News post: B5 series on DVD is go!

<font size="+1">B5 series on DVD is go!</font>
<font size="3">Exclusive news on the future of the DVDs</font>

With the first B5 DVD which went on sale on December 4 2001, fans knew that this was Warner Bros.'s way of sticking their toe in to the DVD waters. It was not a hidden fact that this was a test to see what reception there would be, and thus whether or not the series itself would be released was dependant on this reception.

Well, it's good news. A source has informed B5LR.com that the result has been positive enough that Warner Bros. has decided to release the series on DVD.

It is not known how many copies of the first DVD have been sold so far, although reception through B5LR.com alone has been very good. It is also not known yet how future releases will happen, in what format, and in what time frame etc. Although JMS recently posted his enthusiasm for the series going on to DVD, and voiced his interest in providing extras such as commentaries.

This is still unofficial, so treat it as a rumor until you hear official confirmation. However as soon as we hear anything concrete, and hopefully details of the DVDs themselves, we'll keep you informed.

Great news for B5</i/>—let's hope we can score great ratings for the telemovie tonight!

Yes, yes, yes, yes, YESSSSSS!!!!

Alright, I'm calm now. This is only a rumour. Nothing to get worked up about. But it's at least something good to think about.

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"Isn't the universe an amazing place? I wouldn't live anywhere else." - G'Kar, B5: Rangers
Kribu's Lounge | kribu@ranger.b5lr.com

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

*dances around like a mad Shadow*

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channe@[url="http://cryoterrace.tripod.com"]cryoterrace[/url] | "I wonder," said Frodo, "but I don't know. And that's the way of a real tale."

Indeed, this is a good day.

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Sheridan: Are you trying to cheer me up?
Ivanova: No sir, wouldn't dream of it.
Sheridan: Good, I hate being cheered up. It's depressing.
Ivanova: So in that case we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths.
Sheridan: Thank you, I feel so much better now.

It's just a rumor...it's just a rumor...it's just a rumor...it's just a rumor....

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B5LR.com has been wrong twice in its news reporting, in all these months. I remember both incidents like scars on my brain! I don't want a 3rd time, and am confident it won't be.


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MPAA: Rated R for bad language, crude humor,
language, sexuality/nudity and drug content.

Bah, I'll believe it when its in my hands, and I'll believe B5LR is actually made after watching it.

I really hope they put some effort into it, otherwise it is unlikely I'll get them since I have em on VHS. And personally, I think DVD quality is less than VHS, perhaps my DVD player is crappy but the picture always has anomalies (black is DVD's worst enemy from what I can tell). Just too damn expensive here in England as well, unless I have a good reason (c'mon extras!).

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Marc Cosgrove

"From chaos, order came. As was inevitable." -Summoning light

[This message has been edited by Dark Lord (edited January 19, 2002).]

There only way DVD can look worse than VHS is if the DVD is made badly...

...or your DVD player is bad, or your connecting cables are bad, or your TV is not calibrated properly, or your TV is dying, etc., etc., etc.

DVD has twice the resolution of VHS, so it should never look worse. Also, a DVD picture won't go bad from normal wear-and-tear. You sure you weren't watching VCDs?

The Gathering/In the Beginning DVD isn't as great as some DVDs, but it sure looks better than the pre-recorded VHS tapes or TV broadcasts of those movies.


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If this source turns out to be true then:

F*@K YES!

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'I don't believe in the no-win scenario' - JTK

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by nolesrule:
There only way DVD can look worse than VHS is if the DVD is made badly...

...or your DVD player is bad, or your connecting cables are bad, or your TV is not calibrated properly, or your TV is dying, etc., etc., etc.

DVD has twice the resolution of VHS, so it should never look worse. Also, a DVD picture won't go bad from normal wear-and-tear. You sure you weren't watching VCDs?

The Gathering/In the Beginning DVD isn't as great as some DVDs, but it sure looks better than the pre-recorded VHS tapes or TV broadcasts of those movies.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's a DVD-ROM *hears cocking of guns*. On my monitor black parts are pixelated, very blocky in fact. Which I know is gonna be a reply of "ahh... now it makes sense", but I guess I expected better quality.

Maybe I'm alone on this but my TV and Cable is very crisp, I get a great picture IMO, DVD mostly only ever wows me when the scene is bright. Like I said, it seems to have a problem with darkness/black. *shrugs* But I enjoy DVD's more because of the easy access/playability.



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Marc Cosgrove

"From chaos, order came. As was inevitable." -Summoning light

You gotta thing that the first DVD was a test, really. They knocked it out, to see how it'd do. Extras cost money, a lot of money often, and they wouldn't want to put a lot of time and money in to a DVD that wouldn't sell. Now I'm assuming sales are good, they will put effort in to it I'm sure.

Even Buffy, which got a nice DVD debut here, improved so much between box sets after they realized they'd do well.


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MPAA: Rated R for bad language, crude humor,
language, sexuality/nudity and drug content.

I have seen DVDs that looked worse than VHS - on display model TVs at places like Best Buy that were grossly misadjusted. (The way most TVs are straight out of the box, because they are adjusted to look "good" in a warehouse under flourescent lights.)

Unless your living room decor looks like the sales floor of Circuit City or Best Buy, odds are your television is also horribly mis-set. The most common flaws are cranking the brightness, color and "sharpness" controls to the max. Most of them also have the color (or, "colour") turned up too high.

