421

(687 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

ireactions wrote:

I can't believe there's a Barney Hill project and Tracy Torme isn't involved in it.

I'm also surprised that Tracy Torme isn't running a reboot of MEN IN BLACK or that he never wrote for THE X-FILES or FRINGE.

Not sure how active he is.  On one hand, there's more opportunity nowadays for ufo related projects.  On the other hand, most of these things would require him to do a lot of work on spec, and harder to justify that sort of  work the later you get in your career and life.

The Betty & Barnie Hill was all done on spec a couple of writers in their 30s, and was selected for the 2022 Black List (which ironically means that it was at first not getting picked up).

I would LOVE to see tracy do an historical drama on the subject though.  Speculative history, or what have you.

You would think Chris Carter should be bringing the X-Files back with the two young agents from season 11.  But perhaps it would  be seen as  too expensive  (and niche) for network tv, and not many of the streamers are doing well, so.

422

(687 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

For any fans of the movie Hackers, it's on YT, free:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T_CqqjOPDc

423

(687 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Obama's production company, Higher Ground Productions, is doing a film about the very famous story of Betty and Barney Hill, who claimed to have been abducted by a UFO/aliens.    Anne Hathaway is starring in the film.   It will be on Netflix.   Very much a wow bit of news.

424

(41 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I honestly think LEGO SLIDERS needs  a coffee table book.  These are  great.

425

(66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Lego_Sliders wrote:

Here is the vortex from season four and five:
https://i.ibb.co/Pw9FWqM/sliders-vortex-4.jpg

Ha!

The Universal Set vortex..

426

(66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Lego_Sliders wrote:

Enjoy RCLF. You put season three into my head and now i'm looking through a terrabyte drive for a hotel bar that may or may not exist.

Joy!

ireactions wrote:

Congratulations to all QUANTUM LEAP fans! I'm very happy for all of you.

And what if in Season 2, Ben looks up an old friend?

What if Ben goes to see someone he knows from Berkeley University? What if Ben's friend is a former classmate who washed out of the advanced physics program? What is this friend is a college dropout now in his late forties who fixes computers for minimum wage at the local Doppler Computers. a former boy genius turned overqualified big box staffer?

What if Ben's friend is a dreamer-turned-cynic who was dented and diminished by his failure to create antigravity back in the 90s? What if Ben's friend is a computer technician in a bad place who needs Ben to inspire him to take a leap of faith and slide into a new dimension of possibilities for the life he could still build?

What if... ?


I love it

428

(66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

ha, hilarious!

429

(66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

great stuff

430

(21 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Lego_Sliders wrote:

The only people to treat the 'maggs right were the people at inkworks.


agree!

431

(21 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

ireactions wrote:

I think the main criticism of TOMORROWLAND is that it's a lengthy rant about the pointlessness of dystopian fiction and the importance of maintaining a positive attitude -- and reviewers comment that a positive attitude doesn't end human trafficking, the climate emergency, global starvation, etc.. That's fair, but TOMORROWLAND is just a fun adventure movie with a streak of optimism and I don't think we should expect a work of fiction to cure cancer or anything. It's okay. I think Damon Lindeloff did fine.

Another point of criticism was that Britt Robertson was way, way, way, way, way too old at 25 years old to play 15 - 17. This is not unreasonable. The odd thing is, Robertson played a teenager in many 2010 - 2015 projects and played a teenager after TOMORROWLAND in the movie THE SPACE BETWEEN US. Robertson looked teenager-ish before TOMORROWLAND and teenager-ish again in THE SPACE BETWEEN US. But in TOMORROWLAND, Robertson has surprisingly deep lines in her skin and a rougher texture than she had in other films and TV shows of that period.

I suspect that probably, a lot of Robertson's previous roles as a twentysomething playing teens was from 2010 onward in TV and indie and low budget film projects that used inexpensive digital cameras and soft focus lenses. However, TOMORROWLAND was shot with maximum budget Sony lenses in a 4K digital format. Robertson with her slender build and rounded face looked somewhat teenagerish on lower budget lenses and in 1080p digital video creating a sheen over her features. But at 4K, she looked her actual age.

