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Yeah, the Vudu versions are a far better experience than the DVDs, as I found out during my current rewatch. The composite shots and CGI are so much less distracting as they're not blown up and cropped. There's 3 episodes in the entire show that are 16:9 letterboxed on Vudu (probably couldn't acquire the 4:3 original), so I'd use the DVDs instead for these: S1E14, S3E10, S5E22. edit: At least S5E3 is also widescreen. Zat fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Jul 27, 2020 |
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Jul 23, 2020 12:29
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Son of Sam-I-Am posted:Are the other movies included as well, or is it just The Gathering, as the pilot? I don't actually know. Vudu is not available where I live, so I had to use other means to get to it, and I only have the main show.
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Jul 23, 2020 12:58
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ultrafilter posted:Looks like vudu doesn't actually have the movies (other than the pilot). It's still considerably cheaper to buy that and get those from Amazon. And again Vudu has the superior 4:3 versions of all but a handful of episodes (only about 4 episodes + the pilot movie are 16:9). I don't think the 4:3 versions are available anywhere else legally, so that's a great deal.
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Aug 8, 2020 18:46
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Son of Sam-I-Am posted:I think the main new viewers in this thread are past it already, but on the DVDs and probably therefore also Amazon streaming, the first couple of episodes of season 2 have an incorrect title sequence that displays a spoiler, while the version on Vudu has the correct sequence for these episodes. The PAL DVDs also have the correct title sequences. Only the NTSC DVDs have the wrong one in the first few episodes of season 2.
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Aug 14, 2020 18:04
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Lemniscate Blue posted:This, as I understand the situation, is due to the same missing masters issues that make an HD remaster impossible. Still, the 4:3 version on Vudu makes those composite scenes look a lot better than the widescreen version even though they're probably from the same transfer, just not zoomed in and cropped. I can't recommend the Vudu version enough to anyone who has that option.
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Sep 27, 2020 19:30
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hope and vaseline posted:Not as of yet, it was listed as March apparently I believe Swedish Discshop was one of the primary sources of this rumor, and they've since pushed the tentative release date back to the year's end, Dec 31, 2021. So probably not coming all that soon.
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Jan 27, 2021 14:44
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Empress Brosephine posted:Oh yeah, how crazy is it that I want to buy the DVDs and watch this on my ps2 connected to a crt. Bad idea or great idea? Pretty bad because the DVDs look like dogshit, much worse than the original TV airing, due to certain technical choices they made while mastering the DVDs. If you have the choice, watch the version that's on Prime Video / HBO Max / Hulu. It's a much more authentic experience but also HD.
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Mar 8, 2021 01:21
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Hollismason posted:Goddamn I'm at Season 1 Episode 23 Goddamn what a episode I don't remember any of this its so loving good goddamn Btw, just a suggestion you might want to use episode names instead of numbers because they're sometimes slightly rearranged or renumbered in various sources. In this case though it's obvious you mean Chrysalis or the season finale, which is the only episode that can be "episode 23" in a season that actually has 22 episodes not counting The Gathering which came a year before the series proper premiered. e: This probably only applies to seasons 1 and 2. The rest of them seem to be consistent. Zat fucked around with this message at 10:38 on Sep 23, 2021 |
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Sep 23, 2021 08:29
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Jedit posted:Sounds like someone fluffed the numbering, because pilots are generally episode 00. That would be HBO Max, they took some liberties. https://b5remasterissues.wordpress.com/the-ugly/episode-order-changes/ & https://b5remasterissues.wordpress.com/the-ugly/the-gathering/
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Sep 23, 2021 09:22
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Lawman 0 posted:Just picked this up and holy poo poo is the cgi terrible It does get better, but it's still a product of its time. Also if you started with the pilot movie, The Gathering, it looks even worse than the actual series even in season 1.
