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photo: thetvdb.com
Season 10
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Like many of you, I love The X-Files when it first aired in 1993. I remember watching the pilot and talking about it with my classmates in Jr High School. I steadily watched the program until actor David Duchovny checked out in Season 7. They brought in Robert Patrick (the T-1000) as lead in Season 8, but at that point, we thought they were just flogging a dead horse.
As a fan, I bought all the DVDs when they first came out. You have to remember when DVDs were first introduced, a full season (24 or 25 episodes) would retail at $75 to $129. I think I paid about $100 for the first season, and that was considered a deal because your VHS alternative would end up costing you over $300 to collect them all.
With Season 10 currently airing, as a promotion, Fox smartly re-released all the X-Files seasons on Bluray for the first time... selling them as a discount of $24 (retail), but you can find many of the set for $15 or less. Even if you own all the DVDs, like myself, getting them all on Bluray has a lot of benefit.
The number one reason is the image definition and quality from Bluray to DVD is no contest. You can clearly see the difference, in my opinion. I have done a side-by-side comparison below. Although just at a glance they look about the same, it is because I’ve had to reduce the image size of the Bluray to match the DVD picture size. Trust me, on a full Bluray still, you can see the difference, particularly in the fine strain of hair and face pores!
The other thing to consider is that the packaging: the new Bluray sets are about 70% smaller than the original boxsets. That just mean you have more shelf space for your other DVDs or Blurays... The only issue I have with the X-Files Bluray is that some seasons are wider/bigger because it contains a 7th disc. Personally, if I was designing these packaging, I would have aimed to make all the seasons the same shape and size with similar artwork to keep them consistent. It is not the most elegant solution, but perhaps offering the 7th disc in a cardsleeve tucked inside.
Since I had time to examine the Bluray discs, the reason why they can only fit 4 episodes on one disc is that it actually contains duplicate video for the Japanese version (so there are really 8 episodes per disc). Even on some modern television on Bluray, I have seen five episodes (for Fringe) or six episodes (for Person of Interest) per disc. Sure, there are probably length and audio and video factors to consider, but I feel you can probably fit five episodes per disc for X-Files, if they sacrifice some non-US audio (like the Japanese language), etc.
Still, regardless of the inconsistent sizes, it’s worth getting all the X-Files on Bluray for the first time.
So... are you watching The X-Files: Season 10? I am! So far, only the first two episodes have aired, and, personally speaking as a fan, I don’t like it. I’ll explain: I feel the acting is subpar. This is especially coming off of freshly watching the first season and seeing the energetic/fun interactions between Agent Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. In Season 10, Fox sounds sluggish and tired, while Dana sounds old. I feel like Dana is struggling to even get a word out. Dana, you are not 80 years old, you can talk normal!
With only six episodes for Season 10 (couldn’t they get 10 episodes at least to correspond to the Roman Numeral X?), I guess each episode is a standalone story. So the pilot and episode 2 have nothing to do with each other. I wish they could at least reference to the previous episode.
Season 10, so far, has been a disappointment for me, but I still love it and looking forward to the latest episode! It’s hard to explain, but even at its worst, I love the universe and just really happy to have this series back on the air.
As a fan, I bought all the DVDs when they first came out. You have to remember when DVDs were first introduced, a full season (24 or 25 episodes) would retail at $75 to $129. I think I paid about $100 for the first season, and that was considered a deal because your VHS alternative would end up costing you over $300 to collect them all.
With Season 10 currently airing, as a promotion, Fox smartly re-released all the X-Files seasons on Bluray for the first time... selling them as a discount of $24 (retail), but you can find many of the set for $15 or less. Even if you own all the DVDs, like myself, getting them all on Bluray has a lot of benefit.
The number one reason is the image definition and quality from Bluray to DVD is no contest. You can clearly see the difference, in my opinion. I have done a side-by-side comparison below. Although just at a glance they look about the same, it is because I’ve had to reduce the image size of the Bluray to match the DVD picture size. Trust me, on a full Bluray still, you can see the difference, particularly in the fine strain of hair and face pores!
The other thing to consider is that the packaging: the new Bluray sets are about 70% smaller than the original boxsets. That just mean you have more shelf space for your other DVDs or Blurays... The only issue I have with the X-Files Bluray is that some seasons are wider/bigger because it contains a 7th disc. Personally, if I was designing these packaging, I would have aimed to make all the seasons the same shape and size with similar artwork to keep them consistent. It is not the most elegant solution, but perhaps offering the 7th disc in a cardsleeve tucked inside.
Since I had time to examine the Bluray discs, the reason why they can only fit 4 episodes on one disc is that it actually contains duplicate video for the Japanese version (so there are really 8 episodes per disc). Even on some modern television on Bluray, I have seen five episodes (for Fringe) or six episodes (for Person of Interest) per disc. Sure, there are probably length and audio and video factors to consider, but I feel you can probably fit five episodes per disc for X-Files, if they sacrifice some non-US audio (like the Japanese language), etc.
Still, regardless of the inconsistent sizes, it’s worth getting all the X-Files on Bluray for the first time.
So... are you watching The X-Files: Season 10? I am! So far, only the first two episodes have aired, and, personally speaking as a fan, I don’t like it. I’ll explain: I feel the acting is subpar. This is especially coming off of freshly watching the first season and seeing the energetic/fun interactions between Agent Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. In Season 10, Fox sounds sluggish and tired, while Dana sounds old. I feel like Dana is struggling to even get a word out. Dana, you are not 80 years old, you can talk normal!
With only six episodes for Season 10 (couldn’t they get 10 episodes at least to correspond to the Roman Numeral X?), I guess each episode is a standalone story. So the pilot and episode 2 have nothing to do with each other. I wish they could at least reference to the previous episode.
Season 10, so far, has been a disappointment for me, but I still love it and looking forward to the latest episode! It’s hard to explain, but even at its worst, I love the universe and just really happy to have this series back on the air.
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X-Files Screen Comparison |
NOTE: When Fox originally released the X-Files Season 1 on DVD, they published it as 4:3 (for television aspect ratio). I assume they eventually made it widescreen (I know later seasons were formatted as 16:9). The Bluray (on the right) you can see that it is 16:9, although to achieve that, Fox cropped the top and bottom of the image slightly – but you see more of the left and right of the screen.
