Stargate SG-1 DVDs really bad quality?

[Shawn]

I don't know if the new 10 season box set is the same way, but I have seasons 1 and 2 of the original box sets and am disappointed by how bad the quality is. I never noticed it until I got a large HDTV. I know they are standard def, but they look highly compressed. Tons of compression artifacts. My blu-ray player has a Reon video processor and most DVDs look really good so I guess they just tried to cram too many episodes onto one disc. Each disc is 3 hours and 41min long.

Has anyone else noticed the bad quality?

 

[drinkmorejava]

I'm used to doing 2 hours at most. I'd image 4 hours can't be too pretty. Most DVDs are labeled for 120min, but you can pretty much do whatever you want depending on compression.

 

[Savarak]

i have the entire stargate collection set, bought each and every season... it was great quality at the time, before HDTVs and upconverting players... not sure if the full box set is the same way

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

It's hard to watch them on the projector, we've decided to just watch them on the gf's 20" TV and save the better quality stuff for my place.

 

[manowar821]

OMG maybe it's a conspiracy put into effect with new hd-dvd and bluray players to degrade dvd quality in order to boost sales?

But seriously, I have been buying the seasons in those "three thin-case" box sets slowly over the last few months, and the quality is great.

 

[Exterous]

Is it an old disc (say from 1999?) Maybe they weren't recorded in as high of a quality back then?

 

[Wuffsunie]

It's not the complete season set, I have the individual box sets and noticed that a lot of early episodes look like ass, too. It's just the early seasons, though, and I swear it seems tied to like one crappy camera they kept using. There are scenes where the background has tons of artifacts, then they switch to another actor and it's clear, then back to the original one and it looks like ass again. The problem goes away by like season 3 I think.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Exterous
Is it an old disc (say from 1999?) Maybe they weren't recorded in as high of a quality back then?

They were from 2001.

 

[bonkers325]

tv show boxsets/dvds were compressed like hell to fit onto as few discs as possible. most people didnt even know what HD was and probably didnt care at that time - the result is dvds that look great at SD native res, but crappy at HD res

 

[ViRGE]

The reason has nothing to do with the DVDs themselves. The first three seasons for whatever reason (cost perhaps?) were filmed with 16mm film and not the usual 35mm film of seasons 4-7 or all digital like 8-10.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
The reason has nothing to do with the DVDs themselves. The first three seasons for whatever reason (cost perhaps?) were filmed with 16mm film and not the usual 35mm film of seasons 4-7 or all digital like 8-10.

What resolution would that be equivalent to? Does this mean we'll never seem the first few seasons in HD?

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: ViRGE
The reason has nothing to do with the DVDs themselves. The first three seasons for whatever reason (cost perhaps?) were filmed with 16mm film and not the usual 35mm film of seasons 4-7 or all digital like 8-10.

What resolution would that be equivalent to? Does this mean we'll never seem the first few seasons in HD?

As it was filmed, you're not going to get anything better than SD out of it, and even that was rather poor. For S4 through S7 they could possibly get HD out of it, but a lot of remastering would be needed.

 

[imported_Nacelle]

They are also interlaced, not progressive.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: ViRGE
The reason has nothing to do with the DVDs themselves. The first three seasons for whatever reason (cost perhaps?) were filmed with 16mm film and not the usual 35mm film of seasons 4-7 or all digital like 8-10.

What resolution would that be equivalent to? Does this mean we'll never seem the first few seasons in HD?

As it was filmed, you're not going to get anything better than SD out of it, and even that was rather poor. For S4 through S7 they could possibly get HD out of it, but a lot of remastering would be needed.

I thought film > HD resolution.

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: ViRGE
The reason has nothing to do with the DVDs themselves. The first three seasons for whatever reason (cost perhaps?) were filmed with 16mm film and not the usual 35mm film of seasons 4-7 or all digital like 8-10.

What resolution would that be equivalent to? Does this mean we'll never seem the first few seasons in HD?

As it was filmed, you're not going to get anything better than SD out of it, and even that was rather poor. For S4 through S7 they could possibly get HD out of it, but a lot of remastering would be needed.

what do you mean "a lot of remastering" ?

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
The reason has nothing to do with the DVDs themselves. The first three seasons for whatever reason (cost perhaps?) were filmed with 16mm film and not the usual 35mm film of seasons 4-7 or all digital like 8-10.

yea, 16mm. but 16mm isn't so bad, i'm pretty sure many old shows were just taped on video. like next generation which looks like a fuzzy mess. the original series of startrek is crisp by comparison. i've seen law and order on dvd, it was on 16mm, it didn't look bad. i'm pretty sure even 16mm is significantly higher res than sdtv

are the dvds 2 layer?

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: ViRGE
The reason has nothing to do with the DVDs themselves. The first three seasons for whatever reason (cost perhaps?) were filmed with 16mm film and not the usual 35mm film of seasons 4-7 or all digital like 8-10.

yea, 16mm. but 16mm isn't so bad, i'm pretty sure many old shows were just taped on video. like next generation which looks like a fuzzy mess. the original series of startrek is crisp by comparison. i've seen law and order on dvd, it was on 16mm, it didn't look bad. i'm pretty sure even 16mm is significantly higher res than sdtv

are the dvds 2 layer?

Either way the SG-1 original prints are terrible, there's no way they're going to get HD out of it, they couldn't even get a clean SD transfer. I don't know if they just went with cheap film stock or what.