Author Topic: Babylon 5 Remastered  (Read 4254 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.


 

Offline Galemp

  • Actual father of Samus
  • 212
  • Ask me about GORT!
    • Steam
    • User page on the FreeSpace Wiki
Oh I've been wondering when B5 was gonna be available to stream, I've never seen it but I know it was a major influence on FreeSpace. Today's my lucky day!
"Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he's supposed to be doing at that moment." -- Robert Benchley

Members I've personally met: RedStreblo, Goober5000, Sandwich, Splinter, Su-tehp, Hippo, CP5670, Terran Emperor, Karajorma, Dekker, McCall, Admiral Wolf, mxlm, RedSniper, Stealth, Black Wolf...

 

Offline Trivial Psychic

  • 212
  • Snoop Junkie
Unfortunately, HBO-Max is NOT available in Canada.
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Unfortunately, HBO-Max is NOT available in Canada.

Welcome to the rest of the world - where the short-signed buisness strategy behind HBO-Max will have an impact, but we don't get the service that is supposed to make it worthwhile.  :D


More on subject, probably it is the same situation as here on the other side of the Altantic where the Warner and Coglomerate have standing committments to local distrubtion partners in several markets that do not allow them to compete just yet.
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Online wesp5

  • 29
According to the link it isn't much of a remaster anyway, not with everything scaled down to 4:3 because of the CGI instead of actually remastering the SFX too!
« Last Edit: January 29, 2021, 06:40:06 am by wesp5 »

 

Offline Trivial Psychic

  • 212
  • Snoop Junkie
Remastering the SFX would require a hell of allot more $$$ than I think they're willing to commit.  Let's face it, B5 never had quite the same following in terms of sheer numbers that ST:TNG had... more loyal and more vocal yes, but not the sheer volume.  The big corporations are looking for projected number of sales rather than how beloved it is by its fans.  I can't recall if the fact that ST:DS9 didn't get a remaster was because they couldn't find enough of the original 35mm film (or if perhaps they filmed it on VHS level to begin with and never HAD anything better quality TO scan), or if simply they didn't get enough money in sales from the TNG remaster to warrant moving on to DS9.  I myself only have 1-5 and they were hard to find, and pricey as hell.

I'm sure us B5 fans would be overjoyed if it ever got the full HD remaster in the same vein as TNG (with perhaps more attention to detail than some of their contracted companies did), but I doubt they'd get enough revenue to warrant it.  Now, if all of the original computer models, renders, etc. still existed, it would make something like that much less daunting, as some of the creators of FS custom cutscenes and animations can likely account, when a higher-detailed model of something is available, as long as the original source mission hasn't been lost (and nothing major hasn't changed in FSO's AI or physics) its a much simpler task than having to recreate the entire thing from scratch.
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

 

Offline The E

  • He's Ebeneezer Goode
  • 213
  • Nothing personal, just tech support.
    • Steam
    • Twitter
JMS has been talking about this a bunch over the years. Remastering B5 is a complete non-starter; the work required is too prohibitive for it (incidentally, this is also why there have been no remastered versions of DS9 or VOY: Even leaving aside the added complexity due to them moving to a partially digital VFX flow, the TNG remasters weren't that successful commercially).

What could be done, and what Warner is for whatever reason refusing to do, is rescan the original film B5 was delivered on. Everything in B5 was printed to film, including the VFX sequences; rescanning those originals with a modern scanner would yield much better results than what's been done to date.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

  • 211
  • The Cthulhu programmer himself!
    • Skype
    • Steam
    • Twitter
According to the link it isn't much of a remaster anyway, not with everything scaled down to 4:3 because of the CGI instead of actually remastering the SFX too!
The widescreen was rather pointless anyway; since it was all intended for TV broadcast, nothing actually happens on the edges of the screen, so it just made everything look somewhat cramped.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Codethulhu GitHub wgah'nagl fhtagn.

schrödinbug (noun) - a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.

When you gaze long into BMPMAN, BMPMAN also gazes into you.

