Any chance Angel & Buffy the Vampire Slayer seasons will ever go Blu Ray?

[jlaavenger]

Any chance Angel & Buffy the Vampire Slayer seasons will ever go Blu Ray? I ask because Target has a great deal on the Standard Def seasons now and I watched Angel Season 5 earlier and the action is extremely cool but it just doesn't up-convert as well as some of my other DVDs.

[solarrdadd]

I am a big Buffy fan and would snatch that up in a heart beat!

[Batman1980]

To be honest, I used to love Buffy and like Angel. Now I have to take frequent breaks during Buffy because the horrible dialogue hurts my head, not sure I could bring myself to make ANOTHER substantial investment in that show. For the right price I would get Angel, that's actually a show I'm putting off on getting due to blu-ray, for now.

[koontz1973]

If they can do ST TOS, then any TV show can be done. Will if be worth it for the studio to lay out the money to re-master them.

[pEgLeG]

I would buy Angel, but pass on Buffy.

[MAPdead]

Give it time they will come.

[t0nythebeat]

Buffy, hell yes! ... Angel no thanks.
I already dished out $250 for my complete buffy set, but I would re-buy all the seasons on blu if necessary.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

I believe that one of the major issues with Buffy is the filming technique. Somehow, I believe that the filming ratio is all messed up for proper transfer. I really can't remember the details, but it has been discussed in great detail on several occasions on these threads... sorry... too tired to look it up.

But, I am with you on this one. IF they do it, I'll be in line the morning it releases.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by koontz1973

If they can do ST TOS, then any TV show can be done. Will if be worth it for the studio to lay out the money to re-master them.

Not necessarily. Star Trek was shot on film. They just rescanned the old film at a higher resolution.

Shows where the live action material was shot on video rather than film will never be able to be truly HD. Technology might advance to the point where high-end upscaling could be hardcoded onto a Blu-ray, but if it's shot in a low resolution native format, you'll never see it truly HD.

The problem here is that many old shows were shot on film, but somewhere along the line, it changed to where most shows were taped. That has only really changed recently where shows that would have been taped before are not shot in digital HD. The funny thing here is that older shows (like Star Trek TOS for example) are going to be more likely to see in HD than something from the 80s or 90s. There are some from the time period that were filmed (like Seinfeld for example), but those are gonna be the exception rather than the rule. I wouldn't expect to see Buffy or Angel any time soon on BD though even if it is filmed; nowhere near enough fanbase to support it.

[TenEightyP]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

I wouldn't expect to see Buffy or Angel any time soon on BD though even if it is filmed; nowhere near enough fanbase to support it.

I am curious as to where you get your information/hard statistics for a lack of fan base for Buffy or Angel, which would prevent a release?

Here in the UK I see many series from the 60's getting a release on SD DVD, where you would expect, given the age there would be little interest, but it happens.

Maybe you will say that your "any time soon" is a disclaimer, but you could say that for many films/TV series and has little or no basis on fan base levels.

For one I really enjoyed Buffy and would like to see it on Blu. I have only ever seen series one of Angel and would welcome that too.

[KenHurd]

I believe the special effects on Buffy were all done in SD, so they would have to redo all of the effects in order to create an HD version. As for Angel, I believe most of the show was already shot in HD, so we'll probably get Angel before we get Buffy.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by TenEightyP

I am curious as to where you get your information/hard statistics for a lack of fan base for Buffy or Angel, which would prevent a release?

Here in the UK I see many series from the 60's getting a release on SD DVD, where you would expect, given the age there would be little interest, but it happens.

DVD is a whole other game.

Plenty of popular, recent shows shot in HD aren't even getting BD releases. Older shows that require additional work to be HD and have already undergone such treatment (such as Seinfeld or Dragon Ball Z) haven't hit BD yet. Star Trek is the only one to have received the treatment AND been released.

