Video

I have the DVD box sets, surprisingly, I think it's series 3, the booklet is in French.

"The DVD reminds us that analogue film isn't 4:3." Tell that to the thousands of movies produced before the 1960s. The aspect ratio of 35mm film is entirely dependent on how the filmmakers choose to use it.

"Standard film is widescreen by its nature." Do you mean 35mm? The traditional old-timey frame size on 35mm is 1.33:1 Which is not widescreen. To get anything wider, filmmakers have had to come up with a couple of jury-rigs, such as cropping the top or bottom of the frame (1.85:1), or using an anamorphic lens to squeeze a wider image into the frame (2.35:1).

I bought the BluRay as the play copy, so my DVD copy can stay better preserved in a case along with a packet of oxygen absorber.

In a few more years, the AI upscaling built into TVs and smart devices will remaster old shows in real time.

Jetfire was only named ‘Skyfire’ in the original G1 cartoon (plus some Takara Tomy Jetfire toys). All other forms of TF media, comics, cartoons, films, toys are known as Jetfire!

Careful with the DVD version. In my season 4 set I had some repeated discs so have a few episodes missing :(

£30 was a good price for that SHADO 2 . I love UFO stuff and just got the product enterprise SHADO 2 , but made sure it was the "clean" version as someone who did the weathering on the other versions needs to go to specsavers

Art Asylum did some cracking stuff. You should have a look for their series of 3 assimilated borg figures. It tooks me ages to hunt down the full set unopened at a good price. The boxes look like the pods that the borg rested in.

About the on-screen text: it's been re-created on both the DVD & blu-ray, but the blu-ray actually looks a lot closer to the original broadcast. On DVD they changed the font to what they were using in some of the later movies (River of Souls, A Call to Arms). The blu-ray puts it back to the way it should look, just re-rendered in HD. It's actually one of the small touches of the remaster I most appreciate, because they could have easily gone the lazy route of just upscaling the old text.

"I will throw up at points in this video", lol. You made be do a spit take!

It was convenient for the broadcast TV of the time, but the entire "shoot it on film, finish it on video" mantra has locked some great TV away in Video Hell (TM), unfortunately. Thank goodness Paramount/CBS Digital were willing to eat the expense to give us TNG in all its glory, going back to the Edit Decision Lists (EDLs) to re-edit every episode, rather than just upscaling the finished video product. Also, sticking with the 4:3 aspect ratio instead of "pushing in" was the right call. Give me the OG. I am afraid because of the added elements of lower res, digital CGI elements, we'll likely never get DS9 and Voyager.

This is some really useful info, thanks. I do love B5 and have been toying with picking up the Blu Ray set for a while but the lack of extras and additional films had always put me off. I'm happy I did wait after this review, it is likely I will snag it one day but am now more than happy to wait until I see it for a really competetive price.

A mild irony given the aspect ratio on everything else, I just looked at the Gathering before putting the Blu Rays away and as I imagined it's the TNT Special Edition, but it isn't cropped! Which makes we wonder if its CGI was done in widescreen by exception because it was made as a proof of concept, or if they adopted the DVD approach to life and just used a chunk of the CGI instead. Answers on a virtual postcard...

I watched maybe three or four episodes of B5 when it was on, but for some reason a couple of shorts came through recently, and for some reason I decided to watch this, and it was very useful 🙂

Thanks for all your comments. They prompted me to go and check something, which was that my DVD set is missing the 4 minutes of rather vital footage from the Season 5 episode The Fall of Centauri Prime from before the intro starting! Apparently it's a problem that affected some of the issues of that box set, but happily I do at least now have it on Blu Ray - I've checked! I also found it was hilariously difficult to get to the season 5 discs on the Blu Ray (someone trying to tell us something?!) and that I was fractionally wrong about extras - if you peer underneath the paper insert of the plastic box, you get - episode listings! Plus mention of The Gathering's inclusion (last disc in the box ironically) and a trailer for The Road Home!

