Battle Star Galactica...

[blitz6speed]

I predicted early on this release would suck badly. For one, its on HD DVD. Second of all, its Universal. Third, the show didnt look all that great on TV in HD in the first place. So... Check out the AVS Thread about it.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7#post12434517

Thats the post that is the most interesting. Click on the pics and look at the BLOCKY mess thats worse then most MPEG-2 1080i broadcasts! HORRIBLE! Then scroll down more, and theres a few pics of EPIC interlacing, found here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post12436921

But what do the HD DVD Fanatics say about it? Not much. Most are saying "Thats likely directors intent" or "I dont see it". But the best part is, most cannot comment, BECAUSE THE DISCS CAME SCRATCHED TO HECK AND BACK! Read the thread, i dont think a single person has a perfect set. This type of Debacle is what HD DVD is about. Lackluster, horrible presentation, CHEAP packaging, No protective coating and of course, NOT ENOUGH BANDWIDTH!!!

What're your thoughts?

[Trebar]

I watched the 1080i version on Universal HD and noticed that a lot of the shots are intentionaly grainy but the blockiness/interlacing in those slow shots are just absurd.

[zed0118]

It's sad, but if that's the level of quality the folks in the other camp have come to expect, then they get what they deserve.

[clyon]

Well, looks like sh!it. Hopfuly Uni will get there act together when they cross the blu line, my BSG dvd's look about the same & in some spots better. 33 is one of worst PQ ep of season 1, so it is a little hard to juge but post #327 that is just unexseptable.

Does this set include the Mini?

[Seretur]

More than anything, this new set didn't include anything new, content-wise. Not being a day-and-date release, this was the kiss of death.

Unfortunate packaging is bad, yes. Non-scratch-resistant discs are much worse. The Red camp used to harp on and on about how the BD coating isn't important -- well, there you go, fellows.

The absolutely atrocious transfer takes the cake, though. I fully expect to be able to buy Galactica on Blu-ray in time, and this sort of crap is beyond bad -- especially as we'll most probably be stuck with whatever HD DVD encode Universal has laying around.

I'm e-mailing Ron Moore to sort this mess out.

[cking2729]

This isn't that alarming to hear. I have been a huge Battlestar fan since day 1, but the broadcasts on Universal HD have never had that "wow" factor. Admittedly, the show is intended to be dark, washed out, and gritty. However, the other problems are completely ridiculous.

Battlestar has some of the best producers in the business, who adamantly care about, listen to, and cater towards the fans. You can probably expect this to get sorted out. Either way, I'd never switch to DuD to get a show that even with the best transfer, is never going to look stunning in HD. I probably wouldn't even buy it in Blu since I already have all the DVDs.

As far as DuD and Universal are concerned, I'm not at all surprised at all at this....

[Clark Kent]

Apparently the packaging is awful on this release and it's very hard to find a set with no scratched discs.

[Elandyll]

<Sigh> After this mess, a serie as awesome as the new Battlestar Galactica deserves the Blu Treatment. Sad Sad.

[WickyWoo]

Battlestar has some of the best producers in the business, who adamantly care about, listen to, and cater towards the fans.

Try talking to a fan of the real Battlestar Galactica, the one he borrowed the proper nouns from

The fans that they piss all over at every opportunity. The fans who nagged SciFi to bring the show back for 15+ years so much they had a specific question in their FAQ about how they had no plans to do so.

Make no mistake: Ron Moore and Eicke do whatever they hell they want, and if your desires happen to coincide with theirs, well bully.

[ussrelativity]

Hopefully, there will be a better job done with the series later on.

[cking2729]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Try talking to a fan of the real Battlestar Galactica, the one he borrowed the proper nouns from

The fans that they piss all over at every opportunity. The fans who nagged SciFi to bring the show back for 15+ years so much they had a specific question in their FAQ about how they had no plans to do so.

Make no mistake: Ron Moore and Eicke do whatever they hell they want, and if your desires happen to coincide with theirs, well bully.

I was never a fan of the original Battlestar, as I've only started watching since the 'revisioning' began. I'm pleased with the new series and the direction it was taken, and I personally feel it's one of the best made shows on television.

It sucks that the original's fans got "pissed" on, but from what I've seen, Moore pays attention to the current series' fans. I regularly listen to his podcast and I have witnessed many of the ideas, complaints, and issues addressed.

I realize I only speak for myself as a fan of the show, but I have no complaints (as of yet) as to how things have been handled.

[mh466]

One of the very few hd dvd exclusives of interest to me but not an option since I don't believe in the whole 'purple' thing. Looks like I'm not missing much...

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/682/b...actica_s1.html

[MasterXeus]

Originally Posted by cking2729

I was never a fan of the original Battlestar, as I've only started watching since the 'revisioning' began. I'm pleased with the new series and the direction it was taken, and I personally feel it's one of the best made shows on television.

It sucks that the original's fans got "pissed" on, but from what I've seen, Moore pays attention to the current series' fans. I regularly listen to his podcast and I have witnessed many of the ideas, complaints, and issues addressed.

I realize I only speak for myself as a fan of the show, but I have no complaints (as of yet) as to how things have been handled.

I've watch both the original and re-visioning. Personally I think the re-visioning needs some work, other than the Cylons and Ships where the Sci-fi is? Where are the alien races, creatures, civilizations? I don't like the shaky, zoom in/out space cams shots.