I guess that could happen to anybody. I've elected to accept and ignore it, but some people can't.

Another issue of contention was having 53 year old George Clooney in the movie partnered with a 12 year old Raffey Cassidy and a 25 year old Britt Robertson, but that's people seeing something that isn't there; there is not a hint of sexuality between them. The relationship is clearly Clooney as a disgruntled brother with his sisters, one manipulative and disdainful, one optimistic to the point of being obnoxious.

Anyway. Damon Lindeloff did a nice job with TOMORROWLAND, although I'm sure Disney doesn't agree since it was a $180 million loss. I still really like the movie.

Sometimes they look at what's wrong to the degree they don't see what's right.  Also, these critics can get unnecessarily stuck on stuff. 

If nobody knew who Britt Robertson was, they would have accepted she was a teenager.  They were completely overthinking it. 

Great movie.

432

(21 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

ireactions wrote:

One of my favourite movies is TOMORROWLAND, scripted by Damon Lindeloff. There's a part where George Clooney's character snarls, "Do I have to explain everything? Can't you just be amazed and move on?"

That is, I feel, quite reflective of Lindeloff's approach to LOST if I understand Slider_Quinn21's summary correctly.

(Note: TOMORROWLAND is probably nobody else's favourite movie.)

i really liked it.

was a bit surprised that it was criticized.

(but i felt the same way about After Earth)

433

(66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

So much fun!

Lego_Sliders wrote:

which chatbot are you using?

ChatGPT

I asked the open AI chat bot for a revival of SLIDERS (1995).  Here is what it spit out in about 10 seconds:


INT. BEDROOM - DAY

We see a young man, QUINN, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. He looks anxious and uncomfortable. Suddenly, his alarm goes off, jolting him out of his reverie. He groans and reaches over to turn it off.

QUINN:
(to himself)
Another day, another dimension.

He gets out of bed and heads to the bathroom. As he washes his face, he looks at himself in the mirror.

QUINN:
(to himself)
How long has it been this time? A week? A month? A year?

He shakes his head, trying to clear it of the fog of too many jumps through parallel dimensions. He finishes getting ready and heads downstairs.

INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY

Quinn enters the living room and sees his friends, REMBRANDT and ARTURO, sitting on the couch. They look tired and worn down, just like Quinn.

REMBRANDT:
(to Quinn)
Hey, man. You ready for another jump?

QUINN:
(to Rembrandt)
Do I have a choice?

ARTURO:
(to Quinn)
We must continue to search for our home dimension, my boy. We cannot give up hope.

Quinn nods, but the look on his face is one of resignation. He knows that they may never find their way back home.

INT. SLIDING LABORATORY - DAY

The three friends enter the sliding laboratory and approach the large, metallic sliding machine in the center of the room.

QUINN:
(to Arturo and Rembrandt)
Let's just hope this jump takes us somewhere safe.

He activates the machine, and the three of them are engulfed in a swirling vortex of colors. They hold on tight, unsure of what awaits them on the other side.

INT. NEW DIMENSION - DAY

The vortex dissipates, and the three friends find themselves in a new dimension. They look around, taking in their surroundings. They see a bustling cityscape, with flying cars and towering skyscrapers.

REMBRANDT:
(to Quinn and Arturo)
Wow. This place is amazing.

ARTURO:
(to Rembrandt)
Indeed, but we must be cautious. We do not know what dangers this dimension may hold.

The three of them begin to explore the new dimension, cautiously making their way through the city. They are on the lookout for any signs of danger, but they are also excited to see what this new world has to offer.

As they walk, they pass by a large, impressive building.

QUINN:
(to Arturo and Rembrandt)
Hey, check it out. That building looks like it's made of pure gold.

