Nick Martin

Curious about this, as I've heard a lot about how the HD broadcasts of the show featured up-converted effects.

Also, if it's supposed to be in surround sound is it a new mix or a faux-surround effect like the Star Trek TV DVDs had.

Gizmo

AVSForum has a review up.

Nick Martin

Headed there now.

Brent L

Wow, it looks like this one is a winner afterall.

Mr. Salty

I don't get the comparison. Firefly was mixed in surround from its inception. Start Trek: TOS was mono. Why would a remix be necessary for Firefly?

Nick Martin

I wasn't talking about TOS. I haven't seen or heard that show in surround sound but the later ones (TNG, DS9, Voyager) were mixed for 2.0, and all they did was extract the dialogue track and make it a discrete center, then upmixed the rest to create the illusion of true surround. Better than Dolby Pro-Logic, but not that much.

Firefly was Dolby surround as well, so that's why I wanted to know if it was remixed from scratch or upmixed like the Trek shows were.

Superman07

So the DVDTalk review says the CGI isn't bad. Can somebody else comment on this? I'm curious how the 480 content transfered to 1080p.

Nick Martin

The CGI is at times very soft, but not too distracting if you just accept the fact that it's SD. Unfortunately effects shots involving actors also suffer from that soft look, but since the vast majority of the episode's content are true HD, it's forgivable. To me anyway but to each their own. The space shots aren't as soft as some of the land-based CG shots are, and Serenity herself still looks impressive.

The audio was NOT simply upmixed as I initially feared it would be, so that it's true 5.1 is a pleasant surprise and joy to listen to.

Doctorossi

I wonder what kind of budget would be required to redo the FX shots.

Do the plates and CG files exist so that a re-render/re-composite would do it, or would the shots have to be re-built with new models, animation, etc.?

Anybody want to place odds on our ever seeing a "full HD" edition?

Superman07

So is this worth an upgrade over the regular DVD? It's an option for my Amazon Gold-Box Vote. Yay or nay - what say you?

Other options are: Superhero Blu-ray Collection (Spider-Man / Spider-Man 2 / Spider-Man 3 / Ghost Rider: Extended Cut / Hellboy: Director's Cut / Underworld / Underworld Evolution); Austin Powers Collection; Ocean's Trilogy ; The Mummy Trilogy

Snowmaker

It was for me. Bought the BDs for $20, sold the DVDs for $12.

BackStJoe

I don't think that is quite right. I'm pretty sure all the later ST shows were mixed at least for Dolby Pro-Logic, and the DVD's were all remixed for true 5.1

Doctorossi

I still haven't seen any screencaps of the upscaled FX shots anywhere. Can anyone point me to some?

Nick Martin

I deconstructed the 5.1 mix, breaking it down into its front stereo, center, LFE and rear stereo tracks (which I do all the time because I'm a fan of film music, so I often take audio from DVDs and make something out of them) and the rear surrounds are clearly derived from the front stereo mix, but with a slight reverb added to it. This is especially noticeable when doors open or someone presses a door chime or buttons on the computer panel - if those sounds aren't in the center with the dialogue, then you are surrounded by them when realistically they would be in the front channels only.

A lot of the DS9 battle scenes were what I listened to most when comparing what's in front versus what's behind in the mix.

In fact, that reverb is all that makes the 5.1 mix unique compared to turning on Pro Logic when listening to the 2.0 track. If you select another DSP setting on a receiver, you'll probably get one that sounds the same.

WMAangel

There are some shots in the review at DVD Beaver:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRe...es_blu-ray.htm

However, they are not full size, so this may or may not help you, but at least it is something!
(For some reason, the review at blu-ray.com does not feature even one FX shot in their ten full size screenshots.....)

Doctorossi

Thanks! Those are of limited use, considering their limited size, but at least it's a start. I've seen several reviews with screenshots now, and that's the first with any FX shots at all. Very surprising since all the reviews talk about the upconversion issue. You'd think they'd want to share an example.

Nick Martin

At the very least, the effects shots may be SD but they are better looking than the DVD because they don't have the compression issues DVD has.

PhantomStranger

The upgrade to Blu-ray is easily worth it for this series. After a couple of episodes it became quite easy for me to ignore the visual difference of the upconverted effects and the rest of the picture.

DVD Polizei

Bingo. Even with these upconverted sections, the entire series looks great in HD.

Michael Corvin

I'm late to the party but the show looks phenomenal. I haven't noticed anything wrong with the FX myself. I'm not as demanding as a lot of the folks here though.

Oh and Morena Baccarin and Jewel Staite in HD?

Snowmaker

2002 actually.

I've yet to watch the show on Blu-ray, mainly because I recently watched the whole thing again on DVD before I got the Blus.

E Unit

Amazon has it on the Gold Box sale today for $39.99

WMAangel

Pretty disappointing "sale" price if you ask me, after all the voting hype and what not....I only paid a couple bucks more for it all the way back last November! I think they should have gone with 29.99 if they really wanted it to be a noteworthy deal....

Yavin

Ah, bringing back fond memories of picking the BD set up on Boxing Day for $29.99

Josh Z

The problem isn't the design of the FX. It's that they were only rendered in Standard Definition. Therefore, any shot with a CG element anywhere in the frame must be upconverted from SD. From shot-to-shot, the scenes alternate from real HD, to upconverted SD, and back again.