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Battlestar Galactica in HD
Hauzer writes "Ars Technica is carrying news that I know will bring joy to some fans: Universal HD is going to be broadcasting Battlestar Galactica. They're going to run the miniseries and the first Season (2005) of the new Battlestar Galactica, starting Sunday night at 8PM, with HD repeats coming every week. Now if only Sci-Fi would provide an HD channel so we can watch when the new stuff airs!"
Think about it.
- The constant cigarette is a nice way to subtly - almost subliminally - throw you off. But Ron Moore and his writers have relished in making the cylons as nuanced, flawed and unexpected as the humans. A cigarette-smoking cylon is a brilliant touch.
- One of the first things the doctor says to President Roslin is to PRAY regarding her cancer. Again, a subtle hint regarding the cylons' preoccupation with their religious beliefs.
- As a trusted and unquestioned figure, the doctor is in an ingenious place to sabotage and manipulate the crew. President Roslin accepts the doctor's diagnosis without question (a learned respect typical in most cultures, including our own). Even if she wasn't sure, there appear to be either no or few medical doctors with more experience on hand in the fleet.
- It is a savvy device for the writers. If Mary McDonnell - a very esteemed actor along with Olmos - doesn't want to continue in the series, she passes away. If she is in for the long haul, it turns out the doctor LIED about the seriousness of her cancer. Either way, it is organic to the writing.
- We have seen no "elder" humanoid cylons, a strange anomaly.
- The doctor is neither a main character nor a completely marginal one. It would come off as cheap if a character we have scantly met pops up as a cylon and it would be rather boring if another main character had the silicon implants, so to speak. The doctor is in the show enough to elicit some good surprise and recognition if he comes out of the closet... er cylon closet... (cyloset?)
- Let's face it. The guy would make a cool cylon.
Question: is anything ever broadcast in 1920x1080?
Yes. NBC and CBS broadcast their HD in 1080i, and there are many others.
Don't know for sure, but isn't 1080i 1920x1080? All the HD channels I get are 1080i 16x9 format, so I always just assumed it was 1920x1080. I don't see how it would be anything different. Can someone with more info please elaborate? The first page of Google's results are vague and I'm incapable of clicking any further.
I also reply below your current threshold.
I was all prepared to hate this show. I really was.
You gotta remember, this is the channel that made an even worse Dune than the trainwreck that aired in the theatres. The same guys who keep bringing you movies like "Killer Anaconda" and "Mansquito".
They told us there would be changes, and I was ready to hate this show for that reason too. A female Starbuck? Oh, how I would hate this show when it aired. How dare they?
But you know what? I finally got around to watching a few episodes...and it's really good! The mood is intense, the writing is good...good acting...I really can't find anything to dislike about it. It's not the same show you watched as a kid, no doubt about that - but for some reason I can't put my finger on, the changes in mood and tone and character seem to work.
My only (very minor) gripe is the camera work. The "shake the camera around" bit I find to be a little annoying. Later shows don't shake it around as much though, so it's easier to watch.
It's hard to believe, but Sci-Fi has a really good show here. A huge surprise, too. I even like the female Starbuck. Who'd have thought that was possible? I can't wait to see the next one, and it's been a *long* time since I've felt that way about anything on TV.
If you can see it on HD, I'd recommend it. It's a good show and HD could only make it better.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
If the FCC wants the john Q public to get Digital Television, Why isn't this stuff on over the air local TV broadcasts?
The original Battlestar series I watched on network TV in the late 1970's. The big thing keeping joe sixpack from demanding digital television sets is the lack of broadcast content.
There are lots of digital ready monitors on the market and HDTV monitors, but a very small ammount of Digital Televisions. Dorm dwellers simply don't have the space for a home theatre solution nor the budget to buy a TV that includes a tuner. There are set top tuners, but they cost more than my current television. There is little incentive to spend the bucks simply because of the lack of quality content. BitTorrent is making an end run past the content/broadcastflag/overtheair stalemate.
The FCC deadline will come and go, but market forces will simply mean the end of analog over the air is simply the end of free over the air TV.
I'm hoping my prediction is not true, but so far, I have no plans in the future for an over the air digital television. I'll get broadband instead.
The truth shall set you free!
fool who doesn't have HDTV?
