Serenity on Blu-Ray Dec. 30th

POSTED BY: reginaroadie
UPDATED: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 06:21
VIEWED: 13267
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COZEN

Wednesday, November 12, 2008 4:26 PM

Just picked up my Blu-Ray edition of Firefly (the series, eh). I'm posting this having just seen 'Serenity part 1', thus my very seat-of-the-pants first impression is brief and necessarily incomplete, fwiw.

I'm not seeing any significant or even noticable improvement in video quality. Note that in my career I'm a colour timer for feature release films, so I humbly submit I've necessarily developed an eye for film/video quality. I even put up my original Firefly dvd, paying special attention to the early scenes where the crew are busting into the derelict spaceship to heist the Alliance stamped food bars. And, to my eyes, they look about the same on my 42" Sony Bravia via my first generation Sony Blu-Ray player. I couldn't discern any significant improvement in contrast, depth of field or colour. I'm guessing that the video quality was aready maxxed due to the manner in which the series was filmed, all grainy and flashy like.

I wish I had at home the technology for putting up both versions side by side on the same or identical screens (A/B'ing them in the biz terms), but, if wishes were bank accounts, I'd have funds stored in Cayman Islands money laundering institutions.

So much for my impressions of the video.

However, the audio differential sounds amazing to my untrained ears. Listened to on my general purpose home theatre system, the difference is nothing short of stunning. Clarity and depth were phenominally improved on the B-R version. Now I don't understand audio all that well, so I can't speak as to why the B-R sounded so much better, but there you have it, my statistically insignifcant impression.

In any case, as a fan I bought the B-R version at a premium price the very day a local store put in on their shelves. Obviously because I'm into supporting the "cause" in my little way. Likely the B-R version will drop to a third or so of today's price within a couple of months, such that the wisely frugal will wait patiently for the market to settle.... Or, y'know, for those who actually have Blu-Ray players to justify the cost.

DECLAN

Thursday, November 13, 2008 9:42 PM

Cozen, it was interesting to read your review, given your professional background.

On large screen HD DLP's, I've seen Firefly on upconverted DVD and on Universal HD off DirecTV.

Off of Universal HD, I could see detail -- or noticed detail because it was clearer -- that I never saw watching upconverted DVD. I was hoping for this on the Blu-Ray.

Well, I'm in off in the middle of nowhere still waiting for my BluRay. Good to hear about the sound, though.

***************
"'Course, there are other schools of thought."

ASARIAN

Thursday, November 13, 2008 10:05 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by cozen:

Just picked up my Blu-Ray edition of Firefly (the series, eh). I'm posting this having just seen 'Serenity part 1', thus my very seat-of-the-pants first impression is brief and necessarily incomplete, fwiw.

I'm not seeing any significant or even noticable improvement in video quality. Note that in my career I'm a colour timer for feature release films, so I humbly submit I've necessarily developed an eye for film/video quality. I even put up my original Firefly dvd, paying special attention to the early scenes where the crew are busting into the derelict spaceship to heist the Alliance stamped food bars. And, to my eyes, they look about the same on my 42" Sony Bravia via my first generation Sony Blu-Ray player. I couldn't discern any significant improvement in contrast, depth of field or colour. I'm guessing that the video quality was aready maxxed due to the manner in which the series was filmed, all grainy and flashy like.

This is sad news. :( I was hoping for at least true Full-HD material, and not some upscaled shite. Yes, TrueHD sound is cute, but who has a HDMI 1.3 receiver anyway? I was hoping for superior video quality, and now I'm a mite disappointed.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

CELLARDOOR

Saturday, February 28, 2009 5:46 PM

Thread necromancy time! Figured I'd post my question here instead of just starting a duplicate one, since I don't know yet if the necromancers around these parts are tied up and burned at the stake.

Apart from graphics/sound improvements, are there extra goodies, interviews, specials, commentaries, etc. in the Blu-Ray version that the standard DVD of Serenity (or even Firefly) doesn't have? I'm never sure if I'm getting the whole picture when I look on Amazon at the DVD extras. What's the motivation to buy the Blu-Ray version?

NANOOK

Monday, March 2, 2009 5:14 AM

Don't you fret, you're definitely getting good new stuff:

* Feature Commentary with Writer / Director Joss Whedon & Cast Members Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Ron Glass

This in addition to the commentary from Joss from the DVD. Oh, and you can watch the new commentary in PiP!

Also, all kinds of U Control stuff that pops up constantly, almost to the point of annoyance, over the course of the film. You can turn it on and off, of course.

