Buffy on Blu-ray?

[Shawn Hopkins]

I want it.

I know it would be hard to do and that it wouldn't look that great, but it would look better than the current DVDs look on HDTVs and that would make it worth it. The DVDs sold really well, so it would make sense for them to overcome the technical issues.

Such as:

The first two seasons were shot in 16mm and they look bad even on standard DVD. Very grainy and some scenes were too dark.

Some of the CGI type special effects look atrocious and I'm sure Blu-ray will highlight this.

There's the lingering aspect ratio question. The first three seasons aren't wide-screen at all, but the last four were shot widescreen and framed 4:3. Joss has gone on record as saying that was the way they were intended to be shown, but they've been released in Europe 16:9. I wonder if he would backpedal for the new format or maybe there's a way to offer an option. I used to be a hardcore 4:3 only guy but since everything is going widescreen I guess I could look at the boom mike and voice mistakes that slipped in. If there was some way to offer both that would be great.

So, does anyone else want this? Do you think it will happen?

Oh, and it's not that I don't want Angel or Firefly on Blu-ray, I do. It's just that they were both shot in widescreen and seemed to have been well-protected for HDTV as far as I know, so they would seem to be no-brainers. Buffy is the more iffy one.

[Adam Tyner]

Some of the CGI type special effects look atrocious and I'm sure Blu-ray will highlight this.I'd put money that the CGI wasn't even rendered in HD. I believe this was the case with the fifth season of Angel -- I dunno, the local WB affiliate wasn't broadcasting in HD at the time -- and it definitely was for Firefly. Even if it was some tiny little effect in the background or something, the entire shot would be upscaled 480p instead of natively high-def. Firefly looks pretty good all the way through, but I can spot the dropoff when it switches to a CG shot.

[Shawn Hopkins]

I'd put money that the CGI wasn't even rendered in HD. I believe this was the case with the fifth season of Angel -- I dunno, the local WB affiliate wasn't broadcasting in HD at the time -- and it definitely was for Firefly. Even if it was some tiny little effect in the background or something, the entire shot would be upscaled 480p instead of natively high-def. Firefly looks pretty good all the way through, but I can spot the dropoff when it switches to a CG shot.

That's one of the problems. After season 3 Buffy was shot on 35mm, which should be fine, but I've read that unfortunately all the CG was done standard def and edited in as a video element. It looked bad even on a standard def TV, I'm sure it would look horrible on Blu-Ray. But I'd be willing to put up with it and there really aren't too many CGI scenes in most episodes.

[Kolbar]

They could pull a Star Trek Remastered on it and redo all the special effects in HD. I think Buffy has a big enough fan base that it might be cost effective for FOX.

[Hobbes829]

They could pull a Star Trek Remastered on it and redo all the special effects in HD. I think Buffy has a big enough fan base that it might be cost effective for FOX.
No, there's a charm to crappy VFX. Why does everything have to be of the best visual quality? Have we learned nothing from Star Wars? Leave the video alone.

[Shawn Hopkins]

No, there's a charm to crappy VFX. Why does everything have to be of the best visual quality? Have we learned nothing from Star Wars? Leave the video alone.

Hobbes, it does look charming on DVD, but using those old standard definition video elements on Blu-Ray will make them look like a mess on a HD set. And it's not exactly the same as Star Wars where it would be adding in unnecessary CG. It would just be replacing very crappy SD CG with less crappy HD CG.

[satam55]

Even though, I just recently bought "The Buffy Chosen Collection Set" and "Angel Collector's Set" less than a month and a half ago, I'm all for releasing both series on Blu-Ray now.

This would allow them to go back and correct mistakes that they did on DVD releases, such as stupidly cutting out the recaps off the episodes of both series (Except for Angel Season 5).

While Angel Season 1 DVD Set was released in all regions in it's intended Fullscreen aspect ratio with the recaps cut off, Angel Season 1 is in widescreen with the recaps intact on Hulu.com, so they might as well release it like that on Blu-Ray.

[Shawn Hopkins]

It's been like nine months since I started this topic and still no news on this, unless I missed it. Hopefully they'll announce something soon.

[Adam Tyner]

No news. To be honest, it's still not all that common to get current TV-on-Blu-ray sets, and "catalog" sets in high-def are almost unheard of at this point in the game. (There have been a couple -- Firefly, the first season of Prison Break, the first two seasons of Lost, and the complete run of Battlestar Galactica -- but that's about it.) Unless Fox sees some marketing angle to exploit, like a new Buffy movie getting off the ground, I think it'll be a long, long time before we see Buffy on Blu-ray (if ever).

