The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat was really such a classic episode.
The irony is die-hards loved it and casual viewers did not. I think a lot of what hardcore fans vs. the casual audience wanted was in conflict at times.
422 2022-12-30 11:41:15
Re: Reboots: The Return of Sliders (?), Quantum Leap, and Other Properties (715 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Is anybody here familiar with Table Top Role Playing Games. I knew of D&D ( i guess that qualifies?) but didn't really understand the market / active audience around this.
There is a company called Free League that has licensed numerous properties (including Amazon's Tales From the Loop): https://freeleaguepublishing.com/
The games seem to be niche market, high priced producted ($50 to $100) that attracts a loyal "geek" audience who just loves this stuff. Since SLIDERS has very high brand familiarity, and a choose-your-own adventure element, I am wondering if SLIDERS may be a good fit for a game publisher.
423 2022-12-30 09:37:33
Re: The X-Files (438 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
I haven't seen Fight For the Future in a year or so won't comment on that. Although I always liked the big set pieces to it.
I Want To Believe I always actually was not much of a fan of because how dark the subject matter and content was. It just didn't bother me in the same way in my rewatch the other day.
What I loved was how it made me really think about the concept of faith. I enjoyed the ambiguity as well. That's much more what life is like and what faith is like. I don't think the movie gave me answers but allowed me to dwell / think through the concepts. And it worked for me as a standalone film or an x files entry because, well, faith is at the center of the x files universe.
That said I understand it's not a film that's everyone's cup of tea. It wasn't even mind up until this point. But I took a lot out of it this time around and I also appreciated the locations and cinematography.
424 2022-12-29 09:48:48
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
I see you updated your post to include As Time Goes By
Definitely gains there. It looks like a 10 percent lift maybe 15. I would say Seasons Greedings looked 5 to 10 from the screen shots.
It really is too bad we don't have a better source for season 1.
425 2022-12-29 09:44:42
Re: The X-Files (438 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:I honestly don't remember thinking it was as well done as I did on the last watch. Maybe my age. Either way was quite an interesting story. Far better than the super hero schlock of today.
I fundamentally disagree with this on every level. The entire thesis of THE X-FILES seems to be: you can't make a difference. No one can make a difference. Mulder can't do anything about the alien invasion except talk about it. Scully can't seem to get anywhere in her career: no matter how many times she gets fired or quit, she ends up working at the most disdained department in the FBI.
Even the evil characters can't seem to accomplish anything on THE X-FILES. The alien invasion is never coming; the Syndicate is constantly referring to how "the date is set" and "they're coming, they're here, they've been here for a long time, they're only coming back" and then Season 10 went and declared that the alien invasion was never happening at all and all those ominous, mysterious men were wasting their time.
In addition, THE X-FILES also seemed to be unable to grasp the concept of education. Mulder and Scully never seemed to collate and accumulate their details on the monsters or the Syndicate: by Season 11, they were as incapable of stopping monsters as they were in Season 1.
This is the antithesis of a superhero movie. The superhero movie declares: we can all make a difference and anyone can be a hero. Even the most obnoxious or easily dismissed or ordinary can be heroes. Tony Stark is a drunken moron tripping on ego and liquor; when stripped of his wealth and luxuries and forced to survive, he discovers he has what it takes to battle war itself.
Dr. Donald Blake seems to be a crazy person who thinks he's the Norse God of Thunder and here to help people; it turns out he actually is Thor. Steve Rogers is a washout and a reject who can't find shoes small enough to fit the feet on his frail frame; he is determined to battle Nazis and is given a body that is as strong as his decency of character. Everyone has it in them to be a hero; it's just that not everyone looks hard enough or digs deep enough to find it.
And I know what some will say: well, that's a fairy tale. THE X-FILES is far more realistic (because yes, a TV show about aliens made of black oil colonizing the Earth with bees and supersoldiers is truly very grounded), THE X-FILES' cynicism is believable. But cynicism is easy. Despair and depression and giving up are the easiest options for a person and for a storyteller. It is much harder to tell superhero stories than it is to tell X-FILES stories.
