Farscape: The Complete Series and separate seasons (November 15th) Review up

[MarcelS1]

Originally Posted by bentvalve

Thanks guys!^^ Would you say Farscape is more like Star Wars or Star Trek? While I LOVE ALL of the Star Treks (both the TV shows and movies) , for some reason Star Wars just never did it for me. I guess its because Star Trek is more realistic? I am not sure how to put it. thanks

Me 2! I tried it a few times but Star Wars does not appeal to me like Star Trek or other Sci-Fi movies/TV shows.

[Dubstar]

bit the bullet here, the PQ reviews don't wow me, but at that price I totally caved in.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Lope de Aguirre

I for one do not believe that they really lost a lot of material.
I assume they claim that cause they do not know if everything is there and it would cost them a lot to re-edit the episodes (let alone if the would want to re-render the CGI in HD).

As has been said before in this thread (and in comments by Brian Henson), the primary problem is that while the live-action was shot on 35mm film, all the CGI was rendered in SD PAL video, and all post-production was done in PAL video.

The show probably could be done in real HD, but that would require re-rendering all of the CGI (and that's a lot of CGI), re-compositing the CGI with the live action footage, and re-editing each episode in its entirety. All that would cost so much to do that it would likely cause the set to be prohibitively expensive.

[MarcelS1]

Price is back up to $92.49

[Lope de Aguirre]

Originally Posted by jayembee

As has been said before in this thread (and in comments by Brian Henson), the primary problem is that while the live-action was shot on 35mm film, all the CGI was rendered in SD PAL video, and all post-production was done in PAL video.

Yeh but wouldn't it mostly mean that they had to re-edit the footage.
Cause Firefly has also SD CGI effects and scenes in which 35mm film elements were mixed with SD CGI stuff.

I would love it if they would re-render all SFX in 1080P but I see that this most likely wouldn't be financially feasible BUT I would also be totally happy with re-edited episodes (1080P live action with 576P CGI) and assume that that lso would make them a profit financially.

[bboisvert]

Originally Posted by Lope de Aguirre

Yeh but wouldn't it mostly mean that they had to re-edit the footage.
Cause Firefly has also SD CGI effects and scenes in which 35mm film elements were mixed with SD CGI stuff.

I would love it if they would re-render all SFX in 1080P but I see that this most likely wouldn't be financially feasible BUT I would also be totally happy with re-edited episodes (1080P live action with 576P CGI) and assume that that lso would make them a profit financially.

The difference (as I see it) between Firefly and Farscape is in the degree of FX. Firefly really just had occasional shots of the ship and whatnot that needed to be included in SD.

Farscape, especially as the series progresses, becomes nearly wall-to-wall FX. I imagine that the process of re-editing would be a nightmare, and still result in a show that is presented 75% in 576p.



In the end, the whole show is a bit of a compromise, visually. The first few seasons weren't shot in widescreen, the shows aren't in HD, etc. But I can live with this set -- at least they tried their best to present it as good as humanly possible, save for a major, multi-million dollar reshoot/reedit.

[Salvador Nogueira]

Yeah, that's true. I was very disappointed at the upscaling they've done with this. If all live-action were in true 1080p, we could live with SD visuals (they're actually what holds up better in the current release). But, the way it is, I hardly see any need to upgrade from DVD. And I'm one of those who usually debunks all "DVD is as good as..." arguments... but in this case, it is the sad truth.

[Talyn]

Originally Posted by Lope de Aguirre

Yeh but wouldn't it mostly mean that they had to re-edit the footage.
Cause Firefly has also SD CGI effects and scenes in which 35mm film elements were mixed with SD CGI stuff.

I would love it if they would re-render all SFX in 1080P but I see that this most likely wouldn't be financially feasible BUT I would also be totally happy with re-edited episodes (1080P live action with 576P CGI) and assume that that lso would make them a profit financially.

and if they were going to re-edit episodes, with the respective director/creative force of each episode, re-insert deleted scenes for extended episodes...ala the proper season 2 episode 1 the way it was intended, but for the rest of the episodes where something was cut for running time.... I can dream with the rest of us!

[Lope de Aguirre]

Originally Posted by Salvador Nogueira

Yeah, that's true. I was very disappointed at the upscaling they've done with this. If all live-action were in true 1080p, we could live with SD visuals (they're actually what holds up better in the current release). But, the way it is, I hardly see any need to upgrade from DVD. And I'm one of those who usually debunks all "DVD is as good as..." arguments... but in this case, it is the sad truth.

Although I seriously hope they will scan the 35mm stuff in the future and re-edit the episodes I am surprisingly happy with the quality of these upconverts.

I would recommend upgrading to this set to every "Farscape" fan who can spare the money.

[tkbryant]

Originally Posted by Lope de Aguirre

Although I seriously hope they will scan the 35mm stuff in the future and re-edit the episodes I am surprisingly happy with the quality of these upconverts.

I would recommend upgrading to this set to every "Farscape" fan who can spare the money.

Same, here. The PQ doesn't wow me but it's solid for an upconvert and the best it has looked, no compression noise and colors are slightly better...there is some visible banding occasionally though. The audio however is FANTASTIC!! I'm actually pleasantly surprised with how well this shows sounds in DTS-MA 5.1, this is worthy off the upgrade alone not too mention they included tons & tons of extras from the DVD sets. Priced at $68, that came to $17 per season, quite a steal at that price.

[mjcavinder]

I remember listening to a commentary/interview about how the series premiere was filmed in tv widescreen....I smell a another blu-ray release in 2-3 years...I'll still bite at $50

[MarcelS1]

Bought the UK version which is on sale at zavvi.com. Could not resist it for that price.

Farscape Complete Series - ZAVVI.com

[darkmike]

I also bought the uk version (i am from spain) in the zavvi sale 60 eur, a very good price indeed!

And the german peacekepper war on blu ray on amazon for 9 eur until a more decent release, i suposse is better than the dvd... dowside of the german release. No subtitles

[Nez]

Farscape Blu-ray Movie is now listed at amazon with picture but no date yet or price.Anybody know/heard anything about a release date so we can finally have the complete series on Blu-ray.

[Troy73]

Originally Posted by Nez

Farscape Blu-ray Movie is now listed at amazon with picture but no date yet or price.Anybody know/heard anything about a release date so we can finally have the complete series on Blu-ray.

I assume you mean "The Peacekeeper Wars" mini series?

[jayembee]

I'm not seeing it. Searching for "Farscape blu" only yields what we already know about: the four individual season sets and the Complete Series set. There's a listing for The PK Wars blu, but that's the German release.

Nevertheless, you sometimes need to take listings at Amazon with a grain of salt. They often have listings for things that haven't been announced or even rumored, because enough people have inquired about them. Those listings are usually accompanied with a notice that they'll notify you when the item in question is announced.

[darthmuppet]

Sad day for all us Scapers... Jonathan Hardy(the voice of Rygel) passed away yesterday. He will me missed!

[Talyn]

Originally Posted by darthmuppet

Sad day for all us Scapers... Jonathan Hardy(the voice of Rygel) passed away yesterday. He will me missed!

He will always be our Dominar! He was also the "God" of Moya in the salvage yard of dead leviathans....

[n_muthukumar]

The Price is £42.17 at Amazon UK now!

[calpauly]

Have had this on price tracker a long time. I just got it on Amazon for $59.99 on Blu-ray, lowest price to date. The DVD version will be a gold box deal on Cyber Monday next week.