The last movie you saw...

[spudthedestroyer]

My xfiles boxset arrived from china... Later than the claims said on ebay. He must have a kabillion emails asking him for the parcel tracking id he promised weeks ago.

Anyway, quality is okay, but it looks like they cheaped out and used DVD5s whereas in the us they use DVD9s for some discs. So there's more discs, with less episodes on each disc.

[maxpayne2409]

nrevermind its only xfiles

[spudthedestroyer]

"yeah right," said thomas, "go back to your children's cartoons."

[maxpayne2409]

thomas will outlive xfiles anyday of the millenium

[spudthedestroyer]

"so will anal rape, both of them, but that really doesn't say much now does it.", said Thomas.

plus i don't really think that's true, xfiles had more of an impact and whilst the current generation may remember thomas, its doubtful whether a market resurgence will have any real impact. Its going the way of bagpuss and Knightmare

[maxpayne2409]

but everyone with even half a braincell (still doesnt count will smith then ) will remember knightmare and bagpuss, bagpuss will live on forever in my gaming nick of Fragpuss

[spudthedestroyer]

I'm afraid they won't, only those that lived through the period. For something to survive past its original air date it needs prolonged cultural status which means its frequently mentioned. For example, referenced in other shows and repeated syndication.

Say, like.... xfiles in the simpsons! lol, burn max, burn! No, seriously, but that's the idea. It needs to be kept alive, however it really is dying. Kids don't really watch thomas the tank engine, nobody does

Its kind of sad on one hand, but i really don't see a tank engine resurgance... hell most kids these days will be like "what the f*ck is a steam train?" and this is a period where they are still around

That's progress for you.

[maxpayne2409]

progress is bullshit lol, i swear if i ever get in power thomas the tank engine will be hailed as a national institution and mandatory in schools, steam trains will replace diseaseals, and they will all have faces painted on them, and any country who dares to laugh... well lets just say bird flu will be the least of their worries

[maxpayne2409]

HAHAHA was just checking out newnova and in the movies section someone has posted a torrent for a screener of Single White Female 2!!!! HAHAHAHA remakes gone even more madder then they were before, whoever thought "oooh bridget fonda's film single white female from like 1992 or something gay needs remaking in 2005" either deserves an award for comedy or shooting in the head for being a big fat little brown fish

[dinky]

Anyway, quality is okay, but it looks like they cheaped out and used DVD5s whereas in the us they use DVD9s for some discs. So there's more discs, with less episodes on each disc.

so what do you think? are they actually knock-offs? I honestly don't mind buying dvd5s if they spread it out properly over more discs, but I'm not sure what I think of buying a knock-off.

[maxpayne2409]

watched time runner last night, was pretty good enjoyed it

[spudthedestroyer]

Anyway, quality is okay, but it looks like they cheaped out and used DVD5s whereas in the us they use DVD9s for some discs. So there's more discs, with less episodes on each disc.

so what do you think? are they actually knock-offs? I honestly don't mind buying dvd5s if they spread it out properly over more discs, but I'm not sure what I think of buying a knock-off.

I really dunno, its not some cheaply packaged knock off. Or rather it comes in a box set. Something weird though, series 2 and 3 has scully and doggart on the disc, and then a big two/three... weird since he doesn't appear to series 8 and 9 )he appears on the cover of them too), probably didn't have the images to use

I think its official, except they really haven't put that much effort in... it is chinese after all, and a western show. No wonder everyone pirates over there

There's a hilarious bit of engrish on the front cover of the boxset:
"The COMPLERE EIGHTH Season"


Yet, in the middle it says 1-9... the guy probably did the reverse maths (they read from right to left, right? 9-1 = 8 )

There's also Korean "subititles" on the discs, and the discs are allegedly Dual-Layer Format, which is a lie. There are special features on some of the discs that you find on western discs.

Only one season i scanned through had chinese or i guess korean softsubs popup automatically, that you need to turn off, and that series didn't have any menus beyond episode select. The rest have no subs on unless you select them so its not intrusive.

There's some episodes where you can tell its a re-encode from a 9 on a TFT, but then i watched some episodes from series 7 and they look quite good/smooth, the picture is of higher quality but they were proper widescreen cameras by that time.

These images are resized by the forum, so right click>view image, they look a lot better in power dvd than they do in the screenshots for some reason (overlay settings and colour profile maybe?), but its close enough:

Series 1 - Sample


lol @ old school scully

Series 5 - Sample



Series 7 - Sample




Purposely Chosen ultra high motion sample from series 6






This last episode has encoding artifacts on the retail R2 too, but not as much. Basically there's a hurricane with people running all over the joint.

The compression noticable in the series 5 one in particular ( I don't know if that will show up on a CRT... you know how they smooth the picture), and the series 6 one. I mean there are retail discs of films like that (series 5). Series 1 and 2 don't look too hot in the R2 dvds, its a dirty 4:3 picture and its pretty much the same quality (i only scanned through the discs).

There was one episode i saw on the disc that was out of sync, so i assume they've just remastered the western version, put in korean subs, and changed the menus round If its a knockoff, it will be a organised crime knockoff with proper press houses.

[maxpayne2409]

ha so mr spud you hav been buying our criminal knock offs from the triad, we will now be taking payment in the form of parent head, you cross us rong ray mr spud

[spudthedestroyer]

ow! me so sowwy, me buy COMPLERE EIGHTH season... scully have small lirrle nose, but muwder have big american nose.

[dinky]

thanks spud. looks like the same thing I got for roswell</i>. guess I'll have to settle for "get what you pay for."


first 3 eps of tripping the rift</i> s1. really is like south park in space. fun little show. kind of surprised they were able to get the robot dildos past the censors, but not complaining.

edit: oh! and latest ep of rome</i> too.

[maxpayne2409]

watched more tz2002 last night, good eps

[dinky]

tripping the rift</i> eps 4 & 5.

[spudthedestroyer]

been watching series 7 of xfiles, look identical to the R1/2 DVDs at this point, nice quality picture, no problems during any high motion scenes or anything.

Series 7 is quite good, there was a lul at about series 3 or so i mentioned, but its recovered. The problem is at this point the story arc is only once or twice a series which means its very disposable. I guess this is getting up to the point where i tuned out and couldn't be bothered. Which is a shame since the episodes are rather good standalones.

[dinky]

imo, a 22 ep season is just too long for a good, intense, dominant story arc. which is yet another reason why hbo series rock!

[spudthedestroyer]

i dunno carnivale s2, babylon 5 S2-4, etc. didn't seem to have many problems. It depends if they have the story there from the beginning of the season, I get the impression that all of xfiles stories are ad-hoc as in chris carter had no idea where he was going with the series in the begining. Maybe it was just me, anyone else think likewise/to the contrary? But it seems somewhat directionless which is why i don't think the story arc was there in the latter series.

Of course the standalone episodes are actually pretty good standalone episodes, but it leads way to you skipping and tuning out of series on the tv if the hook isn't there.

The xfiles always tried to pad it out into a kind of serial cop show, whereas towards the end, what with mulder dissappearing due to his wage demands, they should have halved the size of the series instead of contracting a replacement perhaps. That might have let xfiles go out with more of a bang... i have no idea how it all ends actually. I never got to the end. All I know is that its probably open ended since there's been talk of the x-files 2 movie for ages.