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Season 1 Box set - First impression

zantarous

Regular
Well the mythical boxset is finaly upon us, well for region 2 anyway.

I have only watched the first episode and the special features including the Signs and Portent commentary. I won't go into much detail as I don't want to spoil it for thoes who have not had an opportunity to watch it.

First let me get the bad news out of the way, the print transfer (and I am no expert on such matters) is a bit of a mixed bag. There seems to be a lot of grain on Midnight on the firing line to the extent that even my gilfriend noticed and she is usually oblivious to such things bless her.

It not as bad on Signs and Portens so hopefully it will get better. Having said that I did whack in one of my VHS copies and you can tell instantly that the DVD transfer is far superior, B5 has never looked better.

The 5.1 mix is better then I could have imagined. I was expecting a half arsed job but WB has pulled out all the stops, its no Star Wars or LOTR but it doesn't dissapoint. Infact I only bought a surround sound system because B5 was going to have the 5.1 mix. Bass appears in all the right places and surround effects are put to good use. One puzzling thing though it seems that volume needs to cranked up quite high (I had it in to the 30's on my sytem when most films play very loudly in the 40's). Seeing as DVD are bit quite when played directly through a TV this may be a bit annoying for thoes without a sound system.

The lip sync problem has been blown out of proportion I had to watch Soul Hunter (Time 8.21) several times before I noticed it its very minor (the prob is there and looks correct on my old VHS tape). The big offender, Soul Hunter (Time 8.36) again its not that noticeable you really need to be looking for such things to notice it.

The extras are fantastic, the new documentry runs for just under 12mins and is very enjoyable (Jerry Doyle looks as though he had a blast doing it). The documentry originaly shown in 1993? is also very good and gives an insight into what Straczynski was trying to acheive.

The virtual tour is far better then I imagined it to be. It is a bunch of video clips broken into subjects, (station, tech, crew) with an audio narrator.

The cream of the crop has to be the audio commentry I was glued to my seat to hear the great maker speak and he gives some great insight into not only the episode but the series as a whole.

I think WB has done a great job on the set and all those that feel the same I think it would be a good idea to let them know. If anyone has an email address for WHV could you please let me know as I would like to pass on a few complementary comments.
 
Thank you for your excellent review. Being a less than critical DVD watcher, I'm suspect I will deem it most interesting. Should find out in a week or two.
 
Warner Bros. does not make its e-mail addresses public, as a matter of policy. You can certainly send them a snail-mail, though, and here's the fellow it should be addressed to:

Mr. Douglas Wadleigh
Vice-President, Marketing and Special Features
Warner Home Video
4000 Warner Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91522

Glad to hear things look and sound as good as they do. I'm insanely jealous, of course, and hate you intensely since I've got to wait at least a week until I receive my R1 copy. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

BTW, can you confirm that somebody screwed up and put a picture of Martin Sheen from River of Souls on the back in place of W. Morgan Sheppard's character from "Soul Hunter"?

As for the "problems". Grain is inherent in film stock. All film emulsion photography involves some kind of grain. How visible it is varies with the film used, the lighting conditions, etc. But not all apparent "grain" is what it seems to be. Sometimes it is just a kind of video noise introduced in the transfer process, and sometimes it is a slight compression artifact. TV shows will typically look "grainier" than feature films because they tend to shoot on less expensive stock and because they don't have the time to create "perfect" lighting set-ups for each scene. The speed of TV production simply makes a "smoother" look impossible to acheive. Even TV movies, which typicall have more time than one hour episodes, are going to look a bit rough around the edges as compared to theatrical features, especially on a project like B5 which are done on such a low budget.

The DVD of The Gathering is noticably noisy or grainy. I think part of this is film stock/production issues, some hasty and cheap DVD prep, and part of it the massive use of fog machines on the show, which produced a misty look that is one of the hardest things for DVD compression to cope with. (The fact that the whole show was so dark and had such an over-all "blue" look to it added to these problems.) It may be that they were a few episodes into the first season before they got a handle on the "right" amount of smoke, and started doing a better job of lighting and shooting the sets. (I do know that at some point they started bringing the cameras up a full f-stop or two, because the show just looked too dark.)

So that might be some of what you're seeing, and things may indeed get better as the season progresses. One reason that grain is often more apparent on DVD is that it has so much more resolution that you simply see things that were always in the print, but which home-grade VHS doesn't have the resolution to show you. VHS often has a "soft" and sometimes "smeared" look which can cover a multitude of sins.

Now that you've reported that you have the set and have started watching it, you realize that we'll be expecting a full review at some point. Hope you didn't have any plans for the next several nights or this weekend. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Regards,

Joe
 
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
BTW, can you confirm that somebody screwed up and put a picture of Martin Sheen from River of Souls on the back in place of W. Morgan Sheppard's character from "Soul Hunter"?

[/quote]

I have just had a look and it looks like somone did screw up, I can confirm that it is Martin Sheen and not Morgan Sheppard.

I must be a very unobservent person, how do people spot things like this quickly (I suspect I would never have spotted if not pointed out to me).

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
I'm insanely jealous, of course, and hate you intensely since I've got to wait at least a week until I receive my R1 copy.

