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{at}REPLY:
 Josh Hill schrieb:
>
> > Here's to hoping that B5 will someday be remastered to HD, with redone
> > and widescreen effects . . .
>
> Am I the only one who couldn't care less for redone effects? Depending
> on just how different they look I might actually resent them.
>
> Angelika

I care, mostly because what we have now are 4:3 frames cropped and then
blown up to fit the widescreen frames. It looks off to me. Not even
that much for the space CGI shots, which are a bit blurry and aliased
on my DVDs, but there the framing mostly feels ok to me. But with the
comped shots, you sometimes go from a full widescreen frame to 4:3
cropped frames of the same shot in one scene, and it can be jarring.

Furthermore, the comped shots didn't get the clearing up that using a
more modern telecine does for its live action film footage, and even
for the part of the image where the 4:3 frame and widescreen frames
overlap, the old NTSC 4:3 broadcast telecine used for the comped shots
looks noticeably less clear. I did some screenshots myself, but the one
you can find here illustrate what I'm saying a bit clearer, I think:
http://tinyurl.co.uk/mqg4 Scroll down to "How Much Quality Do We Lose
With Composites?".

And I do think that better, more clearer versions can both make the
dramatic performances come out better, and for those new to the series,
make it a bit more accessible. I quite like the widescreen version of
B5, and how the live action looks in it. Also, I believe that JMS spoke
of the widescreen version enhancing shelf life with the coming HD
standards, when those were made. I think a HD could serve a similar
purpose, and CGI and comped shots that weren't made of cropped 4:3
interlaced frames would be nice in that regard too.

And in general, I like how this show looks. Since it was shot on film,
they did shoot all this extra detail, and an HD version would bring
that extra detail out. It would make me very happy to see it.

-Shabaz
                                            
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