The X-Files Season One in HD on Netflix (1 Viewer)

Good Day All,


As mentioned previously Season 1 of The X-Files is now streaming on Netflix in HD. Currently it looks only to be available on US Netflix, hopefully that will open up to more regions soon.


Looks like they have added to the original 13 HD episodes, currently only Episode 14: Gender Bender and episode 24: The Erlenmeyer Flask look to be the only Standard Definition hold outs.


Could this mean the Blu-Ray's are coming soon?

With the recent cancellation of the Simpsons on physical media I am not holding out much hope but it sure would be nice.


I have been really enjoying revisiting The X-Files and would really be interested what other members think.

Take care,


Christian

Oh Rats!

Sorry everyone, looks like I posted this in the wrong for forum.

Apologies!


is it possible to move this to the Streaming Video forum?


thank you.

I read that eps 1-13 were the remastered versions (with the pilot being the most problematic re: cropping for the new 16:9 presentation.) I mean to check them out this evening.

Hi Mr. Middlemiss,


As a proponent of OAR I was a little worried about the apparent cropping but it seems (and I am no expert here) but the Pilot, while cropped did look good, and in regards to the other episodes they seem to be opened up with very little cropping on the top or bottom. Again. no expert, and I haven't done a lot of A/B comparing but so far, I think it is nicely done.

I hope you enjoy it this evening.


I found myself wrapped up in the stories again like I did 20 years ago, what a fun show, so happy it is making a come back.


take care

Leaving aside the screwed up AR, I guess I'm most interested to hear how the upscaled effects shots look. I'm hoping that since there are less of them in the early seasons of the show that they don't stick out that badly (sorta like Twin Peaks).

YEah, this actually sucks for me. I tried resisting until the Blu-Ray set is released(if at all?) but last night I caved and watched 2 episodes.

widescreen looks amazing and I got used to it quickly. It has been soooo long since I watched these episodes(at least 14 years) that I had honestly forgotten the stories.

But that is it. From now on The X-Files is outlawed from my Netflix viewing. I will wait until I have The X-Files BD complete series in hand before I watch any more.

Hi Travis,


Yes, as the first season was lighter on the effects then subsequent seasons I didn't see anything too jarring, maybe the occasions softness of the unconverted picture.

however as I mentioned in a previous post, i sort of got wrapped up in the story telling again and may had missed some nasties.

Bryan^H said:

From now on The X-Files is outlawed from my Netflix viewing. I will wait until I have The X-Files BD complete series in hand before I watch any more.

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Yeah, I'm waiting for the Blu-ray too since Netflix looks terrible for me. Hopefully by the time of the new episodes, they'll release a Blu-ray series set.

Oh and all of Agent Scully's ill fitting off the rack Wal-Mart wardrobe look fantastic in HD


I do find it odd however how the credits in the opening and cast credits all are now a different font and size.

weird,

Christian T Lee said:

Oh and all of Agent Scully's ill fitting off the rack Wal-Mart wardrobe look fantastic in HD

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I love Scully.

Bryan^H said:

I love Scully.

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Me too! I actually named my cats Mulder and Scully

it is amazing how all the younger staff at my local pet store have no idea who Mulder and Scully were...They are just a pair of cats to them.

Sorry for posting so much in this topic, but I am currently watching today and notice quite a bit of upconverted footage. Not necessarily footage containing special effects or establishing shots but just regular footage, I think this is starting to look like a situation similar to Star Trek: The Next Generation where some footage could not be located and had to be upconverted as a result of the missing footage.


However there sure seems to be a lot more then in STTNG, specifically in the episode E.B.E. There is quite a bit of dialoge footage snapping back and forth between Mulder and Scully, where Scully is in HD and Mulder is in SD.

Maybe this episode was especially problematic for the restoration team?


Take care


Christian

Christian T Lee said:

However there sure seems to be a lot more then in STTNG, specifically in the episode E.B.E. There is quite a bit of dialoge footage snapping back and forth between Mulder and Scully, where Scully is in HD and Mulder is in SD.

Maybe this episode was especially problematic for the restoration team?

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Is that the scene where they're sitting in a car talking waiting for the truck to come by? It's been a while since I've seen that episode but memory is that that scene was always a terrible looking blue screen or rear projection shot (even for a low budget show in 1994).

Christian T Lee said:

Me too! I actually named my cats Mulder and Scully

it is amazing how all the younger staff at my local pet store have no idea who Mulder and Scully were...They are just a pair of cats to them.

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Kevin Smith named his dogs Mulder and Scully. He says that he'll be watching The X-Files and someone on the show says "Mulder" and the dog looks around confused trying to figure out who is talking to him.

Hi Travis,

I did notice that shot you are referring to but there was additional scenes that looked worse then that one and do look upconverted.

That is a cute story in regards to Kevin Smiths dogs, thanks for sharing it

Thanks!

I watched an episode last night on Netflix and it looked pretty damn good. I think if you had never seen this show in the original OAR, you wouldn't notice, but I did get a slight cramped feeling sometimes with the close ups. But again, if I had never seen the original show, I probably wouldn't have cared.


What's interesting is they reconfigured all the text for HD, as well. In some cases different fonts, but they expanded the text in the opening sequence, and the location texts each episode featured are properly to the side of the 16:9 and not framed for 4:3. But the new text was quite sharp as was the picture.


I will wait for the Blu-rays, as well, but I was curious to see how much the upgrade in picture was and must admit it was quite substantial to the point where the episode had that fantastic 3-D like HD quality. It will be a great pleasure to watch this series again on the BD, which I assume will still come out before the new episodes are aired.

I've watched about 10 so far. I also took a look at the screencaps from the "other site". The 16:9 HD masters show more information on the sides while the old 4:3 TV masters show more on the top and bottom. Some shots look great while others seem a bit cramped.


Overall, it looks fine to my eyes. Better than the cropped 16:9 HD versions of the early seasons of Law and Order anyway. Whomever decided to crop these episodes did a careful job doing so.


That being said, I still prefer to watch shows that were shot with 4:3 in mind to be shown 4:3, even if they were protected for 16:9.

Hi All,

Well, for those interested it looks like Season One in its entirety is now up on Netflix in HD.


Take care,

Christian

I intended to sample the pilot last night. Watched the whole thing. This show is just so good. I think I'll watch a few more tonight. Thought it looked quite good and though I was looking for cropping issues but got sucked into the episode and kept forgetting to thoroughly check!

Neil Middlemiss said:

I intended to sample the pilot last night. Watched the whole thing. This show is just so good. I think I'll watch a few more tonight. Thought it looked quite good and though I was looking for cropping issues but got sucked into the episode and kept forgetting to thoroughly check!

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The exact same thing happened to me Neil

I fully intended to view it with a critical eye towards OAR issues but quickly became wrapped up in the storytelling.

Not that anyone asked but if someone is looking for some of the better S1 episodes, I'd say to check out Pilot, Deep Throat, Squeeze, Conduit, Ice, Fallen Angel, Beyond The Sea (one of the best episodes of the entire series- Anderson and guest star Brad Douriff are excellent), E.B.E., Tooms and The Erlenmeyer Flask.


Thinking about seeing any of the episodes in HD is making me want to watch them.