A few words about...™ Battlestar Galactica -- in Blu-ray

I've only seen the mini series, and while interested, I'll be waiting for the price to come WAY DOWN on a complete series set.

Why wait?  Read and post in the discussion we had during the initial broadcast:-
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/261742/battlestar-galactica-season-4/

Admittedly a lot to get through...

I really enjoy the set but am having one problem with it. I was wondering if anyone else has this problem. If you are watching an episode and you let it stay on either pause or stop for too long it turns over to some Univeral logo and then you cannot re-play from the part where you stopped or paused it. You basically have to reload the DVD and start from scratch.
The length of time it takes for it to bounce over to the Universal logo is about 3 minutes, give or take. Anyone else experiencing this issue? It is very annoying to have to restart the disc if I go to grab a snack or hit the bathroom.

Sorry for the delay guys.  Been working some very long hours at my day job.  My notes are waiting for me to transcribe them - I'll have the review up on Saturday morning.  I just want to give this the time it deserves.  One thing that sent me back to the drawing board was the realization that the eps on Disc 1 and 3 were encoded in AVC, but the eps on Disc 2 were encoded in VC-1.  I'm not sure why this was done, but it caused me to go back and recheck the eps.

I can say that I have noticed the Universal logo screensaver, but I am able to resume the movie by pressing the "Enter" button on my remote.  It puts me back in the movie or episode where I left off.

Paul, you could post your questions here or on my review if you wish.  I've been watching the reboot of BSG since its miniseries, and I watched the original series as a kid.

I shall have to try hitting Enter. If I hit play or pause it does not work for me. Very frustrating for an otherwise decent set.

I'm not sure it's "cool" so much as normal business. If the BSG product is profitable, then they'll invest in new BSG product to make more profits.

My BSG set is back ordered but the same thing happens to me with other Universal discs that I own and hitting the 'Pop Up Menu' button on my remote plays the movie again. I don't know if that'll work for every player though but it's worth a shot.

Maybe. With BSG there's the slight problem of no longer having any of the standing sets. Yes, they archived information about them before tearing them down, but it would still require a rather significant investment to recreate any necessary sets before they could produce more BSG.

I read that as, "what's cool about X:Men is that they're using the profits to make an X:Men 2". Quite naturally. That's what you do in business.

If there's enough profit from BSG and perception of consumer interest to justify the expense of a new movie or series then they'll do it. If those costs are higher because they burned the original sets in effigy, then BSG profits have to be that much higher or somesuch.

Well, obviously.  The point of my post was that it's cool hearing kudos and/or encouragement for Blu-ray from people other than the PR folks, even if that's who asked them to say it. 

Reason I didn't rush to post anything in that thread is because I really have nothing new to contribute to the discussion there except "yeah!, Me too!"

After basking in the afterglow for a few minutes when it was all done, I went to search out the negative reviews for the season on Amazon. I was surfing on my phone, so I just wanted some quick concise, ideas on where people thought this went over the cliff- because my reaction frequently throughout the last couple of hours was "this isn't so bad". And, like many posters in that thread, my immediate post game reaction was that it was certainly emotionally satisfying, even if some of the choices seemed weak, poor or incoherent.
After reading a few of those negative reviews, the emotional satisfaction I had felt was getting washed away and being replaced "Frak! They're right."  This was way beneath the work I've come to expect from this storytelling team (not the actors, who were stellar as always, but the writers/producers).
The worst maybe was that I couldn't imagine putting the effort into re-watching the series again, knowing how much padding and doggie paddling would be going on. Before it looked like the series was constantly advancing, and was unfolding with an intricate, purposeful design. it no longer felt that way in retrospect.

After being bummed for a while, I came here and searched out the thread that Yee-Ming linked to. I went back about 8 pages or so and started reading from other peoples immediate, post eps thoughts to the end, only skipping a few here and there. I'm gratified for the resource HTF is, because I found many posts there that argued just as intelligently, the opposite P.O.V.
Where I sit now, I'm still critical of several choices made, which if I want to dwell on them will make me as pissed of Return Of The Jedi did 26 years ago.

Warning Spoiler! Click to show The other stuff, the mystical mumbo jumbo, divine intervention stuff I don't have nearly as big a problem with because as others have pointed out, the mystical nonsense has been a consistent component of the show from early in the first season. Personally, that stuff has always been my least favorite part of the show. It was perfect when it started - all this religious prophecy was being used by the authority elite to serve a pragmatic (but not cynical) social purpose. When the mystical became more concrete, the show was weakend for me, but the storytelling was still strong enough to sweep me along.
Because my biggest beefs are elsewhere, in the human realm of things,  I'm not compelled to  dwell on it too much. If I did, it would just serve as yet more examples of the conclusion being weighted more heavily on fantasy contrivances than believable human actions/reactions.


