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HDTV Lovers: Which TV Shows Deserve Blu-ray Release?
Firefly on Blu-ray Disc, Courtesy of Fox Home Ent.
Right at this moment we're nearing the end of a mini TV shows on Blu-ray "drought". Did you realize there even WAS one? Oh, yeah: the January 29th release of Damages marks the last time a TV season set came out on the high definition Blu-ray Disc format.
But if you own a Blu-ray player, then never fear! The dry spell is over in just a few weeks, when Lionsgate releases Weeds - Season 3 on June 3rd. And other titles are on the way, too, including the just-announced 3rd Season of Prison Break, arriving day-and-date with the DVD version on August 26.
There's much more, too. Among the upcoming titles are July 1st's Mad Men from Lionsgate, BBC Video's July 29th release of Robin Hood, and MGM's direct-to-video return of Stargate SG-1, titled "Continuum," on the same date. August 26th sees the first *TWO* seasons of Heroes on BD and, just a week prior to that, the first season of the Cartoon Network's Justice League comes to stores. The fourth seasons of both Grey's Anatomy and Lost have been announced for later in the year, and we're even gonna get Joss Whedon's fabulous Firefly on Blu-ray Disc before the year is over, too!
What else will we get in Blu? It's a cinch that we'll see more TV shows come to the hi-def format, including additional seasons of programs already out on Blu-ray like Smallville and Masters of Horror. We also ought to see more titles, like Heroes which had previously been available on the recently discontinued HD DVD format. The original Star Trek series and the modern version of Battlestar Galactica both come to mind.
And we know that more TV-on-BD titles are going to be produced sooner or later, right? So TV Guide wants you to weigh in right now: which shows do YOU think are deserving of the hi-def disc release? Should Chuck get the mission? Or would you prefer to see the C.S.I. shows, especially C.S.I. Miami's "candy" shots, on Blu-ray? Would you be interested in adding classic programs, such as The Twilight Zone or The Dick Van Dyke Show, to your hi-def collection? Or do more modern shows give you Big Love for Blu-ray? Maybe the format should simply be Pushing Daisies? Let us know!
Even if you don't own a Blu-ray Disc player just yet, go ahead and tell us which shows presented in the format - with ultra-crisp video and ultra-clear audio - would make you want to upgrade your equipment...assuming the price was right on the hardware, of course.
Which programs deserve the chance to get presented in your home with 1080p goodness, and why? We're very interested to hear what you think!
— David Lambert
Pre-order TV show season sets on Blu-ray from Amazon
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May 9, 2008 8:09 AM
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Seasons 1 & 2 of Lost. The 3rd looked incredibly on Blu-ray!
What about Dexter? How cool would that look!
Personally, I'd take as many as I can! Also, CSI: Miami Season Five was planned for a release in Germany on HD DVD. I think it still came out so perhaps there is still a chance?
More TV! More Blu!
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May 9, 2008 10:00 AM
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Dave,
I'm primarily interested in pre-90's TV/DVD series so I'd like to see some of the recent CBS/Paramount releases in HD, such as The Fugitive, Perry Mason, The Untouchables. I'd double-dip for these shows and (finally) enter the Blu-Ray mkt for shows like these.
Also, with the HD Format war finally done, there are some recent shows that I'd heard about but haven't blind-bought on Std DVD. As the Blu-Ray catalogs grow, I'm thinking that this may get some of us HD "fence-riders" off of the fence 
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May 9, 2008 3:33 PM
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I would love to see several shows I missed in their original HD broadcasts. The first two seasons of Lost, the first two seasons of Friday Night Lights (with the original broadcast music restored), both Seasons 1 and 2 of Jericho (with the original broadcast music intact), Seasons 1-3 of The Unit, the first two seasons of October Road (with the original broadcast music intact and I also like to give a mention to Beautiful Girls, the film October Road is spun off of in HD), Numb3rs, and Star Trek: Enterprise. There's several USA Network series I would like to see on Blu-ray as well. I don't know what classics I'd buy, but I'm all for them getting the high-def release.
Corner Gas (was it Season 3 or 4 they started broadcasting in HD?) is another series I would like to see release on Blu-ray.
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May 9, 2008 5:28 PM
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Dave and "calling all HD/Blu-Ray Gurus out there"
I have a question which other Std DVD'ers may be curious about as well.
When a 60's show, for example, take the Star Trek TOS show, is released on Blu-Ray, will the video, due to the vintage era of a show, reveal "too much" detail in a show of this age? For example, would a Blu-Ray release reveal excessive "grain" or wires, etc, that were used for special effects back in those days of TV shows?
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May 9, 2008 8:00 PM
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Another issue that is of concern for the vintage TV/DVD show collector related to future Blu-Ray re-releases (or 1st-time releases) of the 1:33/1 OAR shows:
Some here may have heard about the "Route 66" Season 1 Vol 2 release where the set was released in matted/Letterboxed format from the original 1:33/1 prints. There were some very unhappy campers out there that bought the set expecting the original OAR to remaing unaltered.
