Any rumors about Buffy the Vampire Slayer show coming out on Blu-ray?

[Nico Darko]

A few screencaps for eps 4x15 and 4x16.

It seems all the CGI shot are upscaled from SD (no sign of special effect re-rendered in HD this season). The last shot of Faith (4x16) is also (surprisingly) an upscale.

[Nico Darko]

The colors/gamma for season 4 might still be far from perfect, but at least it seems the remastering team is doing a good job removing the 16:9 'goofs' from the frame. It would be even better if they could paint them out digitally instead of zooming, but we can appreciate the effort.

Here are a few examples from episodes 4x15 and 4x16.

Region 2 DVD version vs Pivot HD version (low resolution):

[flofoux]

It is really hard to get access to Pivot HD through FilmOn I can't record any episode tonight. I have recorded only 3 episodes so far and I'm waiting to have more before uploading them. If someone can help that would be great I will also have to convert them because each episode is around 4,5 Go...This is what I managed to get...

From the episode "New Moon Rising" S04E19

[Nico Darko]

[Show spoiler]

Oh and while the screencaps I just posted are nicely zoomed-in, just enough to hide the goof and not more, I really don't get why this one from ep 4x14 has such a huge zoom. You can see (a small part of) a lighting equipment on the left side, but you only needed a minimal zoom-in a hide it, not like what they did.





So yeah, there is improvement, but there are still some random choices happening that I don't get.

[Buffdale]

The 4th season just ended on Pivot. The last ones are surely the most beautiful episodes of the season! Unfortunately, gamma must be adjusted. A little lower and everything will be perfect! Another thing... Shots with special effects are still upscalled. The worst is that an entire scene from "Restless" is upscalled. This is the one in Xander's truck with Anya. The quality is very poor! About season 5, I think we'll have to be patient again. Pivot is currently broadcasting the old version!



Full size: http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/339473BuffyHD.jpg



Full size: http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/846136BuffyHD.jpg

[samukas]

Originally Posted by Buffdale

This is the one in Alex's truck with Anya.

Someone has watched "Buffy Contre les Vampire" too many times

I'm curious how they've handled the several widescreen issues in Restless. The one in the truck is especially going to look pretty bad if they've upscaled, EE'd and cropped the hell out of it.

[Buffdale]

Originally Posted by samukas

Someone has watched "Buffy Contre les Vampire" too many times

I'm curious how they've handled the several widescreen issues in Restless. The one in the truck is especially going to look pretty bad if they've upscaled, EE'd and cropped the hell out of it.

Oops! Thanks I changed it. I was pretty tired.

Well you can see this scene in my screencaptures. Willow/Tara' shots in the truck are upscalled too off course :/.

About the goofs: we don't see the cheeseman before his entrance anymore during Buffy's dream. Well... Every goofs have been cropped out.

[samukas]

Originally Posted by Buffdale

About the goofs: we don't see the cheeseman before his entrance anymore during Buffy's dream. Well... Every goofs have been cropped out.

Good! Have we seen any "widescreen goof" at all in season 4 so far? No, right?

This whole thing is "interesting", in a bad way.
They are getting better at some things as they go, so that means we should get one perfectly remastered season... the last one. Mark my words

[Buffdale]

Samukas : I think all the goof are corrected for this season . Even the shot when Forrest is holding the flammable thing but his arms aren't there (4x21).

4x15 This Year's Girl DVD vs Pivot HD (low resolution):



Full size: http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/586384BuffyHD1.jpg

4x15 This Year's Girl DVD vs Pivot HD (low resolution):
- The gamma is still wrong a little. You can see my edits in the third column.
- Nothing particular to say about this episode. Some very slight cropping here and there, and the special effects shots are upscaled (with bad edge enhancement as usual).

[Nico Darko]

Originally Posted by samukas

Have we seen any "widescreen goof" at all in season 4 so far? No, right?

Well I've only been able to watch 2 eps on Filmon.

But I did notice one in "Who Are You?". You can see Willow on the left of the shot, and you hear her talking, but her lips are not moving on screen (you don't see her in the 4:3 version). This happens several times in the 16:9 dvds. I find it even more distracting than having equipment in the shot. I wish they could fix these as well:

[samukas]

Ahah!
I had mentioned that one from the DVDs here here.

Well, at least they are consistent at being inconsistent...

[Buffdale]

4x22 Restless DVD vs Pivot HD (low resolution):



Full size: http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/448305BuffyHD1.jpg

- Here we are. I dare say this is the most successfully remastered episode so far. Is everything perfect? No, because the special effect shots are still upscaled (hence the (entire) awful looking scene in Xander's truck with Anya!). But the colors/gamma/brightness are spot on! You can see in the edit column that there are really few screencaps that I had to edit. And it's pretty hard to see it anyway. I think the most noticeable one is the second one.
- Look at some screencaptures! Giles' close-up is perfect!
- Congratulations to the remastering team for removing a lot of "goofs" this season. It would be better if it was digitally erased but... Well...