[Shawn Hopkins]

I think there's a market for it, though. Buffy and Angel DVDs are obviously one of Fox's bigger sellers, and they come with a very dedicated fanbase that probably would be willing to rebuy it.

[Fone Bone]

Even though, I just recently bought "The Buffy Chosen Collection Set" and "Angel Collector's Set" less than a month and a half ago, I'm all for releasing both series on Blu-Ray now.

This would allow them to go back and correct mistakes that they did on DVD releases, such as stupidly cutting out the recaps off the episodes of both series (Except for Angel Season 5).

While Angel Season 1 DVD Set was released in all regions in it's intended Fullscreen aspect ratio with the recaps cut off, Angel Season 1 is in widescreen with the recaps intact on Hulu.com, so they might as well release it like that on Blu-Ray.This. Heck, I'd be willing to rebuy some of the Buffy/ Angel sets on DVD if they released them with the recaps. For some of the recaps they were so twitchy to edit them out they actually cut out scenes from the actual show (in Angel season two and Buffy season seven). They could call them "Special Editions" or whatever but I feel like Buffyverse fans got hosed with the excision of the Previously On stuff.

[Adam Tyner]

I think there's a market for it, though.I don't disagree, but there's a market for many thousands of other things that haven't been announced for release on Blu-ray yet either. There's still the uncertainty of whether or not Fox can make the series look appreciably better too. If most or all of the post-production was done in the SD realm, Fox would have to go back to the original film elements, retransfer everything, and then either cut in standard-def video for the special effects or redo the FX work altogether. There's kind of a staggering price tag associated with that, and Fox may decide it's not worth the time or effort.

I'd buy Buffy and Angel on Blu-ray in a heartbeat, but I don't think it'll happen anytime in the near future.

[Shawn Hopkins]

I don't disagree, but there's a market for many thousands of other things that haven't been announced for release on Blu-ray yet either. There's still the uncertainty of whether or not Fox can make the series look appreciably better too. If most or all of the post-production was done in the SD realm, Fox would have to go back to the original film elements, retransfer everything, and then either cut in standard-def video for the special effects or redo the FX work altogether. There's kind of a staggering price tag associated with that, and Fox may decide it's not worth the time or effort.

I'd buy Buffy and Angel on Blu-ray in a heartbeat, but I don't think it'll happen anytime in the near future.

There really aren't that many CG effects in a given episode of Buffy, much of it is done with practical effects. In fact, the CG stuff really tends to stand out because it looks so poorly done, like the monster in Band Candy and the snake at the end of Graduation Day. The vamp face transformations, though, could be a problem. Those are often clearly video elements, it's really obvious in Once More With Feeling when Spike's face changes during his song. That scene looks awful even on DVD.

It would be an undertaking, but it's a lot less than what they did with Star Trek where they went in and remastered every exterior scene. I know Buffy's fan base is smaller than Star Trek's, there's also a bit less work involved so it's still a reasonable proposition. I think every season after they stopped using 16mm would look much better on Blu and the final four seasons could look great and be presented in widescreen. Maybe with an option to block off the sides for people who want to watch it 4:3, I'm sure they can do that in Blu-Ray after seeing how they were able to put a frame around the screen with the Ghostbusters Blu-ray's Slimer Mode option.

Anyway, I know you're probably right about the studio being reluctant to put it out, but I think they might be underestimating the people like me out there that would buy it or rebuy it.

[Ragebot]

It would be an undertaking, but it's a lot less than what they did with Star Trek where they went in and remastered every exterior scene. I know Buffy's fan base is smaller than Star Trek's, there's also a bit less work involved so it's still a reasonable proposition.

You're missing an important thing: Star Trek TOS was edited and post-produced on film. Buffy was edited and post-produced on video. To re-master the show, not only would they have to recreate/upconvert the CGI elements (no small task in itself but not impossible), but they would also have to re-assemble all the original film elements - the dailies - from scratch.

In the first three years of the Blu-Ray format, we have not seen any Television series yet get this treatment. I think the only thing we can hope for is that the experiment that Paramount is currently undertaking with Star Trek: TNG pays off. Only then can we start being optimistic about Buffy on Blu-ray.

[Shawn Hopkins]

There's still hope, though, if they held on to those film elements. At least it wasn't shot on video. I guess for now I'll settle for my upscaled DVDs

[Ragebot]

There's still hope, though, if they held on to those film elements.

