Battlestar Galactica - Season One [HD DVD]
by Wayne Rose
![Battlestar Galactica - Season One [HD DVD]](/images/Battlestar-Galactica-Season-One-HD-DVD-B000V5IPA6-L.jpg)
List Price:
Our Price: $4.99
You Save: $94.99 (95%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.87 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Aaron Douglas, Alisen Down, Christian Tessier, Emily Holmes, Michael HoganDirector: Wayne Rose
Producer: Bradley Thompson
Writer: Bradley Thompson
Producer: David Eick
Producer: David Weddle
Writer: David Weddle
Producer: Harvey Frand
Producer: Ronald D. Moore
Writer: Ronald D. Moore
Producer: Siān McArthur
Producer: William Kendall
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 755 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-12-04
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of Battlestar Galactica - Season One [HD DVD]
DVD Review: I feel like I just got stood up...
Summary: 1 Stars
You know that feeling when you have high expectations about a date with some gorgeous woman who, for reasons well beyond your understanding of the universe, seems to want you?
Then, the night comes, and she's a no-show.
This has never happened to me, though I expect it's happened to plenty of you, and it probably sucks.
On a Saturday night when I *should* have been in the company of someone whose company I didn't deserve, I ditched all normal social activities to go to Borders just before they closed. I grabbed Razor and the Season One HD-DVD set.
Razor? Awesome.
HD-DVD Season One? As others have already pointed out, the content is, of course, great. I doubt many of us would be here reviewing this thing if the content of the original broadcasts/DVD wasn't all very special and spectacular and other complimentary words that begin with "s".
Unlike others, I don't mind the packaging. Life is long enough to give up long stretches of time to watch the entire series start to finish at least half a dozen times, but life it much too short to be worrying about "flimsy" packaging. If you're willing to spend tens of dollars on an HD-DVD set, then you could also shell out a few extra for a little DVD case just for the show. Anyway, when you *do* have that gorgeous woman over, the last thing you want her to see is that you own as much BSG as they sell, including two copies of Season One. This is in addition to the whole of Farscape, Stargate SG-1, and Stargate Atlantis that you must hide as well.
Frankly, I see the packaging, if defective at all, as a great reason to get my indolent little body out the door to buy products with which to hide my fascination with things that are snubbed by the social snobs of this planet because there's some freaking outer-space involved. The show isn't even sci-fi - it's a drama set in space where characters and situations can be pushed in directions unavailable to more conventional shows. It might be odd if, say, a Viper popped in for a low fly-by over The Love Boat. Probably wouldn't work.
But I'm getting off-topic. Point is, the packaging, unless it *is* a problem when it comes to scratching, is a non-event when it comes to enjoyment of the show. It's not like you're going to sit down and watch a box. If you do like to watch boxes, then you might not be the show's demographic. (I'm not convinced that damaged discs are a widespread problem, by the by, as the people who have bad experiences with a product (like me) tend to speak up more often than those who don't - I don't mean to discount the complaints - just to suggest that there are also those of us who had no problems at all with the packaging as it relates to scratches on the discs).
The biggest problem here, and I think this is the thing getting to all of us, is that the HD-DVD transfer isn't much better than the DVD. There were scenes that definitely looked better - I have this thing about Adama's shoes, in that they're the coolest shoes on television (as is the cut of the legs of his trousers), and I was able to freeze-frame my way to shoe-y satisfaction (they look like a modified pair of Tod's for those who're interested).
I've watched the whole of Season One in just about every easily accessible medium out there. Saw a few on TV, though I hate watching TV, so I didn't spend too much time in it. Grabbed the episodes in other ways at the time - not the greatest quality (particularly the mini-series), but the story takes priority over any of that.
Watched it in formats meant for a large screen, for a portable device, from iTunes (always awful), on DVD, and so on. It never looked all that great.
Now that I've watched this version, I'm starting to think it has nothing to do with the medium - it's the show's style. They simply wanted that grainy look. I don't know anything about production, so I apologize if these assertions are grossly off the mark, but given how limited a budget these people have to work with, and given how quickly they have to crank out these shows, is it possible that they only rendered the live action scenes with the expectation that their primary release formats would be standard broadcast 480i?
I say this because the space scenes look beautiful. "The Hand of God" is a fine example - their so much clearer and detailed that the terrain of the planetoid thing actually looks quite fake. The rest of the FX are gorgeous, and I'm not someone who seeks perfection, so I kicked back and enjoyed with the whole of my capacity to enjoy a show/movie.
The Vipers look amazing - the colors stand out, and details I'd always wanted to see more clearly, such as Kara's rescue of Lee by ramming him all the way back to Galactica (*that's* love, by the way), are evident. More than others, those are the scenes I watched over and over.
