A Few Words About A few words about...™ Battlestar Galactica -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by Paul_Scott

What really sucks about this is, less than a year from now we'll likely see far simpler, better, more streamlined packaging show up- just like they did for the '78 show. They keep doing this ass backwards. It should be the simple, solid packaging first, then the stupid fanboy-appeal monstrosities down the road.

Except this way they can push them on fanboys and normal viewers, and get both to rebuy the normal versions (the former because they're collector's junkies, and the latter for practical reasons).

Oh well. My four VERSAPaks destined to hold BSG showed up today; now I just need the Blu-rays to go in them! (And to make covers from.)

 

[Paul_Scott]

I can't imagine re-buying this set again. I'll just do what I do for most of these things- take out the season I'll be watching, and put those discs in some spare cases I keep lying around for this purpose and put the rest of the set in the closet.
Are those Versapaks Bd sized? If I can find some 5 disc cases I may buy some of those and never look at the big box again.

 

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by Paul_Scott

I can't imagine re-buying this set again. I'll just do what I do for most of these things- take out the season I'll be watching, and put those discs in some spare cases I keep lying around for this purpose and put the rest of the set in the closet.
Are those Versapaks Bd sized? If I can find some 5 disc cases I may buy some of those and never look at the big box again.

I can't necessarily imagine buying them outright again; it'll depend on a) how much better the new cases are, and b) how much I can flog my old set for online.

Unfortunately, the VERSAPaks are DVD-sized, not Blu-sized. (Well, DVD height, but thicker, as befits their ability to hold up to eight discs.) I've looked and looked, but I've only been able to find one place with Blu-ray cases that hold more than two discs; they're in Australia, only sell six-disc cases, and after shipping and currency charges it would've come out to about $15 per case. That's more than the four DVD-sized ones were together (and as an added bonus, each has the exact number of disc slots needed).

If even three-disc cases were available for Blu, I might've split it up by half-season in those (though season 3 wouldn't be strictly correct, breaking between episodes 9 & 10), but even that's not an option yet.

 

[Paul_Scott]

Heads Up: DD just dropped the price of the set- $151 with the coupon!

I can't remember where I got them, but I order these disc holders that are 'leaves'- they have thin rods that snap into the clips on the inside of a dvd case opposite the disc- They aren't as slick as a true double disc slim case, but they work pretty damn well, and if a case gets ripped, broken etc, I just pop the tray out and snap into another one.

Whenever I get a multi disc set that has death-grip hubs™, or is otherwise a pain in the neck to dig into regularly and get something out of, I'll stick a few discs in these and put them on the shelf for easy access.

I can't necessarily imagine buying them outright again; it'll depend on a) how much better the new cases are, and b) how much I can flog my old set for online.

I would be tempted, but the reality is I would likely not be watching the series thru the whole way again for a couple years at least (after I go thru it over the next few months). It's a superior show, which is why I don't mind paying the money to own it- but I would likely just be wasting money that could be spent towards something else.
I'm sure in a year or so someone will come out with multi-disc Bd keepcases- and when that happens I'll consider going all out and making up some jackets.

but thats all in the future.

Right now I'm so looking forward to seeing the last 10 eps, which I haven't seen yet. I think I may watch a couple, then spin the mini-series again before I watch the final few.
It feels so great to finally have this show (... albeit hanging 2" off the shelf). Many, many times I wanted to break down and start getting the seasons and half seasons on dvd. But resistance has paid off big time.
Edited by Paul_Scott - 7/29/2009 at 02:23 am GMT

 

[Dave Moritz]

I have been waiting for this series to come out ever since it hit HD-DVD. And actually before it hit HD-DVD I decided to wait for it to come out on Bluray. I did however get week and pickup the Season One set one day when at Fry's and they had it marked down to $9.99. But I can not wait to pick up all 4 seasons of this show. I really like the changes and the plot twist that they introduced into the new show. I also see that there will be a new episode coming out, Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. Has anyone heard what this episode is about?

 

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by Dave Moritz

I also see that there will be a new episode coming out, Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. Has anyone heard what this episode is about?

"The Plan" is a two-hour movie, written by Jane Espenson and directed by Edward James Olmos. It basically goes back and looks at events of at least the first two years, if not the entire series, from the Cylon POV.

 

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by Joseph J.D

The packaging is too bulky too....a shelf's worst nightmare.

Before I knew I would have to make my own cases, I'd been planning on keeping the inside four boxes on my shelf, and the master box in the closet. Surely that would look better on your shelf?

