Official: Babylon 5 coming to Blu-ray in December

[Looney]

Yes THE GATHERING was available on VHS through Columbia House (Original Cut) and the retail release (Special Edition Cut). And as I've said before, I too was a bit late to the show having only seen bits and pieces of Season One before diving in head first with Season Two and never looking back.

 

[LateArrival]

Thanks for the update. I purchased (and gave away) the Season 1 retail set, which would have been SE, and my first "successful" purchase of the 1993 pilot was the Columbia House release on good old VHS. Then stumbled over the German DVD and the Turkish "Toplanti" release, which is the German version with different wording on the cover.
...plus there is the De Agostini (1993 pilot) version on DVD, which apparently is only ever sold on the UK's Ebay site by sellers who never ship to the US.

 

[Looney]

And speaking of shipping to the U.S., I have a question for all of our overseas friends. If any of you know can you tell me if the price of shipping items to the U.S. has gone up for you in recent months? I am curious because I have made purchases of different 4K Ultra-HD and Blu-Ray Discs from Amazon U.K. and Amazon.de (Germany) in the past. I was looking around the other day and I noticed everything I saw now had shipping prices. This was not something I had seen in the past. Just trying to figure out if costs have gone up or if maybe there was a glitch somewhere? Really hope it is a glitch. Most of the prices were only $7.99 to $8.99, but that is on top of items that are often already $30.00.

 

[Springer]

And speaking of shipping to the U.S., I have a question for all of our overseas friends. If any of you know can you tell me if the price of shipping items to the U.S. has gone up for you in recent months? I am curious because I have made purchases of different 4K Ultra-HD and Blu-Ray Discs from Amazon U.K. and Amazon.de (Germany) in the past. I was looking around the other day and I noticed everything I saw now had shipping prices. This was not something I had seen in the past. Just trying to figure out if costs have gone up or if maybe there was a glitch somewhere? Really hope it is a glitch. Most of the prices were only $7.99 to $8.99, but that is on top of items that are often already $30.00.

The only thing I've shipped to the US in recent years was to your good self; I can't remember exactly how much it cost but $8 sounds about right. Though prices for postage do keep going up in the UK, so that might have something to do with any price increase you're seeing.

Going the other way I've found prices to be sky high to the point I can't really import things anymore. I used to buy special edition soundtrack CDs from the US, but the postage got as high as the CDs themselves. Same for B5Books.

Postage everywhere is just super-crazy now, it seems.

 

[Looney]

Yes if I were to ship something to you it would be ridiculous. And don't think there is not a conspiracy behind that.

 

[Looney]

Credit to Nottenst for pointing this out over on JMSNEWS

SALE Babylon 5 Complete Series Blu-Ray

Get it while it's hot.

 

[Looney]

That's NO JOKE everyone... Only 8 Left in stock at that price.

I also was grabbing items and I noticed it is currently #74 on the Amazon Best Seller list for the Movie and TV Shows category - so seriously get it. It is "hot" and almost gone!!!!!

(I'm sure it will be on sale again at some point, but this is a great deal.)

 

[Crash]

It seems like they're playing some funnyness with the regions.
I think I got mine for about £40-something, months ago.

There's not that much difference between the £ and the $.

I got mine from rarewaves, who were a bit cheaper. I'm not sure whether they're a particularly great company, but it doesn't take much to beat amazon.

 

[LateArrival]

It seems like they're playing some funnyness with the regions.
I think I got mine for about £40-something, months ago.

There's not that much difference between the £ and the $.

I got mine from rarewaves, who were a bit cheaper. I'm not sure whether they're a particularly great company, but it doesn't take much to beat amazon.

It's Thursday the 18th, so guess the sale is over? Price for the Amazon/US version is now $69.99/US, but wasn't it originally selling for around 100 when it was first released?

Seen the same item listed on different platforms from the same seller and Amazon/Ebay price is usually higher since those sites take a cut of the proceeds. Could log into one's Amazon account on different domains (Ex: Amazon.com vs Amazon.co.uk, etc) and order things, but international shipping is always something to consider. Have been times where something from the UK was cheaper to purchase via Amazon.uk - even with shipping - than to buy it via Amazon.com as an "import".