It's hard to believe that Moore is paying attention to fans of the show, if that's the case why do the ratings keep dropping? Sci-fi made Battlestar its flagship show last year and decided not to renew Stargate SG-1. Last year had the lowest rates of B.G., they were so bad that this year is the last year for the show.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by MasterXeus

Last year had the lowest rates of B.G., they were so bad that this year is the last year for the show.

Actually, Sci-Fi wanted to continue with the show, it's the showrunners who decided that they were about done with the story they wanted to tell, and doing additional seasons would require "filler" episodes.

That being said, I look forward to this show being on Blu-ray one day so that I can replace my DVDs with it, and I enjoyed "Razor" on Sci-Fi HD even though, like the series (which Sci-Fi HD has aired repeats of recently) is certainly does not have "WOW" factor PQ....

~Alan

[cking2729]

Originally Posted by MasterXeus

I've watch both the original and re-visioning. Personally I think the re-visioning needs some work, other than the Cylons and Ships where the Sci-fi is? Where are the alien races, creatures, civilizations? I don't like the shaky, zoom in/out space cams shots.

It's hard to believe that Moore is paying attention to fans of the show, if that's the case why do the ratings keep dropping? Sci-fi made Battlestar its flagship show last year and decided not to renew Stargate SG-1. Last year had the lowest rates of B.G., they were so bad that this year is the last year for the show.

I think the fans of the classic, or the traditionalists, just expect something different. And that is totally understandable. If I were a huge fan of the original, I'd probably have my opinions, perceptions, and desires for the re-visioning. I definitely know how it feels to see movies remade when I am a big fan of the original, i.e. Halloween. However, I never saw anything to do with Battlestar until the re-visioning's miniseries aired and from that moment on I've been hooked. I have no complaints about the series, and as I said before, I've been pleased with the direction it has been taken. Battlestar's ratings for season 3 weren't as good as other seasons, but they were still damn good given it's the Sci-Fi channel. I know for a fact the producers listen to the fans because almost everyone, including myself, HATED the way Season 2 ended. After everyone ranted and raved, Season 3 premiered and quickly closed that gap and got things back on track. I am confident Season 4 will be a satisfying conclusion to the series, at least for the fans of the re-visioning.

[WickyWoo]

Actually, Sci-Fi wanted to continue with the show, it's the showrunners who decided that they were about done with the story they wanted to tell, and doing additional seasons would require "filler" episodes.

No, that was the spin. The ratings no longer justify the huge expense for Sci-Fi, and since weekend syndication packages on broadcast are essentially toast, they can't repurpose that way, and they've already moved repeats on UniHD.

[fronn]

It's kind of funny how far we've come since the launch of these formats...

I don't think any HD DVD fans could have predicted the mediocrity that's now commonplace with HD DVD... Certainly not after the rather strong start HD DVD had (King Kong and the Hulk are probably Universal's best discs still, sadly).

I said in it the thread about Polar Express and I'll say it here... there is no valid excuse for visible blocking artifacts related to the encode with AVC and VC-1 on either format. It's ridiculous that Universal let BSG S1 slip out with that kind of crap.

edit: Does this thread belong in this section of the forum?

[cking2729]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

No, that was the spin. The ratings no longer justify the huge expense for Sci-Fi, and since weekend syndication packages on broadcast are essentially toast, they can't repurpose that way, and they've already moved repeats on UniHD.

So what is considered a "good" rating by Sci-Fi's standards, and where does Battlestar fall in compared to their other shows' ratings?

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by fronn

edit: Does this thread belong in this section of the forum?

Nope.

Corrected.

Carry on.

[WickyWoo]

So what is considered a "good" rating by Sci-Fi's standards, and where does Battlestar fall in compared to their other shows' ratings?

Well, that's flexible to be honest

How much does the show cost to make? How is it repurposed?(syndication, web, DVD etc) Does SciFi see a cut of that repurposing?

Razor, the first new piece after a long drought did a 1.2 rating and cost about $6 million. On cable, an hourlong show that does a 1.5 is pretty good. For a show that costs a million bucks an hour, 1.5 is phenominal. When you get into scifi programming at $2 million+ an hour, not so much. The show used to do a 2.0 rating, you can see the downward progression for the first two seasons here


http://scifi01.livejournal.com/442.html

It's just kept going down from there, season 3 averaged under 1.5 most of the time

Here's a chart for midway through season 3

http://forums.scifi.com/index.php?showtopic=2253846

People stopped watching as the novelty wore off for them, and as the writing became more and more unfocused. The bottom line is that without the ability to repurpose the show and share the burden better, the $2.5 million an episode they're spending is too much for the advertisers to support. One of the reasons why SG-1 was on so long was that they loss leadered it with the Monday repeats. Once that pure gravy block(which did even better when new eps were on, plus it had over 100 episodes providing almost half a year of "new" episodes) lost its appeal after the 5th or 6th time through the series, and the ratings continued to slip, it no longer was worth it for them to continue. They can't put this show on broadcast syndication, the market is dead. They're their own repeats provider as well.

Bottom line, it is no longer worth it financially to them to continue to finance it, and given the very meh ratings NBC got showing the mini, I doubt they'd pick it up before anyone asks