Just my 2 cents on it but I'd prefer the OAR of the older shows to remain unchanged for future HD/Blu-Ray releases. That said, I know I'd either have to "live with" the black bars on the sides of an HD TV or possibly use the "Zoom" function that is available on some (or most?) LCD/Plasma WS models.
I'd prefer to live with horizontal black bars myself since I've been used to the vertial bars for years watching WS movie DVD's on a Std TV set.
Somewhat OT but I'm still catching up with the HD/WS era and have been researching the LCD/Plasma sets in preparation for a purchase.
My question refers to the "black bar" issue. I recently demo'ed several of my DVD's (all Std DVD's) at my local Best-Buy store. I was using a Blu-Ray player connected via HDMI to a Sony 40" LCD set. I forget the DVD Player model, but I think it was one of the Toshiba players. Anyway, I viewed a variety of my DVD's....1:33-1 TV/DVD's, some B/W sets, such as the Image "Combat!" set, The Fugitive, etc. Then I viewed several of my WS Movie DVD's with various aspect ratios, such as Ben Hur, Star Wars, Field of Dreams. I tried several of the viewing option functions on the Sony LCD set but I always had the black bars on the top (for WS movie DVD's). It's not a big concern for me since I'm used to viewing WS movie DVD's for years on a Std TV set. But I'm curious as to what to expect when I purchase the HD TV set soon. Since most of my DVD viewing is 1:33-1 TV/DVD's I'm interested in this "black bar" question.
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May 9, 2008 8:23 PM
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re: "For example, would a Blu-Ray release reveal excessive "grain" or wires, etc, that were used for special effects back in those days of TV shows?"
Wires and that sort of thing...it depends on how it was done. I would say that in these cases it's acceptable to use modern digital techniques to wipe out such a thing, IF visible (may or may not be), to preserve the original intended look of the show.
Grain...that's a tricky subject. My gut response is that grain is a wanted and desired thing, in old TV shows and in movies as well. It's part of how the production was shot, based on the film stock chosen by the people behind the camera. In most cases, we want to see that film grain show up on the Blu-ray Discs. Anyone out there disagree?
re: "I recently demo'ed several of my DVD's (all Std DVD's) at my local Best-Buy store...I viewed several of my WS Movie DVD's with various aspect ratios, such as Ben Hur, Star Wars, Field of Dreams... I always had the black bars on the top (for WS movie DVD's)."
You're SUPPOSED to. An HDTV is 16x9, which is 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The Orginal Aspect Ratio (OAR) in the theater for Field of Dreams was 1.85:1, so there should be some very thin black bars top and bottom on any standard HDTV set. Modern films use 1.85:1 most of the time, so most current new releases should have a bit of black bar top and bottom in order to present the film at home as seen in the theaters. The bars should be thicker on any of the Star Wars films, which had an OAR of 2.35:1 (also known as PanaVision, CineScope or just "Scope"). Ben Hur had a very unusual OAR of 2.76:1...VERY wide, to accomodate that chariot race! So it would have the thickest black bars of all. This is EXACTLY what you want to see: preserving the way the film was presented in theaters.
With that in mind, it is also desired to have OAR on all television series as well. Shows shot in the classic era you name should all be 1.33:1, or "full frame". These shown on DVD or Blu-ray Disc should always be "square", and include the black bars on the left and right if seen on a widescreen HDTV. That's called "pillar boxed" by most enthusiasts (a pillar of black on each end of the screen, to preserve the original aspect ratio). That should include Route 66, and by the way the studio *IS* in the process of fixing that with a new "Complete Season 1" release with all episodes from the first season shown in the original full screen.
Modern TV shows, shot with HD in mind from the start, are supposed to be 16x9 (1.78:1) and ought to fill the entire wide screen with no bars on any side. Lost, Heroes, Galactica, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, ER, CSI, etc.
Other TV shows, caught in the middle of the HDTV revolution, can be tricky. I'm mention one example here: Malcolm in the Middle. It was *supposed* to be shot "protected for widescreen", but the cast and crew often forgot about that and so a wide shot might include stuff that wasn't supposed to be seen on camera.
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May 11, 2008 9:34 PM
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The first season of Star Trek: TOS has already been released on HD DVD, and it looks stunning. There is no more excessive grain than anything else that was shot on film in 1966.
One major issue for TV shows on blu-ray is the fact that most TV shows from about 1988 through about 2003 were shot on film, but all post production was done on standard resolution video tape. Shows such as LA Law, The X-Files, and all the Star Treks except for TOS and Enterprise were done this way.
For a show of this vintage to be presented in HD, they would have to go back, re-scan all of the original film elements in HD, then re-edit the film to match the final episodes. The of course assumes that the editing notes still exist. If they don't then they would have to try to figure out by eye which takes were use, and in some cases more than one take may have been used to make up a scene.
In the case of shows like The X-Files and Star Trek, effects shots become a problem. In Star Trek, the models were shot on film, but composited into the backgrounds on video. This means that every model shot would have to be recomped again. Things like phasers and transporters would have to be recreated for each episode from scratch.
In some cases this may take longer and cost more money than it cost to make the original episodes in the first place.
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May 12, 2008 3:39 PM
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