REMBRANDT:
(to Quinn)
I've never seen anything like it. Let's go check it out.

The three of them approach the building and are in awe of its beauty. Suddenly, they hear a commotion coming from inside. They cautiously enter the building and see a group of armed guards surrounding a man in a lab coat.

ARTURO:
(to the guards)
What is the meaning of this?

GUARD:
(to Arturo)
This man is a scientist who has been working on a top-secret project for the government. He is a traitor and must be punished.

I posted about this before, but an interesting new DVD release

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sliders-Comp … /105724827

Requires multi-region player.

437

(41 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

that's logan's doppelganger!  uncanny resemblance!

438

(66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Lego_Sliders wrote:

Making the minifigures, isn't that hard, but the bar/inside of the hotel was created somewhere in 2015, it's probably among my other lego creations. I'll look into it after finishing the sets/figures for season 1 and 2. Rembrandt me in a few months.

Looking forward to it!

But take your time!

439

(66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

That's awesome!   Can you do the inside of the hotel, at the hotel bar?  With Quinn, the Professor, Wade and Remmy at the bar being served by Elston Diggs?

ireactions wrote:

TNG was shot on 35mm film for all seven seasons. But admittedly, not every 35mm film stock is the same. If you ever have time, download and watch the 4K77 version of STAR WARS, a digital scan of a theatrical print of the 1977 movie. The movie was shot on four different kinds of film depending on whatever was available and what was needed for layers of effects, and all four are rather mismatched in how they capture light and how much grain is on the image.

TNG could have changed film stocks between or even within seasons. And certainly, the lighting shifted throughout the seasons, lenses and cameras improved every few years, and colour processing techniques advanced (although the HD remaster would have had to do colour processing all over again as they rescanned the original film).

Netflix's high bandwidth streaming is probably higher bandwidth now than it was in 2012. They didn't even start 4K until 2014.

Yea, I think it's probably better film stock.  Have you noticed Seinfeld looks better in the later seasons vs. the initial ones?    I think that ran around the same years as the seven seasons of TNG.   

It's possible they got a little smarter in how to do these remastering jobs too over time but more likely the film.

I hadn't seen TNG in HD until the past few years, when you started tinkering with the up-res on Sliders.  So when I say I watched it on netflix, it wasn't that long ago.   In fact, if I recall correctly, a lot of the cable  channels and even streamers had non-HD versions of it for awhile even after they remastered it.  Certainly with BBC America broadcasts for awhile, Heros Channel in the U.S. and I think netflix for awhile.   But that's neither here nor there.

441

(66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Lego_Sliders wrote:

“What if you could find brand new worlds, right here on Earth, where anything is possible? Same planet, different dimension. I’ve found the gateway!”

https://i.ibb.co/SRtcdD4/preview-vortex-quinns-l-a-b-light.jpg

Just when you thought the teaser was over, here comes a new teaser: Quinn's L.A.B.!

Hang on sliderino's! There's more Vortex 3.0 goodness to come!

So cool.  Jerry would get a kick out of this.

ireactions wrote:

Why would TNG look different? The HD remaster was released 10 years ago. How did it look better? It's unlikely CBS and Paramount have done anything to improve it ever since the TNG remaster was a financial loss.

Hypothetically, it could be your 2022 TV being better than your 2022 TV, but you haven't mentioned it.

Two possibilities come to mind: the video was reprocessed for high dynamic range for increased shadow and brightness detail. The other possibility: the 2012 release was compressed for digital broadcast and streaming which meant some blur and loss of detail, but in 10 years, improved internet speeds and video compression codecs have led to more or all of the HD video detail finally coming through.

I hadn't seen Season 7 before.  This looks a lot better than the earlier seasons I had previously checked out on cable and netflix. 

I think Season 7 was shot in 1993/94 and Season 1 would have been 1986/87.   It would make sense that maybe they used better film stock, or whatever source this was transferred from, than the earliest seasons.

