Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980) Sagan Blu-ray Australia April 19

[hariseldon]

An interesting world premiere release. Many people asked about this when the new series was released, but I just ran across this with some help of some Aussie friends. There is a bit of conflicting information depending on the specific site you steal details from, The RRP is a bit different, one site says 5 discs, some disagreement on the Audio streams. I'm fairly sure all the original elements of this were SD so this is likely a cleaned upscale, but ...

I'm probably going to wait on the reviews of the PQ, but the old releases aren't terribly good so you'd think it's got to be an improvement -- it's unknown for now whether this will be Region Free though frequently Madmen titles are.

Title: Cosmos - A Personal Voyage - Ultimate Edition - Remastered
Format: Blu-ray
Release Date: 19/04/2017
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Catalogue No. VVE1097
SKU No. 2328650
Actor(s): Carl Sagan
Genres: Special Interest, Space
Run Time: 780 minutes
Region Code: B
Disc Count: 3
Aspect Ratio: 4:3

RRP: 59.95AUD or 64.95AUD


Description

Astronomer Carl Sagan's landmark 13-part science series takes you on an awe-inspiring cosmic journey to the edge of the Universe and back aboard the spaceship of the imagination. Topics covered include: the 15-billion year history of the Universe; the evolution of life on Earth and what forms life might take on other worlds; Johannes Kepler, the first modern astronomer; the hellish atmosphere of Venus and the threat of the Greenhouse Effect on Earth; the search for life on Mars; the 17th century exploration of the Earth; the Voyager missions to Jupiter and Saturn; the possibility of time travel; Einstein's theories; the life cycle of stars; determining the origin of the Universe; the brain and the evolution of intelligence; how we might communicate with alien civilisations; the continued survival of the human race versus the threat of nuclear destruction.

This new Bluray disc of Carl Sagan's Cosmos presents an upscaled standard definition transfer for the best possible quality available from the original video master.


Special Features
Bonus 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound music and effects track
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan updates
Digitally remastered, restored and enhanced
New footage
Subtitled science updates

AUS Vat is around 10% -- some store automatically remove for shipment outside AUS and others maybe. Some retailers with good reps shipping to the US. Normally my packages from AUS to the East Coast run 8-17 days though up to a month isn't unheard of

Approx $47USD shipped direct from Madmen
https://www.madman.com.au/catalogue/...astered-bluray

$56USD shipped
http://www.sanity.com.au/products/23...n_-_Remastered

$42USD (maybe $38 if you can get JB to remove GST/VAT, but my success has been frustrating since they revamped the site a couple years ago)
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/movies-tv-...dition/349840/


US retailers like Deep Discount and even Amazon often sell AUS releases after release date though usually at a bit higher price though sometimes they shock me.

[hedliniv]

Man I hope this is region free! I would love to replace my dvd set with this.

[mar3o]

I love this series. His voice was soothing and at the same time enthusiastic, and he managed to really capture my imagination when it first aired. I don't usually buy upscales but this series might be an exception if they handle the material well. It's well worth owning. Some of the science may be outdated, but it's still a fascinating piece of history and you can't help but feel humbled when watching it. The final episode that tackles the fear of nuclear war is very powerful stuff. You really get a sense of just how frightened people were back then.

The series also had great music. At one point they released a 2-CD soundtrack of the music of Cosmos. I hope this release doesn't suffer from PAL speedup issues. I couldn't enjoy listening to this series with his voice and the music sped up. Since it's an upscale and being released in Australia, I wonder what the framerate will be? I'll be importing it to the US.

I like the idea of the isolated music tracks. The additional updates sound intriguing, though I hope the main episodes are the original broadcast episodes. I wonder what "enhanced" means?

[mar3o]

Does anybody have any experience buying from Madmen directly? I've bought several releases from jbhifi in the past year and the items have always arrived in great condition, though the shipping was S-L-O-W. Close to a month each time. Is buying from Madman to the US any faster? I can't believe we can't pay extra to have it shipped express.

[Oliver Gigacz]

This is going to be a straight upscale from the original DVD release.

The original DVD release also states digitally remastered and has the exact same special features that the upcoming release has.

Having said that I will still be purchasing it as this is one of my favourite series.