Sliders (1995-2000)

[dylrichard02]

Does anyone have this release and can you speak to the quality of the video/audio?

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by dylrichard02

Does anyone have this release and can you speak to the quality of the video/audio?

I almost bought this set late last year, and figured out beforehand the Blu ray was in PAL SD resolution. That was a deal breaker for me. My suspicions are it would just be the actual DVD encodes dropped on the BD, perhaps looking worse as Highlander the Series was imo (and that was an upscale I think). Sad we can't have a nice Sliders set but it seems like the best quality release are still the old Universal discs (the Mill Creek DVD set is even bad).

[Tobi_R]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

My suspicions are it would just be the actual DVD encodes dropped on the BD

....erm... it pretty much states JUST THAT on the cover.. at the very top in big bold letters SD ON BLU-RAY

...which is followed by DVD QUALITAT AUF BLU-RAY DISC... yeah... it´s not english but given the similarities and the SD ON BR just before that it´s pretty obvious..?

not sure hpw anyone could expect genuine HD quality from a release that says SD ON BLU-RAY and 88 Episodes on 4 discs

yes.. it is actually the SD transfers "dumped" on blu-ray discs , there´s several sets like this with entire series that don´t have HD releases (and most likely will never get them) on these disc/money saving sets..

I´ve avoided this at first as well.. but eventually caved when it was just like 30 bucks, the quality is IMHO better than the awful MillCreek discs, and the packaging is ABSOLUTELY GREAT (Collectible sturdy digibook vs. the godawful MillCreek paper box trash thingy with the generic cardboard sleeves inside)

I´d happily upgrade to BR if they should ever do any decent HD releases but I SERIOUSLY doubt will see those.. it´s not that much of a cult show and for actual HD they would have to go back to the original material and re.do all the special effects in HD.. that would cost millions and millions...

STAR TREK TNG (one of the most popular and best selling franchises TV has ever known) did that and apparently they still did not sell enough to make it actually profitable.. (most likely that´s why they didn´t start the same with DS9, Voyager ...)

anywho... if you like the series and want to have/see/own it now.. this is the release to get .. don´t see how anyone could be disappointed knowing all the other past releases and the situation regarding real HD transfers..

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

I almost bought this set late last year, and figured out beforehand the Blu ray was in PAL SD resolution. That was a deal breaker for me. My suspicions are it would just be the actual DVD encodes dropped on the BD, perhaps looking worse as Highlander the Series was imo (and that was an upscale I think). Sad we can't have a nice Sliders set but it seems like the best quality release are still the old Universal discs (the Mill Creek DVD set is even bad).

They're encoded as MPEG-2 so a safe assumption. Any new encoding would most likely have been AVC. I'd say you're right, these will be the exact same PAL masters that were used for the European DVDs.

As you say, they're PAL-based, which means a little additional resolution (576 lines rather than 480), but they're also 25fps (50i) so PAL-speedup is an issue. I'm not super-sensitive to PAL-speedup, living in a PAL territory, this would have been how I originally saw the episodes anyway, but in this day and age, definitely a bit archaic now, and for anyone that doesn't like speedup, then the marginal improvement in the PQ probably isn't worth the trade off.

[C.C. 95]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

I almost bought this set late last year, and figured out beforehand the Blu ray was in PAL SD resolution. That was a deal breaker for me. My suspicions are it would just be the actual DVD encodes dropped on the BD, perhaps looking worse as Highlander the Series was imo (and that was an upscale I think). Sad we can't have a nice Sliders set but it seems like the best quality release are still the old Universal discs (the Mill Creek DVD set is even bad).

The point of Turbine's series of shows that are 'SD ON BLU RAY' is to use fewer discs by putting them on a few 50GB blu rays instead of a bunch of 9GB DVDs.
It's actually a great idea. The GUNSMOKE DVD boxed set is 143 DVDs - if they had put the SD shows on 50GB blu ray discs it would have only been 25 discs.

[CompleteCount]

Originally Posted by C.C. 95

The point of Turbine's series of shows that are 'SD ON BLU RAY' is to use fewer discs by putting them on a few 50GB blu rays instead of a bunch of 9GB DVDs.

The wife had Turbine's 'SD on BD' of Murder She Wrote for Christmas. It's a very convenient way of storing them, especially an episodic show not known for being one of the absolute classics, or visually artistic.

Bagged it for £20, too!

[C.C. 95]

Originally Posted by CompleteCount

The wife had Turbine's 'SD on BD' of Murder She Wrote for Christmas. It's a very convenient way of storing them, especially an episodic show not known for being one of the absolute classics, or visually artistic.

Bagged it for £20, too!

