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Season 2 has always been wonky to me.  While not having some of the issues we see in s1 episodes, it can have a very dark and blurry (on mid and wide shots) and grainless/washed out (on close shots) quality.

The lack of sharpness and the darkness and lack of color vibrancy bothers me most. 

Here are some screenshots on Xumo's platform.  It's still the best I have ever seen it streaming-quality wise.

If you have the web browser Opera, I believe they provide VPN where you can pick perhaps United States, and then be able to watch https://play.xumo.com/tv-shows/sliders/XM0AYB6TTOKW0L

Not that it's necessary.

To me, the major jump in quality comes during Season 3.   S2 has always had a dated like feel to me.

My instinct as to why Xumo looks better than Roku (and Peacock looks better than Roku, and worse than Xumo) is Universal is not doing anything differently on their end across this distribution.  These outlets have different systems for default handling of content.  It may be Xumo is more used to older SD content and more ambitious in "getting it right" since they don't have the other businesses that Peacock/Universal and Roku have.   And they may be more technology oriented.

I do have a pretty good recollection of the awful quality of the series on Netflix, and some recollection but not a lot of it  on Hulu.   It always looked terrible on Netflix though this for its run that I believe ended Dec 31 2016.  It was on Hulu a year later before the deal expired.

We know when it was *televised* on the Hub everyone felt it looked better than airing elsewhere.   

Comet, which came years later, was just OK.

One of the interesting things about the last number of years was I learned how wrong some of my assumptions were about the charges or conclusions made by those that I disagreed with or wrote off initially.

I've learned to not write anything off, and to be more humble in drawing conclusions.

That does not mean a lot of the stuff I hear that I disagree with comes true, or that there's not a lot of bad-faith arguments made, politically/ideologically motivated etc.   But I also know not to just shut the door on anything that I don't like the  sound of initially.  File it away, or approach with a more open mind.   I'll learn from times when I was wrong or badly wrong.   I won't hunker down just because we have culture wars going on or different sides that have a very different philosophy on things.

Interesting that the best streaming still doesn't compare to the dvds.  I wonder why that is.  Maybe compression.

https://play.xumo.com/tv-shows/sliders/XM0AYB6TTOKW0L

Hello PicardUK!

I did hear that.

Yes, when the strikes end, I have a feeling less content will be ordered in the past.

Even if X-Files  is a bit of a mess re: mythology and handling Scully and her child, it's staying power feels significant.

Podcast episode on the event

https://twitter.com/TheX_Cast/status/16 … 6184169473

I love the response and agree with you

However if you click the YouTube video in my post you'll see I was referring to something else

I don't think it was Mill Creek, but a family member picked up something similar (of different types) for my grandmother and mom at one point.  Pretty cool.  One days, we might catch SLIDERS on one of those with quantum leap, seaquest, stargate (and maybe babylon 5 and farscape?).

These sold on Amazon originally for about 20 bucks and the online retail price was like 29.99 tops at most places.  Wallmart.com now has it for 15.  Brick and mortar may have sold it higher back in 2019.  The manufacturer suggested retail price was 45 but online nobody sold it for that. Maybe big box had it 30, 35, 40... I am sure they would have reduced it over time if they originally priced it at the upper end of those values.

88 episodes...  target market being people who would have skipped buying initial studio releases (about 3 runs over 15 yrs).

And even with those low prices, mill creek only gets 66 to 50 percent of that (eg 15 dollars).  So it's an extremely low profit margin of dollars per unit.  15 discs is taking out at least 5 bucks just on the DVD and sleaves. More discs/sleaves at 25-33 cents really matters to them and especially multiple if they are only making a few bucks a unit.

Besides he cost of printing, packing and shipping the current set as is, there is company overhead (employees..  mill creek is a rather small team )and the licensing fee they had to pay Universal for this release (my guess $50k to 250k). Let's assume 100k.

the-numbers.com has the DVD sales estimated at $295k in total revenue (before split between retailer and manufacturer).  The number may very well be lower than that since they use a number from brick and mortar retailers to estimate marketwide price.  In any case even at 295, if mill creek got lets say 60 percent of that in share with retailers, when you take out licensing fee, overhead, production costs, shipping costs...   margins are slim and if they paid too much on the licensing fee in this one and overestimated demand, it would have probably put them in financial loss territory.

Sorry for my being long-winded on this.

Yea, you are right, they don't do color grading as far as I know.  They did have Quantum Leap on Blu-Ray HD, and Airwolf, but I think maybe Universal did the restoration on that.  Mill Creek I think usually just uses the files universal gives them (and actually contractually these types of deals with distributors don't allow them to "change" the content).

As far as bitrate -- could that just be a product of them trying to fit more episodes per disc?   Because even an added disc cuts into Mill Creek's slim profit margin.

That, or it's just them being lazy or not having the know how.

You're right about DVD though -- I am constantly surprised how it's still ~40% units sold for the home market.  A lot of people stuck on dvd for some reason.

@XFilesMuseum
We are making room for new inventory so we need to clear out the old.   This is your chance to enjoy a 10% discount on all orders over $15.00  in store and online.  Sale ends 8/1/23

https://twitter.com/XFilesMuseum/status … 8177184773

Some pretty cool items:
https://xfilespreservationcollection.co … hop?page=2

is Jerry O'Connell noticably good and funny in lower decks?

His wife Rebecca is decent in the limited SNW I've seen although I guess doesn't offer anything extraordinary.  What do you guys think about her in that series?