"I am one of the best FREDders on Earth" -General Battuta

<Aesaar> literary criticism is vladimir putin

<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. :P
<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!
* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

 

Offline Trivial Psychic

  • 212
  • Snoop Junkie
Check out this video showing the before-after of the remaster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4HS5K3MdMY&feature=youtu.be
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

 

Offline Luis Dias

  • 211
I remember watching a thing where someone took the CGI of B5 and made a GAN go through it to supersample it, and it worked really well. Maybe redoing the CGI is impossibly expensive, but doing a resolution upgrade using GANS seemed quite inexpensive.

 

Offline Novachen

  • 29
  • The one and only capella supernova
    • Twitter
Check out this video showing the before-after of the remaster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4HS5K3MdMY&feature=youtu.be

WTF?

Which source was the "original" material?

My DVD's were never so dark and pale...
And it seem to be very blurred too.

Sure, the "remaster" is clearer, but the "original" source in this video is shown much worse than it actually is.
Female FreeSpace 2 pilot since 1999.
Former Global moderator in the German FreeSpace Galaxy Forum.
Developer of NTP - A Multi-Language Translation Library Interface, which allows to play FreeSpace in YOUR Language.

Is one of my releases broken or not working? Please send a PM here, on Discord at @novachen or on Twitter @NovachenFS2, a public tweet or write a reply in my own release threads here on HLP, because these are the only threads i am still participating in.

 

Online wesp5

  • 29
Sure, the "remaster" is clearer, but the "original" source in this video is shown much worse than it actually is.

I'm watching the show on German TV right now and it pretty much looks as blurry as this...

 

Offline Trivial Psychic

  • 212
  • Snoop Junkie
I just finished watching "Midnight on the Firing Line", (don't ask how I got it) and I can see the difference in quality for the live-action shots.  Some of the space shots do look a bit color-faded though.
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

 

Offline chief1983

  • Still lacks a custom title
  • 212
  • ⬇️⬆️⬅️⬅️🅰➡️⬇️
    • Minecraft
    • Skype
    • Steam
    • Twitter
    • Fate of the Galaxy
What could be done, and what Warner is for whatever reason refusing to do, is rescan the original film B5 was delivered on. Everything in B5 was printed to film, including the VFX sequences; rescanning those originals with a modern scanner would yield much better results than what's been done to date.

Isn't Warner the studio that lost a ton of their archives to a fire?
Fate of the Galaxy - Now Hiring!  Apply within | Diaspora | SCP Home | Collada Importer for PCS2
Karajorma's 'How to report bugs' | Mantis
#freespace | #scp-swc | #diaspora | #SCP | #hard-light on EsperNet

"You may not sell or otherwise commercially exploit the source or things you created based on the source." -- Excerpt from FSO license, for reference

Nuclear1:  Jesus Christ zack you're a little too hamyurger for HLP right now...
iamzack:  i dont have hamynerge i just want ptatoc hips D:
redsniper:  Platonic hips?!
iamzack:  lays

 

Offline The E

  • He's Ebeneezer Goode
  • 213
  • Nothing personal, just tech support.
    • Steam
    • Twitter
If they did, they didn't tell JMS about it.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 
 

Offline karajorma

  • King Louie - Jungle VIP
  • Administrator
  • 214
    • Karajorma's Freespace FAQ

I assume he's talking about this sort of thing.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline castor

  • 29
    • http://www.ffighters.co.uk./home/
Any improvement over the DVD release is welcome. I guess this will be available on Blu-ray eventually.

 

Offline Trivial Psychic

  • 212
  • Snoop Junkie
I can`t vouch for the actual streaming release, but the download sources I`ve found have cut the ending from `Babylon Squared`.  It ends with Garibali and Sinclair in the shuttle heading back to the station, cuts out to what would have been the commercial, and then does a brief pop-up of the final image of the station and the `executive producer`bit, and then straight to the credits.  It cuts the conversation between Sinclair, Garibaldi, and Ivanova regarding the Flying Dutchman reference, as well as Delenn getting the Triluminary.
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

 

Offline General Battuta

  • Poe's Law In Action
  • 214
  • i wonder when my postcount will exceed my iq
I think I remember the Dutchman scene being in the HBO version, just watched it recently