Quality of Babylon 5 DVDs (CGI transfer)
 

This is sort of a vent, and I've posted similar messages on other sites today. But anyone considering the Babylon 5 DVDs may be interested. The B5 DVDs have been out for a few years, and this issue has been remarked on before. However, I only recently decided to spoil myself with the DVDs, and seeing how the CGI transfer has been done, with my own eyes, is shocking to me. I knew it would be imperfect, but I had no idea it would be this bad (see pics at link below). For a show with such pioneering use of CGI, to suffer this fate on DVD, is a shame. (The transfer of the non-CGI video is not bad, for what it's worth.)

Somehow, the CGI looks blurry *and* aliased at the same time! It's full of shimmering artifacts, doubled lines, and obscured detail. When it comes to showing the CGI properly, my old videotapes recorded off TV look better than this. Even on a larger TV such as mine (42" plasma).

The ironic thing is, the oldest content looks the best! The CGI on the DVD of The Gathering (the pilot episode) looks okay. I think this is because The Gathering is presented in 4:3 ratio and the CGI is not being mangled to force a 16:9 transfer out of 4:3 source material. I like (actually prefer) anamorphic widescreen in general, but not if the outcome is this bad for the CGI. I'd much rather have a 4:3 transfer of consistent quality like The Gathering, since for most of its run the show was presented in 4:3 anyway.

All I can do is beg Warner Brothers or whoever is responsible for DVD production of B5 to come up with a better solution. I found the following web page, which contains a detailed dissection of the problems with the current transfer:

http://www.modeemi.fi/~leopold/Babyl...DTransfer.html

I'm not qualified to comment on the technical veracity of his recommendations but I can only encourage WB to look at this site and see if something can be done.