The new stuff for Firefly BD is:

Our Mrs. Reynolds BD Exclusive - Commentary by executive producer Joss Whedon and actors Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk and Ron Glass

Special Features: BD Exclusive – "Firefly" Reunion: Lunch with Joss, Nathan, Alan and Ron featurette (HD)

While all this is great, it's just icing on the cake of gorgeous transfers and improved sound. Not to mention they didn't omit anything from the DVDs like some stupid releases, so these BDs could replace the DVDs on my shelves.

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Monday, March 2, 2009 6:24 AM

Extra goodies on bluray Firefly? not so much. I need to cross-check the vid quality, but I'm assuming bluray is better - the packaging was not very clear on what bluray has over standard DVD, and I have not yet gotten to the goodies listed above - but nothing like the originally broadcast intros or things we'd hoped for.

Serenity bluray? Different story. Can't list them all now due to foggybrain, but there is aqn Alliance database, with stuff on the BDH. Also stuff on the worlds of the verse, or at least thsoe mentioned prominently in the series - these do not mesh well with The Map of the Verse.
The picture is vastly better - immediately obvious with the opening Universal logo. I have not yet figured out all the controls and gimmicks with my new bluray player, or my new lcd screen, or my 3 new remotes, so unable to give detailed examples. All the U-controls pop up, but apparently only when I fiddle with th3 remote buttons - they don't come up during normal viewing.
So if you're interested in all the Verse has to offer, I do recommend Serenity bluray, not so sold on Firefly, but I did get it in addition to my 3 sets of standard DVDs. Part of why I wanted Firefly bluray was in case a friend has a party and I might recruit new bronwcoats with the bluray experience.

ASARIAN

Monday, March 2, 2009 9:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by jewelstaitefan:

So if you're interested in all the Verse has to offer, I do recommend Serenity bluray, not so sold on Firefly, but I did get it in addition to my 3 sets of standard DVDs.

Glad you got them both. So did I. I knew they hadn't redone the CGI and such, but hey, I'm a Browncoat: I buy the stuff because it's the right thing to do. And I figure, if there's ever a moment where you can put your money where your mouth is, supporting Joss-wise, and in hope of more Verse, buying the Blu-Rays is it.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Monday, March 2, 2009 9:44 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by asarian:
Quote:
Originally posted by jewelstaitefan:

So if you're interested in all the Verse has to offer, I do recommend Serenity bluray, not so sold on Firefly, but I did get it in addition to my 3 sets of standard DVDs.

Glad you got them both. So did I. I knew they hadn't redone the CGI and such, but hey, I'm a Browncoat: I buy the stuff because it's the right thing to do. And I figure, if there's ever a moment where you can put your money where your mouth is, supporting Joss-wise, and in hope of more Verse, buying the Blu-Rays is it.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

Part of my rationalization for buying bluray Firefly was the knowledge that Joss FILMED the series -as in using FILM. So even if not redone, the basis of the medium allowed better screen imagery - I knew it COULD be better than standard DVD. If it had been regular tv junk, I would have been less enamored.
Of course, if Firefly became the best-seller of Fox TV blurays (even 6 years later), I wouldn't mind rubbing it in their faces.
Did you find more stuff on the series DVDs? How do you compare the picture? What size screen you have? Is your standard player upgrading the output to 1080?

ASARIAN

Tuesday, March 3, 2009 4:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by jewelstaitefan:
Did you find more stuff on the series DVDs? How do you compare the picture? What size screen you have? Is your standard player upgrading the output to 1080?

I have a nice Full HD Sony Bravia TV (1080p, 52").

I'm thinking the quality of the series Blu-Rays of Firefly is good, but not excellent. It's decidedly better than what's on the DVDs, of course. In fact, I recently was just doing the comparison:

http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.asp?b=12&t=36831

Overall, the picture quality is still a mite too grainy for my taste (and I don't think all of it was intentional). Naturally, it's still very good. Especially color has improved drastically. And of course the higher resolution. A big, positive deal for me also is the superb DTS-MA track. At 6.9Mbps, the soundtrack never sounded so rich and full. That alone makes the buy worth it.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by my 'standard player upgrading the output,' as the material (H264) is already at 1080p, so it needs no upscaling.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

MUGGI

Wednesday, March 4, 2009 3:53 AM

I wish I could see the extras on the Blu-Ray stuff, but I don't own a Blu-Ray player :/ I'm convinced it's not a medium that will remain as the top-dog for very long...and I'm not going to buy a player for ONE disc.

It'll be just about the only officially released media (movies, books, etc) that I don't own.

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