The "sharpness" control is no such thing. It actually adds video noise to the picture, in order to make edges stand out better. This is to compensate for the lousy quality of many broadcast signals. It should be turned off, or at least way down, on nearly all TVs. Lower the color and brightness controls "by eye."

("Brightness" contrary to what the name implies, actually controls the maximum level of the color white on the set. "Contrast" controls the level of black. If blacks look bad on your DVDs it is because these controls aren't set properly. They're the trickiest to adjust, because a change in one produces a change in how the other looks, even if you haven't made a corresponding adjustment to it. They interact, so you have to bounce back and forth a bit to "dial them in" right - even when using a calibration disc.)

And you should get a good calibration disc with test patterns and adjust your set to the PAL or NTSC standard (whichever applies.) Then you'll see what DVD is supposed to look like. "Pushing" a display will actually make the higher resolution and more accurate DVD image look bad.

Oh, the DVD news? Well, Antony, if I can offer one piece of advice, it might have been better to use a less definite headline, given that this isn't yet 100% confirmed. B5 Series DVD is a Go! doesn't leave you the wiggle room that B5 Series DVD is a Go? would have. You would have conveyed the same information, but diappointed fewer people (some of whom will follow the link expecting an actual press release from Warner Bros.) and not left yourself open to charges of "getting it wrong" if it turns out to be bad information. One little character can make all the difference. (As George Lucas learned, to his sorrow. )

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

DVD-ROM? Any number of reasons could cause that problem, and every single one of those reasons is a shortcoming in the computer, not the DVD. Processor speed, memory, video card, DVD decoding software. Your computer isn't powerful enough to handle the signal.

If your seeing pixelation, I'm willing to bet it's your video card or the decoding software.

You really shouldn't criticize DVD quality based on the inadequacies of your computer. It's your fault for not having a strong enough system to properly display a DVD, not the fault of the DVD.

I've seen DVDs on computers before. They look great, because they are displayed using progressive scanning. Of course, the owner of that computer is an upgrade nut who made sure he had enough of everything before he started playing DVDs on it.

Anyway, to get back on topic...B5 series on DVD? Woo hoo!


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Oh, I hope this is true, because I'm going to be sooooohappy to finally have those DVDs!

Tammy

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"We're in here! Can anyone hear us?"
"I hear you." [giggle, laugh]
"In here!"
"We are here." [giggle, laugh]
-- Londo and G'Kar in Babylon 5:"Convictions"

Tammy's Station
http://community.webtv.net/gkarfan/TammysStation

Joe D, is there ANYTHING you don't know? You continually amaze me. You with your knowledge of... well everything... and Sassy as the agony aunt, it's just knowledge central around here!

As to the question mark/exclamation mark thing... fair. I've changed it to a question mark on the news headline.

I am certain of this news though.


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MPAA: Rated R for bad language, crude humor,
language, sexuality/nudity and drug content.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'll try playing with the settings. Nothing I can do about the computer at the moment though, if I had my way i'd take a baseball bat to it.

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Marc Cosgrove

"From chaos, order came. As was inevitable." -Summoning light

Actually, there are standalone DVD players that display artifacts due to a poor MPEG decoder. The early Apexes and the old pay per view Divx players are two examples I've seen firsthand.

With computers, there are so many variables that I just assume it's going to be pixelated and if not, so much the better We were playing the Moulin Rouge DVD on my partner's computer and it was blocky as anything and jerky too even though he has an Athlon 900 and half a gig of RAM. Turns out we needed to turn on DMA for his DVD drive and after that it was like watching it downstairs.

The B5 DVD looks fine to me, though, especially after watching The Gathering and In The Beginning on VHS tape most recently Looking forward to the Buffy boxed set that just came out here and I hope they'll do something similar with B5 (more like Buffy, at 40 bucks for 12 episodes, and less like Farscape, at 20 bucks for 2!)


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*crosses fingers*

Please do season box sets, please do season box sets...

*crosses toes*

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"During a witch hunt, don't get caught wearing a pointy hat."

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>The early Apexes and the old pay per view Divx players are two examples I've seen firsthand.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have a first-generation Apex, it's my multi-region/PAL-compatible machine. It doesn't look quite as good as my Toshiba, but it is nowhere near as horrible as the in-store display models I mentioned. (At least not when played back on my Toshiba widescreen TV, which has not only been adjusted with Video Essentials and Avia, but was also calibrated by an Imaging Sciences Foundation certified tech.)

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

I watched the Gathering/ItB DVD on both my DVD-ROM (on the computer monitor) and a standalone player.

The difference in quality is *very* noticeable - it looked very good on the standalone player + TV (at least very good compared to VHS or standard broadcast quality) but fuzzy and generally not all that great on the computer screen.

Granted, my computer's hardly top-of-the-line, with not all that much RAM or processing power, and the video card is nothing fancy either. Then again, my standalone DVD player isn't expensive or a "name brand" either (Denver DVD-310, regionfree).

Anyway, since Antony sounds so sure about this, I'd better start saving.

And I'm hoping that the series DVDs won't be RCE either, just like the first DVD wasn't, because I damn sure won't want to view them on the computer screen.

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"Isn't the universe an amazing place? I wouldn't live anywhere else." - G'Kar, B5: Rangers
Kribu's Lounge | kribu@ranger.b5lr.com