I might develop and polish this article, but anyway, just like the title says....
In looking at the boxset I am going to make some comparisons to the R1 STTNG boxsets, only because as scifi fans I imagine that's the other series we're most familiar with, and even if you don't own them or aren't a Star Trek fan, you probably know about them.
Starting on the outside with the boxset itself - the book-style digipack (you turn the sections like pages) is great, so that unlike X-Files or STTNG you don't have to fold out the whole thing to get to the last disc. The disadvantage is that you get creases on the spine, and it's the side of the spine that you would regularily face outwards on your bookshelf (at least it's the side that I do). The digipack is in a cardboard slipcase that is holographic-shiny. The spine of the slipcase is the same (except shiny) so you can use that spine for your bookcase if you want. The front of the slipcase is the same as the digipack but the backs are different. Both backs contain the credits, while the digipack has a personal message from JMS and the slipcase has the "special features" list and promotional text, which is commendable to actually make them different.
The reason I say "special features" is because following the all-too-common practice, the widescreen aspect ratio and the dolby digital 5.1 sound, as well as menus, scene access, languages, and subtitles are all listed in there. This is expected from the marketing departments of studios, as well as inflated descriptions of the actual extra features. The special features, while decent enough, are not really 'interstellar' as the package says.
In this case, listing widescreen transfer in special features is maybe appropriate, because the transfer is all new showing Babylon 5 as it's never been seen before. It's fantastic. You'll love it. There's not much more to say about it! The sound quality is great as well. I'm watching on a 19" computer monitor with professional Sony Studio headphones. And on a computer screen video quality is obviously very noticeable. For you home theatre buffs I can't comment technically to describe if it's good enough for you, but other reviews take on those issues and suffice it to say, many people have commented this is the best B5 has ever looked.
The discs themselves include a red/orange starfield to match the boxset color design, a photo bar across the top with the disc #, and on the bottom "season one" and the "babylon 5" logo. It's a very tasteful and nice presentation, and you don't mind at all that there aren't episode names on each disc, cause the discs look so nice. In the booklet it lists the episodes on each disc along with a short synopsis, chapter listing, production credit and original air date. The first page of the booklet includes a comment from Douglas Netter and the front of the booklet is beautiful, again in the orange style color with a picture of starfuries approaching the station and the grey council. By the way let's hope future discs will take other colors for the scheme to make a nice rainbow such as STTNG (at least I think it's nice): Red/Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and perhaps Silver for the last one.
Taking the disc out of the case is actually easy for once. All four corners you can reach to, in order to lift the disc out (unlike some cases where only the top 2 corners you can lift the disc out. Pop in a disc and it opens with a WB logo. If you press 'next' during the WB logo, or go through the titles, you'll get grainy copyright notices (and in different languages), of which a few are shown after the last episode of the disc, but some aren't shown anytime else.
The opening menu screen is pretty cheesy with a mongage of four cast faces (that fade in and out to different faces) against a burning planet and a star backdrop (which you arrive at after going through a jumpgate). The episode menus are simple and not totally professional looking, I'd hope for a bit of a better design on future sets. However the layout is efficient. Go into episodes and then go into chapters. Also on the episode menu, the little plus symbol beside each episode plays the episode trailer which is a nice little extra, and a well-placed feature!
It's interesting that each disc has a special features menu even if it has no features. You get a message saying "please insert disc x,x,x for special feature..." I guess the time they saved by duplicating the main menu was time lost by making that extra screen /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
The disc 1 extra features include a too-short intro from JMS (in which all episode clips are squished - oops!), a well as 2-screen bios for Douglas Netter and JMS. It's a nice gesture, but not that informative. Like most bio screens though, it's not for crazy fans who know way more. As many fans comment, the episode commentaries by JMS are brilliantly done (JMS being, well, his usual wonderful self). Let's continue to have these for the pivotal AND unique episodes of future seasons.
Let's talk chapter divisions! I really can't believe WB actually did it right, dividing the chapters by the teaser and the acts of the episode (including opening credits with the teaser), unlike the STTNG DVDs which have chapter breaks in the stupidest of places. This is common sense to divide chapters that way but look at all the idiots who've messed it up (I am so frustrated with Paramount for what they did to STTNG) so, for WB, this is to be highly commended.
