Series 1 - 7 Blu-ray boxset
Gordie1
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Just seen this, only available in america, but its claiming to be all series in full 1080p.
Will this be upscaled?, i was under the impression that the first few series were in SD, with later seasons afer the specials being only in 1080i.
Can someone clarify?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/Doctor-Who-Blu-ray/ref=%26%2574%2561g%3d%2562l%2575r%2561y%252d012%252d20?SubscriptionId=AKIAIY4YSQJMFDJATNBA&tag=bluray-012-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00DYAE2IY&ASIN=B00DYAE2IY&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Will this be upscaled?, i was under the impression that the first few series were in SD, with later seasons afer the specials being only in 1080i.
Can someone clarify?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/Doctor-Who-Blu-ray/ref=%26%2574%2561g%3d%2562l%2575r%2561y%252d012%252d20?SubscriptionId=AKIAIY4YSQJMFDJATNBA&tag=bluray-012-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00DYAE2IY&ASIN=B00DYAE2IY&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
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I was wondering about this too. They only started filming in HD from 'Planet of the Dead' onwards so it must be upscaled.
It will be interesting if the upscaling is any good and if they'll release singularly too.
Strange they havent given details like that, maybe nearer the time.
Remastered apparently
From Amazon "The collection includes Series 1-4, featuring Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston and Tenth Doctor David Tennant, making their Blu-ray debut in newly remastered versions at full 1080p resolution, plus the David Tennant Specials collection and Series 5-7 featuring Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith, also on 1080p high definition Blu-ray"
Frankly the rubbish quality of the upscaling on the first of the specials blu ray compared to the high quality upscaling of my DVD player, I'd be concerned it's any good.
If however these are likely to be indeed very superior I'm going to be incredibly annoyed having invested in the DVD boxed sets over time, some being limited editions. I will inevitably have to get them on blu ray.
Oh, and have they fixed series 6? (or was it fine on US release anyway).
They're almost certainly going to be superior for our NTSC cousins, since their SD is lower resolution than the PAL originals. So, sure, they'll get a lot of invented detail to fill those 1080 lines but they'll also get the real recorded detail that was cut out for NTSC DVD.
It was actually one of the few shows to be filmed on 16mm film so could have been a decent HD transfer, but the BBC opted to use the original SD broadcast as the source material for the Blu Ray.
The panning shots are supposed to be very juddery as the conversion from 25fps to 24fps (blu ray typical frame rate) doesn't help at all.
Perhaps the first 4 series were filmed on film and they've managed to get a decent HD transfer, but I'm pretty sure it was tape instead and thus these 1080p remasters will just be bodged upscales.
Don't think that's possible, it was mostly rubbish and always will be.
I thought the Blu Ray licence holders had rules about that sort of thing?
BBCHD had an internal policy whereby no programme could be shown on the channel unless it was something like 80% HD source material.
As for Blu Ray - its just a medium. As far as I know, distributors are free to put whatever they like on them.
Afterall, alot of extras on Blu Rays are not HD.
It was said Sony didn't want any blu's where the main feature wasn't HD, though now there are a lot of 80's/90's music concerts being released with SD picture on blu (but with HD quality sound) so I guess if there was a policy about SD footage on blu, it's changed.
The USA release date is 5th November, we could yet get it before then (say on the 4th, as UK releases on Mondays, USA Tuesdays,) they just haven't announced it yet.
Yeah! And none of the high street shops should be willing to sell it to foreigners because they just come over here, take our jobs and don't even wash properly.
If you don't believe me then ask anybody else.
The BBC did Life On mars and that was badly done, however apparently this is being handled in America, soo, it MAY be better if they give it better treatment that the BBC did. Plus on the bright, most Blu-rays are usually region Free so Who fans could just import it if it turns out to be pretty damn good.
Why would they be progressive 25fps and not PAL-standard 50i? It's shot on tape, not film.
It's in my post in the series 7 Boxset thread. The email reply from the BBC to my question about why it seemed to be a US only release.
UK though - probably twice the price and no screwdriver remote.
The studio cameras for gameshows and that sort of thing are still interlaced.
You'll need to clarify "nowadays" as most (if not all) drama material is shot nowadays in HD, 1080p or better. We're talking about Doctor Who when it was still shot in SD.
There was a "fashion" for a while, back when SD still predominated in TV production, to give video a false film look, by halving the vertical resolution (basically throwing away one interlaced field) and line doubling to give a progressive image. I believe contrast and gamma were also adjusted to approximate the way film responds to light.
AFIAK, the cameras used were standard i.e. captured the image interlaced and this post processing gave the faux progressive or film look.
That never looked good.
"Region: Region A/1"
Although multi-region DVD players are not exactly rare in the UK, multi-region BluRay players are as scarce as rocking-horse manure. When BD players are advertised as mulit-region, that usually only refers to DVD playback, not BluRay.
Caveat emptor!
And despite being marked as US, the previous US blu rays have been region free and played just fine on my UK Blu Ray player.
When it is being released in the UK anyway, I will buy our version. Unless ours comes in shitty packaging and with no bonus addition like the screwdriver remote.
It didn't look good, as you say, especially the early attempts at it!
Things improved a lot, even before HD became standard, when they started to do the effect "in camera" using progressive scan and shutters, which made the video cameras acquire their images much more like film cameras always had.
The downside was that as you'd done it at source, you couldn't then easily lose the effect later!
Fortunately it did look pretty good, and we're all used to it now!
While it will be very interesting to see what series' 1-4 look like upscaled, you can't magically make the picture look as clear as the specials onwards.
Something to note is that it's not just the earlier series that are getting an upgrade - looking at my series 5 boxset it says it's in 1080i (I can't speak for series 6 as I don't own it!), so it will be appearing in 1080p for the first time in this new set.
The episodes are shot in 1080p/25 format so we will be seeing them exactly as they were shot (not that it will make much or any difference on watching them). I am guessing it was 1080i on the original release because this is what they have to convert it to for broadcast on both BBC1 and the HD channels. All UK TV channels broadcast at 50Hz, so a show like Doctor Who that is shot progressively at 1080p/25 has to be converted to 1080i/50, otherwise they would play back at twice the speed!
According to my reply from the BBC, we are. On the same day as the series 7 boxset.