One of the hardest parts of writing the TV show SUPERNATURAL, I think: it has to be finding a way for Sam and Dean to find some solution to beat the monsters of the week, to defeat Lucifer, and to, in the final season, take on God Himself. But THE X-FILES takes the easy way out by never having Mulder and Scully triumph.
Writing THE X-FILES is shooting fish in a barrel: raise mysteries and don't resolve them, create monsters and don't find a way to stop them, have two lead characters passively wander through the story and accomplish nothing whatsoever. Superheroes take much more talent.
I cannot stress enough in the name of Quinn's cat, Wade's teddy bear, Rembrandt's shiny suit and Arturo's bow tie that the opinions of ireactions are not the views of Sliders.TV.
If x files was never a tv series and I Want To Believe didn't have the name x files in it, you would still feel the same?
I think it works well... Either for a x files film or as a standalone creative work.
426 2022-12-28 20:38:30
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Out if curiosity do bluray or tv upscalers ever convert a 720 source to 1080 eg if you have a specific setting on?
I do recall in your old experiments you tried upscaling in multiple stages. An uoconvert to 720 followed by 1080. I wonder if you did it in turbine though? Maybe something to check if you haven't is converting the 720 there (say 30 seconds of it) to 1080 via artemis to see if you can turn that 5 to 10 percent gain you achieved into something more.
Or maybe as I recall doing it in stages had no better results than one stage and 1080 was more than it could handle.
427 2022-12-28 20:10:40
Re: The X-Files (438 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
I honestly don't remember thinking it was as well done as I did on the last watch. Maybe my age. Either way was quite an interesting story. Far better than the super hero schlock of today.
428 2022-12-28 19:33:46
Re: The X-Files (438 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Slider_Quinn21 wrote:
The movie that starts out in Dallas featuring very prominent mountains in the background?
Is that Fight for the Future or I Want T Believe?
I watched the lattet
429 2022-12-28 18:49:19
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
I don't recall doing more with Turbine's Season 2 beyond the second Daelin segment of "As Time Goes By", and I lost my enthusiasm for upscaling SLIDERS because if Season 1 doesn't look good, what's the point of upscaling any other episode? I also didn't work on it enough to figure out if AI upscaling was any better than on-the-fly smoothing and sharpening. However, it looks like Season 2 does upscale really well and benefits from AI upscaling and not just some non-adaptive filters.
I did attempt to upscale every Season 1 episode with Turbine at which point I realized Turbine's Season 1 video quality was actually worse than Universal's Season 1.
I'm just doing some experiments out of curiosity. I have the feeling that Topaz won't be able to do much with the Turbine versions of Seasons 3, 4 and 5 since those benefitted from advancements in digital videotape while Season 2 was using digital videotape in its earliest form.
Ok maybe I just assumed s2 was a part of that process. I do distinctly remember turbine ironically being worse than universal for s1 and the realization s1 wasn't that compressed on the universal disc.
Another thing I recall is our conversation around episodes being shot differently and a few of them being on the darker / dimly lit side.
430 2022-12-28 16:59:33
Re: The X-Files (438 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Watched the directors cut of the first x files movie the other day
Thought it was excellent. Was surprised to see it's only 2.5 minutes different than the original.
431 2022-12-28 13:34:32
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
"As Time Goes By" finished. I can report that the AI-upscaled Turbine file looks astonishingly good and well beyond on-the-fly filters for SD upscaling. Topaz has resolved the mild fuzziness and transformed all of the blockiness in the Turbine file into crisp, crystalline detail. Also, the new grain effect prevents the waxy look of earlier upscales.
