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I think I'll wait and see if a 4k version comes out and then consider the options.

The live action material for B5 was shot for 16x9 with the 4x3 extraction framing being a priority. All the CGI was rendered at 4x3 "Standard Definition". I believe it was interlaced. They were expecting that when 16x9 displays became sufficiently available to the public that WB would provide funds to redo all the CGI at a higher resolution and at 16x9, instead of the original 4x3 renders. There are various factors to why the CGI material was rendered at 4x3 rather than 16x9 and the main reason was time and cost. When the DVDs were done the 16x9 framing was utilized but as noted by you and others all the CGI material was cropped from the 4x3 masters which results in the clear disparity in visual quality between the pure live action material and any shot that is uses CGI. The B5 HD remastering from what I understand was an absolute labor of love by the team who did it and likely completed it before the recent dark times at WB today. In that they did not have the funds to recreate all the CGI and CGI composites but with their budget they did manage to find and scan the vast majority of the live action 35mm elements. Which is an immense task even with all the possible funding and optimal available materials. The HD 4x3 presentation is a perfectly valid and is an original intended aspect ratio for the show which also makes the best use of the SD CGI material. By opting for the 4x3 framing it really is the best compromise to accommodate the lower quality of all the standard definition materials. If they had gone with 16x9 and replicated the approach used with the widesceen DVDs then the picture quality for all the shots that make use of CGI would appear dramatically inferior. Much of the original CGI working files were lost but a good number of them have been recovered and some fans have made use of them to rerender some shots at greater quality. To why WB did not coordinate with these people, only WB knows. And even if they did, there would still be a lot of material that would have to be redone. On the audio front, from what I understand it is effectively the same as the DVDs. Unfortunately, they did not address some issues even from the DVD mixes and might have introduced an error or two. They should have fixed some audio level disparities which is more evident in Seaon 5, the Credits are extremely loud in comparison to the main programing. There is one episode that has always had poor audio quality and that remains the case with the HD release. As it stands, the current HD presentation of B5 is a miracle that has some shortcomings but accounting for the forest for the trees we are very fortunate to have this release.

Thank for this. I remember they did a "remaster" which was released online in 2021 ? which i think was all A.I. so i was hoping that this would be a proper remaster AND re-render the effects but it still doesnt sound like that.

Nice

AI outpainting could render a widescreen version

can’t really see anything poor video nothing is close up all from a distance

None of the movies or crusade were included i think that is sad

Budget comparison (adjusted for inflation) read it and laugh/weep: - Babylon 5: ~$1,3 million per 45 minute episode - Star Trek TNG: ~$3 million per 45 minute episode - Star Wa(r)s "The Acolyte": ~$22 million per 22-30 minute episode

Having more people at the sides is more important than the full CGI IMO, because it ads more life to the station / scenes.

It is a shame they couldnt do "best of both worlds" and use the 4:3 for the "full CGI" and widescreen for the rest. You just have to "add black bars to the sides of the CGI". There is an example that does this: the german version for the "Robin of Sherwood" series had missing scenes that were 4:3, but ads them on the DVD version. They additionally only have the english language version, which doesnt really matter because you should watch it in english anyways.

Thank you for doing this analysis... I'm still not convinced that I want to get the Blu Ray version.

So, I get that the 4:3 loses the extra side details from the live action shots. But, none of that info was viewable on the original broadcast. I am assuming that the shots were framed for TV sets at the time. Not pan and scan, which is a modified picture. Please confirm...the blu-rays give us the same experience of the original broadcast (with a slightly improved picture quality).

My understanding is when they filmed Banylon 5, they didn't have a high definition monitor to inspect the video output. So while the broadcast video looked fine, the higher definition video was a disaster. It apparently took a long while before the technology was available to fix the series.

It's curious that the image in the Zocolo has the Zocolo sign illuminated in the DVD image but not in the Bluray image. I have no idea why.

Can't tell you how glad I am you were wearing clothes when you filmed the TV

I am watching season 5 on the Bluray at present. I love B5 it is my favourite sci fi series followed by Sapce Above and Beyond. But the Bluray has been a real disappointment for me I was hoping for a really good quality upscaling as well to justify the price but on my old 55 inch sony 4k tv it looks so grainy as if they had some college student working on the Bluray and not real proffessionals. I have seen many old B&W movies done to a really nice high std all it needed was the same passion that the millions of fans have for this series to be put into the Bluray edition. Now yes I still am enjoying watching the series for god knows how many run throughs now but I am really disappointed that they did not take the time to make this series really special.