Going back to the video... almost all the episodes on the first three discs have varying degrees of scratches and dust (it gets less as you go further through the set). Also on disc 1, there are block artifacts when there's a firefight and a shot change (there's also some shorter block artifacts on disc 3). Thankfully these problems disappear on later discs. All the episodes are very sharp, though some technical details (which again I won't bother going into) have had fans comment the CGI looks a bit fuzzy, and of course the CGI has had to be cropped. It's too bad the CGI has had to be cropped, but if there's anyway it could be rerendered for future sets (assuming they have the original project files) it could be amazing. As for future special features, how about an all-new CGI montage, anyone? Still, I'm content because the rest of the quality is great... and did I mention it's widescreen!?!
All the overlays (names during credits, location titles, etc.) are fabulously crisp and full, contrasted with the pitiful STTNG credits/titles/etc.
The languages (english, french) and subtitles (english, french, spanish) are nice, but the subtitles leave out A LOT of the dialogue. On the other hand, the closed captioning includes all the dialogue down to the nuances.
As for future B5 boxsets - we should hope the boxset design stays the same, the video quality improves, and a lot more extras are added, ESPECIALLY in the form of extra footage and documentaries (I'm sure they're out there, probably stuff that's been shown at conventions before, and probably more exists that hasn't been shown before). I'd love to see Ron Thornton's original pitch reel for example. And what's this I hear about a made-for-scifi "Sciography" that never was finished or aired? As for a real bonus, any chance of throwing on the B5 reference CD to the back of the package such as STTNG has been doing? That would be a wonderful treat.
Assuming that the B5 series finishes five seasons, I have two more boxsets I would like to see. Firstly, a boxset with The Gathering (BOTH versions!) and ALL the tele-movies would be required, and secondly a boxset of the untimely axed Crusade. Face it, The Gathering / Beginning DVD is pathetic and a Gathering / tele-movie boxset would be perfect! I don't think a single fan would object to buying them again in the form of a boxset. I don't know where it would go, but perhaps the Ranger tele-movie should be put into one of those sets unless there is any hope that a series will someday be developed.
disc 1
- all episodes: dust and scratches
jms intro
- all episode shots are squished
- midnight on the firing line, soul hunter, infection: block artifacts
disc 2
- all episodes: dust and scratches
disc 3
- all episodes: dust and scratches
- by any means neccessary: block artifacts at c4, 19:10, 19:17, 28:28
In looking at the boxset I am going to make some comparisons to the R1 STTNG boxsets, only because as scifi fans I imagine that's the other series we're most familiar with, and even if you don't own them or aren't a Star Trek fan, you probably know about them.
Starting on the outside with the boxset itself - the book-style digipack (you turn the sections like pages) is great, so that unlike X-Files or STTNG you don't have to fold out the whole thing to get to the last disc. The disadvantage is that you get creases on the spine, and it's the side of the spine that you would regularily face outwards on your bookshelf (at least it's the side that I do). The digipack is in a cardboard slipcase that is holographic-shiny. The spine of the slipcase is the same (except shiny) so you can use that spine for your bookcase if you want. The front of the slipcase is the same as the digipack but the backs are different. Both backs contain the credits, while the digipack has a personal message from JMS and the slipcase has the "special features" list and promotional text, which is commendable to actually make them different.
The reason I say "special features" is because following the all-too-common practice, the widescreen aspect ratio and the dolby digital 5.1 sound, as well as menus, scene access, languages, and subtitles are all listed in there. This is expected from the marketing departments of studios, as well as inflated descriptions of the actual extra features. The special features, while decent enough, are not really 'interstellar' as the package says.
In this case, listing widescreen transfer in special features is maybe appropriate, because the transfer is all new showing Babylon 5 as it's never been seen before. It's fantastic. You'll love it. There's not much more to say about it! The sound quality is great as well. I'm watching on a 19" computer monitor with professional Sony Studio headphones. And on a computer screen video quality is obviously very noticeable. For you home theatre buffs I can't comment technically to describe if it's good enough for you, but other reviews take on those issues and suffice it to say, many people have commented this is the best B5 has ever looked.
The discs themselves include a red/orange starfield to match the boxset color design, a photo bar across the top with the disc #, and on the bottom "season one" and the "babylon 5" logo. It's a very tasteful and nice presentation, and you don't mind at all that there aren't episode names on each disc, cause the discs look so nice. In the booklet it lists the episodes on each disc along with a short synopsis, chapter listing, production credit and original air date. The first page of the booklet includes a comment from Douglas Netter and the front of the booklet is beautiful, again in the orange style color with a picture of starfuries approaching the station and the grey council. By the way let's hope future discs will take other colors for the scheme to make a nice rainbow such as STTNG (at least I think it's nice): Red/Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and perhaps Silver for the last one.