Turbine has added film grain texture to offset the waxy effect of my previous upscales. I was really impressed by how the Pilot episode, being shot and edited on film, could be AI-restored to 1080p and its original film look thanks to Topaz's new film grain feature. This 720p version of "As Time Goes By" looks as crisp as the film-look of the restored Pilot, although I did have to up the grain layer by 25 percent. I don't think a 1080p upscale would quite as sharp, however, as "As Time Goes By" was shot on film but transferred to 1996-era 540 line videotape.
The AI upscale definitely looks better than the Turbine version on an upscaling TV. The small, blocky texture on the the Turbine image looked nice at living room distance; it looked like film grain. However, the AI has converted that into sharper detail and texture: the grainy approximation of texture has become actual texture for dirt on the ground, for the actors' skin. It captures the sharpness of HD quality at edges, although it still doesn't have the fine detail of a true HD image. The wide shots still have a bit of telltale AI-imprecision although the grain effect has offset it so it doesn't distract. 1080p would probably make the lack detail and the wide shot issues more prominent.
Currently upscaling "Season's Greedings". I don't know if Turbine can this one better than the TV's on-the-fly upscaler, however. Season 3 seems to be using a 1997 digital videotape format for editing and effects that seems to capture even more of the original film's detail in a downscaled state.
It's truly ironic: each subsequent season of SLIDERS seemed to get crisper, sharper and more detailed even as the writing production became clumsier, shoddier and shabbier. The better SLIDERS' image quality became, the less it had to show.
This is great news but forgive me for misremembering.... turbine season 2 were already a part of older upscaling experiments.
I Understand the algorithms have been upgraded to add grain since those attpts but what is new about this upres vs the one earlier this year that has rendered much better results?
432 2022-12-27 17:39:06
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ireactions wrote:
Well, I wonder, with Season 1: what if the solution is to aim for 480p instead of aiming for 720p or 1080p or 4K?
I have recently been upscaling a 2000s TV show called 15/LOVE which is another shot on film, edited on digital videotape product. The low budget videotape is not really adequate for a 720p upscale and it looks like a slightly below average DVD. I found that when aiming for 480p only and just using Topaz to sharpen up the details and add film grain, it went to excellent DVD quality, but aiming higher than that would have caused too much warping as the AI didn't have enough film grain to enhance. Could high quality DVD level video be achievable with the Season 1 episodes?
I personally don't see the point of making Seasons 2 - 5 look HD if Season 1 is only ever going to be SD; I'd say identify the best that can be done with Season 1 and then ensure Seasons 2 - 5 match that. No one needs to see a pristine rendering of the radioactive worm in Season 3 while only getting a fuzzy rendering of Quinn and Wade's first date.
A high quality DVD would be lovely for season 1. I agree it is a perverse idea to strive for an HD like S3 while also having a far inferior s1 on hand.
Although, I believe the samples as we have for s1, with some adjustments to color/contrast and when watching from afar, are certainly an order of magnitude or two better than the universal dvd and give me great pleasure.
The close up shots as well are certainly like a good dvd. This is where we get the biggest gains, and that is a non-trivial achievement. Some of the smoothing is a bit much yea, but at least it is clean, sharper, more alive, more realistic.
For me, the biggest issue with the season 1 in the dvd releases has been a combination of non-vibrant (faded) colors, fuzzy, blotchyness to the edges/lines (any text on screen makes this particularly obvious), and too much of a darker look (which makes me feel like I am watching a poorly preserved film from the 70s).
I don't recall where our conversations netted out earlier in the year, but I seem to recall talk that the Universal dvd actually was better for s1 than turbine (perhaps maybe just in my opinion, or maybe we both agreed), and the pilot itself as well. Maybe I am misremembering. I do also recall perhaps thinking S2 was better for Turbine than Universal, but still not looking quite the way we'd like it.
I also recall that the frame rate created a movement/ghost affect with the PAL format. I am sure different tvs and dvd players that we are outputing on all play a role in the ultimate quality.
433 2022-12-27 11:09:24
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
All interesting observations.
