Farscape on Blu-ray?

[Bonzo the Fifth]

It was my understanding that Farscape had the exact same problem as TNG in the remastering department wherein it was shot on 35mm but edited and FX'd in video... I'm curious as to how, exactly, they plan to pull this off... especially with the TNG-R project seeming to be a major undertaking... I love Farscape, but it was, to be honest, not nearly as popular as any Trek project to date. :-(

 

[TemporalFlux]

It was my understanding that Farscape had the exact same problem as TNG in the remastering department wherein it was shot on 35mm but edited and FX'd in video... I'm curious as to how, exactly, they plan to pull this off... especially with the TNG-R project seeming to be a major undertaking... I love Farscape, but it was, to be honest, not nearly as popular as any Trek project to date. :-(

I fear it's going to just be an up-conversion that's really not any better than the regular DVD; the entire thing will just be a "trick" for a money grab.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ So, no better than a good up-converting DVD or BD player?

 

[Harvey]

Who knows? Hopefully, it will look good, but I'm skeptical.

 

[bigdaddy]

I read about this last week and didn't post because I think it's BS. loved to be proven wrong.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Who knows? Hopefully, it will look good, but I'm skeptical.

I bought 4 Roger Corman movies on blu-ray a while back. They really don't look "good", kinda grainy.

Clearly not much remastering, if any, went on.

 

[ATimson]

^ So, no better than a good up-converting DVD or BD player?

It'll be somewhat better regardless - the scaling may not be any better, but the compression definitely will be (MPEG-4 instead of MPEG-2).

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

^ So, no better than a good up-converting DVD or BD player?

It'll be somewhat better regardless - the scaling may not be any better, but the compression definitely will be (MPEG-4 instead of MPEG-2).

Has it been confirmed that the encoding will be MPEG-4? Blu-Ray also supports MPEG-2 and VC-1. Pessimistically, I've been expecting that TPTB would put the least amount of effort into this release.

 

[ATimson]

Has it been confirmed that the encoding will be MPEG-4? Blu-Ray also supports MPEG-2 and VC-1. Pessimistically, I've been expecting that TPTB would put the least amount of effort into this release.

Well, VC-1 would be an improvement too. I guess I'm just assuming it won't be MPEG-2, but I'm pretty sure it's been 3-4 years since a major commercial release has used MPEG-2...

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

There's also H.264, whatever that is. It's what the latest Doctor Who BD's have for most of the sections (might only be for true HD stuff)

Then there are a couple things in VC.1 on the discs.

 

[RoJoHen]

As much as I love Farscape, I already own it twice. Unless I see confirmation that this is going to be a true Blu-Ray upgrade, I will be passing on this purchase.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

There's also H.264, whatever that is.

My understanding is that H.264 and MPEG-4 AVC are the same thing -- although the only reference that I've consulted is Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC

 

[ATimson]

My understanding is that H.264 and MPEG-4 AVC are the same thing -- although the only reference that I've consulted is Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC

You're correct, in the context of Blu-rays they're the same thing.

(MPEG-4 covers a bunch of things, AVC included, and I probably should've been more specific above. Oops!)

 

[23skidoo]

TV Shows on DVD has posted official cover art and release date:

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Farscape-The-Complete-Series/15742

No mention of special features or anything. The fact the box is identical to the DVD set leads me to assume this is a straight port. (I'm assuming the fact it reads "The Complete Season One" when there's another "Complete Season One" at top left of the image is probably just a typo.) They're even releasing them separately like the others.

I don't really need to upgrade - the DVD let looks great on my Plasma and Blu-ray. And I wouldn't be interested in a "revised" show like Remastered TOS. But if they cleaned up the images and added a bunch of extra features I might splurge later when the cost comes down.

The good news though is this might result in the DVD sets showing up at discount rates.

Alex

 

[SPCTRE]

Well, whatever the quality, Farscape on Blu-ray could be the thing that finally gets me to watch the whole series in order for the first time

 

[23skidoo]

Well, whatever the quality, Farscape on Blu-ray could be the thing that finally gets me to watch the whole series in order for the first time

You're in for one hell of a treat. I "chug-a-lugged" the whole series plus the miniseries (you'll have to hunt elsewhere for that one, I'm afraid) over the course of a month last summer and it was a great experience.

Alex

 

[LitmusDragon]

At this point the big question on my mind is whether the entire thing is just an upscale or if only the FX bits will be upscaled.

I could see them re-scanning the live action and puppet bits from film or some other high resolution master, and then upscaling the FX (sort of how the B5 release was done). I would probably actually buy this.

If the entire thing is just an upscale job then it would probably look about the same as the DVD set, and I don't think I'd buy it.

Either way I'll wait and see what the reviewers have to say about the PQ.

 

[23skidoo]

^ They might not have done anything. A few years back a couple of Audrey Hepburn films were digitally remastered for DVD release - Sabrina and Roman Holiday. And the big point that Paramount made was that they were HD-future proofed. Meaning any future Blu-ray release would just need to be straight transfers (more or less).

I recall reading that for the DVD sets that came out most recently, something similar was done with Farscape. I'm not sure how that might impact the Blu-ray releases. I'm also curious about the special features. Similar to the question I just posed elsewhere regarding Twilight Zone on Blu-ray, there were quite a few shot-on-video features made that were included on the DVDs, including the well-remembered Undressed special. Will these be included and somehow upgraded, too? I'm used to Blu-rays omitting special features so it might just be the episodes.

Alex

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I'm kind of surprised that this release is happening 'cause the current "wisdom" is that TV series don't sell that as well on Blu-ray as on DVD. I'll hang fire until I hear what the picture and sound quality are like. I have the original DVD releases and the quality of those is pretty damn good, notwithstanding the lack of subtitles.

 

[PsychoPere]

New details!

20 Blu-ray discs [...] remastered from the highest quality source material available

A BRAND-NEW documentary - Memories of Moya: An Epic Journey Explored featuring revealing new interviews with the cast and creators

Street date: November 15, 2011
Sug. Retail Price: $199.95

All previous special features will carry over.