But still need those DVDs since only the DVDs have bonus features and commentaries.

 

[dawnchild]

I received the boxset at Christmas and have viewed up until And The Sky Full of Stars so far, and I can report that I am ecstatic to have this collection. To have the entire five-season run in a set that I can hold in one hand is incredible, considering how much space my old B5 VHS collection took up, or even the old DVD boxsets. Even the production value of the Blu-ray packaging isn't as bad as I'd been led to believe. But the main thing is the episodes, and they look absolutely fantastic on my 65" screen. The picture is much brighter than the muddy DVDs, the colours pop, the picture is sharp and clear and the fx shots look great, it's like we're viewing them brand new for the first time. The switch back to 4:3 is barely noticeable to me and the benefits we get from this in terms of the uncropped fx are stunning.

It really is a minor miracle that we've got this release. Sure the overall package has no frills at all and was clearly made to a budget, but given the circumstances and how we read more and more about studios not releasing archive films and shows onto physical media, then the more incredible it seems that we've actually got this boxset. This really does feel like someone at WB has a love for the show and has gone out of their way to make sure this is released. Whoever made this possible, I sincerely thank them.

For me this is the definitive version of the show and this boxset is now safely one of my most treasured possessions.

Since this excellent post says everything I wanted to say, I will quote it instead.

I agree with every word. B5 looks wonderful in HD and I never in a million years thought we would see this beloved tv-series, one of my favs of all time, on Blu-ray. This was indeed a small 'miracle' and this Blu-ray box set is treasured in my collection.

 

[Springer]

It is brilliant, isn't it? Though I have to say, I am starting to get a little annoyed by the disks constantly falling out of the packaging whenever I open it - I might have to get a second boxset as security in case any of the disks get scratched!

 

[dawnchild]

It is brilliant, isn't it? Though I have to say, I am starting to get a little annoyed by the disks constantly falling out of the packaging whenever I open it - I might have to get a second boxset as security in case any of the disks get scratched!

Brilliant indeed! I have not experienced the issue with the discs so far, but will keep an eye out!

 

[LateArrival]

It is brilliant, isn't it? Though I have to say, I am starting to get a little annoyed by the disks constantly falling out of the packaging whenever I open it - I might have to get a second boxset as security in case any of the disks get scratched!

Possibly insert something next to the disks (paper, etc) to help keep them in place, or replace the holder with something of better quality? Although ironically for the DS9 DVD set, the plastic inserts kept falling out along with the discs. Ended up keeping the outer shells, but inside have paper sleeves holding the DVDs.

 

[Looney]

I actually removed all the disc from my original B5 DVD sets and put them in paper disc sleeves. Then I put the paper disc sleeves in a hard case near my player for easy access. The empty boxes sit nicely on a shelf. BUT I have not done this with the Blu-Ray discs as yet.

 

[Springer]

I'm still noticing new things in the blu-ray episodes. For example I watched Severed Dreams yesterday, and for some reason I never noticed before that at the beginning the camera follows the queue of people to Londo, whereas I'd always thought the camera just panned onto him. And in C&C just before the Alexander arrives, there's sunlight shining through the window onto Sheridan and Ivanova. Tiny little details, but just things I had never noticed before. It's like there was an obscuring shroud over all the episodes previously and the blu-ray just lifts it completely.

 

[Bwilly]

So, where do the blurays sit quality wise?

 

[Springer]

So, where do the blurays sit quality wise?

I'm not able to get screenshots, but the Blu-rays are the best I've ever seen the show. They're much better than the files I downloaded from Apple TV, and are light years ahead of the DVDs. Shots are crisp, colours stand out, lighting is just right, the effects look great, and to be honest it looks like it was made yesterday not 30 years ago.