I picked up the VHS set for 3 pounds Yes all 5 seasons they didn't want any videos in the shop any longer

Thanks for making my mind up , i was thinking of getting the blurays, i wont do it now, i love the dvds for the extras, the commentsries especially

Luckily all extras except the commentaries are on the final disc of the dvd sets so when I got the blu ray set I took all the last disc of the sets and put them all in the season 1 case, also unfortunately some of the older dvd copies where printed at that 1 factory of WB disc that is responsible fire most of the dvd disc rot people are finding today

They Missed out the Movies aswell !! So unlike the Complete DVD boxset that had all the Movies and Crusade Series , This set only has the Pilot Movie only :(

A great and very useful comparison video. Thanks for your thoughts and observations on the Blu-ray. I love B5 (it is in fact my favourite ever show), however since I already own the DVD sets, and I knew the Blu-ray was disappointingly 4:3, I still haven't bought the new version yet. On balance, I don't think I'll bother (unless the price drops through the floor of course), and instead I'll continue to hope for a full-on re-render of the CGI in 16:9 in the future, followed by a bells and whistles re-release on Blu-ray finally giving us all of the show in the highest quality. With the advent of AI to assist Warners, it can't be that difficult, surely?

My biggest gripe with this UK BD boxset is the packaging which is beyond awful with possibly the worst stacking of discs of any boxset I currently own (although Space 1999 Season 1 on DVD from Network comes close but has far less discs). It's Warners being el cheapo in my opinion. Just taking the discs out is a chore not to mention having to reorder discs in order to get to the one I want. It is terrible. 0 out of 10 for packaging from me. I'd have happily paid an extra fiver or tenner for individually boxed seasons. As for the image, it's as good as we are ever going to get and I'd rather have the original 4:3 aspect ratio maintained rather than having the dated CGI zoomed in and looking even worse. I mean I have enjoyed Space 1999 and UFO on BD in 4:3 so it doesn't bother me at all. Besides I watch TV and movies in a dark room and on an OLED TV that black bars are invisible so are quickly forgotten.

The biggest problem with a mixed aspect ratio release would have been those composited shots. I remember that quite a few shots were cropped poorly on dvd with parts of the faces cut off, etc. And as far as I know the original tapes for those scenes are no longer available, so it wouldn‘t be possible to recreate the composition with new effects. Personally I rather have the HD 4:3 than the 16:9 DVDs. The missing extras are a real shame, though. Regarding the scenes that are missing ftom the HBO streaming version, could you give us an update if they corrected that for the new release, when you find out?

Just my 2 cents and how I do things. - I don't give a crap about nice labels on the discs. They get out of the case and into the player. And In my case I rip/remux them and are stored on my fileserver. The case is rarely pulled from the shelf anymore. - It would have been nice to have CGI in 4:3 and the live action in 16:9. As you've shown in the side by side, the 16:9 shows more on the sides. - The CGI not being re-rendered is something that, to my knowledge, is rarely done? It's also the reason Star Trek Voyager isn't out on Blu-ray because they couldn't upscale properly because of the use of CGI. At least, that's how I understood it at the time. And if for both shows the original files are lost, you can't just render them again but in a higher resolution. - The missing extra's/commentary is a thing, for some. Personally I don't watch them, really. Especially since I rip/remux everything. I did buy a standalone player again recently, first time in 10 years I think since I used one, so I did watch some extra's on movies I've played so far. - Menu with animations. I'd rather not have them so browsing them is quicker. Anyway, that's it for me.

I see the dvd sets often at places that sell secondhand dvds, usually going for around $10-15. It's hard to argue with the cost when you're getting all those great commentaries, and the widescreen looks really nice. The loss of cg detail is definitely felt whenever I've watched the dvds on a larger screen. I watched the hd versions on tubi for the first time and I'm glad it was the 4:3 version; I think it comes off as a bit more polished from a newcomer's perspective.

I’ve got those beautiful toys mint with popy Italian boxes even the famous dx gatcha spartan mint with Italian box too.I bought those toys 25 years before and expensive now

Great video, not many in-depth reviews of this Blu ray release. They definitely put more effort into DVD back in the day.

Bucky O’Hare carded figures are modern sir :)

Jesus dude!!! How? Seriously, how did you get this done so quick??? I’ve just finished editing at 12.20am and set it to process!!! You’re a fooking MACHINE!!! Sorry but gonna have to catch this later, bed is calling lol

Sorry I couldn't be there mate to have a meet up, the wife was called into work. Looked awesome, n will defo try to have a meet up at sometime ether Doncaster or Cosmics

Thanks for the mention mate, it was awesome to meet you in person. It was a great day and there was so much cool stuff on display 👍🔥

Awesome pickups mate especially the Corgi Red Dwarf set 👍🔥

You can’t convert it? That’s dumb.

