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The X-Files on Blu: It's official! (1 Viewer)

TravisR

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Can't wait! And a $300 MSRP seems pricey but it's not that bad for 202 episodes.


Adam Lenhardt said:
Hopefully it will be OAR, but I doubt it given that the streaming HD versions are 16x9.
Yeah, I'm expecting them to go 16x9 for the Blu-ray. I'd prefer the correct AR but at least, it's not cropped.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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TravisR said:
Yeah, I'm expecting them to go 16x9 for the Blu-ray. I'd prefer the correct AR but at least, it's not cropped.

This is true. The last five seasons were broadcast in widescreen, so I'm not so much concerned about those. But especially the first few seasons, protecting for widescreen is not the same as framing for widescreen.
 

TravisR

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Adam Lenhardt said:
This is true. The last five seasons were broadcast in widescreen, so I'm not so much concerned about those. But especially the first few seasons, protecting for widescreen is not the same as framing for widescreen.
I don't think Fox was broadcasting in HD in 2002 so none of the episodes were seen in widescreen until the DVDs. The show definitely wasn't broadcast in widescreen in SD*. Hopefully, the first four years look like the S5 to 9 DVDs- empty space around the 4x3 image but nothing too distracting.


* There was one 'gimmick' episode (6ABX03- Triangle) that was broadcast in widescreen.
 

Greg_S_H

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TravisR said:
* There was one 'gimmick' episode (6ABX03- Triangle) that was broadcast in widescreen.

Was a big deal made about that at the time? Does it involve a ship? I ask because I wasn't watching the X-Files at the time, but I had a film professor who was just pissed off about some X-Files episode, and I bet that's the one. I don't remember the full gist, but she was offended that a TV show thought it could compete with film by looking like film. Boy, was she on the verge of being made a fool with things like Breaking Bad on the horizon that put most movies to shame.
 

TravisR

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Greg_S_H said:
Was a big deal made about that at the time? Does it involve a ship?
That's the one. It was shot in widescreen and in long continuous takes (a la Hitchcock's Rope). From S5 to S7, they had an annual 'gimmick' episode that was usually a fun experiment- S5 had a black & white episode, S6 had the widescreen/long take episode and S7 had Mulder & Scully on Cops.
 

TravisR

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turtledove

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There are screen comparisons around from The Calusari that show the 16:9 version offers more on the sides without cropping and various comparisons do make the 4:3 versions look inferior in places so I'm ok with 16:9 for the whole lot.

We certainly had season 5 onwards in widescreen in SD in the UK long before the dvd's.


And while initial broadcasts of the show in HD had upscaled FX it does look as if they have been newly redone using a new system that was also used for TNG so the effects should be proper HD too.


From a livestream interview with Chris Carter:


Carter: I think the series has been released in HD, it's just a matter of getting it.

Interviewer: But the problem of the format of the screen, the 4:3...

Carter: We actually protected for HD when we shot the show from the very beginning and that was really the wisdom of John Bartley from the very beginning knowing that one day we would be in that aspect ratio.

Interviewer: For you it won't be a problem with this aspect ratio?

Carter: Not Letterboxed, but 16:9, yes it wouldn't be a problem.
 

smithbrad

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turtledove said:
And while initial broadcasts of the show in HD had upscaled FX it does look as if they have been newly redone using a new system that was also used for TNG so the effects should be proper HD too.

For TNG they completed recreated from scratch the effects in HD since they were originally only done in SD. There is a big difference in cost and labor doing that then just taking the SD effects, cleaning them up, and upconverting. Are you sure that is the case for X-Files? If so, that would be a big plus for the Blu-ray release.
 

Lord Dalek

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TravisR said:
I don't think Fox was broadcasting in HD in 2002 so none of the episodes were seen in widescreen until the DVDs. The show definitely wasn't broadcast in widescreen in SD*. Hopefully, the first four years look like the S5 to 9 DVDs- empty space around the 4x3 image but nothing too distracting.


* There was one 'gimmick' episode (6ABX03- Triangle) that was broadcast in widescreen.
Season 9 was broadcast in the fake HD Fox Digital Widescreen system they had before 2006.


I'm hoping for 5.1 at least here.
 

Sam Favate

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So it looks like the movies are not included. Any idea how many discs are in the set? I can't find that number.


The set looks great!
 

TravisR

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Sam Favate said:
So it looks like the movies are not included. Any idea how many discs are in the set? I can't find that number.
I'm just guessing but based on other Fox Blu-ray sets, they put up to 5 episodes per disc so I think there will be a total of 43 discs (5 discs each for S1 to S4 & S6 to S8 and 4 discs each for S5 & S9).
 

turtledove

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smithbrad said:
For TNG they completed recreated from scratch the effects in HD since they were originally only done in SD. There is a big difference in cost and labor doing that then just taking the SD effects, cleaning them up, and upconverting. Are you sure that is the case for X-Files? If so, that would be a big plus for the Blu-ray release.

I can't find the link but there was a link to the company who provided the facilities for work on the X Files and they explained how it worked and TNG was quoted as using the same process.

Forum posts elsewhere also indicate that the initial upscaling has been replaced by new effects - although perhaps not for 100% of the effects
 

Sam Favate

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I've ordered this, because at that price, how could you not? It's more than $100 cheaper than last year's Batman set, and it has substantially more content (200 hours of TV vs about 60, not to mention the extras).
 

The Obsolete Man

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Sam Favate said:
I've ordered this, because at that price, how could you not? It's more than $100 cheaper than last year's Batman set, and it has substantially more content (200 hours of TV vs about 60, not to mention the extras).

It's under 20 bucks a set, which is most likely dirt cheap compared to what the single sets will most likely cost (especially if CBS's blu sets are any indication).


So, the price does make up for any misgivings or hesitation I may have regarding what may or may not have been recreated or upscaled.
 

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