Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
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Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
I didn't see this one posted anywhere so I thought that I would share. I don't know how to add a link for dvdtalk so I will leave this up to someone else.
According to camelcamelcamel this may be the cheapest that it has ever been.
According to camelcamelcamel this may be the cheapest that it has ever been.
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Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
just copy/paste
http://www.amazon.com/Farscape-Compl...4135383&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Farscape-Compl...4135383&sr=1-1
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Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
Get off the fence! It just gets better after season 1.
I remember paying over $100 per season for this series. Still worth it. $50 for the whole thing is a steal.
I remember paying over $100 per season for this series. Still worth it. $50 for the whole thing is a steal.
#9
Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
Amazing set. I tore through the entire thing in about three weeks last summer.
You'll definitely want to have The Peacekeeper Wars mini handy after you finish the last disc, as the show ended on a cliffhanger.
You'll definitely want to have The Peacekeeper Wars mini handy after you finish the last disc, as the show ended on a cliffhanger.
#10
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Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
Best price I've seen on this yet. I paid $60 (with a Best Buy gift card) a little over a year ago, it's definitely worth it. Add Peacekeeper Wars and you're all set. -kd5-
#12
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Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
Sent the link to my brother who is a Farscape fan but only had a few of the little "volumes" with 3 or 4 episodes on each. He wrote me back to tell me he jumped on the deal and thanked me for the link, so thanks OP! -kd5-
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Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
I was very pleasantly surprised by this show, which I got a few months back when it was the Amazon DOTD. I think it was the same price. It's a great deal, and the packaging is pretty nice too. Each season (plus a couple of bonus DVDs) takes up a single DVD case in size, although each case holds 6 or 7 discs. For people with limited shelf space, it's nice to get 4 seasons in the same space as one or two seasons from typical DVD sets. I haven't even checked out any of the special features besides the Deleted Scenes, but there is a decent selection of them.
As a few others have said, make sure you have The Peacekeeper Wars handy to finish out the show, because it ends on one hell of a cliffhanger.
I read some comments on Amazon about this set supposedly having worse quality than the original expensive individual season releases, but it looked fine to me.
My only complaint about the show (and it's a minor one) is that so many of the characters have very obvious Australian accents, which is understandable considering it's where the show was made. I suppose that makes it unique, but it it a little jarring for me. I guess I'm used to aliens sounding American or British. :P
As a few others have said, make sure you have The Peacekeeper Wars handy to finish out the show, because it ends on one hell of a cliffhanger.
I read some comments on Amazon about this set supposedly having worse quality than the original expensive individual season releases, but it looked fine to me.
My only complaint about the show (and it's a minor one) is that so many of the characters have very obvious Australian accents, which is understandable considering it's where the show was made. I suppose that makes it unique, but it it a little jarring for me. I guess I'm used to aliens sounding American or British. :P
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Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
I was very pleasantly surprised by this show, which I got a few months back when it was the Amazon DOTD. I think it was the same price. It's a great deal, and the packaging is pretty nice too. Each season (plus a couple of bonus DVDs) takes up a single DVD case in size, although each case holds 6 or 7 discs. For people with limited shelf space, it's nice to get 4 seasons in the same space as one or two seasons from typical DVD sets. I haven't even checked out any of the special features besides the Deleted Scenes, but there is a decent selection of them.
As a few others have said, make sure you have The Peacekeeper Wars handy to finish out the show, because it ends on one hell of a cliffhanger.
I read some comments on Amazon about this set supposedly having worse quality than the original expensive individual season releases, but it looked fine to me.
My only complaint about the show (and it's a minor one) is that so many of the characters have very obvious Australian accents, which is understandable considering it's where the show was made. I suppose that makes it unique, but it it a little jarring for me. I guess I'm used to aliens sounding American or British. :P
As a few others have said, make sure you have The Peacekeeper Wars handy to finish out the show, because it ends on one hell of a cliffhanger.
I read some comments on Amazon about this set supposedly having worse quality than the original expensive individual season releases, but it looked fine to me.
My only complaint about the show (and it's a minor one) is that so many of the characters have very obvious Australian accents, which is understandable considering it's where the show was made. I suppose that makes it unique, but it it a little jarring for me. I guess I'm used to aliens sounding American or British. :P
It is a great show. After the first half of season 1 it really starts to hit its stride. I rewatched this show when I got the dvds Nov. of 2009. I finsihed watching them in January last year. I had not seen the last 6 or 7 eps of season 4. I had missed a couple in 2003 and didnt want to watch it further because its an arc based show and didnt want to spoil myself. They never reran them. It took me 6 years to finally see those eps and the pkw mini. It was great to rewatch this show and finally finish it.
