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battlestar galactica grainyness (1 Viewer)

keenwatcher

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sean
The new battlestar galactica dvd's (S1, S2.0, S2.5)-- almost all have some scenes that are grainy, is this intended? or a defect? is it to show the gritty nature of the series?

I ordered mine through an online retailer and hate to go to the trouble of packing them all up and exchanging them through the mail. I might get the same grainyness all over again if this is part of the intended effect of the show.

Thanks for anyone who knows about this and can help answer this.
 

Peter Overduin

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Iwondered about this some time ago as well, and indeed, the graininees is part of the presentation - dark, grim, gritty and not meant to be a 'pretty' show at all.

Somehow, I couldnt even imagine it in some kind of pristine clarity - doesnt suit the nature of the show.

Will be interesting to see how it looks in hi def later this year.
 

Lord Dalek

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Isn't this shot on Super 16 as well? That would add quite a lot of grain to the look.
 

Citizen87645

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My understanding that it is shot in HD and the grain is added in post. So the HD release would not necessarily make this "better."
 

Kevin Hewell

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I saw a couple of eps in HD when they were shown on NBC and I thought the show looked great.
 

njoberheim

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Yeah, the grainyness is intended. I remember when I first got my Plasma TV. It was one of the first DVD's I popped in to be blown away. I thought something was wrong with the TV!

The wierd thing about it is that not all the scenes are grainy. It comes and goes.
 

keenwatcher

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sean
Thanks all for the input.

I followed up on some website reviews and confirmed that the grainyness is indeed the intended effect of the show.

Strangely, as someone mentioned here, some scenes are clear/vivid while others are grainy. Which really threw me, I thought the dvds were defective but they aren't. Now I don't have to worry about the hassle of exchanging them thru the mail.
 

Allan^L

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That's also intentional.

I really like the look of this show, especially those really fast zoom-in shots for the space scenes. I love Star Trek but it's such a contrast in its visual aesthetic. Even DS9, the darkest and grittiest of the series, is very classical and sweeping in its shot composition and overall look. For an old mining station, it looks so pristine and elegant all the time!
 

Richard_D_Ramirez

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I just saw a HD version of "The Passage" on the Universal HD channel, and the show was so grainy it looked worse than the regular SD version on the SCI-FI channel. If the graininess is purposely done in post, I think it sucks. Just plain awful.
 

Joel Fontenot

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I disagree. I too have seen many episodes on Universal HD - and it's much better looking than the horribly blotchy, fuzzy look you get on SciFi. And because SciFi is not in HD, it's letterboxed so that (if you wanted) you have to zoom it on an HD set - and that just looks worse.

Only IMHO, of course.
 

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