So i have yet to upgrade my B5 Does the BluRay set contain the Movies?

There is a second weight in the compartment at the back of Zoidzilla's head. This allows the head to drop back so the mouth can open. So, when switched on, he will walk forward, his arms move. His head moves from side to side and the mouth will open. Also his eyes will flash red when the back part is switched on. Amazing piece of engineering for an 80s toy.

29:27 I used to have alot of Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys sets including the Primate Avenger but I sold them cheap. They are now on my to buy list. Btw awesome video mate 🔥👍

thanks for the detailed comparison. shame the love and care given to the DVD release didn't really extend to the latest version... almost feels like a cashgrab...

I have the DVD box sets, surprisingly, I think it's series 3, the booklet is in French.

"The DVD reminds us that analogue film isn't 4:3." Tell that to the thousands of movies produced before the 1960s. The aspect ratio of 35mm film is entirely dependent on how the filmmakers choose to use it.

"Standard film is widescreen by its nature." Do you mean 35mm? The traditional old-timey frame size on 35mm is 1.33:1 Which is not widescreen. To get anything wider, filmmakers have had to come up with a couple of jury-rigs, such as cropping the top or bottom of the frame (1.85:1), or using an anamorphic lens to squeeze a wider image into the frame (2.35:1).

I bought the BluRay as the play copy, so my DVD copy can stay better preserved in a case along with a packet of oxygen absorber.

In a few more years, the AI upscaling built into TVs and smart devices will remaster old shows in real time.

Jetfire was only named ‘Skyfire’ in the original G1 cartoon (plus some Takara Tomy Jetfire toys). All other forms of TF media, comics, cartoons, films, toys are known as Jetfire!

Careful with the DVD version. In my season 4 set I had some repeated discs so have a few episodes missing :(

£30 was a good price for that SHADO 2 . I love UFO stuff and just got the product enterprise SHADO 2 , but made sure it was the "clean" version as someone who did the weathering on the other versions needs to go to specsavers

Art Asylum did some cracking stuff. You should have a look for their series of 3 assimilated borg figures. It tooks me ages to hunt down the full set unopened at a good price. The boxes look like the pods that the borg rested in.

About the on-screen text: it's been re-created on both the DVD & blu-ray, but the blu-ray actually looks a lot closer to the original broadcast. On DVD they changed the font to what they were using in some of the later movies (River of Souls, A Call to Arms). The blu-ray puts it back to the way it should look, just re-rendered in HD. It's actually one of the small touches of the remaster I most appreciate, because they could have easily gone the lazy route of just upscaling the old text.

"I will throw up at points in this video", lol. You made be do a spit take!

It was convenient for the broadcast TV of the time, but the entire "shoot it on film, finish it on video" mantra has locked some great TV away in Video Hell (TM), unfortunately. Thank goodness Paramount/CBS Digital were willing to eat the expense to give us TNG in all its glory, going back to the Edit Decision Lists (EDLs) to re-edit every episode, rather than just upscaling the finished video product. Also, sticking with the 4:3 aspect ratio instead of "pushing in" was the right call. Give me the OG. I am afraid because of the added elements of lower res, digital CGI elements, we'll likely never get DS9 and Voyager.

This is some really useful info, thanks. I do love B5 and have been toying with picking up the Blu Ray set for a while but the lack of extras and additional films had always put me off. I'm happy I did wait after this review, it is likely I will snag it one day but am now more than happy to wait until I see it for a really competetive price.

A mild irony given the aspect ratio on everything else, I just looked at the Gathering before putting the Blu Rays away and as I imagined it's the TNT Special Edition, but it isn't cropped! Which makes we wonder if its CGI was done in widescreen by exception because it was made as a proof of concept, or if they adopted the DVD approach to life and just used a chunk of the CGI instead. Answers on a virtual postcard...

I watched maybe three or four episodes of B5 when it was on, but for some reason a couple of shorts came through recently, and for some reason I decided to watch this, and it was very useful 🙂

Thanks for all your comments. They prompted me to go and check something, which was that my DVD set is missing the 4 minutes of rather vital footage from the Season 5 episode The Fall of Centauri Prime from before the intro starting! Apparently it's a problem that affected some of the issues of that box set, but happily I do at least now have it on Blu Ray - I've checked! I also found it was hilariously difficult to get to the season 5 discs on the Blu Ray (someone trying to tell us something?!) and that I was fractionally wrong about extras - if you peer underneath the paper insert of the plastic box, you get - episode listings! Plus mention of The Gathering's inclusion (last disc in the box ironically) and a trailer for The Road Home!