Taking the disc out of the case is actually easy for once. All four corners you can reach to, in order to lift the disc out (unlike some cases where only the top 2 corners you can lift the disc out. Pop in a disc and it opens with a WB logo. If you press 'next' during the WB logo, or go through the titles, you'll get grainy copyright notices (and in different languages), of which a few are shown after the last episode of the disc, but some aren't shown anytime else.
The opening menu screen is pretty cheesy with a mongage of four cast faces (that fade in and out to different faces) against a burning planet and a star backdrop (which you arrive at after going through a jumpgate). The episode menus are simple and not totally professional looking, I'd hope for a bit of a better design on future sets. However the layout is efficient. Go into episodes and then go into chapters. Also on the episode menu, the little plus symbol beside each episode plays the episode trailer which is a nice little extra, and a well-placed feature!
It's interesting that each disc has a special features menu even if it has no features. You get a message saying "please insert disc x,x,x for special feature..." I guess the time they saved by duplicating the main menu was time lost by making that extra screen /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
The disc 1 extra features include a too-short intro from JMS (in which all episode clips are squished - oops!), a well as 2-screen bios for Douglas Netter and JMS. It's a nice gesture, but not that informative. Like most bio screens though, it's not for crazy fans who know way more. As many fans comment, the episode commentaries by JMS are brilliantly done (JMS being, well, his usual wonderful self). Let's continue to have these for the pivotal AND unique episodes of future seasons.
Let's talk chapter divisions! I really can't believe WB actually did it right, dividing the chapters by the teaser and the acts of the episode (including opening credits with the teaser), unlike the STTNG DVDs which have chapter breaks in the stupidest of places. This is common sense to divide chapters that way but look at all the idiots who've messed it up (I am so frustrated with Paramount for what they did to STTNG) so, for WB, this is to be highly commended.
Going back to the video... almost all the episodes on the first three discs have varying degrees of scratches and dust (it gets less as you go further through the set). Also on disc 1, there are block artifacts when there's a firefight and a shot change (there's also some shorter block artifacts on disc 3). Thankfully these problems disappear on later discs. All the episodes are very sharp, though some technical details (which again I won't bother going into) have had fans comment the CGI looks a bit fuzzy, and of course the CGI has had to be cropped. It's too bad the CGI has had to be cropped, but if there's anyway it could be rerendered for future sets (assuming they have the original project files) it could be amazing. As for future special features, how about an all-new CGI montage, anyone? Still, I'm content because the rest of the quality is great... and did I mention it's widescreen!?!
All the overlays (names during credits, location titles, etc.) are fabulously crisp and full, contrasted with the pitiful STTNG credits/titles/etc.
The languages (english, french) and subtitles (english, french, spanish) are nice, but the subtitles leave out A LOT of the dialogue. On the other hand, the closed captioning includes all the dialogue down to the nuances.
As for future B5 boxsets - we should hope the boxset design stays the same, the video quality improves, and a lot more extras are added, ESPECIALLY in the form of extra footage and documentaries (I'm sure they're out there, probably stuff that's been shown at conventions before, and probably more exists that hasn't been shown before). I'd love to see Ron Thornton's original pitch reel for example. And what's this I hear about a made-for-scifi "Sciography" that never was finished or aired? As for a real bonus, any chance of throwing on the B5 reference CD to the back of the package such as STTNG has been doing? That would be a wonderful treat.
Assuming that the B5 series finishes five seasons, I have two more boxsets I would like to see. Firstly, a boxset with The Gathering (BOTH versions!) and ALL the tele-movies would be required, and secondly a boxset of the untimely axed Crusade. Face it, The Gathering / Beginning DVD is pathetic and a Gathering / tele-movie boxset would be perfect! I don't think a single fan would object to buying them again in the form of a boxset. I don't know where it would go, but perhaps the Ranger tele-movie should be put into one of those sets unless there is any hope that a series will someday be developed.
disc 1
- all episodes: dust and scratches
jms intro
- all episode shots are squished
- midnight on the firing line, soul hunter, infection: block artifacts
disc 2
- all episodes: dust and scratches
disc 3
- all episodes: dust and scratches
- by any means neccessary: block artifacts at c4, 19:10, 19:17, 28:28