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Oct 17, 2021 12:43
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Lawman 0 posted:Oh lol that's what I did. Yeah, HBO Max is a bit silly to not point it out that The Gathering is the pilot and pretty much an optional curiosity rather than the actual start of the show. Or failing to mention that it's not remastered unlike the rest of the show. HBO even messes around a bit with the episode order in the first two seasons, which is questionable as well but I don't think it ruins anything.
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Oct 17, 2021 13:41
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Jedit posted:There's somewhere between nine and thirteen episodes that really need to be watched in the right order. What's the HBO order? https://b5remasterissues.wordpress.com/the-ugly/episode-order-changes/
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Oct 17, 2021 13:52
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Vavrek posted:Is the pilot hard to find? Not on a streaming service? I have DVDs (or, I have a family member I can borrow DVDs from), so I haven't looked deeply into where B5 can be found these days. At least it's on HBO Max in the US (in fact they consider it episode 1 of season 1 of the series, which is a little silly.)
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Nov 21, 2021 16:26
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Powered Descent posted:...It looks like the ambiguity about the viewing order is mostly a season 1 thing and it gets better later on, yes? Season 2 is also slightly rearranged on HBO. Still not particularly good changes, but IMO they don't actively hurt the experience either. Seasons 3 to 5 are unchanged.
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Jan 12, 2022 00:00
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Winifred Madgers posted:I'm not sure how it is on the streaming services, someone else will have to assist, but due to laziness or ignorance on the part of the people encoding the DVDs, there is a moderate spoiler in the opening credits for the first episode or two of season 2. If I were you, I would wait to get confirmation on whatever service you're using before plowing ahead. It's only an issue on the original US DVDs. The issue was never present on any streaming platform (nor the European DVDs).
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Jan 17, 2022 23:45
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Chevy Slyme posted:River of souls yes, call to arms, eh can go either way, hard no on lost tales/legend/the half season of Crusade we got. I agree and personally would only watch River of Souls (if even that) before the series finale.
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Feb 8, 2022 10:54
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CainFortea posted:Most of B5's intros are pertinent to the story, but they are the same through the season. So if you see it once, you're good for that season. But I believe the first 1/4 of season 2 SHOULD be skipped on streaming platforms because it actually spoils something in that season. It doesn't. The only place where this was an issue was the original US DVD box set. The European DVDs and all the streaming services ever since have the correct intro without the spoiler you're talking about.
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Feb 25, 2022 23:58
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alexandriao posted:My folks have been doing 3 a night and I haven't been able to keep up with having a life, and watching in advance, so now we are on season 4 and i forgot all my critiques and stuff You don't need to worry about us readers keeping up with the plot, so who cares if there's gaps. Just post whatever whenever you feel like it.
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Mar 13, 2022 12:09
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TK-42-1 posted:Except TKO…. It's OK to skip it on a rewatch if you really can't stand it, but hell no you shouldn't skip it on your first watchthrough.
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May 20, 2022 15:00
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sebmojo posted:Can someone link that? I've lost it. B5 spoiler thread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3785889
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Jun 13, 2022 11:27
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Angepain posted:this would have owned, i assume it was the suits being afraid of depicting anything that could have been taken as queer themes that did it in? Technical limitations. JMS wasn't happy with the results of making Delenn's voice sound more male, so he scrapped the idea during the post-production of The Gathering, the pilot movie. But you can still see it in Mira Furlan's weird facial makeup in The Gathering.
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Jun 13, 2022 12:58
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boofhead posted:Yes sorry, I think I made it a bit too unclear - I figured out relatively quickly that it was the pilot which I'd missed, but left the notes I'd made so far and just came back and watched it some other time. I think apart from that weird hiccough I've been watching in order. I think all the movies come after the show, right? Except for the pilot, The Gathering, which I guess I should have watched first Yeah, I see no problem. Also you were not unclear about it; someone just missed your edit about the pilot I guess. The movies In the Beginning, Thirdspace & The River of Souls were released after Season 4, but they're mostly pretty unnecessary anyway (ITB is pretty good). But yeah, keep doing what you're doing!