As it happens, just a few days ago, I had a dream in which I was taking in an upscale of SLIDERS and Season 1 was looking great.
I continue to believe that the technology will continuously improve until we can get a better approximation of how Season 1 looked when it was shot on film.
I have lost all hope that SLIDERS audience is big enough to justify a re-scan of the negative and re-edit (through automatic, imagine-matching means) because even at a very low cost at $15k per episode, the market is just not there with SLIDERS fans. Yes, there is passion around it but so many fans are not attached to the series the way we all are here. The type of people who would shell out $50 to $100 for an s1 blu-ray are limited in number. Five years ago we had a better chance but every year, people care less and less. For those who would, I feel like we have a much deeper relationship with the show and characters, in a way that connects us to a feeling we get from it, that was built into us 25 years ago.
If I ever came into money (which I won't, but if I did...) I would consider partnering with a blu-ray company myself, pay for a license to re-release it on blu-ray and do a new scan through that means. I guess we could always keep pushing Turbine, to push Universal. I just don't think Turbine could sell enough units to cover the costs in any case.
Now if Universal valued the old show, and wanted to bring it back with the older characters, maybe they'd consider it but not now. Peacock at this point is a giant failure of a business. They are not going to be able to do many originals and rely on premium subscription revenue. There's only so many streaming platforms people are willing to subscribe to and Peacock is like in 4th or 5th place.
Regarding Topaz, I continue to also wonder about if the Gaia algorithm would yield better results for some of the content. I also, if I ever get into time (to not have to constantly deal with economic worry), will one day try to embark on a project to edit these things from different material. With the Wide Shots using a difference algorithm / source than the close ups. Although, I think the water color wideshots are pretty tolerable at living room distance. I guess I'm at a point where I feel like the closer we can bring SLIDERS back to looking "new" and crisp, the closer we are to having it back again, as if it were fully in our lives the way it was 25 years ago. I know for me, it is definitely a series that gave me so much comfort when it aired... it was an escape, it was great characters that worked together to get out of the situations they were in as a team, it tapped into the possibilities of how our world could look, it had the young physics student that felt a little bit like us, it had the wise, at times sardonic, professor who brought elder, leader feel but had his own imperfections.
I don't know, but I definitely dream of us getting one day a true HD version of this great show, particularly the early material. Already, the samples of the past topaz work has allowed me to re-live the series again, see it "new", see it not as a fuzzy, dated memory, but to re-witness it again. It has helped me profoundly enjoy the series in a way I otherwise would not have. When we first watched this series, on our 4:3 tube tvs, it looked great. There was no compression, the colors were there, and those tvs were a lot more forgiving. It's helped bring it back to that experience. That's part of the challenge as well now. Our newer TVs are bigger pictures, more lines of resolution, etc etc. And we're dealing with a poorly archived S1 and to a similar but lesser degree S2.
434 2022-12-20 22:25:41
Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media (698 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.
435 2022-12-20 20:11:43
Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media (698 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
For any fans of the movie Hackers, it's on YT, free:
436 2022-12-19 22:53:49
Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media (698 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.
437 2022-12-19 08:46:02
Re: Sliders: Team-ups!!! (41 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
I honestly think LEGO SLIDERS needs a coffee table book. These are great.
438 2022-12-15 11:13:00
Re: Sliders Playsets and Minifigures (66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Lego_Sliders wrote:
Here is the vortex from season four and five:
Ha!
The Universal Set vortex..
439 2022-12-15 11:11:41
Re: Sliders Playsets and Minifigures (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!
440 2022-12-13 21:53:48
Re: Reboots: The Return of Sliders (?), Quantum Leap, and Other Properties (715 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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
441 2022-12-11 08:39:03
Re: Sliders Playsets and Minifigures (66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
ha, hilarious!
442 2022-12-08 18:17:01
Re: Sliders Playsets and Minifigures (66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
great stuff
443 2022-12-04 20:30:51
Re: LOST (21 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Lego_Sliders wrote:
The only people to treat the 'maggs right were the people at inkworks.
agree!