[Nico Darko]

I wonder if they really got better (and finally heard about the negative reactions), or if the better result is just because season 4 was easier to remaster, and they were more aware of the "goofs" because of the PAL dvds.

Seeing how close the colors in "Restless" are to the original, I'd like to think they did get better at their job. But I certainly don't want to be too optimistic.

[CatBus]

Originally Posted by Nico Darko

Seeing how close the colors in "Restless" are to the original, I'd like to think they did get better at their job. But I certainly don't want to be too optimistic.

The DNR also seems fairly well under control too, although that seems to come and go. I'd rather have upscaled VFX than sloppily redone HD VFX, so all in all the direction is positive. At this rate, I figure by season 6, we've got a decent chance of seeing an episode with the correct aspect ratio

[Buffdale]

Originally Posted by CatBus

The DNR also seems fairly well under control too, although that seems to come and go.

Our screencaptures come from a very low resolution video. So we can't say anything about DNR for season 3 and 4 .

[Buffdale]

Here's some screencaptures of "Superstar" (4x17).



Full size: http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/754346BuffyHD.jpg

[Geoff D]

SO glad to see they took care of the widescreen goofs in Restless, and the framing of those shots looks better too because it's hewing closer to what the original width of the composition was intended to be. As much as I hate all this 'opened up widescreen' bullshit, I'll accept a remastered HD widescreen version - in lieu of no remastered HD 4:3 being made available - just as long as they take care of the the goofs. And yes, it's probably because the errors in S4 onwards are that much more well known that they've been corrected.

[NileQT87]

Ugh, did you really say that you'd rather have the sides chopped off in 16:9 rather than opened up? Gross. You do realize that you have to chop of the top and bottom to do that, right? Sorry, but more picture is better.

I prefer the fully opened-up 16:9 versions (yes, even over the 4:3 when we're not LOSING image). And half of those "errors", especially equipment in the Initiative, aren't even worth taking out, because it looks like it belongs there. I'd much prefer them to paint stuff out rather than crop it out (which causes loss of image--and some of these examples would only need painting out in otherwise pitch black areas!). And further more, they're editing out stuff like that season 2 graveyard light that was right there in the original (and nowhere close to the cathode ray tube television area).

And that doesn't even explain why most of these godawful crops are extremely far into the image and have nothing to do with interferences. This is just the old hack editor who is in love with closeups (even if it lops off a few heads, cuts someone nearly out of the image in an attempt to zoom in on someone and turns far away shots into closeups). Restless here has a lot of unnecessary zooms just because somebody likes closeups again.

I can't believe people are applauding this cropping just because it took out a few mistakes (but usually way further into the image than necessary). It's as bad as the early seasons again.

[Buffdale]

Originally Posted by NileQT87

Ugh, did you really say that you'd rather have the sides chopped off in 16:9 rather than opened up? Gross. You do realize that you have to chop of the top and bottom to do that, right? Sorry, but more picture is better.

I prefer the fully opened-up 16:9 versions (yes, even over the 4:3 when we're not LOSING image). And half of those "errors", especially equipment in the Initiative, aren't even worth taking out, because it looks like it belongs there. I'd much prefer them to paint stuff out rather than crop it out (which causes loss of image--and some of these examples would only need painting out in otherwise pitch black areas!). And further more, they're editing out stuff like that season 2 graveyard light that was right there in the original (and nowhere close to the cathode ray tube television area).

And that doesn't even explain why most of these godawful crops are extremely far into the image and have nothing to do with interferences. This is just the old hack editor who is in love with closeups (even if it lops off a few heads, cuts someone nearly out of the image in an attempt to zoom in on someone and turns far away shots into closeups). Restless here has a lot of unnecessary zooms just because somebody likes closeups again.

I can't believe people are applauding this cropping just because it took out a few mistakes (but usually way further into the image than necessary). It's as bad as the early seasons again.

Sure I would prefer them to paint stuff out but they can't even do special effect shots right so...

From Pivot (nothing new):
"I checked with our Programming team and we just have the season five episodes that are currently listed on our schedule. We will be putting up the new HD episodes as quickly as we get them from the distributor, so exact dates for future episodes has yet be determined. "

[StingingVelvet]

Or hey release it in the 4:3 it was framed for and anyone who cares more about filling their TV than cinematography can go spit ("Riggs!").