Now, it did occur to me that maybe the image is less compressed on Pluto than it was on Netflix.  But Netflix does some pretty high bandwidth so I don't know that's likely.  Added to that, Pluto is a free service so I wouldn't expect their streaming quality to be as good as netflix from a couple of years ago.   But, maybe this indeed is the case.

Pluto, owned by CBS, has a Star Trek Next Generation channel.  I was just watching an episode form season 7, Emergence, and wow, does the picture quality look great.  I've seen previous remasters of the series on cable, netflix  etc.  I don't remember it looking this good for the earlier seasons.  Season 7 was the last.  Super impressed.

edit: never mind, drive was on the wrong region.

445

(20 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

ireactions wrote:

Uh, did he? I'm not sure that the Jeremy Smith of VAN HELSING is the same Jeremy Smith (credited as assistant to writer) on SLIDERS. There are two Jeremy Smiths on IMDB, this one with SLIDERS: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm080891/  He also has credits on other 90s shows and his career goes from 1994 - 1999.

The Jeremy Smith who produces VAN HELSING seems to be mostly in Vancouver-shot, syndicated, SyFy Channel co-produced TV shows like, well, VAN HELSING and CONTINUUM, and this is his IMDB page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1664748/

That said, it's not unheard of for IMDB to accidentally split the same person across two separate entries, but I don't think these two are the same person. I have sent @CaptainPunch on Twitter a query about this, however, and if it turns out Temporal Flux is right again, I owe him two evenings at the Olive Garden and a copy of all the comic books.

what's interesting is the jeremy smith with the sliders credit has it listed as 1995.

imagine if there were two jeremy smith's who worked on the series, and the 1997 one was the van helsing one lol.

ireactions wrote:

It seems to me: this laptop repair shop decided to earn more money by using low quality parts while charging the same prices.

not a bad guess.

i did end up getting the *last* item of a 528 external hard drive that was on sale black for friday for $20  (from $100+) and then had a coupon I could apply to get it for $5.   So $5 bucks toward storage costs, then I got another $4 128 flash drive (on sale from $11) to also assist with any transfers.  I still need a case and cord for the external drive though.

447

(20 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

TemporalFlux wrote:
RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

you recall Jeremy's job title?  Was it writer's assistant, staff writer, production assistant, etc?   I am curious to how low or mid level they werel.

I think it was some kind of assistant, but it’s been a long time since I thought about it.  I’m not sure, but I think this may be the guy:

https://www.scriptsandscribes.com/jerem … -venables/

https://mobile.twitter.com/captainpunch

Fortunately, seemed to have a decent career after that.

448

(20 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

TemporalFlux wrote:
ireactions wrote:

I vaguely recall that someone got their @$$ fired for just copy-pasting fan sites into the Bible and clocking out for the day.

Yep.  It was Jeremy Smith.  That’s why there’s two authors on the season three section; Karen took over after Jeremy was dismissed.

And though not credited, the season five section of the Bible was written by Keith Damron.

Do you recall Jeremy's job title?  Was it writer's assistant, staff writer, production assistant, etc?   I am curious to how low or mid level they werel.

ireactions wrote:

I've personally replaced drives, RAM and batteries on laptops and... I've come to the conclusion that I should absolutely not do this anymore. My NVMe SSD in my gaming laptop is currently being held in place with electrical tape because I cracked one of the holding clips. I also lost all the screws and the laptop casing was, until recently, being kept together with packing tape. I did do it with my mother's old laptop, however, because (a) I bought it for her in the first place and (b) it was obsolete and she was using a new one. I keep thinking I can be my own apprentice-level laptop technician and I keep finding out I'm wrong.

The frustrating thing is: a few years ago, I found a person running an independent IT repair shop, and I would hire him to make all my upgrades and repairs. And this went really well until 2022 when he suddenly become incompetent. He replaced a battery in my laptop -- but the new battery was at 40 percent capacity, worse than the one he'd replaced. I had him replace it again with a battery that is hovering at 87 percent capacity.

