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

[spanky87]

I checked the last two seasons of Buffy on Disney Plus and thought they looked better and were legit HD compared to how the old Amazon rips looked. Since my projector has a “blanking” option I’m able to add black bars to the sides of the screen to make the image 4:3, so on my latest series rewatch I switched over from the dvds to watch Seasons 6 and 7 on Disney Plus. After doing that, the only issue is that the VFX shots are clearly upscaled SD.

Obviously still not ideal given that I have to crop the image myself to get the proper ratio, and the VFX shots stand out as being upscaled, but I thought it was better than watching the dvds.

The earlier seasons still appear to be an unwatchable mess of cropping, DNR, and color timing though.

[Nico Darko]

Seasons 5-6-7 do look better than the previous ones, but you still get absurd cropping, a lot of color issues (s6 in particular) and the DNR is still very noticeable.

Here's a comparison for season 6, I checked and Disney+ has the same version, it only looks slightly better because the bitrate is higher:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...5894225&type=3

[KyahCA]

They really had no reason to crop any of the later seasons as they were already available in widescreen for the UK releases. So dumb.

[RdCrestdBreegull]

I have the full United States Buffy DVD set and am currently watching season 3.

Are seasons 6 and 7 intended by the director to be 4:3? Or 16:9? I am reading that the region 1 DVDs for seasons 6 and 7 are in 4:3 while regions 2 and 4 are in 16:9. Are the region 1 DVDs open-matte, or cropped? Just want to make sure when I get to seasons 6 and 7 that I'm watching them the right way.

[Farerb]

Originally Posted by RdCrestdBreegull

I have the full United States Buffy DVD set and am currently watching season 3.

Are seasons 6 and 7 intended by the director to be 4:3? Or 16:9? I am reading that the region 1 DVDs for seasons 6 and 7 are in 4:3 while regions 2 and 4 are in 16:9. Are the region 1 DVDs open-matte, or cropped? Just want to make sure when I get to seasons 6 and 7 that I'm watching them the right way.

They are all intended to be in 4:3 aspect ratio. This is the only correct way to watch the show, as it is in the region 1 DVDs.

[RdCrestdBreegull]

Do you know if the season 1 DVDs for seasons 6 and 7 are open-matte, or cropped? Just curious.

[Farerb]

Originally Posted by RdCrestdBreegull

Do you know if the season 1 DVDs for seasons 6 and 7 are open-matte, or cropped? Just curious.

They filmed seasons 4-7 in 16:9, but they always intended to crop them, so yes, the region 1 DVDs are cropped and region 2 are open matte and you see more image, but it's not intended to be seen and sometimes you get to see crew members, equipment or missing visual effect.

[RdCrestdBreegull]

Thank you so much for explaining. I feel good about my DVDs, but unfortunately the first two seasons have been skipping pretty bad in some places so I may have to replace those two seasons.

[Farerb]

Originally Posted by RdCrestdBreegull

Thank you so much for explaining. I feel good about my DVDs, but unfortunately the first two seasons have been skipping pretty bad in some places so I may have to replace those two seasons.

I already had to replace season 2 and season 7 because I had discs with scratches. The unfortunate thing with these DVDs is that they are extremely sensitive.

[waxlion]

Bad HD version have been places back on Vudu. I owned Once More With Feeling on vudu to have an anamorphic widescreen version of the episode, but it’s now been changed to the shorter cut of the episode, unfortunately.

[rikraq]

Originally Posted by waxlion

Bad HD version have been places back on Vudu. I owned Once More With Feeling on vudu to have an anamorphic widescreen version of the episode, but it’s now been changed to the shorter cut of the episode, unfortunately.

Yeah. I had purchased the series on Vudu way back, but hadn't watched it in a while. I go to watch the Halloween episodes today and it is the awful HD versions even though it says I purchased SD. Everything looks so bright and washed out. Really annoys me.

ETA: And I honestly don't remember there being that Season 8 when I bought it.

[KyahCA]

It’s so sad to hear how all digital versions of Buffy are being replaced with the awful remaster. Hold onto your DVDs, folks!

