Farscape Complete Series Deal of the Day

[RoJoHen]

Of course the images weren't composed or performed for widescreen, so...

I've been bad about this. I bought such a big TV, and it feels wrong not to utilize the whole screen. I'm trying to be better about it. Honestly, though, some shows actually look a little better stretched out on my TV. When I don't stretch them out, everything looks squished.

 

[Neroon]

Has anyone else noticed a disconnect between audio and video during the episode commentaries? Today I was watching the one for "Green Eyed Monster", and at several points there seemed to be a noticeable lag on the audio of the episode being reviewed. Now, the actual episode itself (ie - not the commentary version) seems fine. Everything is in sync. But if I watch the commentary with Ben and Tony, there are several spots when the vocals for the characters are clearly out of step.

 

[hamudm]

Fartscape is $7.99 on Netflix...

Tried watching it, but it's too hokey for me. Enjoy if you're a fan

 

[bigdaddy]

Has anyone else noticed a disconnect between audio and video during the episode commentaries? Today I was watching the one for "Green Eyed Monster", and at several points there seemed to be a noticeable lag on the audio of the episode being reviewed. Now, the actual episode itself (ie - not the commentary version) seems fine. Everything is in sync. But if I watch the commentary with Ben and Tony, there are several spots when the vocals for the characters are clearly out of step.

I listened to half of the commentary from DNA Mad Scientist and it seemed OK, but wasn't funny paying attention.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

...it's too hokey for me.

Dude, your avatar is a cat animation. Just sayin'.

 

[IcecreamLtDan]

...it's too hokey for me.

Dude, your avatar is a cat animation. Just sayin'.

Lol, good point Dennis, as far as the commentary thing goes, I haven't watched it on the new set, but I watched all the commentaries on the original dvd's and they were fine. I do not know if the commentaries were rerecorded for this new set or not.

 

[Yoda]

I've been bad about this. I bought such a big TV, and it feels wrong not to utilize the whole screen. I'm trying to be better about it. Honestly, though, some shows actually look a little better stretched out on my TV. When I don't stretch them out, everything looks squished.

That is a very backwards argument. Having a small TV is an ok argument for zooming and stretching.

A 32" 4:3 CRT back in the day was considered pretty big, not to mention ridiculously heavy and annoying to move... On my 50" widescreen a non-stretched 4:3 image is still significantly bigger than that old CRT I upgraded from. So what is the problem that's so big that you need to distort the image? Ever see the camera pan in one of those zoom modes? It isn't pretty as the sides warp awkwardly.

And I have no idea how everything could look squished. Maybe Ben Browder just got a little chubbier in his post 4:3 days!

If the things in the actual frame are squished then you should probably feel the same way about widescreen since it's the same. So why not stretch widescreen some more. M

 

[RoJoHen]

^In all fairness, I haven't watched any Farscape on this TV yet (I just got it over the summer), so I don't know how it would look.

Buffy, however, looks really squished in its "proper" aspect ratio, but when I stretch it out it looks fine. My TV has several settings for adjusting the ratio, and some look better than others.

 

[Neroon]

Has anyone else noticed a disconnect between audio and video during the episode commentaries? Today I was watching the one for "Green Eyed Monster", and at several points there seemed to be a noticeable lag on the audio of the episode being reviewed. Now, the actual episode itself (ie - not the commentary version) seems fine. Everything is in sync. But if I watch the commentary with Ben and Tony, there are several spots when the vocals for the characters are clearly out of step.

I listened to half of the commentary from DNA Mad Scientist and it seemed OK, but wasn't funny paying attention.

Interesting. I'll check that one out today and see if it exhibits anything similar to the commentary for GEM

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

This time around I'm enjoying a number of the episodes that I didn't think much of when I first saw them - stuff like "Thank God It's Friday...Again."

"PK Tech Girl," which I did like a lot the first time, is really sweet.

 

[bigdaddy]

I'm this....... close to finishing season one and I love how Scorpio is just showing up and explains he wants wormholes. I knew very little about the show besides that.

I also know how the show ends...

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Oh, the show gets a lot stranger after Scorpy comes on.

Seriously.

 

[Neroon]

This time around I'm enjoying a number of the episodes that I didn't think much of when I first saw them - stuff like "Thank God It's Friday...Again."

"PK Tech Girl," which I did like a lot the first time, is really sweet.

I noticed a similar effect with some of the Scape episodes, as well as with various movies over the years. The second time through, I find an affinity for them that I hadn't noticed before. Why do you suppose that happens? Is it due to a sort of "resetting" of our expectations, as if they get lowered after the first time and so are easier to meet?

 

[T'Bonz]

I should really rewatch my series. It'll be even more fun now that I know the characters.

 

[23skidoo]

What? I didnt no season one was in fullscreen? WTF! This totally ruins it for me, i hate fullscreen when my computer is widescreen.

And cant get Window Media Player to strech it. Yikes, this sucks.

Why on Earth would you want to stretch video that wasn't intended to be widescreen? That would make the whole video look distorted.

Unfortunately, it's something that has fallen into the "get used to it" category. I got my first widescreen TV last year and it was a top of the line model and one of the first things I discovered is, yes, you can set the image to 4:3, but it doesn't convert the image to 4:3 by itself - it cuts the image off at the sides. I discovered that while trying to watch a Chaplin movie, and later one of the Farscapes. I elected to just keep the image at widescreen and watch it. You do get used to it after a while.

Fortunately, some Blu-ray makers and realizing this issue,and some (not all) 4:3 shows being released to the format such as The Prisoner and Metropolis are formatted on the disc to play at 4:3, so they show without anything being cut off. Hopefully when Chaplin films begin showing up on Blu-ray that'll be done too. Or, for that matter, Farscape and other shows from the era, if they ever upconvert them (hey, stranger things have happened - they're doing Space:1999 for Blu-ray now).

Anyway, you think that screen formatting issues are fun now, just wait till we end up in a "you'll get used to it" situation with force-fed 3-D...

Alex

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I would have thought that most (if not all) of Chaplin's films were shot in Academy Ratio (11:8, or approximately 4:3).

Space:1999 season 1 on Blu-ray is 4:3. No hideous matting in sight.

 

[lennier1]

The DVDs arrived yesterday.
Guess the guys at Customs got so bored they actually did their job. Tax money at work ...

 

[bigdaddy]

The DVDs arrived yesterday.
Guess the guys at Customs got so bored they actually did their job. Tax money at work ...

I'm already two episodes into season 4.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I finally got my set last week. According to Big Finish (who I order regularly from and shipments go through the US before coming out here), US customs have gotten tighter and therefore it takes longer for shipments to arrive, which explains why my last two orders from them have taken so long to get here. Same for Amazon which was normally pretty quick.

 

[Starbreaker]

Well, I hope you got that packet of heroin and small child I stuffed inbetween Season 4 and The Archives disc.