A few months later, my niece brought him her MacBook Pro to replace the battery and repair the loose hinge. He'd worked on her laptop five years ago, replacing her battery and cleaning out the interiors perfectly. This year, however: he returned the MacBook Pro to her and the battery still couldn't hold a charge. And the hinge was now loose the the point where the screen could not stand upright.

We're wondering if he even bothered to replace the battery and we have no idea what he did to the hinge. Clearly, my battery replacement wasn't an error but now standard practice for him.

I politely requested that he return her money and he cut her a cheque and I am now searching for a new laptop repair service. This person has completely lost the ability to do his job.

I can see that.  I've had something similar (I can't recall with what though... I think it was a barber?). 

In any case, in these stressful times, you never know what someone is going through in the background.  So possible something changed.   It was nice of him to provide your niece with that refund.  That's something that's difficult to ask for but at least they handled it well.

Messing with laptops is complicated.  I don't think the machines are ever quite the same after the surgery, if you're not a pro, lol.

ireactions wrote:

I had to smash open an old laptop of my mother's and rip out the hard drive and put it in an enclosure to store the SLIDERS blu-ray files for upscaling experiments.

My gaming laptop currently has a 256GB  NVMe SSD for the OS and a 1TB 2.5 inch SSD for storage. I think it might be time to replace the 256GB with a 1TB as well or get the 1TB to 2TB.

Yes, this might get me...

I would never open a laptop though to replace an internal hard drive.  That takes some courage.  Would be too worried about breaking things in the process.  I've had to do it a couple of other things before to replace a screen and keyboard.

451

(20 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

ireactions wrote:

I vaguely recall that someone got their @$$ fired for just copy-pasting fan sites into the Bible and clocking out for the day.

ok, even bigger wow.

maybe it was because things shifted to SyFy network and the team was just scrambling (and/or trying to do on a reduced budget).

452

(20 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Very interesting!

So they actually incorporated material from Slider fans sites?  Wow.

453

(20 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

thank you!  would be great to see.. however, the link is broken smile

ireactions wrote:

It turns out my Blu-ray player wasn't doing any upscaling. My TV was increasing the sharpness levels. When my Android box self-updated to 4K, the sharpness on my TV was causing 'sparkling' on straight lines on 4K video and I had to turn that sharpness off. Then the Sliders Blu-ray image looked like it did on my computer.

I had to buy the paid version of MakeMKV to rip Blu-ray.

I'm starting to realize how much hard drive space these things take up.  I have a 250 gig SD hard drive.  With nothing really on it but windows.  And just ripping the two discs has taken up 100+ gigs.  Wow.    I don't think I can even fit all four discs on the computer lol.   Going to see if I can get an sd external that's on sale for $5 but the nearest pick up location is a bit of a ways so I hope they don't run out of them quick before I have a chance to make the trip.

455

(66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Incredible!  So much creativity with this stuff.

456

(6 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Yes, there is a pretty active twitter community doing this, 

https://twitter.com/SlidersFanBlog/stat … 4934671361
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23sliders … amp;f=live


Reddit at one point also has a weekly re-watch post (that was not live).

ireactions wrote:

I think I would rather send you an old blu-ray player that I'm no longer using. It plays the German standard definition blu-ray release of SLIDERS without the framerate issues you experienced when you bought the set and tried to play it.

I'm not sure there's much point in upscaling Seasons 2 - 5 when the German blu-ray uses high quality PAL masters.

Upscaling those 540 resolution video files to 720p and then adding the AI film grain to make up for the loss of the original film texture would leave you... pretty much what you'd get with standard bicubic upscaling.

You might as well just take my blu-ray player and play the S4 blu-ray disc.

That said, if your heart is really set on getting California Reich in AI-upscaled 1080p, I will run the job for you.

Wow, thank you for this generous offer! 