[/quote]

I certainly don't envy you. Mine only arrived this morning and last night was the most agonising night of my life knowing that it was in the stores and I didn't have my copy. A whole week, I'd go crazy.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Now that you've reported that you have the set and have started watching it, you realize that we'll be expecting a full review at some point. Hope you didn't have any plans for the next several nights or this weekend.

[/quote]

Its a dirty job, but for the sake of all you guys and gals out there I will take on this responsibilty. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Actually my girlfriend doen't live with me and I am under strict orders not to watch it without her. I had to watch the extra features without her and tomorrow I'll have to watch them agin with her. So shhh nobody tell her. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Thanks for the explantion Joe. I was over at thedvdforums.com and the view to the picture quality seemed to be going in both directions. Some were taking the stand that it had the worst print quality in their collection while others calimed it to one of the better transfers, better then TNG season 1-4 and Buffy seasons 1-3 but not as good as Buffy season 4 and Angel season 1. I will be very interested to hear your thoughts on the transfer once you have your copy.

Oh and thanks for the address I will certainly send some positive feedback to WB.
 
Thanks for such a great review. I can not wait to get mine, I think my girlfriend is going nuts because it seems to be all I talk about, usually it’s just B5 in general, but now it has all been focused on the DVD’s. I definitely agree that you should sent a letter to WB. I am sure I will be after I get mine. Snail mail is the only way to get people to listen to you, anybody can e-mail a letter, but it takes time to write a letter, stamp it and mail it. Definitely a good idea, I just hope sales are very good and with this being S1, I would think the support (people buying the DVD’s) for S2 onward would be even higher.

Anyways, thanks for the review.

Cerberus
 
zantarous, while Joe is insanely jealous because you got the discs first (I'm more patient /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif ), I am jealous because your girlfriend is into B5!

DVD Empire has a review, though it's more about the show than the discs. I don't feel like finding a link, but it should be easy to find on their site.
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

The DVD sounds great, though I have one question before bying the UK Zone 2 DVD Boxset : are the french subtitles present on it ? Well, for the episodes, it seems there are subtitles, but for the extras ? Are there subtitles for all the extras (audio commentary, documentaries, ...) ?

Thanks
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

Can't tell you of the top of my head, I will check for you this evening and post it later on tonight.
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

All the versions I'm aware of have French subtitles. The R1 version is reported to have a French language track on some sites, subtitles only on others. Haven't received my copy yet, so can neither confirm nor deny. Have no idea how they handle langauges on extras. Anybody else?

Regards,

Joe
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
are the french subtitles present on it ? Well, for the episodes, it seems there are subtitles, but for the extras ? Are there subtitles for all the extras (audio commentary, documentaries, ...) ?

[/quote]

There is a French audio track on the episodes as well as French subtitles. However the audio track is only a 1.0 mono mix.

There are no subtitles or alternative laguages on the special features. There aren't even English subtitles on the special features for the hard of hearing.

There is also a German audio track which is in 5.1 DD as well as German Subtitles. Does anyone know if this is the only version being offered across Europe?
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

I got my boxset yesterday.Picture quality is not bad but sparkle and scratches are present. Unfortunatly "And the sky full of stars" has all it's effects shots in the wrong aspect ratio, so you get a 4:3 image stretched to 16:9 /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I haven't had time to check all the episodes but the rest I've seen seem ok.
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
We've made it to number 25 on the Amazon UK site:


[/quote]
Last week (atleast on release day and a few days before that) it was something 10-15. Maybe couple of days it was even in top10.
 
Oh oh... Looks like there are some serious issues on And the sky full of stars. I haven't got this far yet but check out this link:
web page

I'm not sure but you may have to register to view the tread.
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
There is a French audio track on the episodes as well as French subtitles. However the audio track is only a 1.0 mono mix.

There are no subtitles or alternative laguages on the special features. There aren't even English subtitles on the special features for the hard of hearing.

There is also a German audio track which is in 5.1 DD as well as German Subtitles.

[/quote]

Can someone tell me what languages the subtitles are available in for the R2 Season One Boxed Set? Also, does anyone know what ones are on the R2 Gathering DVD as well? Thanks!
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

I hope I can, assuming the Amazon.de details page to be correct. This information only applies to the Season 1 boxed set. I have no details about "Gathering":

Soundtracks: English, French, German

Subtitles: English, French, German, Turkish, Swedish, Dutch, Arabic
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Also, does anyone know what ones are on the R2 Gathering DVD as well? Thanks!


[/quote]

"The Gathering" R2 was English only. There may have been a separate continental release.

"In The Beginning" R2:
Audio (2.0) - English, French, German
Subtitles - English, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Greek
Hearing Impaired - English
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

Actually, I was hoping for an answer from someone who actually has the discs and can verify in person for me. I can check web sites until my fingers turn blue but it doesn't tell me what is actually got released. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Are you guys both quoting web pages with this information or the DVDs themselves? Thanks! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Are you guys both quoting web pages with this information or the DVDs themselves?

[/quote]

Maybe I can do both /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
chack this link: http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/Forum1/HTML/004909.html

Someone at the firstones.com forums has scanned the backside of the dvd box. It has the following info:
Languages: English, German, French
Hearing Impaired: English, German
Subtitles: English, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Arabic, Turkish
 
Re: Season 1 Box set - First impression :

Great thanks! Any more information on the Gathering or is it just all English? No subtitles?

You guys are fab. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

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