Good grief. I think I've just talked myself into hating the conclusion more than when I sat down to write this .


I find myself at the point now where i regret buying the complete set. I was willing to endure this asshat packaging to finally own and have immediate  access to the show. But after an ending that shows there was no master plan, that they were fumbling around in the dark, making quite a bit up as they went along and 80+ hours of TV culminates in foolish contrivances and perfuntory, deus ex machina resolutions...this is so very disappointing.

Disappointing enough that I can't see going back and watching it start to finish anytime soon, which makes the purchase of the complete set at this point seem like a huge waste.








Edited by Paul_Scott - 7/31/2009 at 11:04 pm GMT

 Just out of curiosity, I have Battlestar Galactica on standard def DVD S1 to S4.0 and I have yet to see 4.0 as I wait to get 4.5.

Given how this series is filmed with a sort of darkness and gritty muted look at times, is there really that huge a jump up to blu-ray? I of course know that Star Trek hugely benefitted on blu ray, but that series was filmed differently. So the investment to re-buy on BD is in question for me. At least for now.

Thanks!

 If I had it to do over again, I should have gotten only season 4.5 on Bd at this point.
1) the packaging is much better
2) By the time I would want to revisit the series again, the other seasons would have been out for a while and would be discounted...and again, in better packaging- or the complete series would have been released in another package form likely at a better price point.

Yes, the Bd is better overall- but it's very much a YMMV thing. Why don't you just pick up 4.5 on Bd and see for yourself?

Thanks Paul. Some good points and things to consider. I agree that YMMV.

 Paul, i agree with everything you wrote in your spoiler. I know, id want to at least have a damn hammer and saw with me. Maybe even a knife! But i had to accept the tree hugger, man is not worthy, ending. Once i accepted that i was OK.

I bought the 4.5 Blu-ray set. I dont really love the packaging for it either, but at least i can work with it, until better comes along. Never seen an overlapping disc tray, that actually had the hub overlap the disc under it! Dont like it, makes it hard to get the bottom disc out. Yes, even harder that it is otherwise. You gotta take the top disc off to get to the bottom one. Only now you really need that second hand, the one holding the fist disc, so you can maneuver the bottom disc from under the top hub!

I didn't realize it was like that. I assumed it was just a simple 3 panel digipack.
Why does Universal feel a constant need to make this more complex than it has to be?

Thank you for sharing your post-purchase regret. You convinced me. I just ordered season 4.5 on Blu, because you're absolutely right, it will be a year or more before I want to rewatch the whole series. Sensible! And the DD sale is still on, so, yay.

Picked up my comeplete series on Tuesday, and I couldn't be happier.  I started going through the series again from the start at while back, a few episodes a night (on DVD, obviously), and just switched over to BD when the set came out.  If anyone has read the thread Yee-Ming linked, they know I was an ardent supporter of the show.  My thoughts are pretty much collected there, but I would add that the show works even better when watched without a year-long break in between cliffhangers :)

I won't deal with specific plot points in this thread (scope out the afore-mentioned thread for that), but suffice to say that I pretty much disagree with everything Paul has in his spoiler.  I think the events make perfect sense, the characters' actions make equal sense, and, given how long (years!) the show had covered certain themes and topics, to say there was some deus ex machina going on is, quite literally, wrong.  Further, while it is especially evident when re-watching the show from the start, there is clear evidence of a "master plan" from as early as the second season (and various  themes are of course introduced in the first).  From the third season on, and most strinkingly in "Razor," some of the episodes quite literally explain what is going to happen in the grand story arc.

All in all, I found it highly rewarding to rewatch the series again (third time for me, excluding 4.5).

Now, regarding the BD set itself. here are my major thoughts:

- The show looks way better than broadcast TV, of course (no HD broadcast in my area), and noticeably better than DVD, which is still fresh in my mind, as a result of working through 3 seasons in a few weeks.  In particular, the special effects look a lot better on BD--especially the Centurions.

- The audio is generally slightly more clear than the DVDs, and I have never struggled to hear any diaglogue.  We watch everything with closed captioning on anyway (as the wife is hard of hearing sometimes--and not in the way they all are :) ), but I never found myself having to rely on them to pick up a specific piece of audio.

- The large packaging itself is quite nice, in my opinion, and I have no trouble fitting it on my bookshelf.  As has been mentioned numerous times, the packaging of the discs themselves is quite poor, though it's only a minor inconvenience for me, as I don't swap discs out as much as others might.  It is definitely annoying not to have a reference of any kind as to what specific episodes are on each disc--it's a glaring ommission, and someone really dropped the ball there.  Of course, it's easy enough to print out one your own, but that's something a consumer shouldn't have to do.  An episode list is pretty basic stuff for a TV series.