I was thinking a bit... do you think with MakeMKV, I could rip the german blu-ray and then play off VLC and can get the same results as your blu-ray player?  Or maybe I am leaving out the upscaling the blu-ray player might do?

RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:
ireactions wrote:
RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

Are you referring to smart stretch with regard to non-linear stretching?  Because I've tried it.  The original upconversion I did on five minutes of the pilot used it, but what I found was -- though I loved having the full screen at first -- over time, the distortion that did exist with the stretching became noticeable and bothered me.

A character in the center of the screen looks normal, but when they move to the edges, all of a sudden their body/face starts to widen.    Ultimately, I've moved to just zoom/cropping to a 16:9 but you do lose some of the sharpness so I started thinking about filling out the frame with new visual information rather than stretching existing image.

I see we're starting the cycle again.

ireactions wrote:

You know, we seem to have this discussion every 2 - 3 years.

You say that 4:3 TV shows don't play well on 16:9 television screens.

I bring up PowerDVD, a Windows DVD software with non-linear stretching which slightly zooms in on a 4:3 image and then stretches the sides of the image. The branding term Cyberlink Pano Vision: https://www.cyberlink.com/support/faq-c … do?id=1373

You say you'll try it sometime.

You attempt a stretch but use linear-stretching which distorts the image which you comment upon.

I specify that the PowerDVD version uses non-linear stretching.

You say you'll try it some time.

12 - 24 months later, you comment that 4:3 TV shows don't play well on 16:9 television screens and I bring up PowerDVD...

...

Anyway. Let me know if you need any upscaling done on any more personal videos. I'm going away for the weekend, so I can leave my gaming laptop running on upscaling jobs the whole time.

__

Oops looks like my entire reply disappeared... because I used an emoticon from my phone in responding

Will edit and rewrite later when on desktop


Here's my 2nd attempt at a reply smile

The smart stretch I originally tried was non-linear as well.  It may not be as good as the Power DVD's though, so I will give Power DVD's a try.  I didn't bother much in the past, because of the cost to license the software.  However, I will have to give the trial a shot and if I am wild about their smart stretch, then I may have no choice but to budge.

Thanks for reminding me about it.

Also, no personal content to upgrade... I appreciate that offer as well and definitely appreciated your up-res in the past.  smile

I will say, I have had some regrets, when you were asking if there were any embarrasing s4 or s5 episodes to be sampled, I didn't go full on out on California Reich.    But, I imagine this would not be something you can do on your PC over the weekend, because of the different steps required to get the content / file format ready to do the final upres.  And I wouldn't want to burden you.    Perhaps if you ever return to the project, it is one to keep in mind.

ireactions wrote:
RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

Are you referring to smart stretch with regard to non-linear stretching?  Because I've tried it.  The original upconversion I did on five minutes of the pilot used it, but what I found was -- though I loved having the full screen at first -- over time, the distortion that did exist with the stretching became noticeable and bothered me.

A character in the center of the screen looks normal, but when they move to the edges, all of a sudden their body/face starts to widen.    Ultimately, I've moved to just zoom/cropping to a 16:9 but you do lose some of the sharpness so I started thinking about filling out the frame with new visual information rather than stretching existing image.

I see we're starting the cycle again.

ireactions wrote:

You know, we seem to have this discussion every 2 - 3 years.

You say that 4:3 TV shows don't play well on 16:9 television screens.

I bring up PowerDVD, a Windows DVD software with non-linear stretching which slightly zooms in on a 4:3 image and then stretches the sides of the image. The branding term Cyberlink Pano Vision: https://www.cyberlink.com/support/faq-c … do?id=1373

You say you'll try it sometime.

You attempt a stretch but use linear-stretching which distorts the image which you comment upon.

I specify that the PowerDVD version uses non-linear stretching.

You say you'll try it some time.

12 - 24 months later, you comment that 4:3 TV shows don't play well on 16:9 television screens and I bring up PowerDVD...

...

