It appears that the Battlestar Galactica Blu-ray Season 1 & 2 are being set for release in the UK. Someone at the Digital Spy UK forums noticed that the BBFC (the British Board of Film Classification) has just posted on its website ratings classification info for two BSG titles here:

BSG Season 1 (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/e8ea0df3a881175480256d58003cb570/c25fced1937655678025755a0054d433?OpenDocument)

BSG Season 2 (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/e8ea0df3a881175480256d58003cb570/f70add448c9e20f18025755a0054d45a?OpenDocument)

Since both these seasons have long been available on DVD and there's no reason to do a re-issue, it's logical to infer these are Blu-ray releases. And the user on Digital Spy also received confirmation from the BBFC that these are indeed Blu-ray titles.

Here (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=988260) is the original thread on Digital Spy to the sharp-eyed user who noticed this info first.

Neat. Now bring them to the US!

Neat. Now bring them to the US!
So say we all.:cool:

The sting for paying $100 for S1 on HD-DVD burns so damn much.:mad: Hopefully they fix the packaging. Judging on Uni releasing catalogs in the UK first(Riddick and a few others), they should be a sure thing here.

Still not buying a single season until I can get a box with every single episode. With officer's pins, tags, and a flight manual. Wouldn't hurt if they put it in a replica Battlestar.

Still not buying a single season until I can get a box with every single episode. With officer's pins, tags, and a flight manual. Wouldn't hurt if they put it in a replica Battlestar.

would be very cool

So say we all.:cool:

The sting for paying $100 for S1 on HD-DVD burns so damn much.:mad: Hopefully they fix the packaging. Judging on Uni releasing catalogs in the UK first(Riddick and a few others), they should be a sure thing here.

Still not buying a single season until I can get a box with every single episode. With officer's pins, tags, and a flight manual. Wouldn't hurt if they put it in a replica Battlestar.

Damn dude, how about a free Cylon to!

Damn dude, how about a free Cylon to!

As long as I get #6. :D

I'd like to get one collection edition package that includes every episode.

I'd like a complete collection too, but more importantly I hope it's not going to have the same compression issues that were on the HD DVD set.

As long as I get #6. :D

I'd like to get one collection edition package that includes every episode.

You can have all the 6's you like...


.... as long as I get an Anders or two... :D

00:44:43:00 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (33 WITH 'THE ORACLE' POP-UP TRIVIA GRAPHICS)

i don't recall that feature on the dvds. was it on the hd-dvd?

i can't wait to have these in HD. maybe they'll launch a big box-set after/with the next movie.

The Oracle pop-up does appear to be new to the Blu-ray release. There was an Encyclopedia Galactica U-Control on the HD-DVD but it was limited to the mini-series whereas the Oracle pop-up is listed for a different set of episodes. So the Blu-ray doesn't appear to be a straight port of the HD-DVD release. Maybe Universal has improved the video quality although I'm not holding my breath given the cost of doing a new transfer. Someone more knowledgeable than me can answer if Universal has remastered any of its once-exclusive HD-DVD movies before releasing them on Blu-ray?

A new transfer wouldn't cost much since everything except the miniseries was shot on HD video with a few slow motion scenes shot on film.

I don't recall any PQ issues with the HD-DVD set. Could someone remind me what that was?

...I don't recall any PQ issues with the HD-DVD set. Could someone remind me what that was?

What I remember about the HD DVD set is that there were some scenes with major lip sync issues. Also, there were some scenes with what looks like some dead pixels on your TV. They'd switch camera angles and everything would be fine, and switch back and it looks like you have dead pixels. I found those extremely distracting.

A few scenes ( like during the tribunal courts with that prosecutor lady ) had major blocking artifacts. But honestly, its so bad I can't even attribute it to the encoding, as VC1 at ridiculously low bitrates wouldn't look as bad. By bad I mean you see blocks during normal viewing in non-action sequences bad. I suspect some of the most offensive scenes were possibly shot with high compression and/or SD cameras. Honestly I've compressed HDV footage down to 10mbps VC1 using Microsoft's free tools and it looked better.

A new transfer wouldn't cost much since everything except the miniseries was shot on HD video with a few slow motion scenes shot on film.

I don't recall any PQ issues with the HD-DVD set. Could someone remind me what that was?

In that case, a new transfer wouldn't be necessary at all, just a new encode.

A few scenes ( like during the tribunal courts with that prosecutor lady ) had major blocking artifacts. But honestly, its so bad I can't even attribute it to the encoding, as VC1 at ridiculously low bitrates wouldn't look as bad. By bad I mean you see blocks during normal viewing in non-action sequences bad. I suspect some of the most offensive scenes were possibly shot with high compression and/or SD cameras. Honestly I've compressed HDV footage down to 10mbps VC1 using Microsoft's free tools and it looked better.
I recall the theories about pre-compressed master/source came up back then as well. Those were the problematic sections, but I think overall it didn't seem to look quite as good as it could have either. If we're unlucky that's simply the way it was produced, but hopefully it was an encoding issue, or perhaps they could go further back up the chain for a better master (don't know how likely this is).

Optimally, I'd like to see an improvement similar to the Miami Vice HD DVD vs Blu-ray.

They will have to re-encode it but the problems seemed like they came from the masters they used. And honestly they were only a few seconds at most, throughout the whole set. I know people want perfection but sometimes its not worth fighting over. This was the only HD DVD I can recall that actually came with a slip of paper saying that the look of the show was directors intent and not the fault of the encoding.

I have season 1 on HD-DVD and the rest on regular dvd. Honestly, except for sound..there isn't a hell of a lot of difference in the PQ between them. I hope the BD's are done a little better...otherwise I won't bother double dipping.

has anyone compared those specific scenes to those in the HD itunes versions? i know they're only 720p, but if the errors are missing it might indicate an encoding issue vs. a master issue.

has anyone compared those specific scenes to those in the HD itunes versions? i know they're only 720p, but if the errors are missing it might indicate an encoding issue vs. a master issue.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12873198#post12873198

You can have all the 6's you like...


.... as long as I get an Anders or two... :D

I'll take a Caprica and a Natalie, thank you.

I'll take a Caprica and a Natalie, thank you.

Throw the one and only Lee Adama my way, along with the spoiler, and you've got a deal. ;)

Throw the one and only Lee Adama my way, along with the spoiler, and you've got a deal. ;)

Lee isn't a cylon, but Colonel Tigh is available. :D

Lee isn't a cylon, but Colonel Tigh is available. :D

I'm aware... but I'll take Lee anyway. Otherwise, no deal!! :D

Boomer, please...

I would trade them all for the UK theme music in Season One.