wergo

Not always; sometimes instead of losing a chunk from the sides, they add unwanted information to the top and/or bottom - here there's unwanted visual information on the sides.

I'll agree with you about the improved resolution, though, but that'll be irrelevant once Fox get around to issuing the Chosen box in HD-DVD. Which I'm sure will be any day now.

Nick Martin

No. I'm too poor for that. No need to rub it in ya know

No, but that PAL audio speed-up is very annoying to me, and I've only seen various trailers and film clips in PAL.


My LCD computer monitor supports PAL and NTSC - as all computer monitors do as far as I know. It's 4:3, but also displays anamorphic widescreen images without those jagged aliasing lines you get with a 4:3 TV. Crystal clear picture on a smaller scale. I don't watch anamorphic DVDs on my TV anymore because of this. I considered getting that 4 disc "Titanic" from the UK, but the PAL audio...can't stand it.


How do you remember that?


I was only getting at the fact that the UK sets (I wish R1 had their book binder packaging - looks prety cool based on the images I've seen)
are not OAR, but reverse pan and scan, so to speak - revealing the whole image rather than cropping it. There's a difference between supporting widescreen and supporting OAR - if the OAR is 1.33:1, then that's the way it is.

The whole 'joe 6 pack in reverse' remark referred to the idea that when it comes to Buffy in widescreen, it's the widescreen owners and supporters who are saying it looks better filling the whole screen without the black bars - only at the sides of the screen rather than the top and bottom.

Think about it: for a widescreen TV owner, widescreen DVDs are full screen. Full screen DVDs as we know them are full only on standard screens...I think I just confused the hell out o myself.

ANGEL season 2, with the same modified aspect ratio issue, is presented the same way as its UK counterpart, so I have a good idea of what the image looks like and I agree with you - in this case wider is better. Sure, some things end up being revealed that shouldn't, but it does impress greatly. However, none of that changes the fact that it's not the correct AR.

tichtich

I agree that 4:3 is the "correct" ratio. Ideally, I would have a 4:3 TV for watching 4:3 programmes and a 16:9 TV for watching 16:9 programmes. In that case I would certainly prefer to watch Buffy in 4:3. But I only have a 16:9 TV and watching 4:3 Buffy on a 16:9 TV is not ideal, so I had to choose between two imperfect options.

Of course, this is a fairly minor issue. Watching the whole Buffy series again on DVD has been a wonderful experience, regardless of the aspect ratio!

tichtich

By the way, ANGEL looks absolutely fabulous in widescreen from season 3 on. I originally saw it on a small 4:3 TV. I don't remember it being in a letterbox, so I suspect it was broadcast in a compromise 14:9 ratio like most widescreen programmes on UK analogue TV. Watching it again on DVD in widescreen has been great.

Slayer2005

Yeah, it's not correct, but I definitely like it. . BTW, even a poor person could probably have afford a high quality 9' screen nowadays. With DLP Home theater projectors like the 4805 going for as low as $500 almost anyone could have one if they really wanted. . Front projection is definitely the best way to experience TV on DVD. It's awesome to give a great series the theater treatment. I get much more immersed because of my home theater.

For some reason I don't think I can detect the PAL audio speedup. Of course it's pitch corrected I believe so it sounds normal to me. That's great though. Before my first UK sets (one of of which was Angel season 4. It cost me a whopping $117. ) I wasn't sure about the speedup issue and how it would affect me. Turns out I couldn't even tell anything was different. Maybe it was the pitch correction that made it undetectable. I'm not sure. Of course I didn't do A/B comparison or anything, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary thankfully.

I'm psychic.

Actually, I recalled someone (who I thought might have been you) awhile back say in the home theater forum that he watched on a 20" and 13" TV, so I looked your name up on the home theater forum to verify who if it was you or not (for some reason I thought it was) and found your only post which was about your TVs.

I have a great long term memory. My short term memory needs more work though. .

Philip Reuben

I'm pretty sure the R2 Buffy sets aren't pitch corrected. It's not enough of a difference bother me either way, and I'm not sure I'd even notice it normally, but it's very noticeable in Once More With Feeling (and you can even compare the episode itself to the karaoke extra on the disc, which is an NTSC>PAL transfer and hence doesn't have the pitch increase).

matome

No pitch-correction. I have both the PAL Limited Box & NTSC sets and SMG sounds like a chipmunk on PAL. My HTPC uses WinDVD which has PAL pitch conversion, so it's all good with that.

Josh Z

In the US, Angel was broadcast letterbox from Season 3 onward. However, the episodes that were syndicated on cable were cropped to 4:3.

Nick Martin

Cropped to 4:3 when the show actually took full advantage of the wider frame - even the opening sequence actor's credits are rectangular in shape. I saw one episode out of curiosity - "Heartthrob"...never again. In some ways its worse than Pan and Scan.

I don't use WinDVD because I find it too slow when starting up, but I like its DVD decoder - better quality image than PowerDVD.