Anyway. Let me know if you need any upscaling done on any more personal videos. I'm going away for the weekend, so I can leave my gaming laptop running on upscaling jobs the whole time.

__

Oops looks like my entire reply disappeared... because I used an emoticon from my phone in responding

Will edit and rewrite later when on desktop

Lego_Sliders wrote:

If you want wide, use the forehead from a season four kromagg.


lol

ireactions wrote:
RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

So, I wonder if the AI community will ever develop technology to take 4:3 content and build out the "sides" to fill in for a 16:9 format.   It seems like at some point we'll have the AI technology to theoretically do this, the bigger question will be is enough people will care about this particular use case to build something for it.

There's a lot of talk about AI and video in general (https://www.fastcompany.com/90794674/ai … fringement), and I suspect we will probably get to a point where we'll be able to make Sliders short videos where we feed in the characters (names of the actors or the character + show title) and the AI will scan all the pictures of those people in whatever index is available to it, and then create 3-Models.  And then it will follow whatever the user of the software says should happen (eg place, setting, things that happen).  The voices may be tougher...  you'd need a large index of all the creative films and tv for the software to understand the speech/vocal tone of the actors.   Studios might consider making their libraries available for this (and get some licensing fee if the user pays some fee.  But I am not sure if that would ever happen.)

You know, we seem to have this discussion every 2 - 3 years.

You say that 4:3 TV shows don't play well on 16:9 television screens.

I bring up PowerDVD, a Windows DVD software with non-linear stretching which slightly zooms in on a 4:3 image and then stretches the sides of the image. The branding term Cyberlink Pano Vision: https://www.cyberlink.com/support/faq-c … do?id=1373

You say you'll try it sometime.

You attempt a stretch but use linear-stretching which distorts the image which you comment upon.

I specify that the PowerDVD version uses non-linear stretching.

You say you'll try it some time.

12 - 24 months later, you comment that 4:3 TV shows don't play well on 16:9 television screens and I bring up PowerDVD...

Anyway. PowerDVD is a proprietary, patented software and the Cyberlink Pano Vision algorithm is, I think, patented. This is probably why it was never used back when there was a home video market for originally-SD television shows released to HD.

big_smile

Are you referring to smart stretch with regard to non-linear stretching?  Because I've tried it.  The original upconversion I did on five minutes of the pilot used it, but what I found was -- though I loved having the full screen at first -- over time, the distortion that did exist with the stretching became noticeable and bothered me.

A character in the center of the screen looks normal, but when they move to the edges, all of a sudden their body/face starts to widen.    Ultimately, I've moved to just zoom/cropping to a 16:9 but you do lose some of the sharpness so I started thinking about filling out the frame with new visual information rather than stretching existing image.

So, I wonder if the AI community will ever develop technology to take 4:3 content and build out the "sides" to fill in for a 16:9 format.   It seems like at some point we'll have the AI technology to theoretically do this, the bigger question will be is enough people will care about this particular use case to build something for it.

There's a lot of talk about AI and video in general (https://www.fastcompany.com/90794674/ai … fringement), and I suspect we will probably get to a point where we'll be able to make Sliders short videos where we feed in the characters (names of the actors or the character + show title) and the AI will scan all the pictures of those people in whatever index is available to it, and then create 3-Models.  And then it will follow whatever the user of the software says should happen (eg place, setting, things that happen).  The voices may be tougher...  you'd need a large index of all the creative films and tv for the software to understand the speech/vocal tone of the actors.   Studios might consider making their libraries available for this (and get some licensing fee if the user pays some fee.  But I am not sure if that would ever happen.)

463

(4 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Somewhat related but someone did a two hour, 40 minute sliders deep dive on youtube...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQqi_SBiT0Q

Quantum Leap is doing well in +7 ratings

https://tvline.com/lists/new-tv-show-ra … y-percent/

Yes, SLIDERS was cheese, but it was also *incredible*.


And c'mon... Quinn Mallory and Professor Arturo are iconic characters for the genre.  Wade brought the heart and a counter-imposing force to them and Rembrant brought the humor.   It was a great combination of characters.

