Xena Warrior Princess - Season One

Rating:
Summary: Music Overload
Review: Too bad that the voices are almost completely obscured by the music. I've tried the DVD in each of my DVD players and and the 5.1 system in the family room. Miserable audio, I guess I should have taken a lip reading class before ordering Season One

Rating:
Summary: Yes, it's the 16mm film
Review: Anytime a series or movie shot on 16mm film--as Xena was in its first season--is released on DVD, complaints about the picture not being up to DVD standards of picture quality always seem to come up.

The problem is that DVD resolution is far greater than that of VHS or broadcast TV, and a series like Xena, shot on 16mm film in its low-budgeted first season, will show the limitations of its source material when transfered to DVD in a way broadcast TV and VHS never did. 16mm film has only about 1/3 of the resolution of 35mm film, which is the film format of choice for most shows shot for the American market.

Also, DVD compression depends on a good deal on much of the image remaining the same from one frame to another. 16mm film grain, by contrast, changes with every frame, which causes more changes in the image from frame to frame than with 35mm film--this is almost certainly why 16mm film grain can be worsened sometimes in the DVD encoding process, where the compression necessary for DVD, in effect converts the grain to DVD artifacting. This is a complaint that's often been made regarding the DVD versions of 16mm movies, such as the first EVIL DEAD film. Despite thier lower resolution, for this reason, VHS and Laserdisc were probably better mediums for transfers of 16mm material (because they used no compression).

However, as the past VHS releases of Xena in the US were never of very high quality (they tended to degrade quickly and have lots of glitches), and cost a lot more than these DVDs, and since DVD is the current format of choice, for durability, sound quality, and size, I suspect picture quality will always continue to be an issue with anything sourced from 16mm film.

If you love the series, you will probably be able to overlook this. Consider too, that when Xena was first airing in 1995, most people were not watching it on the HUGE monitors that many people have today. Xena was made to look good at broadcast resolution, on TV screens of 25 inches or less.

In any event, to save money, all of season one of Xena was shot in 16mm, and much of season two, but both contain many great episodes. I'd say don't let excessive concerns about the picture quality being inferior to some other TV series (which, technically, it is) let you fail to enjoy this groundbreaking and innovative series.

Rating:
Summary: Xena: Warrior Princess Season One DVD set
Review: Like all Xenites, I've been waiting a very long time to get Xena: Warrior Princess season sets on DVD. The Season One set by Anchor Bay that I have is definitely worth the price and I am not disappointed in any way.

I don't understand all the negative reviews I've read. I couldn't ask for better picture quality. I was quite surprised. There are some "grainy" scenes in a few episodes but they are not any worse than the original episode first aired on TV. In fact, I much prefer the DVD set by Anchor Bay than the video tapes I made from the show.

I always disliked the "night" scenes or "inside" shots while watching the show because of this "graininess". But I can't say that about this Season One set. If the rest of the seasons are as good as this first season (especially Season Two), then I think the fans will be very lucky indeed.

I'm certainly looking forward to getting at least Season Two on DVD.

Rating:
Summary: What happend to the video transfers? Awful picture quality
Review: I don't know what happened here, I love Xena so I bought this set, I give it 2 stars just because it is Xena, however, this is about the worst picture quality I have seen on dvd, there is grain everywhere, so much so in some scenes that it is annoying to watch. I don't know what the quality of the sets on the Xena website is like but they can't be worse than this. I only hope that Anchor Bay gets it right the next time, and improves for Season 2, as well as the upcoming Hercules season. A terrible disappointment overall, don't listen to other reviews saying the video quality is great, you will be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Great to have Xena on DVD, BUT...
Review: It's wonderful to finally have Xena on DVD! But, having said that, there are several drawbacks to this release. The grain on the transfer is at times atrocious; like looking at a movie through your front porch screen door. There are also no subtitles or closed captioning - funny, since at least the broadcasts were closed captioned. I have friends who use this feature a lot for hearing issues and missed or difficult to understand dialogue - with a DVD release, you'd think they'd include at least ONE of these options. And finally, the extra computer DVD with photos, trivia, mythology, etc. was really nice, but would have been a lot better if the disk had been usable in a regular DVD player. I really enjoy having the episodes on DVD, but with a little more effort this would have been a far better release that what was published.

