Farscape on Blu-ray?

[RoJoHen]

Damn, I was hoping the box and Blu-Ray covers would be different from the DVD art. Lame!

 

[Scotty]

I bought the R1 complete DVD set a year ago, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna double dip for this BD set. The most important reason is that my R1 set doesn't work on my R2 and region B DVD/BD players. I have one good region free DVD player, but that thing is probably near the end of its lifespan. And good quality region free players are expensive. So I'll probably buy the Region B BD set from the UK.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

"optimized for HD from the European PAL masters" - that, to me, sounds suspiciously like upscaling and there's also no mention of subtitles. I won't be partaking in what sounds like a ripoff.

 

[Harvey]

Amazon has a great deal on this, but I really need confirmation that the picture quality is half-decent before I buy anything.

 

[LitmusDragon]

"optimized for HD from the European PAL masters" - that, to me, sounds suspiciously like upscaling and there's also no mention of subtitles. I won't be partaking in what sounds like a ripoff.

This might mean that they mastered it from the master upon which the PAL versions were based, not directly from the PAL version of the show itself. For example, most Blu-ray movies are mastered from a 2,000 line source master (the master itself has 2,000 lines of resolution, while the BR has 1080). This is an extremely optimistic interpretation of this information however. It probably does mean standard definition PAL source for the video. Which is quite disappointing.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Seeing as Farscape was broadcast in 4:3 format until the fourth season, I'm not optimistic. In any case, the effects work is almost certainly SD. As I said before, subtitles would have been a clincher for me as the new set will save me shelf space. If I want to save space, I could go for the latest DVD set but they seem to have crammed the same number of episodes onto fewer discs, which makes me think they've reduced the bit rate.

 

[Harvey]

Do they really not have subtitles? The starburst editions have them (in fact, they seem to turn on by default), so it's not like it would be much trouble to include them.

 

[ATimson]

For example, most Blu-ray movies are mastered from a 2,000 line source master (the master itself has 2,000 lines of resolution, while the BR has 1080).

A 2K master is horizontal resolution - 2048 pixels across. So it's actually almost exactly Blu-ray sized.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Do they really not have subtitles? The starburst editions have them (in fact, they seem to turn on by default), so it's not like it would be much trouble to include them.

I have the original PAL DVD versions issued in the UK by Contender. If they do have subtitles, I've never been able to find out how to turn them on from the menus. The latest complete set in the UK is supposedly of inferior quality, with disc pressing defects common, and no subtitles.