Torme was brilliant.  Weiss was a good producer.  FOX did at least support it initially.  They had to deal with economics that maybe were not helpful to fully supporting the creative vision we would like, but the market was different than, when everything was 100% ad supported and needed a mass audience.

Sliders concept had mass appeal, but as executed, the show's magic was not broad, broad.  It was... semi-broad at best.  Which led to some level of creative conflict.   Had premium streaming existed then, it would have worked well.

Lego_Sliders wrote:

"Lord, Lord. You can take a man's body and beat it, you can take his soul and fry it, but to do this to a hamburger, it's just downright unkind!"
-Rembrandt Brown (S1,E2:Fever)


lol

Well...maybe these scripts will come in handy...

https://twitter.com/sundarpichai/status … 9137948672

ireactions wrote:

I've said it before and I'll say it again: SLIDERS is fundamentally a sitcom and the best reboot is Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo running a hamburger joint specializing in mini hamburgers. Quinn handles the grill and deep fryer. Wade is the cashier. Rembrandt is the cleaner and inventory organizer. Arturo is the manager. They are the staff of Sliders. This is also the plot of SLIDERS REBORN: Part 6: "Regenesis". (No, really, that is the plot.)

I once imagined after the sliders got seperated, Remmy owning a burger joint SLIDERS with the tag line "The Best Place to Meat" as a signal to his lost brethren

Had an idea for continuing the sliders franchise on a lower production cost angle.   "The Dominion Hotel Chronicles".    It would basically have episodes (audio, book or tv) in which the gang of four are sitting around at the Dominion Hotel bar, discussing their adventure, predictament, etc on that earth.  The type of thing that would really happen on that world but never made it into the actual series.   Essentially, they are all bottle episodes. 

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/52/52/e3/5252e39f3204e4ed9f60305975be880b--slider-bar-sliders.jpg

470

(66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

it's all incredible

QuinnSlidr wrote:

Why does it say seasons 1-6????? neutral


yea, seems like it was just a mistake.

Also, I would say looking at the sample if the pilot, with the beautiful film like upscale (which I have cropped to widescreen) , sliders began as the greatest sci fi show ever made. 

While the series may not have scaled that way in terms of overall status I can't think of a better premise and execution of that premise to set up a series.

Twilight Zone maybe but that wasn't in color.

Ok I am bias but the pilot is pretty damn perfect.

I continue to be blown away by the quality of these samples.

474

(4 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I have this on DVD as well

Tracy know the creator of the show.  Both are into ufo subject. 

Glad you guys are covering this. I really haven't gone past the  firat two episodes  of the series.

anyone see the latest episode?

476

(66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

this is incredible.  have you sent this to jerry on instagram and twitter?

So quantum leap has done meh in the live ratings and well in streaming (on-demand).

i know they ordered six more episodes (prior to the slip in live ratings this past week), but i still am not sure whether this show is gonna be considered viable or not for their needs?   it will probably get a renewal, but as we all know, getting to a third season is very hard.

Regarding the latest episode airing:

Quantum Leap got started a week earlier than the two shows above, but it has not performed as well so far. Its premiere week saw it land in the Number 34 slot, but after the most recent week it has dropped to Number 42. It is also currently the second lowest-rated drama on NBC. But it did just get an additional six episodes added to its first season, so it looks like the network is giving it some time to build an audience. These numbers are based on early season performance, so we will see how these shows track over the coming weeks.

https://www.cancelledscifi.com/2022/10/ … ther-down/

NBC ordered six more episodes of its “Quantum Leap” reboot, for a season total of 18. In addition to being the season’s number one new show in the A18-49 demo, “Quantum Leap” is the top current NBC series on Peacock

This is very good news for it and for sliders

Wait is that mean they are moving it's time slot or it will be streaming only?

Actually don't think it would do bad as binge streaming show on peacock/NBC app