I have only had time to view one episode this evening due to
a) a server going down at work
b) Buffy and Angle air on Thursday nights back to back in the UK.
Lets get the bad news out of the way first:
Still no groove on the slip case to make getting the pack out easier;
The wrong title sequence has been used for points of departure (for those of you who do not know what I mean don't ask there is a spoiler involved);
Oh and the transfer....
For those of you who were hoping for a better quality transfer from Season 1 are going to be disappointed. There were lots of scratches on the episode, even a vertical and horizontal line showing up on two occasions. The dreaded grain factor is still there, however it seems to fluctuate between scenes. I cannot decide if it is on a par with the later episodes of season 1 or not. Hopefully it will improve latter in the season.
I must point out that I thought that the later episodes of season 1 looked very good on my recently purchased 36” widescreen (PAL discs) so I am wondering if it down to dodgy NTSC mastering.
I did notice while skimming through the special features (oh no mention of the gag reel anywhere by the way although I did not spend much time searching) clips of the show appeared in non anamorphic mode and I have to say they looked very crisp and clear?
Sound on the other hand is up to the standard of the first set ie quite good, even more pleasant was the fact that during the special intro by JMS and various cast and crew members the stereo track in pro logic the music was very active on the rear speakers, a nice touch.
And for any of those who have not seen Divided Loyalties DO NOT watch the intro on disc one as it contains a spoiler.
On the pleasant side I did not think Mir Furlan, Andrea Thompson or Peter Jurasik were taking part in giving interviews so I was surprised to see this. I should really pay more attention on what is going on in the various threads.
Oh and one more gripe, and this may down to my set up or the discs have not been properly flagged, there seems to be no auto widescreen switching. I currently have my dvd player connected via component video, on the weekend I will try an RGB scart connection to see if it makes any difference. Oh and I don’t like the new menu the first season was far more superior.
a) a server going down at work
b) Buffy and Angle air on Thursday nights back to back in the UK.
Lets get the bad news out of the way first:
Still no groove on the slip case to make getting the pack out easier;
The wrong title sequence has been used for points of departure (for those of you who do not know what I mean don't ask there is a spoiler involved);
Oh and the transfer....
For those of you who were hoping for a better quality transfer from Season 1 are going to be disappointed. There were lots of scratches on the episode, even a vertical and horizontal line showing up on two occasions. The dreaded grain factor is still there, however it seems to fluctuate between scenes. I cannot decide if it is on a par with the later episodes of season 1 or not. Hopefully it will improve latter in the season.
I must point out that I thought that the later episodes of season 1 looked very good on my recently purchased 36” widescreen (PAL discs) so I am wondering if it down to dodgy NTSC mastering.
I did notice while skimming through the special features (oh no mention of the gag reel anywhere by the way although I did not spend much time searching) clips of the show appeared in non anamorphic mode and I have to say they looked very crisp and clear?
Sound on the other hand is up to the standard of the first set ie quite good, even more pleasant was the fact that during the special intro by JMS and various cast and crew members the stereo track in pro logic the music was very active on the rear speakers, a nice touch.
And for any of those who have not seen Divided Loyalties DO NOT watch the intro on disc one as it contains a spoiler.
On the pleasant side I did not think Mir Furlan, Andrea Thompson or Peter Jurasik were taking part in giving interviews so I was surprised to see this. I should really pay more attention on what is going on in the various threads.
Oh and one more gripe, and this may down to my set up or the discs have not been properly flagged, there seems to be no auto widescreen switching. I currently have my dvd player connected via component video, on the weekend I will try an RGB scart connection to see if it makes any difference. Oh and I don’t like the new menu the first season was far more superior.