Battlestar Galactica (1978 film) on blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Tino]

My three local stores had plenty of copies here in the metro NYC area.But I feel your pain. No reason to be back ordered online.

 

[David_Blackwell]

I bought one of the two copies that my local Best Buy had. The video presentation is pretty good and the sound was clean. I have to go write my review on it. too bad they didn't have any extras on this disc or a proper menu (just a pop-up menu).

 

[Joel Fontenot]

OK so I finally got to watch is in full, and pretty damn impressive, with Universal it is hit or miss, well this is a hit. Moses in space is still damn entertaining, the model work holds up nicely, I remember this being the most expensive (at the time) per episode to produce, that is why the ratings, or failure was such a difficult thing.

My understanding is that not only was this shot on film, but edited on film as well, if the masters are handled correctly, and this single release thru Best Buy does good numbers, how many would be up for a complete blu ray set, and yes I am including Galactica 1980 in that mix, only because it ends Starbucks story.

Ratings were not actually all that bad - at least initially. The problem was that the expense was such that it would have had to be rated No. 1 every week to get the advertising monies anywhere close to what ABC was paying Universal for each episode - and that wasn't happening.

 

[Robert George]

Just a heads up...Universal jacked up the audio. The specs indicate DTS-HD MA 2.1 with the (simulated) Sensurround on the LFE. They did get something on the LFE that does sort of simulate the Sensurround track, but they screwed up the rest of the track. The audio is encoded as 5.1, not 2.1. That's bad.

Sensurround was a mono soundtrack with a control tone sent to special low frequency speakers. For this disc, they have encoded the soundtrack as 5.1 with discrete mono in the left and right channels. The problem with this is most AV receivers will not matrix a discrete soundtrack. Playing this disc does not have any center channel audio. Dialog, and everything else, comes out of the right and left speakers and sound pretty crappy.

FYI, for those so inclined, this can be fixed, after a fashion. With the soundtrack re-encoded as 2-channel with DPL II mixdown and LFE mixed into the mains, it does sound like it is supposed to.

 

[Tino]

RobertDo you think this is a mistake or done deliberately?Btw congrats on post # 1000

 

[Tino]

Also, regarding ratings, at the time of its cancellation , Battlestar Galactica was the highest rated show to ever be cancelled.

 

[Robert George]

RobertDo you think this is a mistake or done deliberately?Btw congrats on post # 1000

I'm going to have to hope it was a mistake. If there is someone getting paid to master major studio Blu-ray discs and doesn't know any better than to encode this soundtrack this way, then someone should be fired.

1000 posts in 16 years? I'm thinking some got lost somewhere along the way.

 

[Sam Favate]

All right, Best Buy, if you're going to make deals with studios for exclusive Blu-ray releases, and advertise their availability with you only, MAKE SURE EACH STORE IS STOCKED WITH ENOUGH COPIES for your customers!!! I live in Maine, and my Best Buy outlet had no copies on release day. Further, your web site said "Backordered." Great way to stay in our good graces (not)!

It's not like I'm going to perish because I can't get this disc on day one. I'm sure I'll get it eventually, either through you or, when it's in general release, somewhere else. That's not the point. DON'T MAKE DEALS FOR EXCLUSIVE RELEASES UNLESS YOU CAN PROVIDE YOUR CUSTOMERS WITH COPIES!!!

How can that be more simple?

The deal with exclusives is to get people to come to the stores. They really don't care if you actually get the exclusive item, especially a DVD, which is a loss leader for them anyway. They're simply trying to increase foot traffic.

I agree that this approach is madness, but that's the business philosophy behind exclusives.

For the record, my copy hasn't arrived yet. The web site has said "ships in 1-2 days" for a week now.

 

[Sam Favate]

For the record, my copy hasn't arrived yet. The web site has said "ships in 1-2 days" for a week now.

...And BestBuy.com just cancelled my order. I'll just wait for the general release Aug. 6. Not worth the hassle.