for both the widescreen and TV ratios even though the site he links to explains that, and that he has J. Michael Straczynski writing all of the episodes. (He wrote 12 of the 22 S1 episodes.) Oh, and the DD 2.0 business.

I sent him an e-mail about all of this, but my previous dealings with The DVD File makes me doubt that any of the errors will be corrected. (In fairness I should say that most websites ignore corrections submitted by fans, in my experience.)

Regards,

Joe

 

[BrianB]

http://lightning.snow-leopard.org.uk/Ugh.jpg
Picture made by a friend with the R2 release - screengrabs of the stretching in 16:9 mode in "..And the sky is full of stars" compared to how it looks in other episodes.
Picture's 2MB!

 

[derek]

The shame of it all is that based on the information and conclusion presented at http://www.cs.tut.fi/%7Eleopold/Baby...DTransfer.html we could have had a better transfer with a litte more effort and time. I hope Warner realizes this for season 2.

 

[Aaron_Brez]

Well, I'm not surprised the effects look sub-par; everyone who understands the process kind of expected them to. It's not like WB considers B5 one of its crown jewels, warranting the kind of effort discussed by Henrik.

WHE most likely figures they've gone above and beyond the call of duty just by providing anamorphic versions *at all*, let alone optimized to actually look *good*. Sigh.

I found Dan's errors amusing, but I'm really curious about the 5.1 remix. Some of the Chris Franke soundtracks had decent, rumbling bass (at least on the sountrack albums). I hope this isn't as bad on the "2.0" track as Dan makes it out to be...