I wonder if Mill Creek were obligated to hand over to Universal whatever DVD files they produced for ownership purposes. I wonder if Peacock took whatever was most recent in Universal's digital archives for streaming, unaware or uncaring as to whether or not the most recent was what was best.

(This is not an invitation for you to send me phone numbers and email addresses and map coordinates to contact NBCUniversal's home video department. I swear to God, if you do that again, I will jump into an interdimensional vortex with Henry and Ryan and disappear forever.)

I think it's also unlikely mill creek sent universal the files after mill creek compressing them.  One other possibility *might* be mill creek spelled out the specs they wanted the content in, and then universal used those when the peacock deal came around but I wouldn't call it more likely than them doing the compression themselves..

(This is not an invitation for you to send me phone numbers and email addresses and map coordinates to contact NBCUniversal's home video department. I swear to God, if you do that again, I will jump into an interdimensional vortex with Henry and Ryan and disappear forever.)

One question would be: who produced the Mill Creek DVD files? Obviously, Mill Creek set up the disc images, but who compressed them to the point of fitting 7 - 8 episodes onto one disc? Did Universal deliver their original DVD files for Mill Creek to compress? Or did Universal's home video department receive the file size limits and hand them over? And could Peacock have simply been given the most recent versions which were then run through the standard process for SD h.264 streaming?

My strong belief is universal gave mill creek the digital files in the largest size they had them and mill creek made the decision to compress to get them to fit on a certain number of discs.

Mill Creek was dealing with the non high end, much more causal fan (this was the third release of the dvds) and at a lower price point, saving 25 cents, 50 cents, 75 cents, a dollar on discs helps preserve their limited profit margin ( which may have been something like 4/5 bucks per unit).

I don't know how Peacock got where they did, but the screencaps you're showing look like compressed MPEG-2 that's been re-encoded as compressed h.264.

they probably have specs they do on all their content and maybe for some content compressed h.264 holds up better visually. 

i am not sure if there is some alternative they could use for sliders but the flip side is they might find the files are too large or they don't accomodate people with slower internet.

Thanks, RussianCabbie!

These look like the Mill Creek files to me but run through h.264 compression (for streaming) at a low bitrate for SD content. This reduces data layers of noise/grain to make the file smaller.

The Pilot and "El Sid" are, on Universal DVD, two of the *better* presented SLIDERS episodes. The Pilot's 35mm film origins came through clearly and it looks like it was edited on film. "El Sid," while lacking the same fine detail as the Pilot, has good levels of edge contrast thanks to being edited on the industry standard of digital videotape. I have actually never seen "The Dream Masters," but Season 3 looked sharp on Universal DVD. On Peacock, all three look blurry and smeared.

As a result, details like Quinn's flannel shirt and Arturo's beard have become a blur.

It looks to me like Peacock used the Mill Creek files. But where the DVDs use MPEG2 compression (which creates the compression noise artifacts on the Mill Creek discs), streaming services put SD TV shows through h.264 compression at a low bitrate. h.264 compression doesn't generate noise artifacts; it blurs noise and grain for smaller file sizes. You get this if you stream Netflix in low quality and it looks like Peacock did this with SLIDERS as it's an SD show.

"Summer of Love" seems to have been subjected to the same h.264-type compression, but because the original video master started and finished as a blurry mess, the compression has proven irrelevant; there wasn't much to further smooth and smear in the compression.

It's incredible you haven't seen Dream Masters but I'm guessing it's premise is particularly creepy to you and it's best not watched.

In terms of what files they used, do you really think they used the "Mill Creek" files.  My guess had been they had one set of digital files that they send to all partners (though I suppose there actually may be a few, which can happen over 20 years).  I always assumed though there was one files and then the partners either heavily compressed it or did not.  The per-purchase vod files on amazon, verizon cable is awful for instance.  But I just assumed that was how the partner who received the files handled things, not because they got a crappy version of the file from universal.

If universal does have different types of files and they gave Peacock crap ones that's not excusable.  Unless Peacock wanted small size files to save on bandwidth costs but I doubt they would have made that request. 

It's possible that universal just has different versions of the files and the people who work there have no clue that they have different files with better or lower qualty and they just  send off the ones that are most convenient.

These look like the Mill Creek files to me but run through h.264 compression (for streaming) at a low bitrate for SD content. This reduces data layers of noise/grain to make the file smaller.

The Pilot and "El Sid" are, on Universal DVD, two of the *better* presented SLIDERS episodes. The Pilot's 35mm film origins came through clearly and it looks like it was edited on film. "El Sid," while lacking the same fine detail as the Pilot, has good levels of edge contrast thanks to being edited on the industry standard of digital videotape. I have actually never seen "The Dream Masters," but Season 3 looked sharp on Universal DVD. On Peacock, all three look blurry and smeared.

As a result, details like Quinn's flannel shirt and Arturo's beard have become a blur.

It looks to me like Peacock used the Mill Creek files. But where the DVDs use MPEG2 compression (which creates the compression noise artifacts on the Mill Creek discs), streaming services put SD TV shows through h.264 compression at a low bitrate. h.264 compression doesn't generate noise artifacts; it blurs noise and grain for smaller file sizes. You get this if you stream Netflix in low quality and it looks like Peacock did this with SLIDERS as it's an SD show.

"Summer of Love" seems to have been subjected to the same h.264-type compression, but because the original video master started and finished as a blurry mess, the compression has proven irrelevant; there wasn't much to further smooth and smear in the compression.

(click thumbnail and then magnifying glass to see full size)

SEASON 1 is fuzzy, but also more defined than the dvd's.. this is a free show on peacock, with very few commercial breaks
.  The episode order seems to be broadcast, but so are the dvds, the show will play in broadcast order with no stops if you want, season 2 looks slightly better.

Just started season 3, watched most of season 5, and to me it looks great.

Granted my TV is 4k 65" vs an old 32" LG, so maybe it has more to do with tv, but I'm enjoying my rewatch.

Trying to get my wife into it, but she isn't a fan, views Quinn as a bad guy getting them involved in sliding, without solving the equation or really testing it before he took the group on the adventure.  The recast of the mom in season 2, and casting Clevants twin witch doesn't look identical to anyone but the cast is throwing her for a loop...(I was not a fan of Harry Potterrewatches, so she's dishing it back:)

Out if curiosity do you have the universal dvds or mill creek or something else?

Quinn always felt a lot of guilt about getting the others involved in sliding.  Maybe that will make your wife like him more.

Where are the screencaps?! How can you let me down after everything!?

:-)

It will definitely happen   Tuesday at worst, tomorrow night at best.

It's terrible peacock isn't available in Canada!