Yeah, that was me...I'm currently co-ordinating my posting in Buffy-related threads here and there...

The best unintentional 'gags' when viewing ANGEL season 2 for me, are in the first 2 episodes - 'Judgement' features Angel not reflecting in the mirrors of the fitness club, while Wesley, Cordelia and the fitness club employee are actually walking with him past those mirrors:

You actually see David Boreanaz waiting for his cue to join them when the camera moves with the other actors - he's standing far right of a green pillar, and that pillar is half way out of the original 4:3 frame. Its easier to see him when viewing on a PC due to no overscan. Later in the scene, he steps out of a room behind the mirrors and is seen reflecting in them, again because of the expanded frame.

The other 'gag' was revealed on the IGN website: A production crew member standing with a ladder on the left side of frame in the climactic scene in 'Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been'...the wider frame makes him a part of the battle now!

Then there's the un-expanded scene transition from 'Dead End'....

It's actually fun looking around the image to see if things are there that shoud be hidden.

LorenzoL

A heads up for Canadians who haven't purchased this set, Future Shop online has the "Chosen Collection" for $139.99 Canadian.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...8F53F582DAF7B2

And for the Americans, sorry, they do not ship to the US.

Wick

I was actually just going to post the same thing, but you beat me to it. I went to a couple of Future Shop stores today, looking for it, and I found quite a few copies. I'm really anal when it comes to the shape of my DVDs and I didn't like the shape of the sets at the first store I went to, so I went to the second one and bought one that I was okay with. It seems like it's impossible to find this set in perfect condition.

LorenzoL

That is one good deal and I'm guessing that Future Shop is trying to get rid of their remaining stock.

Wick

This may sound like a stupid question, but what exactly is the purpose of that flimsy slipcover? Every time I've seen a picture of the set, it seems to be MIA, and it doesn't seem like it belongs on it (that and it's easy to damage.) Is it just something they put on the Canadian sets to make them bilingual, or what?

Wick

Nobody knows? Is it included with the American releases?

bboisvert

My copy (purchased the day of release) does not have a flimsy slipcover. It either wasn't included in the US, or was so obviously meant to be thrown away that I did so and promptly forgot about it.

LorenzoL

You are right about the condition of the box sets, they are in rough shape. I went to Future Shop today to pick up V for Vendetta and passed by the display, and they had four left but all of them had some kind of dent (some more than others).

Wick

The one that I bought had a couple of slight dents. My friend told me that it was just a sort of thin slipcover and that it wasn't actually the box that was damaged. Even though I usually try to keep my slipcovers in good condition, I didn't worry about it too much because at least the box was in good condition. I thought the slipcover was in alright condition and my friend (who usually doesn't worry too much about the shape of his DVDs,) said that he thought it was in really good shape (he said 95% out of 100%.) I figured it was the best I was going to do, so I picked it up - I mean, I never expected to own it, let alone at a price that was half of what they were normally asking.

Once I got home and opened it, I realized that I'd never seen any pictures, or read anything, with regards to that slipcover, so I asked on here.

lizard

FWIW, like bboisvert, my set, purchased from DDD in November, had no slip cover. It was just shrink-wrapped.

(And I got it for US$111.89, so it was a screaming bargain!)

wergo

Yep. That's exsactly what it is. They did the same thing with the last few seasons of 'The Simpsons' and 'Angel.' Cheaper than printing entirely new covers, I guess.

If you want the bilingual cover, yuou can keep it. If you want the original monolingual cover, you can toss it in the trash along with the shrink-wrap and price sticker. Best of both worlds.

rfduncan

To those who just purchased this set - MAKE SURE YOU CHECK ALL THE DVDS FOR DUPLICATES! I just got around to watching mine and FOX said they won't replace the one duplicate. They only replace whole SETS and since it is out of print, I'm pretty much SOL as far as they're concerned. Just warning you since it may take you a while to get through all 40 DVDs!

lizard

The discs are identical to the regular season sets. It isn't a very good solution for you, but if you can get your hands on the season set, perhaps used or something like that, you can swap in the missing disc.

After that you might even be able to get Fox to swap the season set for a complete one that you could then sell. But, yes, they only swap entire sets, as opposed to individual discs.

wergo

A while? It's only four and a half days (not including commentary tracks and bonus features). A couple of cups of coffee and a can of Red Bull and you're fine.

Kids today have no stamina.

tichtich

I still haven't watched all my Buffy DVDs after 9 months! I've been watching the complete Buffy and Angel at the rate of 1 episode per day, except for some days when I've missed my fix. I'm currently half way through seasons 7 and 4 respectively.

It's become such a way of life over the last year that I don't know what I'll do when it's over. Probably just have a short break for Firefly and then start all over again.

lizard

Wick

Sorry to hear that. I'm going to check mine for duplicates, but I'm probably not going to start watching it until later this month. I've got the first five seasons in their regular sets, so I have all of the discs from those to swap in if any of those are duplicated.