#15
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Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
Some info on the A&E versus the Starburst editions of Farscape
The new A&E discs have dropped a LOT of the Starburst Edition bonus content. I've gone through all the sets disc by disc, and it boils down to this: The new A&E discs include all the episodes, all the audio commentaries and all the deleted scenes. They also include all the documentary specials, all the TV promos, Re: Union, the bloopers, all the Listening In and Farscape in the Raw clips, and MOST of the behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. But all of the image and production design gallery videos are gone, nearly all of the Video Profile clips are gone, the make-up test, TV Critics Association and storyboard videos are all gone, and ALL of the text-based features have been dropped, including actor and character bios and backstories, the Cool Farscape Facts, The Farscape Chronicles and Alien Encounters features and more. The only NEW feature that the A&E discs include (that wasn't on the Starburst discs) is the Farscape Undressed behind-the-scenes TV special, which has never been available on DVD before.
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/review...eet112309.html
The new A&E discs have dropped a LOT of the Starburst Edition bonus content. I've gone through all the sets disc by disc, and it boils down to this: The new A&E discs include all the episodes, all the audio commentaries and all the deleted scenes. They also include all the documentary specials, all the TV promos, Re: Union, the bloopers, all the Listening In and Farscape in the Raw clips, and MOST of the behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. But all of the image and production design gallery videos are gone, nearly all of the Video Profile clips are gone, the make-up test, TV Critics Association and storyboard videos are all gone, and ALL of the text-based features have been dropped, including actor and character bios and backstories, the Cool Farscape Facts, The Farscape Chronicles and Alien Encounters features and more. The only NEW feature that the A&E discs include (that wasn't on the Starburst discs) is the Farscape Undressed behind-the-scenes TV special, which has never been available on DVD before.
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/review...eet112309.html
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Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
Some info on the A&E versus the Starburst editions of Farscape
The new A&E discs have dropped a LOT of the Starburst Edition bonus content. I've gone through all the sets disc by disc, and it boils down to this: The new A&E discs include all the episodes, all the audio commentaries and all the deleted scenes. They also include all the documentary specials, all the TV promos, Re: Union, the bloopers, all the Listening In and Farscape in the Raw clips, and MOST of the behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. But all of the image and production design gallery videos are gone, nearly all of the Video Profile clips are gone, the make-up test, TV Critics Association and storyboard videos are all gone, and ALL of the text-based features have been dropped, including actor and character bios and backstories, the Cool Farscape Facts, The Farscape Chronicles and Alien Encounters features and more. The only NEW feature that the A&E discs include (that wasn't on the Starburst discs) is the Farscape Undressed behind-the-scenes TV special, which has never been available on DVD before.
The new A&E discs have dropped a LOT of the Starburst Edition bonus content. I've gone through all the sets disc by disc, and it boils down to this: The new A&E discs include all the episodes, all the audio commentaries and all the deleted scenes. They also include all the documentary specials, all the TV promos, Re: Union, the bloopers, all the Listening In and Farscape in the Raw clips, and MOST of the behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. But all of the image and production design gallery videos are gone, nearly all of the Video Profile clips are gone, the make-up test, TV Critics Association and storyboard videos are all gone, and ALL of the text-based features have been dropped, including actor and character bios and backstories, the Cool Farscape Facts, The Farscape Chronicles and Alien Encounters features and more. The only NEW feature that the A&E discs include (that wasn't on the Starburst discs) is the Farscape Undressed behind-the-scenes TV special, which has never been available on DVD before.
#17
Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
^I agree about the "bonus" stuff. I'm one of the apparent minority who rarely looks at such stuff and do *not* consider the inclusion/exclusion in a purchase. BUT... This part of that review I *do* consider (I bolded some significant statements):
"How does the video and audio quality of the new A&E DVDs compare to the ADV Starburst Editions? The short answer is, the Starbursts were definitely better. To me, the differences are significant, but given the substantially lower price of this set, they may not be enough to deter you. Color and contrast on the new discs is about the same as the previous versions, but in order to squeeze 88 episodes on to a 26-disc set (down from a previous 48 discs with the Starburst Editions) the video has been compressed more. (Video data rate on the A&E episodes is about 30% lower on average than that found on the ADV discs.) What that means is that all the episodes look just a little bit softer than they did on the Starburst discs, with a corresponding reduction of fine detail. You see it in things like skin texture on faces, and occasionally in backgrounds and clothing. Titles too look a little softer, and there's a bit more visible MPEG-2 compression artifacting. Another concern is that the A&E discs appear to be sourced from broadcast masters instead of production masters, like the ADV discs were. You can tell because each of these episodes has a "Dolby Surround Where Available" bug at the start. This raises two critical concerns. First, it means that while the ADV Starburst discs were progressive scan, these are 480i only. So on some players (depending on whether and how they convert 480i to 480p) you're going to see noticeable interlacing artifacts...
