It was the dawn of the third age of mankind...

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AndyThomas
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It was the dawn of the third age of mankind...

Post by AndyThomas »

This may be old news, or not, because it doesn't seem to have had a massive amount of publicity, but in two weeks time the first series of Babylon 5 finally appears on DVD. It's remarkably reasonable, too, compared to box sets for other series.Babylon 5 Series 1
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Shane
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It was the dawn of the third age of mankind...

Post by Shane »

And so it begins. ;)I've got my order In. I can get rid of all my bulky video tapes now.The first seasons pretty good but seasons 2 and 3 are far superior hope they make it onto DVD too.Shane.
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AndyThomas
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It was the dawn of the third age of mankind...

Post by AndyThomas »

Heh, yes, there's definitely a space saving advantage to be had and most of my B5 collection is longplay, so anything would be an improvement! I actually picked up a couple of cheap season 3 tapes just to see Severed Dreams without an ad break...
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Shane
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It was the dawn of the third age of mankind...

Post by Shane »

Do you know which 2 episodes of the first season is getting the JMS commentry treatment Andy? I'm guessing "Signs and Portents" as one of them, maybe "Babylon Squared" as another?It was all filmed in widescreen too if I remember rightly so it's going to be a treat to see it in all it's glory.Shane.
I like parties, I like fun, I want to live in a hamburger bun!
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felice
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It was the dawn of the third age of mankind...

Post by felice »

*sigh* _filmed_ in widescreen, yes. Unfortunately, they didn't render the cgi in widescreen, since that would have been too expensive at the time. JMS intended to re-render it for widescreen release in the future (ie now) when the cost of the processing had come down. Unfortunately, the nice people at WB can't find the files. So the DVDs are proper widescreen for the pure film bits, but cropped 4:3 for the composite and pure CGI bits. In other words, the film bits (including composite) will look very nice indeed, but the CGI bits (including composite) will be worse than perfect reception 4:3 (but hopefully still better than VHS). Aren't television networks _wonderful_?
AndyThomas
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It was the dawn of the third age of mankind...

Post by AndyThomas »

Quote Quote: from Shane on 10:44 pm on Oct. 14, 2002Do you know which 2 episodes of the first season is getting the JMS commentry treatment Andy? I'm guessing "Signs and Portents" as one of them, maybe "Babylon Squared" as another?It was all filmed in widescreen too if I remember rightly so it's going to be a treat to see it in all it's glory.Shane.I'm not sure Shane - the accompanying info doesn't say. There are a couple of documentaries as well as the commentaries. If it isn't Babylon Squared it might be Chrysalis, although that might give too much away, I don't know...As for the widescreen issue - I've definitely heard of this problem before now but it may only apply to season one and perhaps season two - I'm fairly certain it won't be an issue for some of them at least. At least we're getting it on DVD in some way shape or form - it's taken this long after all...
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