In general, as I said, the space scenes are exceptional. Watch the standard here's-the-Galactica shots, and you'll see the difference. This is another reason I think the live action scenes are intentionally grainy and unrefined, although I stick by my suggestion that it could also be a budget issue. Rendering video is profoundly time-consuming and expensive - HD-DVD is a new format that most consumers aren't going to get into yet. So, would it have been worth it to have "fixed" the live action scenes? To us, yes, but had that been a requirement, I doubt we'd have anything at all.
Some of you are bringing up other HD-DVD transfers - Heroes, for example. When watching the two shows, I think it's evident that there are tremendous stylistic differences. Heroes, as far as live action scenes go, is an ordinarily lit and shot bit of work. Filters, color correction, blah blah blah - in a way, because of its style, and even if it's on a small scale, every shot of BSG is an FX shot.
I don't know. Maybe we have to make allowances there.
In the end, despite being a quality-apologist for the quality, I don't feel this set delivers. There are HD-DVD transfers from the 60s on (see 2001? it's mind-boggingly lovely) that look far better than this.
I expect Razor to look just as good as other HD-DVD endeavors, as the show already looks great on the standard DVD (the attack on the shipyards as well as the escape of the Pegasus are... yeah - *that's* some good stuff), but I don't think, unless they re-release Season One way down the line, that we're going to get the HD experience we want anytime soon.
If you already own Season One on DVD, there's little reason to pick this up. I'm an addict, which means that I have little control over what I spend on BSG products, as feeding an addiction isn't a rational thing, so I'd still buy it regardless of the reviews (including my own) - I just don't think other people are going to dig it.
I guess I also support purchasing this set because I want as much money as possible to get in the hands of these people to demonstrate how unbelievably awesome this show is - the best thing ever made for movies/television alike. Hopefully we'll see quality transfers in the future based on dough and popularity. If they follow the George Lucas model of releasing a new set of each season every time they so much as pretty up a scene in the head, I'll shell out whatever they charge.
This may seem odd given my disappointment with the work done here, but... like I said, I'm an addict. My approval of this product is disconnected from my satisfaction.
I'd been waiting for that gorgeous woman, and she never came.
Even worse, she sent her ugly cousin instead.
Unless you can't control yourself, in which case none of these reviews will matter anyway, and unless you want to support the cause, don't bother.
Here's to hoping they do the remaining seasons and Razor in such a way that our whining is reduced to that expected pocket of hecklers who are congenitally unable to enjoy *anything*.
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
![The Watcher [HD DVD] Image](/images/The-Watcher-HD-DVD-B000OHZL12-X.jpg)
The Watcher [HD DVD]Release date: 2007-06-26; DVD
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5 (Episodes 11-20)NBC Universal; Release date: 2006-09-19; DVD
Best price: $21.93
Price in other shops:
The Best of HD DVD - Action (Troy Director's Cut / Blood Diamond / Wyatt Earp / Alexander Revisited The Final Cut)Release date: 2007-11-06; DVD
Best price: $9.72
Price in other shops:
![Lara Croft: Tomb Raider [HD DVD] Image](/images/Lara-Croft-Tomb-Raider-HD-DVD-B000GTJT0C-X.jpg)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider [HD DVD]Paramount; Release date: 2006-07-25; DVD
Best price: $2.23
Price in other shops:
![Unleashed [HD DVD] Image](/images/Unleashed-HD-DVD-B000P0J05Q-X.jpg)
Unleashed [HD DVD]Universal; Release date: 2007-06-26; DVD
Best price: $0.43
Price in other shops:
![Arctic Tale [HD DVD] Image](/images/Arctic-Tale-HD-DVD-B000WTLDQ4-X.jpg)
Arctic Tale [HD DVD]Release date: 2007-12-04; DVD
Best price: $2.88
Price in other shops:
![The Bourne Supremacy [HD DVD] Image](/images/The-Bourne-Supremacy-HD-DVD-B000E1MTXQ-X.jpg)
The Bourne Supremacy [HD DVD]Release date: 2006-05-23; DVD
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
![The Bourne Identity [HD DVD] Image](/images/The-Bourne-Identity-HD-DVD-B000QEIOTO-X.jpg)
The Bourne Identity [HD DVD]*; Release date: 2007-07-24; DVD
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
![Heroes - Season 1 [HD DVD] Image](/images/Heroes-Season-1-HD-DVD-B000QTD5TS-X.jpg)
Heroes - Season 1 [HD DVD]Release date: 2007-08-28; DVD
Best price: $3.96
Price in other shops:
Battlestar Galactica - Season 2.0 (Episodes 1-10)NBC Universal; Release date: 2005-12-20; DVD
Best price: $19.85
Price in other shops: