BABYLON 5 | REMASTERED | WATCH NOW ON HBO MAX

[DeeCee]

Here is the thread for furious agreement on the great Babylon 5.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtrUhIuEqdY

 

JMS

[DeeCee]

I just found out about this.  Very sad and sheds a whole new light.

 

http://www.blastr.com/2013-5-28/straczynski-reveals-moving-story-why-michael-ohare-left-babylon-5

[Plain Old Tele]

I just found out about this.  Very sad and sheds a whole new light.

 

http://www.blastr.com/2013-5-28/straczynski-reveals-moving-story-why-michael-ohare-left-babylon-5

 

Yes, I saw that a few months ago. I remember such an uproar in the B5 fan-community (including a lot of shit getting slung at JMS by a few angry people). Kudos to him and O'Hare for how they handled the situation -- very sad overall.

[Plain Old Tele]

One of the reasons I fell in love, btw, with B5 was because JMS had such a significant online presence. Here was a guy who was in the middle of making this personal project... yet from when the pilot was greenlit onwards, he was online interacting with fans, pitching the show to them, explaining characters, answering questions, giving hints about what might come... and this continued -- extraordinarily -- through the entire 5-season run. In the same way that B5 essentially pioneered the long-running arcs of serialized storytelling for American TV, JMS pioneered the online creator/fan interaction that so many others -- Whedon, Lindelof/Cuse, Ron Moore -- followed through on afterwards.

 

Almost all of JMS' posts -- from the CompuServe and GEnie days onwards -- are archived at JMSnews.com. They're a fascinating way to explore how the story all came together and the entire process from pilot to series finale, without the veil of hindsight or nostalgia. 

[DeeCee]

Yes, I saw that a few months ago. I remember such an uproar in the B5 fan-community (including a lot of shit getting slung at JMS by a few angry people). Kudos to him and O'Hare for how they handled the situation -- very sad overall.

Back in the day I remember lurking at the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5.  I was just looking through the main cast and it's quite sad the number who have now passed away.

[Plain Old Tele]

Back in the day I remember lurking at the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5.  I was just looking through the main cast and it's quite sad the number who have now passed away.

 

The Lurker's Guide is invaluable -- I used to love going there. (And they actually got into the show, as a little easter egg: since the at-large population in Down Below got nicknamed "lurkers".)

 

A fair amount of JMS' online posts are copied at the Guide, handily split up in reference to each episode.

[DeeCee]

I had to be careful going there because episodes were often broadcast here many months after they were shown in the US.  

 

The dark ages before there were other methods.

[terrestrial]

Maybe changing the title to show its at HBO Max and in 4k,now?

[Plain Old Tele]

@DeeCee yeah, promote that it’s on HBO Max. (It’s not 4K, tho, @terrestrial, no matter what they say. Alas.)

[terrestrial]

55 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

@DeeCee yeah, promote that it’s on HBO Max. (It’s not 4K, tho, @terrestrial, no matter what they say. Alas.)

 

Ahhh, thank you for the warning! 

 

I have not seen the remastered version yet, but think about to try out if I can re-download the previously bought series at itunes as it has now the remastered cover even within my apple tv app in the ~ folder for the bought media.

The previous version had some episodes not working, they might have exchanged it. If not... I’ll see

 

(edit: nope, not the remastered series, might to have to buy it again. Will wait till a good bonus card thingie is available again, it looks like in 2 weeks or there might be one. Price at itunes is 19.99€ per season for the remastered version without the use of a bonus card. Have to really think about that.

 

I guess I’ll rewatch it - again - soon, all that remastered talk made me ‘hungry’ for the complex story in story arcs again

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by terrestrial

[Eric Loves Rey]

45 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

@DeeCee yeah, promote that it’s on HBO Max. (It’s not 4K, tho, @terrestrial, no matter what they say. Alas.)

Gotchu homie

[DeeCee]

20 minutes ago, Eric Gardner said:

Gotchu homie

 

Updated to accurately reflect the level of urgency.

[DeeCee]

Damn. Just realised Mira Furlan passed away.

 

 

[terrestrial]

1 hour ago, DeeCee said:

Damn. Just realised Mira Furlan passed away.

 

 

 

 

now 74 staff and actors died out of the Babylon 5 and Crusade,... world. Some were old, oK, that’s live, way too many died in their ‘50 and ‘60. 

Richard Biggs died as a 44y old, way too early, bad surprise

 

Mira Furlan death with only 65y hit hard, she was a rather good actress anyway, but her RL experiences in the war in her home country, the time working on both sides of the war front still, with constant death threats,... I feel there is a possibility that might have enhanced the depth she showed in her presentation as the Ambassador of the Minbari and a member of the religious cast.

 

Andreas Katsulas death (59y) hit then hard too, IMHO his character had probably the most growth of any character on TV, no matter the TV series.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by terrestrial

[Plain Old Tele]

2 hours ago, terrestrial said:

 

Ahhh, thank you for the warning! 

 

I have not seen the remastered version yet, but think about to try out if I can re-download the previously bought series at itunes as it has now the remastered cover even within my apple tv app in the ~ folder for the bought media.

The previous version had some episodes not working, they might have exchanged it. If not... I’ll see

 

(edit: nope, not the remastered series, might to have to buy it again. Will wait till a good bonus card thingie is available again, it looks like in 2 weeks or there might be one. Price at itunes is 19.99€ per season for the remastered version without the use of a bonus card. Have to really think about that.

 

I guess I’ll rewatch it - again - soon, all that remastered talk made me ‘hungry’ for the complex story in story arcs again

 

The remastered versions have been cleaned up and the color’s been boosted. They also (fortunately) did away with that funky 16x9 experiment  where they had to blow up the VFX shots by 35%. So overall they’re cleaner and more consistent and definitely better than they were... but not a true HD remaster (since that would mean scanning each episode’s delivered film prints, per JMS). 
 

Keep an eye on the Amazon/iTunes sale price: I found the whole series on iTunes for $30 at one point. 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Plain Old Tele

[DeeCee]

I think the live action was filmed in 16:9 but all the VFX were 4:3. Is that correct.

 

 

[Plain Old Tele]

15 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

I think the live action was filmed in 16:9 but all the VFX were 4:3. Is that correct.

1.85:1 but yes, it was shot on film. The VFX were rendered out 4x3 NTSC because that’s what the computers could feasibly render at the time. The idea at the time (which was smart and forward-thinking) was when HD became popularized, they could re-render the VFX for the eventual remaster. 
 

Unfortunately some nimrods lost all the VFX project files during the archiving of the show elements. So while all the live-action elements can be rescanned (and were for the DVD releases), the VFX only exist as 720x486 NTSC files and that’s their final form.  

 

One interesting wrinkle that JMS mentioned was that all episodes were required to be delivered to WB on film (for archival purposes). So in theory all the episodes are sitting in a Warners vault somewhere, on film. Even if those VFX aren’t HD, the overall quality is probably a lot better than what we have. But WB doesn’t care about B5 and seems likely that they won’t for quite awhile. So... alas.  

[DeeCee]

I purchased the whole series in iTunes years ago. I can’t tell whether or not it’s been updated. In iTunes it’s in my purchased section, labelled “remastered” but now asks me to pay for each episode. In AppleTV+ I can watch all episodes but they’re not labelled “remastered” like in iTunes. 

[Plain Old Tele]

4 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

I purchased the whole series in iTunes years ago. I can’t tell whether or not it’s been updated. In iTunes it’s in my purchased section, labelled “remastered” but now asks me to pay for each episode. In AppleTV+ I can watch all episodes but they’re not labelled “remastered” like in iTunes. 

I... don’t know. The only thing I know is that the “remastering” was recent. I’m not sure why they want you to pay again unless they have an entirely different SKU? Seems like it wouldn’t be B5 if it wasn’t terribly confusing about how to find the best version. 

[terrestrial]

I tried it and bought season 1 again (there is no whole series offer at the moment, might have been as I bought it the first time, as I tend to look out for those)

 

Me too had the whole series since a time already, but in opposition to @DeeCee my tries per episode before the rebuy, to episode per episode delete it from my ipad (I have the whole series downloaded on it) and re-download it, did work, but it was then again the old version, with around half a GB per episode, tried to play those, worked.

 

Then the season 1 buy, still at downloading it as speed and connection here is iffy, per episode as far as done its 1.12 to 1.15GB now.

 

I took a look at Youtube, someone uploaded a clip explicit comparing the old DVD version and the new-ish remastered version at itunes

 

 

 

There are still shots within the new episodes with a few artifacts eg during the intro where a spaceship as a not clean edge, but its small in comparison, and as its only the intro... Acted scenes seem rather be improved in lightning and so on

 

Another comparison, not itunes specific, it says with updated JMS comment, but there is no comment for me

 

 

 

In some scenes actors were earlier rather dark lit, now definitely more to see, but also more color intense.