Nice!
Complete 12 seasons in SD on BD = 12 Blu rays
U.S. complete 12 seasons DVD set = 63 DVDs

[dylrichard02]

Yeah, I have the Mill Creek set for now, but I've looked around for the Uni set. I think the best case scenario would be the reboot that John Rhys Davies and Jerry O'Connell have both talked about happening, then perhaps Uni might go to the effort to remaster, but from what I understand all of the finished episodes with effects and all were finished on magnetic tape, so unless they reconstructed the episodes and re-did the effects (highly unlikely) it will be a marginally better set of transfers.

[Member-222782]

I really dug this series but hated the way it ended, without any resolution. So many fun episodes.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

I really dug this series but hated the way it ended, without any resolution. So many fun episodes.

It's one of my favorite shows of all time, despite jumping the shark in season 3 and that ill-advised cliffhanger in season 5 (after they already knew the show was canned by the network). I mean there are a ton of bad/awful episodes but for some reason I even love hatewatching those ones. It deserves way better on physical media season 1 and 2 are some amazing TV.

Originally Posted by dylrichard02

Yeah, I have the Mill Creek set for now, but I've looked around for the Uni set.

I almost bought that Uni brick set back in the day but remembered thinking I'd feel like a dupe once the Blu rays eventually came out but they never did, whoops.

[Member-222782]

So O'Connell and Rhys-Davies want to reboot the series? I'd rather they continued where they left off. The characters that departed the show can easily be brought back by picking up in one of the alternate universes where everyone is around. Anybody with me on this or would you guys prefer a reboot with new characters?

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

So O'Connell and Rhys-Davies want to reboot the series? I'd rather they continued where they left off. The characters that departed the show can easily be brought back by picking up in one of the alternate universes where everyone is around. Anybody with me on this or would you guys prefer a reboot with new characters?

A reboot would be typical garbage imo in the current climate of streaming shows, it wouldn't last and the characters would definitely be generic. I want original cast or nothing. I don't know what any of the actors are up to now (hope they are all fine and dandy) but having Rembrandt Brown back would be a must, dude was in the entire run of the show and had an unresolved cliffanger that should be followed up. Bringing back Kari Wuhrer would be cool too, I disliked her character at first, but she grew on me after awhile.

In fact another full series would be stupid if you ask me, because the show was already played out by season 3 when they were recycling movie plots every week, that's why Rhys-Davies left the show in the first place. A limited series could work, but the story is a mess. Maybe something like the finale of Star Trek voyager could work, where they are all back home in the future and they don't really get into how they got home but sliding comes back into the plot somehow.

At the end of Season 5 Quinn was completely fused with Mallory and there was no way to seperate them, so he's effectively dead. Wade was turned into a living computer by the Mags, same thing. Quinn's brother was unstuck in timespace, the Professor was also dead. I actually really loved Season 5 for awhile, they were going harder on the sci-fi aspect in the beginning with that villian Dr. Geiger, sadly they went right back into the monster of the week formula and never explored that angle enough.

I suppose trying to resolve season 5 would just be too convoluted, might as well have another set of doubles somewhere.

[marcls76]

I like the idea of a reboot in principal (though chances are they’d get it wrong!) because although I loved the premise of the show, and there was some really good stuff in it, I felt they ultimately made a bit of a mess of it and nowhere near fulfilled the potential of what they had.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by marcls76

(though chances are they’d get it wrong!)

The fail would be in the recasting imo, no one wants to see new actors, we don't have emotional ties to them as characters, that's why all these things end up failing now, the new characters are always empty. It would need to be a continuation with the old characters and perhaps some new ones.

[Member-222782]

Damn all this Sliders talk is making me want to revisit it. Maybe I will. Oh, what a joy is to have a physical media collection.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

Damn all this Sliders talk is making me want to revisit it. Maybe I will. Oh, what a joy is to have a physical media collection.

I just watched some episodes today

[dylrichard02]

One of the best TV pilots ever IMO. I also love the "Fever" episode, season 5 episode 1! Of course all of season 1 is just top notch in general.

[Telemachus]

Season 1 is very cinematic, it's by far the best season, Eggheads is probably my favorite out of those episodes

[DawnShadow]

Yeah but they could have encoded the original masters better for the Blu-ray format, plus no one said they expected HD masters, so your comment is just rude and pointless.

And that’s coming from me…

[Telemachus]

I just ignore negative people clearly looking for confrontation, but anyway, I did watch a Sliders episode today that I forgot was so good, it's called Alternativeville Horror in season 4. I actually really like this season because of Charlie O'Connell, he's not a great actor but there's something genuine about him and his chemistry with his real brother is tangible. It was really a shame how basically everything they built in season 4 was tossed out the window for the season 5 recasts. It felt like Season 3, 4, 5 were just a big rubber band snapping back each time the end was reached