Werthead Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 For reals. Fox confirmed last year they were working on remastering The X-Files for Blu-Ray and HD TV in time for the show's 20th anniversary. They just missed that, but work on the first season at least seems to be complete, since it's now airing on ProSieben Maxx in Germany, of all places. UK/US release and airing dates have not yet been given. Like the successful Star Trek: The Next Generation HD remastering, Fox have gone back and rescanned the original film negatives to produce a much higher-quality image. As a nice bonus, The X-Files was filmed with widescreen cameras and the camera fields were kept clear, meaning that the new masters are in widescreen. ST:TNG was filmed with widescreen cameras but only the centre of the image (producing the SD, square TV image in wide use at the time) was kept clear, meaning that props, crew, edges of the stage etc. are visible in the widescreen images, so they couldn't be used. Unlike ST:TNG, it does not appear that Fox were willing to fund reshooting all of the effects for the series. As a result, the effects shots have simply been upscaled and probably don't look that great. The X-Files wasn't a show that used masses of CGI and other effects every episode, however (and its best stuff was mostly prosthetics and other in-camera work, which will have been remastered along with everything else), so it's not quite as big a problem as it is for, for example, Babylon 5. However, one issue is that The X-Files used a lot of archive footage for things like establishing shots of Washington, D.C., and the remastering team did not have access to this material, so the quality drops momentarily for these shots. One bonus is that this remastering job certainly did not cost what ST:TNG's did ($9 million per season!) so the Blu-Ray prices should not be quite as high as TNG's. I'd expect to start seeing them later this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxom 1974 Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Nice! Three first four seasons or so of The X-Files were some of the best sci-fi on television. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Ooh, I'm a big fan. Can probably dish out for a season at a time for a re-watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martini Sigil Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Nice! Three first four seasons or so of The X-Files were some of the best sci-fi on television. agreed. original concept... smart... and unlike anything on network TV... (they should have stopped after 4 seasons, IMO) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 There was some quality stuff in season 5 too. "Post-Modern Prometheus" and "Bad Blood" are amazing. Also the episode that Stephen King wrote, because every time I pick up my toolkit I say, "Let's play with the hammer!" in creepy doll voice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercenaryChef Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 i love this! friday evenings while others my age were out drinking, fucking and doing other teenage activities i was at home watching this show. i totally want this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maarsen Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Mmmmm! Gillian Anderson in HD! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warg Arry Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 That is excellent. Something I will totally want to own. Wait... It's been 20 years? So there are people who drive, drink and vote. Even pay taxes and have never seen or heard of the X-Files? I hate life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Sweet. Totally gonna get these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roose Seal Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 No waaaay!!!X-files had some pretty amazing cinematography sometimes and TV format really didn't do it justice at all. I'm so excited about this :o(I love X-Files up until when DD left the show, after that it's very hit or miss, but there's still some awesome episodes) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I loved it at the time and I'm still a great admirer of the concept - it's just not one of those shows I really want to watch again. I guess if it was on TV and i had the time I'd possibly watch but the sheer weight of episodes puts me off a rewatch. I was more excited at the prospect of it being back as a netflix show with new content. That,I'd watch, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isis Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Awww. But we're already 152/204 eps into our complete rewatch. We can't start all over again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RumHam Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 I loved it at the time and I'm still a great admirer of the concept - it's just not one of those shows I really want to watch again. I guess if it was on TV and i had the time I'd possibly watch but the sheer weight of episodes puts me off a rewatch. I love this show and this is exciting news but I feel the same way. Sometimes I'll find myself in the mood and google "best standalone X-Files episodes" and watch one of those. Actually rewatching all the seasons and following the overarching plot seems really unappealing. It doesn't help that the first season is really uneven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martini Sigil Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 The first x-files movie was fantastic, btw... the 2nd one was OK, but the first was top notch IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RumHam Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 The first x-files movie was fantastic, btw... the 2nd one was OK, but the first was top notch IMO I haven't even watched the second I heard such bad things. The first was really an accomplishment. To this day are their any other TV shows that have done a theatrical movie between seasons? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roose Seal Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 I love this show and this is exciting news but I feel the same way. Sometimes I'll find myself in the mood and google "best standalone X-Files episodes" and watch one of those. Actually rewatching all the seasons and following the overarching plot seems really unappealing. It doesn't help that the first season is really uneven. Watching only the myth-arc episodes is pretty great but a little depressing, those episodes are bleakbleakbleak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isis Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Have to disagree and say that doing a complete rewatch has been a really rewarding experience. It's been fun seeing the clothes and hairstyles change too. I'll be sad when we get to the end. We don't plan on watching the second movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Chambers Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 I'm a rabid fan. I even won a radio quiz-show in 2008 and got a trip to London to the european premiere of movie #2. The season I liked best is already in widescreen - season 6. I'm right now re-watching and I must say even for me it's hard to swallow down the naive season 1 stuff, the way they act, dress, do stuff. After season 5 it gets more serious (though season 5 + movie #1 are superb, too, along with other stuff from the first three seasons)... Even season 8 without David is ok... the real problem for me starts with season 9. But be that as it may - the XF is a beacon that helped many things be developed (internet discussions about this stuff, for instance), and there are many, many shows we loved afterwards that would have never been if there hadn't been XF. The really big mistake was making the second movie a standalone-one. So can't wait for the HD's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted January 26, 2014 Author Share Posted January 26, 2014 I haven't even watched the second I heard such bad things. The first was really an accomplishment. To this day are their any other TV shows that have done a theatrical movie between seasons? South Park. The Simpsons. Doctor Who, sort of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 The first x-files movie was fantastic, btw... the 2nd one was OK, but the first was top notch IMO The first benefited from the fact that the show was at it's most popular so we all went into the film expecting to love it. The fact it was good meant it was excellent for the fans - I'm not sure how someone watching it solely as a film may have felt about it. The sequel was a couple of years after when pretty much everyone had stopped giving a shit about the show. I thought it worked fine as an episode of X-files but it was terrible as a film. Awww. But we're already 152/204 eps into our complete rewatch. We can't start all over again! 204 episodes! That is reason enough why I couldn't do a complete rewatch again. Lottery winnings, unemployment or illness are the only way I could go through all of those. My partner would have to be someone who'd never seen it for me to spend that much time on it. Then again, i'm a bit like that with most shows - it's only when I'm trying to evangelise someone that I ever get around to rewatches. At least most other shows aren't quite so long though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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