- The BD-exclusive deleted scenes are mostly quite interesting, and I'm glad to have seen them.  I haven't had a chance to work through *all* the extras, but the new stuff I have seen was, for the most part, decent to very good.  Again, the omission of the "Face of the Enemy" webisodes is glaring, and quite annoying.  I simply don't believe disc space was an issue, but rather someone was lazy.  At least I have my own copy from broadcast, which is better than nothing.

Overall, I'm happy with the complete series on BD, and I am glad I made the purchase.

cheers!

Josh

I just received my set, in the biggest Amazon box I have ever received -- then again, most sets aren't this square (cube?) and Amazon boxes are rectangular.  (Although come to think of it, the BR case must have warranted a box just as big.)

I can't wait to have a look at this in hi def...

Very disappointed with the service(or lack thereof) I've received from DDD on this set. I placed my order exactly a week ago today(Tuesday) and haven't even received a shipping notice yet. I knew the set was on backorder when I purchased it from them, but how long does it take for them to replenish their stock? I guess that's what I get for not just spending a few extra dollars and ordering from Amazon as I normally do. After this experience I don't think I'll ever order from DDD again.

Depending on how reactive Universal is, it could easily be 4-6 weeks. At least, that's the backorder time Amazon has cited for some products for me before.

Also, I'm not sure I'd consider paying 33% more--or $50 more--"a few dollars", but maybe that's just me.

The packaging is, well, "interesting".

It is certainly attractive, but for actual use, rather clunky.  5 or 6 discs in cardboard sleeves makes it difficult to figure out which disc is which, and to make matters worse there is no insert listing what eps and features are on which disc.  At least, IMHO the "package" for each season could have been the usual BD cases with leaves to hold multiple discs per case, although do they yet make BD cases that can hold 6? 

I can fully understand why Bill Hunt at Digital Bits went DIY and transferred his discs to folders.  I think I'll do the same, since he kindly made his inserts etc available on his site.

As for the material itself, I had a quick spin only, and I must say I've never seen BSG look that good -- till now I've only seen it on SDDVDs, or during first run on <ahem> crappy .avi files.  Going from avi to BD1080p is just mind-blowing...

a local computer store used to sell 10-disc DVD mega-cases, and i bought a few a couple years for no reason.  it's come in handy now; at 20 discs, it's perfect to split the set into 2 of those cases.

Man, thanks for the laughs. If it was in-stock, it would have been shipped the same week. But it was out-of-stock -- and you're upset that it hasn't shipped as fast as in-stock merchandise does? Wow. Just wow. The nipple will be back soon enough, don't fret.

Just a quick word about the Cylon action figure in the BluRay series set -- it is a unique version, not one of the many other versions that DST (Diamond Select Toys) has manufactured over the past couple of years. This Cylon is cobbled together a bit -- the damaged chestplate/shoulder is from the previously released "Battle Damaged Cylon" 2-Pack, and the rest is from the regular Cylon. The bullet-holes are an entirely new paint application -- none of the Cylons released before have had them, and I think they look pretty good.

I feel that's rather nice, that they made an effort to make the action figure unique. I'd expected they'd just put a regular Cylon in there and call it a night.

Star Trek season 1 came in a 7 disc Blu-ray case. So, yes they make them, its just that i have never seen them for sale to the public. I would have loved to have seen Galactica come in the type of case that Trek came in. Shoot, i could live with the slim Blu-ray case, like The Matrix, and Austin Powers box sets came in!
Im a package snob, an OCD thing im sure. I wouldnt buy a movie just because it came in a snapper. Glad those are gone.  :)

Same thing for the first two seasons of Lost.

Based on having seen the set on the shelf at Best Buy, I kinda like how the big box looks but based on The Digital Bits' pics, I'd much rather have four regular cases inside that big box. Since they're Blu-rays, I'm sure the discs won't be damaged by the packaging but I may put them in a CD wallet just for easier access. Though I'm not fan enough to go to Bill Hunt's lengths and start gluing on the logos of the Galactica to the wallet.

Wow, so you never owned the original release of The Matrix?  That's impressive personal restraint :)

Thank you for being the smug authority on how I order my Blu-Rays. If I had ordered from Amazon it probably would have shipped the next day and been in my hands by now. Instead, I ordered from a place that won't give you any updates on when a product will be in stock and won't even give you the OPTION to cancel your order once you've placed it. As I said, I won't make the mistake of ordering from them again. Thanks again for your words of wisdom, though.