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Feb 26, 2023 15:28
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Chevy Slyme posted:Sure, and if someone is going to watch just that and then watch the back end of season 4 and season 5, it’s a perfectly fine clif notes or whatever. And given the realities of how television broadcasting worked in 1996, without streaming or even easily and affordable available DVD boxed sets, it’s great that it was written for that purpose. I agree and wouldn't personally recommend it, but it was in fact JMS's stated opinion at least at the time that ItB makes for a good introduction to the whole series for newbies. JMS quotes: "If you want to play it as a strict mystery, then no, probably don't go near ItB...but frankly, if I were going to start someone off on B5, I'd definitely want to start with ItB, which sort of skims in and out of the overall storyline in a beautiful fashion." "ItB contains surprises and turnarounds for many of the series veteran fans, and it does a great job of laying the foundation for the first two seasons for the newbies."
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Feb 28, 2023 19:27
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Torrannor posted:The show's creator, JMS, wrote the script for most of the episodes. I think he wrote all season 3 episodes, and the vast majority of season 2 and season 4 episodes. He wrote all of season 4 too. And even season 5 has only 1 episode not written by him, plus 2 others with a credited co-storywriter. It is quite crazy.
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Mar 16, 2023 09:45
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A funny sort of recommendation for someone looking for more B5 is Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning, a full-length Star Trek / B5 crossover parody movie from 2005 made by a bunch of Finnish college kids who could do some incredible CG sequences but also manage to be genuinely funny pretty often. However, it should not be watched until you've seen everything B5 up to and including A Call to Arms (the movie) due to all the references. This is the complete movie with optional English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GOoMowFpZs Zat fucked around with this message at 11:15 on May 31, 2023 |
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May 31, 2023 09:33
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Yup, there's no problem at all watching them before season 5. "Middle of season 5" seems downright strange.
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Oct 5, 2023 22:56
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TitusGroen posted:For a show this beloved, you'd think this wouldn't be this hard. I just want to know which version to watch! This is easy to answer at this point: watch the Blu-ray version (or that same remaster as a digital version). It is the superior home video release, no question. It is still not perfect – aside from not having the expanded 16:9 ratio, the CGI space shots now have a slightly juddery movement due to being converted from 30 to 24 fps with little care. But it's an all around enjoyable and consistent presentation and likely the best we're ever going to get. As for the DVD releases, they are rear end. Here's a detailed breakdown of how and why. Actually avoid this link unless you're OK with spoilery screenshots: https://www.modeemi.fi/~leopold/Babylon5/DVD/DVDTransfer.html Zat fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Dec 9, 2023 |
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Dec 9, 2023 22:22
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TitusGroen posted:Ohhh, I see. I could accept mediocre space fluff CGI but if they were using composite shots and those are cropped to zoom in for widescreen then I'll go with the 4:3 remaster. Oh absolutely. There is simply no reason to pay for the DVD version at this point; it is so much worse than the hi-def remaster. It was barely acceptable when it was the only choice. The new remaster is great, even despite its small flaws. Zat fucked around with this message at 11:15 on Dec 10, 2023 |
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Dec 10, 2023 11:04
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Platonicsolid posted:I have the DVD from....20 years ago? Certainly when that's all that was on the market. Worth replacing with the Blu-ray? If you can stomach the price and plan to rewatch the series, then sure. It's easily the best version out there. The DVDs were such an inconsistent experience, where the normal filmed stuff looked good while all the composite VFX shots looked horrible and the space stuff looked problematic too. The Blu-ray brings back the consistent visual quality from the original broadcast version but now in HD.
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Dec 10, 2023 14:26
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Mega Comrade posted:Did Mira Fulan get sick of makeup? Delenn's metamorphosis was always intended to happen, but in fact it was originally planned to also include changing her gender from male to female. This plan was dropped during the production of the pilot. e:f,b
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Jan 21, 2024 19:13
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