True enough.

The quality of the 16mm film elements for the first two seasons is frequently suspect, though. Some shots in "Some Assembly Required" and "Inca Mummy Girl" look absolutely horrendous, as if they'd had to use a third-or-fourth generation dupe print. And for some reason "Reptile Boy" is tinted green throughout the entire episode.

[Shawn Hopkins]

True enough.

The quality of the 16mm film elements for the first two seasons is frequently suspect, though. Some shots in "Some Assembly Required" and "Inca Mummy Girl" look absolutely horrendous, as if they'd had to use a third-or-fourth generation dupe print. And for some reason "Reptile Boy" is tinted green throughout the entire episode.

Some of those shots you are talking about look more like they're just tragically poorly lit, to me, so poorly lit the detail suffers. There are some scenes in the early seasons that, when they were airing them on cable on FX, you couldn't even make out what was going on because it was so dark and muddy and the broadcast added to it. Still, there's nothing inherent about 16mm film that would stop a company from making a Blu-Ray out of it, it won't look as nice as the later seasons but it'll look better than the DVD.

[satam55]

It would be an undertaking, but it's a lot less than what they did with Star Trek where they went in and remastered every exterior scene. I know Buffy's fan base is smaller than Star Trek's, there's also a bit less work involved so it's still a reasonable proposition. I think every season after they stopped using 16mm would look much better on Blu and the final four seasons could look great and be presented in widescreen. Maybe with an option to block off the sides for people who want to watch it 4:3, I'm sure they can do that in Blu-Ray after seeing how they were able to put a frame around the screen with the Ghostbusters Blu-ray's Slimer Mode option.



This is what exactly I was thinking FOX should do, the day I re-upped this thread. They should have a default Intended 1.33:1 Fullscreen Aspect Ratio option on Blu-Ray releases of Buffy seasons 4-7 & Angel seasons 1-2, Than their should be an option in the menu to remove the sidebars and show the 1.78:1 widescreen.

Except that on the Buffy season 6 Blu-ray set, the "Once More, With Feeling" musical episode should only be available to be viewed in it's true 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen.

Of Course, Angel season 3-5 will remain only in 1.78:1 Widescreen.

Now, Buffy seasons 1-3 is tricky because despite supposedly only being available in fullscreen, I've seen many widescreen footage of these seasons in the later widescreen 4-7 seasons during Intros (especially season 4), Recaps and flashbacks without any cropping. This leads me to believe that the early seasons weren't shot in Fullscreen and it is possible to make widescreen versions of these early seasons. I could be wrong. If i'm right, I would like to see Buffy seasons 1-3 have the same blu-ray treatment that I suggested Buffy seasons 4-7 & Angel seasons 1-2 have. If i'm wrong, Buffy seasons 1-3 should be properly presented only in 1.33:1 Fullscreen.


Yeah, All recaps need to be intact on all seasons of both shows.







This. Heck, I'd be willing to rebuy some of the Buffy/ Angel sets on DVD if they released them with the recaps. For some of the recaps they were so twitchy to edit them out they actually cut out scenes from the actual show (in Angel season two and Buffy season seven). They could call them "Special Editions" or whatever but I feel like Buffyverse fans got hosed with the excision of the Previously On stuff.

It also happened on Angel season 3 set ("That Old Gang of Mine") and Angel season 4 set ("Habeas Corpses").

[Shawn Hopkins]

One thing that's the biggest shame about the current US Season Six sets (at least my copy I bought release day) is that "Once More With Feeling" is not presented as anamorphic. It's letterboxed, fake widescreen in 4:3. It was really disappointing to me because this was one of the first discs I tried after buying a widescreen television.

[satam55]

One thing that's the biggest shame about the current US Season Six sets (at least my copy I bought release day) is that "Once More With Feeling" is not presented as anamorphic. It's letterboxed, fake widescreen in 4:3. It was really disappointing to me because this was one of the first discs I tried after buying a widescreen television.


I just started watching Buffy Season 6/Angel Season 3 on Wednesday. I'm going to watch "Once More With Feeling" for the 1st time ever later tonight.

Since the the region 2 dvds are in Anamorphic Widescreen, Does the region 2 version of Buffy Season 6 dvd set have "Once More With Feeling" in it's true 1.85:1 Widescreen Aspect ratio or is it cropped to 1.78.1 widescreen?