Rating:
Summary: So "MPEG artifacting" is to blame, eh Lazarus?
Review: Reviewer Lazarus wrote what seems to be a great review on May 8th. Thanks Lazarus. I wrote a review and referred to the blurry mess of a picture that has caused us all such grief simply as "grain" for lack of a better word. "MPEG artifacting" sounds a lot better!

As the great Lazarus wrote, "...On any large screen area of continuous color (skin, sky, etc.), you can see clear pixel patterns that don't shift as the camera or action shifts.....this complete lack in video quality gives me the feeling that whoever was in charge just DID NOT CARE..."

That pretty much sums it up all right! If incompetence is to blame, then I reduce my score to 1 star out of 5! Encoding Beast, thy name is Anchor Bay Entertainment!

I hope Lazarus or another Reviewer can address the following question, though: Is the encoding workmanship or lack thereof truly to blame or was the source film of low quality? I've read that midway through the 2nd season the Xena people switched to better film. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

Rating:
Summary: From a hardcore Xena fan
Review: Back when a U.S. DVD release of Xena was still just an uncertain rumor, I got tired of waiting and bought a region-free player and ordered the series from a British website. I was extremely jealous, therefore, when I saw this set in the store until reading these reviews about the poor picture quality. For those who attribute the video problems to the cameras used in the first season, I don't think this is the explanation, as the quality is just fine on the R2 discs with no grainyness whatsoever. The contrast is also exceptional, compared side by side with my satellite, the picture is at least 3 times brighter uniformly. Unfortunately, the R2 version also is not closed-captioned, and is a bit pricier (each box only includes half a season and is only slightly less than this set of the whole season) with no extras, but I really just care about the show itself. It is a pity that Anchor dropped the ball, as Xena was a huge success with many fans and they deserve better.

Rating:
Summary: The difinitive update on the picture quality issue...
Review: After over a week of cycling through Anchor Bay representatives, most of which were unresponsive, (no response to emails or voice mail), I was shuffled over to a company called Crest National, the actual manufacturers of the DVDs. Here I spoke with a technical rep who understood the problem, and his explanation made perfect sense. The reason why the Xena Season 1 box set has poor picture quality often referred to as "grainy" is do to that season being shot using 16mm film. The representative then went on to state that the following seasons (2,3,4,etc.) were all shot using 35mm, a much higher quality film. He promised me that the next box sets would reflect this with much more appealing picture quality.
I have heard reports of other versions (U.K.?) of Xena on DVD that were equally poor in quality. The final question in my mind that needs answering is: Are all the seasons of these other versions poor in picture quality, or just the first season? Because if it is only the first season that is poor, than all can be aquitted to it being shot using 16mm. If all the seasons are poor, then it still leaves a question in my mind if the Anchor Bay version will actually improve in the future like the Crest rep said, or was he just BSing me. Either way, I'm 75% sure that the quality of season one that we see from Anchor Bay is as good as it will ever get. I'm fairly confident that the future releases (season 2 coming in September...why the long wait?) will show dramatic difference in picture quality. Having said all that, I think that I will hold on to this version of season one, when before I was ready to return it. If all the rest of the seasons turn out with better picture quality and the same brilliant packaging, then I can let the first seasons short-comings slide just so I can have the complete set.
One HUGE concern I have now is, if each season will be released 6 months apart from each other (according to Crest National), then the entire Xena collection will take over 3 years to be available!!! If you are a true fan of Xena and believe this to be unacceptable, I suggest bombarding Anchor Bay with emails demanding a faster turn around.

Rating:
Summary: What happened to DVD quality?
Review: I have to agree with the dirty video comments. It's as if your looking through a screen door in some places. I cant say I've ever experienced this before in any video. Hopefully someone can come up with an explanation for this.

Rating:
Summary: Picture is grainier than cornflakes
Review: You'll cry your eyes out. No, not tears of joy, silly! It's the result of a 24-episode visit from the incredibly blinding "Grain Monster" of planet "Anchor Bay Entertainment Butchered This Set". If you were worried about not getting enough grain in your diet, folks, worry no longer. Yes, grain, grain, and more grain permeates every disc of this set like some kind of terrible, grainy plague. Remember the movie "A Christmas Story" when everyone told the kid, "You'll shoot your eyes out"? Well, same deal here -- except in this case you'll WANT to shoot your eyes out after having received even only 3 seconds of this visually painful jolt to the old optic center of the brain. The audio is great, the content we all know and love is there, the packaging -- superb, but without good picture, who really cares, right? Buy it if you're a die-hard fan, otherwise, beware!