 

[Nathan*W]

Sigh.

I was doing SO good.

I was resisting.

...and then I saw the DeepDiscount price with the 25% off sale plus the bing.com extra 4% brought the set to less than $150, and my resolve crumbled.

So, my (back)order was placed and I am now awaiting DD to be replenished so they can ship my order.

Sigh.

 

[Worth]

There's a disclaimer that pops up after each disc loads:

"The Blu-ray release of Battlestar Galactica accurately preserves the artistic intentions of the creators. The stylized visual elements within certain scenes are intentional and faithful to the broadcast presentation of the television show."

I actually wish more studios would add something like this before grainy or otherwise "problematic" presentations.

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Originally Posted by Worth )

 

[Brent M]

Originally Posted by Nathan*W

Sigh.

I was doing SO good.

I was resisting.

...and then I saw the DeepDiscount price with the 25% off sale plus the bing.com extra 4% brought the set to less than $150, and my resolve crumbled.

So, my (back)order was placed and I am now awaiting DD to be replenished so they can ship my order.

Sigh.

Exactly what I did. Couldn't resist the set at that price, but now I'm just wondering how long it will take for the order to be fulfilled. Never ordered an item from them that was on back-order before so no idea how long I'll be waiting.

 

[Nathan*W]

I am a fairly regular user of DD, and have had the occasional order of an item on backorder. I have never seen it take longer than a few days to a week for them to ship. At the price of this set, I can be that patient. It'll probably be 2 - 3 weeks before I can expect to receive this set. Some may not be fine with that, but I am.

 

[TravisR]

I've had backordered items take a month to come back in stock but that's always been on more obscure movies that have been out for years and years. I think with BSG, it'll be faster because it's a new title and hopefully Universal will be ready to fill re-orders for DD, Amazon, etc.

I'll report when I get my backordered copy. At $150, I'll gladly wait.

 

[Kevin EK]

I'll have a review up for you hopefully later tonight of Season 4.5 on Blu-ray.

The picture and sound are great. The featurettes are nice.
The U-Control stuff doesn't really add anything IMO. The Oracle just tells you a few stats about various characters, and Battlestar Actual just provides little glossary items along the way (like how "1900" translates to 7pm). They don't pop up all the time and are more of a distraction than anything else.

The expanded episodes are really interesting, particularly with the new commentaries. Ron Moore's discussion of his first directing job is fun to hear, particularly when coupled with David Eick's vlog about that (although everyone is of course saying what a wonderful time they had on that episode, as you always hear in the EPK stuff). Olmos' commentary about his episode is pretty frank, which leads me to have a lot of hope for The Plan. (As far as Olmos is concerned, his was the last episode of the series, since "Daybreak" was really conceived as a closing movie rather than an episode or even a two-parter.) And the longer version of "Daybreak" provides more glimpses of various flashbacks (along with more flashbacks in a deleted scenes section) and a great commentary with Moore, Eick and Michael Rymer. You can hear Moore getting more and more emotional as the final scenes unspool. Another note - the last 45 minutes of the expanded edition are identical to what aired. Once they get past the final jump scenes, it's the same material. (the final addition is a Tyrol flashback and I'm blanking on whether it happens before or after the jump)

 

[Kevin EK]

The review will actually go up tonight. I got all the timings of the featurettes, and the details last night, and I'll get everything compiled and posted this evening.

 

[nolesrule]

Sadly, DDD has bumped up the price before I could pull the trigger so it is now about $225.

 

[Paul_Scott]

Burned through the first two discs of season 4.5 Tuesday night, and finished up the series last night.

It's hard being one of the last ones to make it to the party. So many things I want to comment on, or ask for clarity about. I guess I'll just wait till Kevin gets his review up and post them there.

As a general impression on the A/V of the set- I was more impressed with the first season on HD DVD. I'm not chalking this up to format differences, but more to the nature of the visuals found in the first season, especially the last half of that first season. And another contributing factor being that was the first time I saw any of the show in high def.

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

A bunch of sites are reporting EJO specifically mentioned buying the Blu-rays to help fund future BSG projects. That's pretty cool.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

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.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Originally Posted by Paul_Scott

Burned through the first two discs of season 4.5 Tuesday night, and finished up the series last night.

It's hard being one of the last ones to make it to the party. So many things I want to comment on, or ask for clarity about. I guess I'll just wait till Kevin gets his review up and post them there.

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...