X-Files remastered for HD and Blu-Ray

The new 24 episodes didn't get that show a BD release.

 

The X-Files is a lot bigger brand than 24 with two theatrical movies and a proven track record of sales on home video. They know the fanbase is dying to get their hands on it in HD.

 

Yeah, X-Files has been off the air for over a decade now and has a cult following.

24 was off the air for barely a few years and kind of really limped to the finish line of its run.

 

Netflix is now streaming the first 13 episodes of The X-Files in HD.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/23/8486441/netflix-begins-streaming-the-x-files-in-hd

 

That could be a teaser meant to drum up interest in a Blu-ray set down the line. The winds for an actual Blu-ray set aren't very good at the moment. Fox has largely abandoned Blu-ray as a format in recent months, their executives are reorienting their priorities on a streaming future.

 

Just wanted to watch some early episodes, and right now I'm watching "Eve" (season 1, episode 11) on Netflix..........and it's in 16:9 format. And the info page now says "Super HD" and 5.1 audio. Plus, the time/location text for the scene changes has a new-ish look to them and they're in the correct location i.e. lower left corner, so my TV's ratio setting is correct.

Looks like we now have access to those HD versions that started airing in Germany.

 

Only the for the first 13 episodes of season 1, but it's a step in the right direction.

 

It's all of season one now. Hopefully they're just in the middle of a very slow process of uploading the entire series. Why bother with the first season only?

Anyways, I watched an episode last night to see how it would look (the one titled "EBE").

The opening credits are obviously just straight cropped but with new HD text overlaid. The framing there looks way too cramped now, but it's not a big deal.

The clarity of the show itself is excellent now. It's finally shed that fuzzy video look. I didn't notice any egregious framing issues during the episode itself. I suspect there is a decent mixture of cropping and opening of the frame going on. One shot had Mulder and Scully at pretty extreme ends of the frame which tells me it had to have been cropped at the bottom.

Would it have been nice to maintain the original 4x3 aspect ratio? Yes, but It's not a deal breaker for me. I'll take some tasteful cropping if it means no more fuzzy video look to it. This isn't Citizen Kane, so its original aspect ratio isn't sacred to me.

 

I sampled a couple episodes and they look MUCH better. Glad to hear all of season 1 is available now, makes me more interested to go back and revisit the series.

 

The only thing I noticed looking a bit out of place was the text of the beginning credits, which on my 32" screen were approx 2" tall i.e. they looked way too large (to me anyway). Otherwise as mentioned already, the image quality is much better than before.

Can't judge the new 5.1 audio track, since one of my HDMI cables broke and now have to run a stereo-only signal to my A/V receiver......but then again, I think this show originally used only Dolby Surround so my receiver can decode that nicely via the Roku's stereo output. But I wonder if they created a new/true 5.1 mix for these remasters?

 

A lot of 1990s American network TV drama series were mixed in Dolby Matrix surround (LtRt), so technically it's 3 front channels and 1 surround channel, encoded as stereo. Deriving a discrete 5.1 mix from that would not be that hard, but ideally they'd go back to the original 24-tracks and remix it from there. But historically, Fox is very cheap.

It could be the opposite: they could use a home video/streaming HD release to promote the new limited-run series on broadcast TV.

 

I'm holding out hope that should a Blu-Ray set be forthcoming, that it will feature the original aspect ratio for those seasons originally produced 4:3. Some of the frame cropping feels really obvious and distracting to this original viewer.

 

I've said before there's a way to do 16x9 reframing correctly without too many compromises:


And I'm fairly certain that most of X-Files was shot in 3-perf 35mm with a native 16x9 frame. But probably not the episodes prior to about 1996 or 1997.

 

In an ideal world that's what I'd like to see happen. I'd say that most of the purists that would like to see it in 4x3 are probably almost all the same people that would pony up for a nine-season blu-ray box set. Unfortunately I don't see it happening, realistically. HBO isn't doing it for The Wire, so I doubt Fox can be bothered.

 

Here are a few screencap comparisons between the original SD 4x3 and the HD 16x9 (taken from the initial German HD broadcasts):

 

Indeed. Some frame compositions are screwed up, others are fine.

 

I guess they are following the lead of the music industry with "reissues" the name of the day. And of course high prices to follow.

Huge fan of the show and have many of the DVDs, and it all can be watched on Hulu I believe. But, still glad it is coming back for a number of new episodes.

 

That sea-side image IS quite an improvement.

 

I don't know, man - you cut off "HOT SOUP".

No blu-ray for you!

Remember From The Earth To The Moon? Some horrible re-framing for the 16:9

 

I have watched the first 3 episodes in HD now and I must say the picture quality is amazing. I would have liked to hear the supposed 5.1 mix but I only have access to a stereo mix. It doesn't sound remixed to me, maybe just remastered. Difficult to say, but some dialogue lines were noisier than others. It was consistent with a 90's TV series mix to my ears.

Only a couple of shots per episodes looked a bit crowded to me, if any.
Some special effects are indeed upscaled and cropped SD, but so far there were only two, pretty quick shots. It didn't detract too much. Other special effects shots are entirely redone in HD. It's weird. It could be Fox didn't have access to some of the original material to redo the compositing in HD.

On Twitter the question of aspect ratio was asked to Chris Carter and he said that they were pushing for 1.78 from day one (as they were going for a film look), but Fox would obviously only air in 1.33 so they shot and composed with both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios in mind. Indeed a behind the scenes pic of the camera monitors shows them protected for both, although I doesn't mention from which season it is.
Also Chris Carter added he wasn't consulted for the HD transfer.

 

This thread is useless without pictures.

Season 5 (?) DVD/HDTV comparisons:

 

...Season 1 Netflix HD/German HDTV comparisons:

 

It seems that some shots from episode 4 from the first season in HD are reframed from 1.33 while others are wider and slightly cropped on top and bottom. Weird. I wonder what's going on. Different film formats used during shooting?

DVD/HDTV:

 

BIG jump in image quality! Bonus points for Scully in the shower.

 

The improvement in picture quality is immediately apparent.