X Files had a 30th anniversary event in Saratoga Springs, New York, home of the X-Files Preservation Collection / Musuem.   They have another planned July 5-7 in 2024.

Looks like this year's was a success despite the location being somewhat out of the way:
https://twitter.com/William_B_Davis/sta … 1607228416

Coverage:
https://twitter.com/XFilesMuseum

https://www.saratogian.com/2023/07/08/t … f-x-files/

good lord!

doah!   is it possible you might have scratched your eye in your sleep or something?  I've heard of athletes with this injury if someone swipes at the ball and accidently scratches them across the eye.

if you're looking and feeling 23 though, i'd say you are doing pretty good health wise overall!

This is an interesting article....  that  I don't yet understand

https://www.parrotanalytics.com/strateg … -pos-cons/

TV can be a heck of escape.

unfortunately, DoC is not even available on archive anymore

keep getting  error code 500.

update: archiveorg search isnt working either so probbaly a general website issue

Babylon5 just announced it was coming to blu ray

very sorry to hear about your mother's pain.  i know she has been through a lot already and you've had to deal with a lot yourself to help her navigate the issues.

UGH.  Oh I am so sorry.  What terrible news.

Good summation of the state of ai and its uses. 

Not sure how much it will change but most of my comments have been pertaining to fan projects and so I think the standards are different in terms of what is valuable and what is less so.

But agree with your assessment on the landscape.

With regard to the writers strike.  Unified labor is important. Management is always happy to f*ck over labor by exercising its leverage.  A labor force that collectively bargains to do the same is how results happen. 

Hopefully the wga is willing to go a long long time on the strike to get what they need with these issues but I am worried about the pressure of personal runway vs the significant libraries the studios have already developed.   Studios have a significant fall back.  And consumers are not necessarily craving new content when there is an abundance of programming (a million things we all haven't watched or have yet to revisit) not to mention content is being generated outside of the studio system / entertainment industry.  Like tiktok, YouTube. Media in general (e.g. news and takes on it). It's also a form of storytelling.

So I am not sure if the wga can bleed studios dry no matter how long it goes.  Even if they could hold out for two yrs, the studios may never hit a point where they are willing to give on specific issues that they see as core to the future of their business.

So I wonder to what degree even with the tremendous unification of the wga,  whether it will be a deal they ultimately reluctantly accept or conversely be happy with.

That's an older show that stopped and I think the links to the shows expired.  He was a guest on their several times and is buddies with the host Don Ecker.  Don now does a YouTube ufo show tracy was a guest on at least a couple of timds.  Of course his internet problems basically caused issues to the point where his appearances declined.  But I an pretty sure across all of the shows on both platforms his sliders remarks (including revival discussions) have been discussed on here.  On the dark matters show he did talk quite a bit about his work and the fallout with his collaborator on the ufo doc The Phenomenon which turned out to be a hit for documentary standard (and is also streaming on demand for free for Travel Channel subscribers and is also free at the moment on YouTube or tubi (can't remember which).

I've heard him in his other appearances.... if you are referring to news on a revival, there haven't been any movements (everything has already been shared in past tracy interviews on other shows). 

I  think Cleavant probably recognizes the reality of the situation from how he handled the question.  Tracy is realistic but surprisingly, I don't think he feels like the door is completely shut (even with the lack of further network discussions).  I guess that's the positive attitude we'd want.

Tracy has mentioned a bunch of projects he has been considering developing though (outside of sliders).  Travis Walton wants them to re-do Fire in the Sky and tracy has considered it.  Tracy has considered other ufo-related projects.  He mentioned also some time travel project that came to him (sounded like some offer).  I don't get the sense he is actively writing now but seems to be mulling going back to doing more writing now that his health is a bit better (i suppose he has more energy on a day to day basis).

He also was involved in something I believe called Project Titan, which was a movement to get the United Nations to get involved in the ufo issue.  Here is a summary of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md89jyOXG-Y

I thought it was important to share this interview as I don't think we have ever seen tracy and cleavant together.  After 28 years, this is historic.  Cleavant's energy as a person comes through.  No wonder he was always the heartbeat of the series.  Tracy's story about john and the stunts was hilarious.  Tracy told it was well.

You can see why the formula of Tracy, Weiss, and our four main characters worked.  If tracy had been able to do more black comedy, the series would have even proven to be *more* ahead of its time than it already was.

Series like Black Mirror would later do some of this. 

Say what you want about tracy but he is always interesting and its reflected in his work.

He'd never be a studio boss but I think if he was allowed to do more of his vision, he would find plenty of an audience for it.

Cleavant -- the man is magical.  It is too bad to hear about his brother.  It sounds like a rough thing for them to have to go through.  I am not sure how many brothers he has but I assumed it was his twin.

Also intesting that star trek prodigy was originally meant for nickolean, as someone commented in the thread.

Agree with their insinuation that network was a much better way to pull in new fans than paramount plus.

Imagine if Tracy could do season 1 style sliders, over and over again, without network pushing him out.  It may never have gotten the tv ratings to support the requirements fox needed but it would have been looked back on as one of the greatest genre (and multi-genre) series put together.  People would have appreciated it over time, and it would have had a pretty extended shelf life (e.g. 2000-2013 in syndication).

I totally understand FOX's decisions, I just feel like we were robbed of tracy's creativity on an extended run.

Interesting.

I have followed a bit on that new movie and think it's great Babylon 5 was supported by a studio in that way.