“From the Earth to the Moon” - blu-ray coming

[Ike17055]

July 16 is the release date. Pre-order on Amazon for only 22.95. 

[MATTBLAK]

I've done my pre-order! It will probably never get better than this series. I wish Hanks and co would do a mini-series about the early Shuttle era; from STS-1 to Challenger - then the recovery with STS-26.

[Oersted]

I am wondering how they will deal with the change in format. I hope they won't chop off the top and bottom like so many other releases (World at War, etc...). It is so disrespectful to the original artistic vision.

If any of you see a link to a good review, pleae post it...

[MATTBLAK]

I imagine it will be in 16x9 widescreen because the remastered DVD set in 2005 was in widescreen. I say remastered - it was mostly to remix the sound and tidy up the mastering errors from the first DVD set released around year 2000. They didn't change the special effects, many which don't look so great now. That DVD set had huge 'jumps' in a couple of episodes - wobbles and glitches on the master tape - one was the Apollo 12 episode 'Is That All there is?' and the other one I don't remember. I don't have that set anymore. It's a collectors item now. But I know that some of those disc sets suffered from the dreaded 'laser rot' that made some discs unplayable after 5 or 10 years.

The cropping for 16x9 version is (mostly) not severe - I remember they shot many actor's scenes with plenty of 'space' at the top and bottoms of many shots; with future widescreen cropping in mind. A couple sequences did suffer a little, if I remember. But on the whole the cropping was done intelligently.

[Cheapchips]

AThey should just keep it 4:3, if that's the best image quality they can find. Gumble, grumble...

[Ike17055]

Fyi. The transfer and new Fx are garbage. An abomination. Sending this back to Amazon. Hopefully a gaggle of returns will send a message to HBO to do it right or not at all.  What a disappointment. The Signature Edition DVD set still appears to be the best option.

[MATTBLAK]

That's dissapointing to hear. I will check out my copy when it comes and decide whether or not return it.

[Oersted]

Fyi. The transfer and new Fx are garbage. An abomination. Sending this back to Amazon. Hopefully a gaggle of returns will send a message to HBO to do it right or not at all.  What a disappointment. The Signature Edition DVD set still appears to be the best option.

You say it is garbage but you don't say why. So, why?

[Oersted]

A review:

http://thedigitalbits.com/item/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-bd

- Less than complimentary.

[ugordan]

From what I can tell from this clip, the exterior effects have improved markedly over the original release, although they're definitely not 2019 state-of-the-art. They seem to have instead aimed to capture the feel of the original CGI without making a too large of a departure from it. Frankly, I'm fine with that.

The 16:9 aspect ratio crop for material that was originally meant to be 4:3, that I'm not too big of a fan of, but oh well...

[saturnapollo]

Most of the exterior effects were model work and not CGI.

Keith

[dglow]

Per the review Oersted linked above, in this release many of the model shots have been replaced by CGI.

[ugordan]

The closeups of the lunar surface, like flying over that crater were definitely CGI in the original release, and jarringly 1990s looking at that.

[Bob Shaw]

The live-action shots and the sound have been much improved. The CGI is better than it was, but nowhere like Gravity managed. Some of the CGI is, frankly, lazy. The move to wide-screen works very well.

Also, in the UK, less than £20 for half a dozen Blu-Ray discs - a steal!

[MATTBLAK]

The guy playing Charlie Duke should have had a broader, North Carolina drawl like the real man himself - which is what I felt way back in 1998. Those effects look like an improvement to me, though still not 2019 top-shelf standard. I can't see much to dislike in the extract above! The LM windows look slightly odd, though.

[saturnapollo]

Issues no. 30 and 31 of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Models had extensive articles on the model work in the original series. The Gemini, CSM and LM models were 1/8 scale and  the refurbished 1/20 scale Saturn V and LUT used in Apollo 13.

Re the CGI in the Blu Ray release, you cannot expect the same level of quality for a re-released upgraded TV series as a multi million dollar film, such as Gravity. The time taken alone to produce  the effects would far outweigh that of a TV series.

Keith

[Bob Shaw]

Re the CGI in the Blu Ray release, you cannot expect the same level of quality for a re-released upgraded TV series as a multi million dollar film, such as Gravity. The time taken alone to produce  the effects would far outweigh that of a TV series.

Keith

The trouble is that they *claim* in the mini-documentary to have put lots of effort into the project! Some of the CGI errors are just silly, and could quickly have been fixed. Perhaps there will be an updated edition in due course.

I still like the live action...

[Ike17055]

You say it is garbage but you don't say why. So, why?
[/quote]

the transfer is excessively bright, sometimes overpowering. Contrast is lacking and overall, very jarring to the eye. Skin tones often very unnatural, especially orange on many occasions.  this alone undermines its cinematic look, and the visual gravitas that lends on the big (home) screen.

worse yet, many of the CGI scenes are cartoonish and completely unconvincing, especially the spacewalks in Episode 1. While the originals were not perfect, they retain a much greater sense of a "real" person in the shot. Some are quite impressive, given a reasonable degree of acceptable license.  The Mercury 7 graphics in the original version were especially more interesting, and in the case of the re-entry, more exciting. The first time I saw this on HBO, I recall specifically my jaw dropping during the late rentry scene and thinking "my GOD, that tin can is FALLING back to earth, not flying" - something I knew, but never really visualized as such. Every re-watch left me with the same appreciation. But not the new CGI.

There are times too when I wonder if the less than crystal clear nature of DVD, instead of the sharpness of Blu-ray, isn't just more effective at establishing this as a piece representing the time, which is now more distant, and from which we are accustomed to photos (and memories) being something less than the current state-of-the-art.  I say this a a huge blu-ray fan, and a great admirer of the new Apollo 11 documentary released this year with the high resolution 70mm footage.  But for the documentary, we also recognize those scenes are "real" and not fictional recreation, striving to convince us of their "realness." Perhaps this is a psychological accommodation to the two different source material.

In particular, many Renderings of the earth are more akin to a christmas decoration hung in the dark sky than a planet with dimensionality and depth.  Often looks like a paste-on. Too stylized.

Admittedly, Some of the effects are an improvement, but I feel they are vastly outweighed by the detractors among the new scenes.

[Oersted]

Thanks for your very thorough write-up! I will stick with the old version.

[Thorny]

worse yet, many of the CGI scenes are cartoonish and completely unconvincing, especially the spacewalks in Episode 1. While the originals were not perfect, they retain a much greater sense of a "real" person in the shot.
 

I have to disagree here. I thought the spacewalk effects in the original were mediocre at best. Buzz straddling the Agena in particular was glaringly fake looking in the original and I think looks better in the new CGI.

I do wish they'd fixed some of the errors of the original effects, though. The modern Cape Canaveral/KSC background as Freedom 7 launches, and all three retros firing together (even though dialogue makes it clear they were individual.)

I've only watched Episode 1 so far, though.