[salmonberry]

Does anyone know what the DVD menus for the UK release of Buffy are like? I read somewhere that the UK releases have marginally better PQ because they didn't contain those ridiculous CGI crypt renderings and character montages before each episode. Before I pull the trigger on a purchase, I wanted to confirm if that was true for the 2017 UK release, or if I should be tracking down some other release instead.

Right now, I have the '02-'04 individual US releases, but I don't mind going region free or double dipping for Buffy, as it's my favorite show!

[Nico Darko]

Originally Posted by salmonberry

Does anyone know what the DVD menus for the UK release of Buffy are like? I read somewhere that the UK releases have marginally better PQ because they didn't contain those ridiculous CGI crypt renderings and character montages before each episode. Before I pull the trigger on a purchase, I wanted to confirm if that was true for the 2017 UK release, or if I should be tracking down some other release instead.

The menus are the same. And the picture quality is much better on the US dvds. The UK dvds use PAL masters than are converted from the NTSC masters, sometimes similar in quality, sometimes clearly inferior.

Comparisons here: https://www.facebook.com/BuffyHD/pos...qdh97o76SRqv5l

[salmonberry]

Originally Posted by Nico Darko

The menus are the same. And the picture quality is much better on the US dvds.

Thank you for the context! Glad to hear I already have the best version available.

[Farerb]

I have both the UK and the US DVDs and the only season I recommend buying the UK DVD is season 6 in order to watch Once More With Feeling correctly (not letter boxed).

[Farerb]

Originally Posted by Nico Darko

Comparisons here: https://www.facebook.com/BuffyHD/pos...qdh97o76SRqv5l

It says content unavailable.

[Nico Darko]

Oh yeah, the facebook page is temporarily unavailable. Here it is:


We often get asked what the best dvd version is, so here's a clear answer. The US region 1 dvds have by far the best picture quality. Yes PAL dvds have a higher resolution, but in Buffy's case they are simply NTSC copies converted, sometimes not very well, meaning a loss of quality. Here's a summary, with links to screenshot comparisons:

Seasons 1 and 2:
Region 2 dvds stretched vertically, slight crop on the bottom, and on the sides for season 2. Lower picture quality.

https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/8381
https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/8382

Season 3: Even lower quality for R2 dvds compared to R1. Slightly cropped on both sides.

https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=4133
https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/8383

Season 5: 16:9 for R2 dvds but lower picture quality.

https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=1157

Seasons 4-6-7: 16:9 for R2 dvds, still not as good in quality as R1, but the last two seasons get close. The musical episode is the only episode that looks better on R2 dvds, since it is anamorphic widescreen (R1 is non-anamorphic).

https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/8384
https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/8385


EDIT: The Facebook page is back.

[batman2000]

I hope the Disney home media news might mean maybe something anything good for Buffy even if it’s a glimmer of hope. Ps. the screenshotcomparsion.com links are dead I think the site might be permanently dead this time.

[Uptight]

I wish they would do at least Angel (1999-2003, 5 seasons) first, if Buffy is more demanding $$$$$ and complex to do it.

As far as I know the 1st season was only released in 4:3 for all DVDs (including those from Europe).

http://dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=1572

Starting on S02, all of them in 16:9, except for a few countries:

http://dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=1911

I came across some files claimed to be upscales from the DVDs (all seasons) and for seasons 1 and 5, extracted from Amazon (streaming?), the first one in Wide.

And indeed Season 1 is that way. But not all of it.

Note: if the image is fuzzy, that's because it was edited to be in the 1080p resolution.

A few comparisons:

1x01 from AMZ:



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And DVD:



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1x09 from Amazon (the WS is cut and/or zoomed, looks like that scene was not framed for Wide, while 4:3 is open-matte):




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And DVD:



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Same episode, more for the Wide version, from Amazon:



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DVD:



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1x22:



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DVD:



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5x09 - the only difference for this entire season is more brightness for the streaming version, the DVD looks darker.



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DVD:



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