Maybe you will say that your "any time soon" is a disclaimer, but you could say that for many films/TV series and has little or no basis on fan base levels.

Obviously nothing is stopping them from putting stuff together down the line, but in the foreseeable future, it's not gonna happen. For things which are a little more niche that haven't already undergone the process for another reason (Seinfeld got it for syndication, DBZ got it for the recent DVD release), it's not gonna happen probably until long after BD has been able to overtake DVD. And what they'd need to do for Buffy would be even more extensive than what they did for Star Trek. If it's true that Angel was shot totally in HD, you probably are more likely to see that earlier, but isn't Angel an example of a show that only has some of the seasons created in HD?

For one I really enjoyed Buffy and would like to see it on Blu. I have only ever seen series one of Angel and would welcome that too.

You're just a drop in the bucket though. They're not going to go through an expensive restoration project for an older show, that despite having a respectable fanbase, wouldn't sell well in a format as "exclusive" as BD. It's more than enough for DVD to support it, but there's no way that they'd move enough BD units for it to be worth their while considering how expensive it would be to produce.

[AxlVanHagar]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

I wouldn't expect to see Buffy or Angel any time soon on BD though even if it is filmed; nowhere near enough fanbase to support it.

I think you're under-estimating the rabid Joss Whedon fanbase that's out there.

[SoCalTiger]

Originally Posted by AxlVanHagar

I think you're under-estimating the rabid Joss Whedon fanbase that's out there.

I think people are also forgetting (or don't know) that Buffy was one of the first (if not the first) TV series ever put in DVD due to the rabid following.

[Clark Kent]

If HD masters already existed of Buffy, it would be out on Blu-ray. Fox has already released Firefly on Blu-ray, a Whedon series with a significantly smaller following. The first two seasons of Buffy were shot on 16mm film and after that all seasons were shot on 35mm film, so yes Buffy would look better in 1080p.

The problem is that the show was edited on standard definition videotape, which means Fox would have to make a substantial investment and go back to the original film and re-edit each show to make a new transfer. It is not out of the realm of possibility. Sony has already done that for Seinfeld and Paramount did it for Star Trek. I suspect when Blu-ray becomes the dominant home video platform, we will see properties like Buffy and Angel on Blu-ray. The potential market is still too small right now, but someday it will be the right size.

[jlaavenger]

Well for anyone interested Target has DVD Season two packs of Buffy and Angel from $14.99 to $19.99 I picked up Angel Seasons #1 and #2 for $19.99 and seasons #3 and #4 for $14.99 today. I already have all seven Buffy Seasons on DVD. But if they ever come to Blu Ray it'll be a blind purchase because the SD DVD's just don't up convert very well.

[Mobe1969]

Yeah, I honestly hope that if they do it, they do it right. But seriously it would need a lot of work. The CG was all done at SD, NTSC. It doesn't even deinterlace very well.

But as funsocaltiger said, it was one of the first series ever released on DVD, along with xfiles, and got the whole ball rolling on TV on DVD.

[djluis2k6]

I would say there's not a good chance that any old show would ever get put onto Blu-Ray, simply because TV Shows on DVD don't exactly fly off the shelves, so it may not be worth it to convert older shows for HD.

[Jeff Kleist]

TV shows on DVD is one of the biggest category there is on home video.

Especially after the reception Firefly got (yes a bunch thanks to too high an SRP) don't expect this to be any kind of priority. These shows were just done before the HD broadcast was priority, and it's already hard enough to convince people to upgrade shows that are still on the air.

So no, its not coming any time soon. Maybe a best-of release if god forbid the Kuzuis get their Whedonless remake off the ground.

Personally I wouldn't mind an HD Once More with Feeling with lossless and an actual karaoke track

[djluis2k6]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

TV shows on DVD is one of the biggest category there is on home video.

As a whole I agree, but no 1 show just outsold crazy enough to make the studios think it would be just as great to go through the trouble of making it in HD.