| Re: Best Way To See B5? [message #320447] |
Tue, 14 June 2016 14:04 |
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Registered: October 2012
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From: "Lance Corporal \"Hammer\" Schultz" <starfist@gmail.com>
On Fri, 18 Oct 2013 13:42:07 -0400, Dr Nancy's Sweetie wrote:
> Are they really as bad as all that? My first guess was to go for
> the DVDs, because it's not like I can tape a new set off the air,
> what with it not being on the air, but if the DVDs are distractingly
> bad that leads me to wonder what other options, if any, might exist.
The DVDs are the best way to view them.
They are not without their problems, but there are no suitable
alternatives.
B5 was filmed in widescreen, and the DVDs are in widescreen. That
would seem like a good thing.
The problem is that the effects were rendered in 4:3 for television.
So there are insurmountable quality problems with the mix of the two
formats. Most of the time it looks good, but if you are picky like
me, sometimes the poor quality of the mixed live and CGI shots can be
distracting.
It would have been a better choice to simply produce the DVDs in 4:3
as they were aired. As nice as it is to see the pure live shots in
16:9 as they were shot, it's not as if any of those scenes were shot
with the *intention* of being aired that way, so there is no real
creative loss. In fact, since the 4:3 shots are all cropped and
zoomed, the "loss" would be a wash anyway.
Of course if they had done that, only technical people would
understand why the DVDs aren't widescreen and people would have
complained.
Regardless, it's a wonderful show and you should have the DVDs.
And if they can find "lost Dr. Who" episodes in some third world
country, maybe some day they will find the rendering data that has
been lost and they could remaster the series in high definition. I
wouldn't hold my breath though.
--
Hammer
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