444 2022-12-04 20:29:30
Re: LOST (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.
445 2022-12-04 18:43:06
Re: LOST (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)
446 2022-12-02 20:53:03
Re: Sliders Playsets and Minifigures (66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
So much fun!
447 2022-12-02 20:41:30
Re: Reboots: The Return of Sliders (?), Quantum Leap, and Other Properties (715 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Lego_Sliders wrote:
which chatbot are you using?
ChatGPT
448 2022-12-02 20:05:52
Re: Reboots: The Return of Sliders (?), Quantum Leap, and Other Properties (715 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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.
449 2022-12-01 08:15:33
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
I posted about this before, but an interesting new DVD release
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sliders-Comp … /105724827
Requires multi-region player.
450 2022-11-30 15:14:28
Re: Sliders: Team-ups!!! (41 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
that's logan's doppelganger! uncanny resemblance!
451 2022-11-30 12:26:51
Re: Sliders Playsets and Minifigures (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!
452 2022-11-28 19:15:27
Re: Sliders Playsets and Minifigures (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?
453 2022-11-26 16:15:03
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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.
454 2022-11-26 08:32:25
Re: Sliders Playsets and Minifigures (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!”
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.
455 2022-11-21 20:21:38
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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.
456 2022-11-20 22:35:46
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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.
457 2022-11-19 14:29:43
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
edit: never mind, drive was on the wrong region.
458 2022-11-18 17:26:54
Re: Sliders Bible Free Download (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.
459 2022-11-18 13:28:10
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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.
460 2022-11-18 13:22:11
Re: Sliders Bible Free Download (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:
Fortunately, seemed to have a decent career after that.
461 2022-11-18 07:15:16
Re: Sliders Bible Free Download (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.
462 2022-11-17 08:49:05
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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.
463 2022-11-16 17:36:26
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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.
464 2022-11-16 17:26:14
Re: Sliders Bible Free Download (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).
465 2022-11-16 16:25:24
Re: Sliders Bible Free Download (20 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Very interesting!
So they actually incorporated material from Slider fans sites? Wow.
466 2022-11-16 12:32:26
Re: Sliders Bible Free Download (20 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
JamesL wrote:
thank you! would be great to see.. however, the link is broken 
467 2022-11-15 17:47:24
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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.
468 2022-11-14 06:40:35
Re: Sliders Playsets and Minifigures (66 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Incredible! So much creativity with this stuff.
469 2022-11-14 06:39:33
Re: Group rewatch? (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).
470 2022-11-14 06:34:11
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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?
471 2022-11-11 13:06:11
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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
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.
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.
472 2022-11-11 07:08:02
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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
473 2022-11-09 22:32:17
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Lego_Sliders wrote:
If you want wide, use the forehead from a season four kromagg.
474 2022-11-09 18:49:42
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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.
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.
475 2022-11-08 17:53:12
Re: Sliders DVD Releases (Universal, Mill Creek, SD blu-ray, Restoration) (935 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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.)
476 2022-11-05 09:15:49
Re: The Rewatch Podcast returns to SciFi! (4 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Somewhat related but someone did a two hour, 40 minute sliders deep dive on youtube...
477 2022-11-04 15:25:32
Re: Reboots: The Return of Sliders (?), Quantum Leap, and Other Properties (715 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Quantum Leap is doing well in +7 ratings
478 2022-11-04 07:55:13
Re: Reboots: The Return of Sliders (?), Quantum Leap, and Other Properties (715 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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.
479 2022-11-03 14:00:55
Re: Reboots: The Return of Sliders (?), Quantum Leap, and Other Properties (715 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
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)
480 2022-11-02 15:42:13
Re: Reboots: The Return of Sliders (?), Quantum Leap, and Other Properties (715 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)
Well...maybe these scripts will come in handy...