Unless you live in the USA basically, you can't get OTA feeds. I'm in Canada and there were no OTA feeds in any of the provinces I lived. I'm moving again in a year, and it seems like I won't have OTA feeds over there either...
Cable carries very little channels in HD, and they're rather low quality from whay I heard...
Satellite? We have that (it's our only real way to have anything HD), but even then it's just not good enough. I had it not long ago, and other than like 3 PPV channels (that seemed to air only the crappiest/most boring movies ever - none of the good PPVs) and a handful of US stations there's really nothing. I'm sorry, but I've never been attracted by any of those, and I'm not going to be magically interested by their content because it's in HD. And a lot of the stuff seemed upscaled, not real HD to start with... Most stuff (95% or so) was 720p, but some stuff was laughable. Star Trek (no thanks) at "D1 with a widescreen AR, then letterboxed to 4:3" if I can explain it this way, resulting in a resolution below DVD (black borders on each side) but at 60fps (it was 480x480 IIRC - same as a SVCD). And some channels (like both PBS) were nothing but demo loops 24/7.
It'll be worth my while when the channels I currently watch are available in HD (none are even PLANNED to be anytime soon), or that HD DVDs (either standards) are a reality (player AND titles available at decent prices). Then perhaps blowing a few thousand on a HD setup may be worth something. We have no PVR solutions yet for satellite either (coming soon perhaps, like DN's 921 IRD), so until then I'd have to watch stuff at the time it's aired, and no skipping ads either. (That alone will make that I won't watch anything)
Until then, I've settled for a nice SVGA DLP projector, and have no regrets whatsoever. It still looks surprisingly good for the few HD titles I got too. If you want to see how it looks, set your monitor to 800x600 and check microsoft's WM9 HD samples (You still get 40% more resolution than a DVD and a cleaner source).
No, I think that would be too obvious.
...'
===spoiler???===
My money is on Lt Gaeta.
In the finale he hands Boomer something, and the camera pauses momentarily on the 'handshake' just prior to her shooting the Commander.
Also, just after the 'handshake', she says to him, 'Thanks' -- and it appears to be entirely apropos of nothing, as it doesn't quite fit the short conversation they've just had about Apollo's mutiny.
Think about it.
- Who does Boomer dance with in the closing scenes of Colonial Day?
- During the mini he says he's never plotted a successful jump before. Then in 33 -- five days later -- he's done 240? Without a hitch?
- Who exonerates Baltar in Six Degrees of Separation? (Which has a fairly obvious reference to that Kevin Costner movie No Way Out as well)
- Again in the mini, Gaeta is talking with Tigh about locating the Cylon transponder on the CIC. The former says, 'It's been there a week or so. I just never took any notice of it
---and another thing---
I really like seeing the soundman during Starbuck's shooting of the museum case! (He's wearing a red shirt and a dark vest, on the right)
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Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
...just like HDTV. The first HDV cam was 720p, it is a HD stream format for DV tapes.
"What is HDV?
A MPEG 2 recording format allowing recording of 720p and 1080i formats.
1080i format consists of 1440 x1080 pixels, sampled 8 bit 4:2:0 and then compressed 60 to1 to tape. Data rate of 25mbs
720p format consists of 1280 x 720p sampled 8 bit 4:2:0 Data rate of 19mbs
The inter frame compression takes place across 6 frames.
1920 x1080 signals (YPb Pr) by "upconverting" 1440 x1080 to 1920x1080.
The HDV standard was established by Sony, Canon, Sharp and JVC.
How can 25mbs compete with 185mb of HDCAM?
Pinnical Solutions suggest that a 50mbs MPEG inter frame compression is comes close to 185mb HDCAM (which uses intra frame compression).
Also HDCAM records 1440 x1080, not 1920x1080.
Generally the picture becomes softer as you progress down the line of HDCAM SR to HDCAM to DVCPRO HD to HDV. So called I-frame compression is about 2.5 times less efficient than IBP but is easier to encode, decode and process. So an HDV image encoded at 25 Mb/s (IBP) is roughly equivalent to an I-frame image encoding of about 60 Mb/s."
source
So, the resolution is actually the same. The effective bandwidth is about 1/3rd of professional HDTV cameras, but about 2.5 times a DV cam. Considering how much commercial work can be done in SDTV (e.g. all of Europe has almost no HDTV to speak of), it is definately prosumer bordering on professional.
Kjella
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