It's also important to note that the English subtitles (for the hearing impaired) that were included on the ADV Starburst discs are NOT included here - a critical omission if you have need of them. The Starburst DVDs also included Closed Captioning in the video signal - the A&E discs don't have this either."
Me... I was able to get the 4 disk "Starburst" sets right before they went OOP. While I paid a bit more I do not regret the purchase and would not get rid of them for the A&E set.
So that said, I'd only consider the ADV "Starburst" 4 disk sets over the A&E sets *if* they can be obtained at a reasonable price. That's not too likely so the A&E set is the way to go for anyone who doesn't already own the series. It's a *very good* series and belongs in any self-respecting Sci-Fi on TV collection. The current ~$50 is a great price!
"How does the video and audio quality of the new A&E DVDs compare to the ADV Starburst Editions? The short answer is, the Starbursts were definitely better. To me, the differences are significant, but given the substantially lower price of this set, they may not be enough to deter you. Color and contrast on the new discs is about the same as the previous versions, but in order to squeeze 88 episodes on to a 26-disc set (down from a previous 48 discs with the Starburst Editions) the video has been compressed more. (Video data rate on the A&E episodes is about 30% lower on average than that found on the ADV discs.) What that means is that all the episodes look just a little bit softer than they did on the Starburst discs, with a corresponding reduction of fine detail. You see it in things like skin texture on faces, and occasionally in backgrounds and clothing. Titles too look a little softer, and there's a bit more visible MPEG-2 compression artifacting. Another concern is that the A&E discs appear to be sourced from broadcast masters instead of production masters, like the ADV discs were. You can tell because each of these episodes has a "Dolby Surround Where Available" bug at the start. This raises two critical concerns. First, it means that while the ADV Starburst discs were progressive scan, these are 480i only. So on some players (depending on whether and how they convert 480i to 480p) you're going to see noticeable interlacing artifacts...
It's also important to note that the English subtitles (for the hearing impaired) that were included on the ADV Starburst discs are NOT included here - a critical omission if you have need of them. The Starburst DVDs also included Closed Captioning in the video signal - the A&E discs don't have this either."
Me... I was able to get the 4 disk "Starburst" sets right before they went OOP. While I paid a bit more I do not regret the purchase and would not get rid of them for the A&E set.
So that said, I'd only consider the ADV "Starburst" 4 disk sets over the A&E sets *if* they can be obtained at a reasonable price. That's not too likely so the A&E set is the way to go for anyone who doesn't already own the series. It's a *very good* series and belongs in any self-respecting Sci-Fi on TV collection. The current ~$50 is a great price!
#18
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
I loved this show so much I bought all 4 individual seasons back when they were $150 MSRP each, then unloaded them when the Starbursts came out, then "almost" unloaded those when this set came out, until I read the review. Instead, I acquired the Farscape Undressed DVD by buying the Best Buy exclusive set, then selling it on Ebay without that disc. You MAY still be able to find that BB exclusive set (which includes Peacekeeper Wars) at some BB stores. The UPC on both sets is exactly the same...
IMO, this is one of the best sci-fi television series EVER, and is a MUST OWN for sci-fi fans. Although the Starbursts would be better than this set, it would be too expensive to acquire those now. 50 bucks for this set is a no-brainer...
IMO, this is one of the best sci-fi television series EVER, and is a MUST OWN for sci-fi fans. Although the Starbursts would be better than this set, it would be too expensive to acquire those now. 50 bucks for this set is a no-brainer...
