So I bit the bullet and bought Babylon 5. I've thrown away $30 on stupider purchases, so why not? It looks great on my 4K TV. It is a 4:3 version, looks to be a remaster of the original source. The live action looks good, sharp and colorful, but surprisingly, so did the CGI! Still the original, but cleaned up nicely.

I went ahead and downloaded an episode on iTunes, and opened the file in QT Player. 640x480 MPEG4.

I had forgotten the opening titles were in letterboxed widescreen. For S&G I "zoomed" this part to fill my screen. It looked predictably bad.

This reminds me..during the original broadcast, I had recorded pretty much the whole series on VHS, then dubbed it to another VHS removing the commercials, and the opening and closing titles except for the first and 4th episodes (SP on T-180 tape). I also made the two parters in a 'movie'! Unfortunately iMovie cannot import the file. Must be protected. I suppose I have a legal license to torrent them now!

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JoeH

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Rolando

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freeradical

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Rolando
Babylon 5 for $30 is tempting. Its the original SD version. The live action was originally shot on film, in 16:9 and cropped to 4:3. The CG was 640x480 then interlaced, so its basically 240p. JM Strazinsky had planned/hoped that the CG Elements would be replaced/remastered in the future.

The studio promptly "lost" the CG Files after the show was cancelled, so I don't have much hope for a remastered version to ever come out.

It is a remastered version.

The previews all show 4:3, it says "SD"

The DVD version has the problems you wrote of, those were 16:9transfers from the original SD material available. If these are SD 4:3 transfers and actually remastered, that is potentially possible. About a year or more ago JMS mentioned that the original film prints for TV broadcast had been located. A transfer from those wold be of better quality than what ended up on the DVDs. I don't know if that ended up happening.

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San Antonio, TX (in the old city)


"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Eli Weisel

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

"I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it." - Billy Graham 1981

"Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise" - Barry Goldwater

Darn, looks like checking into MRF just cost me $30...

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sekker
Darn, looks like checking into MRF just cost me $30...

Possibly me too. I have the DVDs, but seeing the CGI at full original resolution instead of what ended up on the DVD is sounding attractive.

P.S. I hope there is a special place down there for the persons responsible for losing the original CGI files. They were supposed to be archived to allow a 16:9 version to be created properly.

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JoeH
Possibly me too. I have the DVDs, but seeing the CGI at full original resolution instead of what ended up on the DVD is sounding attractive.

P.S. I hope there is a special place down there for the persons responsible for losing the original CGI files. They were supposed to be archived to allow a 16:9 version to be created properly.

Agree most strenuously!

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San Antonio, TX (in the old city)


"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Eli Weisel

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

"I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it." - Billy Graham 1981

"Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise" - Barry Goldwater

Good to hear.

I watched a couple of episodes on Amazon Prime and picture quality was TERRIBLE - worse than the 3rd sub channel OTA we get (which was bad).

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ADent
Good to hear.

I watched a couple of episodes on Amazon Prime and picture quality was TERRIBLE - worse than the 3rd sub channel OTA we get (which was bad).

Yes, my handbrake conversations from the dvds was better than Amazon.

Linky

[itunes.apple.com]