I picked up the VHS set for 3 pounds Yes all 5 seasons they didn't want any videos in the shop any longer

Thanks for making my mind up , i was thinking of getting the blurays, i wont do it now, i love the dvds for the extras, the commentsries especially

Luckily all extras except the commentaries are on the final disc of the dvd sets so when I got the blu ray set I took all the last disc of the sets and put them all in the season 1 case, also unfortunately some of the older dvd copies where printed at that 1 factory of WB disc that is responsible fire most of the dvd disc rot people are finding today

They Missed out the Movies aswell !! So unlike the Complete DVD boxset that had all the Movies and Crusade Series , This set only has the Pilot Movie only :(

A great and very useful comparison video. Thanks for your thoughts and observations on the Blu-ray. I love B5 (it is in fact my favourite ever show), however since I already own the DVD sets, and I knew the Blu-ray was disappointingly 4:3, I still haven't bought the new version yet. On balance, I don't think I'll bother (unless the price drops through the floor of course), and instead I'll continue to hope for a full-on re-render of the CGI in 16:9 in the future, followed by a bells and whistles re-release on Blu-ray finally giving us all of the show in the highest quality. With the advent of AI to assist Warners, it can't be that difficult, surely?

My biggest gripe with this UK BD boxset is the packaging which is beyond awful with possibly the worst stacking of discs of any boxset I currently own (although Space 1999 Season 1 on DVD from Network comes close but has far less discs). It's Warners being el cheapo in my opinion. Just taking the discs out is a chore not to mention having to reorder discs in order to get to the one I want. It is terrible. 0 out of 10 for packaging from me. I'd have happily paid an extra fiver or tenner for individually boxed seasons. As for the image, it's as good as we are ever going to get and I'd rather have the original 4:3 aspect ratio maintained rather than having the dated CGI zoomed in and looking even worse. I mean I have enjoyed Space 1999 and UFO on BD in 4:3 so it doesn't bother me at all. Besides I watch TV and movies in a dark room and on an OLED TV that black bars are invisible so are quickly forgotten.

The biggest problem with a mixed aspect ratio release would have been those composited shots. I remember that quite a few shots were cropped poorly on dvd with parts of the faces cut off, etc. And as far as I know the original tapes for those scenes are no longer available, so it wouldn‘t be possible to recreate the composition with new effects. Personally I rather have the HD 4:3 than the 16:9 DVDs. The missing extras are a real shame, though. Regarding the scenes that are missing ftom the HBO streaming version, could you give us an update if they corrected that for the new release, when you find out?

Just my 2 cents and how I do things. - I don't give a crap about nice labels on the discs. They get out of the case and into the player. And In my case I rip/remux them and are stored on my fileserver. The case is rarely pulled from the shelf anymore. - It would have been nice to have CGI in 4:3 and the live action in 16:9. As you've shown in the side by side, the 16:9 shows more on the sides. - The CGI not being re-rendered is something that, to my knowledge, is rarely done? It's also the reason Star Trek Voyager isn't out on Blu-ray because they couldn't upscale properly because of the use of CGI. At least, that's how I understood it at the time. And if for both shows the original files are lost, you can't just render them again but in a higher resolution. - The missing extra's/commentary is a thing, for some. Personally I don't watch them, really. Especially since I rip/remux everything. I did buy a standalone player again recently, first time in 10 years I think since I used one, so I did watch some extra's on movies I've played so far. - Menu with animations. I'd rather not have them so browsing them is quicker. Anyway, that's it for me.

I see the dvd sets often at places that sell secondhand dvds, usually going for around $10-15. It's hard to argue with the cost when you're getting all those great commentaries, and the widescreen looks really nice. The loss of cg detail is definitely felt whenever I've watched the dvds on a larger screen. I watched the hd versions on tubi for the first time and I'm glad it was the 4:3 version; I think it comes off as a bit more polished from a newcomer's perspective.

I’ve got those beautiful toys mint with popy Italian boxes even the famous dx gatcha spartan mint with Italian box too.I bought those toys 25 years before and expensive now

Great video, not many in-depth reviews of this Blu ray release. They definitely put more effort into DVD back in the day.

Bucky O’Hare carded figures are modern sir :)

Jesus dude!!! How? Seriously, how did you get this done so quick??? I’ve just finished editing at 12.20am and set it to process!!! You’re a fooking MACHINE!!! Sorry but gonna have to catch this later, bed is calling lol

Sorry I couldn't be there mate to have a meet up, the wife was called into work. Looked awesome, n will defo try to have a meet up at sometime ether Doncaster or Cosmics