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Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
"How does the video and audio quality of the new A&E DVDs compare to the ADV Starburst Editions? The short answer is, the Starbursts were definitely better. To me, the differences are significant, but given the substantially lower price of this set, they may not be enough to deter you. Color and contrast on the new discs is about the same as the previous versions, but in order to squeeze 88 episodes on to a 26-disc set (down from a previous 48 discs with the Starburst Editions) the video has been compressed more. (Video data rate on the A&E episodes is about 30% lower on average than that found on the ADV discs.) What that means is that all the episodes look just a little bit softer than they did on the Starburst discs, with a corresponding reduction of fine detail. You see it in things like skin texture on faces, and occasionally in backgrounds and clothing. Titles too look a little softer, and there's a bit more visible MPEG-2 compression artifacting. Another concern is that the A&E discs appear to be sourced from broadcast masters instead of production masters, like the ADV discs were. You can tell because each of these episodes has a "Dolby Surround Where Available" bug at the start. This raises two critical concerns. First, it means that while the ADV Starburst discs were progressive scan, these are 480i only. So on some players (depending on whether and how they convert 480i to 480p) you're going to see noticeable interlacing artifacts...
It's also important to note that the English subtitles (for the hearing impaired) that were included on the ADV Starburst discs are NOT included here - a critical omission if you have need of them. The Starburst DVDs also included Closed Captioning in the video signal - the A&E discs don't have this either."
It's also important to note that the English subtitles (for the hearing impaired) that were included on the ADV Starburst discs are NOT included here - a critical omission if you have need of them. The Starburst DVDs also included Closed Captioning in the video signal - the A&E discs don't have this either."
I haven't seen the Starburst discs, but I can confirm that this set does have rather soft-looking video. It doesn't bother me that much... most of the sci-fi shows I have don't have stellar video. The video on this is good, but not great. For 88 episodes (at least 90% of which are great), you can't beat $50.
The great thing about Farscape is it doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's also not just a straight comedy. It can be as emotional as the best dramas when an episode calls for it. If you haven't seen the series and consider yourself a sci-fi fan, you need to check it out.
#20
Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
Weren't the starburst sets released on dual sided dvd-18 discs? I know the first couple of sets where, and I think that they changed it as they went along, but that's a problem for a lot of people. I have several discs now that are unplayable on my bluray player, and some people would rather not have to deal with (possibly) faulty dvd-18s that are more expensive just for some more extras that they might watch once. But it is a great deal.
#21
Senior Member
Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
"How does the video and audio quality of the new A&E DVDs compare to the ADV Starburst Editions? The short answer is, the Starbursts were definitely better. To me, the differences are significant, but given the substantially lower price of this set, they may not be enough to deter you. Color and contrast on the new discs is about the same as the previous versions, but in order to squeeze 88 episodes on to a 26-disc set (down from a previous 48 discs with the Starburst Editions) the video has been compressed more. (Video data rate on the A&E episodes is about 30% lower on average than that found on the ADV discs.) What that means is that all the episodes look just a little bit softer than they did on the Starburst discs, with a corresponding reduction of fine detail. You see it in things like skin texture on faces, and occasionally in backgrounds and clothing. Titles too look a little softer, and there's a bit more visible MPEG-2 compression artifacting.
The Starburst collection had 88 episodes on 48 disks while the new set only uses 26 disks. So the new set fits no more then 4 (50 minute) episodes on a dual layer disk. Lets make a comparison to another release, the remastered Star Trek TOS that also fits 4 episodes per dual layer disk. Are there any complaints about these being overly soft and overly compressed. Not from what I have seen. The video quality of Farscape has never been that great to begin with, so if Star Trek TOS can look excellent using basically the same disk space and bitrate as the new Farscape's then why should we assume using more space and higher bitrate will improve anything?
I've played around with taking video and increasing the bitrate and the only difference I get is using more disk space. based on the quality of the source, once you get to a certain point, no visible improvement will be gained.
There is also no mention of taking epsiodes from each disk for comparison. Did the Starburst's actually use all the disk? What were the file sizes and bitrate's between releases. Were the comparison's based on memory or side by side viewing on large screens?
Too many questions for me on how this review was done to justify the specific issues they bring up. I'd much rather have seen a review by DVDBeaver with screens captures and technical facts to back up the conclusions.
#22
Re: Complete Farscape - $49.99 at Amazon
Weren't the starburst sets released on dual sided dvd-18 discs? I know the first couple of sets where, and I think that they changed it as they went along, but that's a problem for a lot of people. I have several discs now that are unplayable on my bluray player, and some people would rather not have to deal with (possibly) faulty dvd-18s that are more expensive just for some more extras that they might watch once. But it is a great deal.