The downside is the packaging isn't the best, and getting some discs out can be tricky. There's no extras aside from a very low quality version of The Gathering, and the other TV movies are not included either (we think possibly because of rights issues with TNT). We also lose the widescreen live action shots, but to be honest they added little, and we gain much more by now having uncropped effects shots in 4:3.

The Blu-ray boxset is 100% worth getting, especially if you can find it in a sale.

 

[Bwilly]

I'm not able to get screenshots, but the Blu-rays are the best I've ever seen the show. They're much better than the files I downloaded from Apple TV, and are light years ahead of the DVDs. Shots are crisp, colours stand out, lighting is just right, the effects look great, and to be honest it looks like it was made yesterday not 30 years ago.

The downside is the packaging isn't the best, and getting some discs out can be tricky. There's no extras aside from a very low quality version of The Gathering, and the other TV movies are not included either (we think possibly because of rights issues with TNT). We also lose the widescreen live action shots, but to be honest they added little, and we gain much more by now having uncropped effects shots in 4:3.

The Blu-ray boxset is 100% worth getting, especially if you can find it in a sale.

This arrived today, and unfortunately the result is substantially inferior to the HBO max version. It could be my player (though I doubt that) but it has substantial grain that is simply not present on the HBO max setup.

Could you confirm that this is what you see (including grain)? There will be some slight quality shifting here as this is now routed through a capture card so I could grab a screenshot - but the grain is identical to what I see on my TV. I was hoping that this would be the best version for me to watch, but it seems far worse to what I already have (bottom half of image)

 

[Springer]

This arrived today, and unfortunately the result is substantially inferior to the HBO max version. It could be my player (though I doubt that) but it has substantial grain that is simply not present on the HBO max setup.

Could you confirm that this is what you see (including grain)? There will be some slight quality shifting here as this is now routed through a capture card so I could grab a screenshot - but the grain is identical to what I see on my TV. I was hoping that this would be the best version for me to watch, but it seems far worse to what I already have (bottom half of image)

I don't see a picture in your post, but my Blu-rays do not show any really noticeable grain - there is a bit, but I only really notice it if I get right up to the TV screen. By their very nature the Blu-rays should always be better quality than anything that is streaming, since streaming compresses the data, whereas the Blu-rays should be true 1080p. The versions that HBO stream are the same as what's on the Blu-ray, only that one is streamed and one isn't, I don't see why HBO would be any better.

That said, I only have the DVDs and the iTunes downloads to go by, we don't have HBO here in the UK so I can't compare to that. If the HBO version is even cleaner then it must look amazing, because I think the Blu-rays look fantastic.

I can't take a screenshot, but I did try and take a picture of my TV screen to post here but it was all blurry, so won't be much help.

There should be comparisons between the Blue-rays and other versions on the net, I remember seeing some , I'll see if I can find them.

Plus the added benefit of having the Blu-rays is that the episodes are yours forever, if HBO take them down then you've lost them.

 

[Bwilly]

I don't see a picture in your post, but my Blu-rays do not show any really noticeable grain - there is a bit, but I only really notice it if I get right up to the TV screen. By their very nature the Blu-rays should always be better quality than anything that is streaming, since streaming compresses the data, whereas the Blu-rays should be true 1080p. The versions that HBO stream are the same as what's on the Blu-ray, only that one is streamed and one isn't, I don't see why HBO would be any better.

That said, I only have the DVDs and the iTunes downloads to go by, we don't have HBO here in the UK so I can't compare to that. If the HBO version is even cleaner then it must look amazing, because I think the Blu-rays look fantastic.

I can't take a screenshot, but I did try and take a picture of my TV screen to post here but it was all blurry, so won't be much help.

There should be comparisons between the Blue-rays and other versions on the net, I remember seeing some , I'll see if I can find them.

Plus the added benefit of having the Blu-rays is that the episodes are yours forever, if HBO take them down then you've lost them.

HBO have taken them down, that's the problem.

I'm wondering if what I ended up with were not legitimate. I can return them to amazon if I find out that they are not, but I wouldn't even begin to know how to tell.

What you've said makes it sound like there is a likelihood of this for me, which is disappointing.