Picture Quality of Firefly Series DVD

POSTED BY: Lawman
UPDATED: Tuesday, March 6, 2007 17:54
VIEWED: 4760
PAGE 1 of 2

1 2 NEXT PAGE

LAWMAN

Monday, March 5, 2007 9:52 PM

Hmmm, not necessarily a browncoat. i see myself as more of alliance. at any rate, non sequitor comments abound. not sure why, but having viewed the firefly series dvd about the 20th time, i must express some dissatisfaction in the picture quality, especially in the opening scenes of serenity valley battle. is that just my dvd issues, or has anyone noticed that dvd picture quality is an issue.

KHYRON

Monday, March 5, 2007 10:38 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Lawman:
...but having viewed the firefly series dvd about the 20th time, i must express some dissatisfaction in the picture quality

Maybe you wore it out...

Are you talking about the graininess? I think that's done on purpose - I quite like it.

The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.

LAWMAN

Monday, March 5, 2007 10:56 PM

Hey thanks for responding. not sure if you can wear out a dvd, but maybe the problem is on my end. i have a new lcd hdtv and i'm getting some blurring action from some scenes on the firefly series, which is not on the serenity movie dvd.
don't see too much responses from other browncoats. maybe i'm on the wrong side after all.

the war's over, we're just folk.

YINYANG

Monday, March 5, 2007 11:00 PM

Are you talking about at the very beginning? 'Cause I know I had to adjust the brightness/contrast on my TV so I could see people's faces.

Rules and voting: http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=22892

FIZZIX

Monday, March 5, 2007 11:02 PM

No, honestly, I believe it just may be the picture quality for which it was shot? I dunno, but I've noticed similar. The Serenity DVD is coming from much more recent footage; no idea what they used for Firefly, but I think it may have been lower quality than we have now, if only slightly. Now, before someone takes that out of context, I talk only of recording equipment, not of writing quality. >.>

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\
May not be smart, and it may not please you, but you're definitely gonna see what I have to say.

CAPTAINCOUPI

Monday, March 5, 2007 11:11 PM

I think it's done on purpose. I'm pretty sure that in his commentaries, in both the series and on Serenity Joss talks about using different types of film stock and playing with the colour balance and clarity of the image to get a certain atmosphere.

Look at Out of Gas especially. The footage from the past compared to the present and recent past footage. In Serenity I'm sure he talks about using different film stock for River's visions of the past.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.bigdamnthankyou.com/

DONCOAT

Monday, March 5, 2007 11:13 PM

Firefly was shot on film, so it will have some different characteristics from shot-on-video productions.

There's also the issue of interpolation, or up-converting. DVD has 480 lines of vertical resolution, whereas your HDTV probably has 768 or more. The set has software to do that conversion, and some works better than others. However, if comparing DVD to DVD on the same set that shouldn't be a factor.

Can you be more specific about the artifacts you're seeing?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm pointin' right at it!

LAWMAN

Tuesday, March 6, 2007 12:15 AM

Excellent. thanks for the useful info. i may have to just spring a few bucks to get that upconvert dvd player, if only to see improved clarity on firefly. thanks for all the helpful commentary. i still see myself more along the lines of alliance, in the best sense, of course.

*****************************************
war's over, we're just folk

FXSTB02

Tuesday, March 6, 2007 3:14 AM

Before you buy the upverter, try different settings on you HD. I was re-re-re...watching the series last night and thought the picture looked very grainy. My HD has a "movie" setting; once I changed it, the picture looked great.

SINGATE

Tuesday, March 6, 2007 7:47 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by fxstb02:
Before you buy the upverter, try different settings on you HD. I was re-re-re...watching the series last night and thought the picture looked very grainy. My HD has a "movie" setting; once I changed it, the picture looked great.

I have a Sony upconverting player with an LCD TV and I thought there was something wrong with my DVDs as well. Many scenes throughout the series were grainy and the picture didn't always look very good. I have some older movies which don't look great but I was surprised that something from 2002 would be so average. After considerable tinkering with the settings on the TV and DVD player I am happy to say that I ended up creating a custom setup specifically for Firefly and it looks quite impressive.

_________________________________________________

We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.

1 2 NEXT PAGE