That's a very interesting figure, the Rick Hunter. It's definitely made as a doll, the comb's an obvious giveaway there, but the body is much closer to a Barbie Ken/Jem Rio from the mid 80s. I can only imagine this was something that confused western toy marketers as boys aren't traditionally going to buy a Lynn Minmay doll, but girls might, and they'll need her 'partner'? I seriously can't imagine marketing Robotech as a girl's TV show but maybe this was one of those instances where the romance angle of the storyline was perceived as something the girl's market would watch too, so getting a couple of dolls on the shelves might have been a concerted effort to cash in on this aspect? Boys and girls toys were very separately marketed then as: far as licensed lines went, but this could be something of a forward-thinking move on Harmony Gold's behalf. This would be consistent with the lack of love for it in the current boys-toys vintage collectable market too. Just some minor musings anyway. Great video, as always, Mr Excelsior!

These are pretty much the same as what I used to use and they were fine. But be careful of the piece that clips into the phone, that’s quite fragile and has lead to me having videos without audio on occasion.

‘Sticky helmet’ lol Yes, that’s the plastic degradation

Fantastic stuff! Those Medicom BOTP figures were sold throught Previews/Diamond Select in the West, but they're a Medicom production and were sold in the fledgling Real Action Heroes line under their Japanese name in Japan, a line which is still going today I believe; or at least until recent times. Lots of characters that never made it to the west in there. I bought those two around the time of release and then got the Cy-Girls Princess/Jun, I scratchbuilt a 7-Zark-7 to keep them company too, but the glaring omissions of Tiny and Keyup still haunt me. Really nice pick up on the Jason gashapon figure too! There's a wonderful little range of them for Starblazers/Yamato, not poseable, but great 3 3/4" scale; you even get Delock! They're not too pricey apparently still, one of the only decent choices for Starblazer figures still. Oh, be very careful with Mark's suit, that white material is perishing slightly on mine, so good give it a close examination before posing. Looking forward to the review!

Nice bunch of pick ups mate. That Red Dwarf set looks awesome. JoyToy have teased that they are making some TMNT stuff and I am very interested to see how that turns out. 👍

Yeah I always liked the blue Thunderbird 2 for some reason.

It's weird seeing the Carlton one, because that feels like it's the one I had as a kid, but there are things I remember about mine that were different. I remember the vents in the tail fin moulded to look more like rounded pipes rather then regular vents (for example)

Bloody mary - emissary of death. ... What a title

It’s because I have one

The batteries go on the top of the back you see the foamy thing in the back inside it’s under that

Very nice pick ups!! Looking forward to seeing more of the book's contents. I can just see the ad for that boxset on TV with the 'Call now to order for your FREE Babylon 5 torch! Our gift to you, so you're never alone in the night. But only for a limited time!"

Thank you for filling me in! I'd been trying to workout the period differences.

Great stuff! I decided on the ERTL Joyride diecast model released a while back and then added a proper animated light and sound and a button that also played the theme. It's 18th scale so hoping to one day have the LJN Michael Knight figure to go with it. Haha, funny you mentioned the wallpaper as I picked up a roll of it a few years ago, just couldn't say no as it was so cheap.

knight rider, a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exsist. yup, i am a big fan. now que that theme music. lol. #ROADTO3K

Wonderful memories of watching Knight Rider back in the 80s😅. My late wife had a 1/18th scale model of it, which she own for many years. After she passed away I didn't really want it any more so sold it on eBay to a guy in Canada. Got over £130 for it. Yes, David Hasselhoff was popular in Germany. I saw him performing at Phantasiland, a theme park by Cologne on a school trip about 35 years ago.

The background pictures are not fast enough to the dialogue..

Oh the joys and pains of being a DC toy collector in the 90s. I have that red Azrael Kenner one, it's kind of ironic that it has a play gimmick when you squeeze its legs together (slices up and down with the flaming sword) which this line's figures all had as some kind of homage the Kenner Super Powers figures but managed to lose the knee articulation along the way. This is bringing back all the painful memories of the awful Total Justice line which epitomised the dynamic pose/zero play value style that was all you got until DC Direct/Diamond Select started doing toys.