Smallville Complete Series Blu-ray Unboxing and Review! 

Like The Chloe Chronicles and Smallville Legends? Yes, they're included. Vengeance Chronicles seems to have been dropped.

there IS a digital code?????

Excellent video. Smallville is my favorite superhero series. Question: does the anniversary bluray have Spanish subtitles?

I was 5 in 2001 , takes me back to times that felt less divided.

Yeah, I would count that as modern as well, with maybe the Superboy TV series that ended the year earlier in ‘92 and everything before being “pre-modern”.

How about Superboy does that one count

Lois and Clark I love that show

@Mac Tex flex capacitor I watch the show on HBO Max

Me too.

I have digital copy of complete series if interested

@Wyolkens_ nah 💀

@@ronniedavis9627im interested

This has been the subject of much discussion here in the comments! Yes, it was sourced from 35mm footage, but the masters don't appear to be 1080p. To my eye, they look more like 720p upscales from the original 480p television masters. But this statement itself is the subject of debate. I do not believe they've rescanned the film elements, however, others think they have.

@@CerealAtMidnight I had the HD-DVD of Season 5 and it was clearly HD in my opinion. Yes, 720p I believe, but it clearly looked better. I went to Season 5 for all the best episodes..."LEXMAS", "RECKONING". So good!! (Just found your channel today and I am looking at much of your content!)

Thank you, David! Glad to have you here!

I loved Lois and Clark too! I didn't consider it for a modern Superman show (it's almost 30 years old!), but I suppose it is. I watched it religiously and proudly own all four seasons on DVD. The budgetary limitations at the time ensured that we got more Clark than Superman, but that was probably a strength, in retrospect.

Not sure if 5 is an upscale. Since Season 5 came out on HD DVD, which was battling blu ray.

I have digital copy of complete series if interested

The problem with those early seasons is the special effects being rendered and mastered in 480p. They'd have to be redone, and that likely won't ever happen. I won't be holding my breath for an ultra HD release either, but if such a release ever comes out, I'll support it. As it stands now, I suspect this is the final stop for Smallville on home media.

2001

I do agree with you, this is probably the last time we get Smallville on home media. Long live Smallville!

All my discs are correct, I hate to see that you’ve had this trouble.

Best Buy

I haven't personally seen the Buffy HD remaster (we own all the DVDs), but I hear it's horrible. When we tried to do a side by side comparison between our DVDs and Buffy on Hulu, we discovered it's standard definition, properly framed in its original aspect ratio of 4:3. They must have reverted back to the original after the backlash. I'm all for giving it an HD scan as long as they don't reframe it. There's nothing wrong with HD content in its original aspect ratio, even if it doesn't please every fans. My loyalty is always to the original framing. I'm now thinking of Seinfeld on Netflix and how it's been cropped, which has left so many fans upset.

Same in France, no code.

I noticed on the back of the box for digital code redemption you must reside in The US. I’m guessing this comes done to some financial situation or licensing issue.

I haven’t streamed the series, but my understanding is that the HD transfers on streaming are the same upscales on this set.

I have digital copy of complete series if interested

Just double checked and that is correct: season 7 has five episodes per disc.

It's not sold out permanently, thankfully, it's just a mix of supply chain issues and a packaging error that had a bunch of people getting two copies of disc 25. If you order, you'll get it when it comes back in stock online.

I think there are supply chain issues for EVERYTHING right now. I've got pre-orders for items that should have shipped already, but there isn't even an update for them. However, as it turns out, there was also a disc error that impacted this set with lots of people getting two of disc 25, so it's possible the set has been halted until the issue can be sorted out. It didn't affect my copy, thankfully, but it's a widespread issue.

Most of the discs have 6 episodes with the last disc of the season having 4 or 5 depending on the episode count for instance S2 was 23 episodes so it had 5 episodes on the last disc. S7 is a shortened 20 episode season so that has 5 episodes per disc for all of them👍

It'll be for Vudu, I imagine. Or Movies Anywhere.

@@JamesThomasJeans movies anywhere has only movies.

I doubt it will ever drop below $100, but anything is possible. Maybe in a few years.

It's actually very cheap. 10 seasons...

15-16 bucks per season (about 18 hours of entertainment per season) seems like a great deal to me. WAAAAAY cheaper than what I paid for each season back in the day.

I’m not missing any discs, and I hate to hear that you are. Someone else just posted a similar comment. If and when I hear something about how to fix it, I’ll post here. You could also ask for a replacement from whoever you ordered it through.

@@CerealAtMidnight a few people who purchased their copies from Walmart & Best Buy have reported they also received double 25 discs & are missing the 26th one. Seems to be a widespread issue so i hope Warner offer some sort of correction program where they'd send you a replacement of disc 26 upon receiving proof of purchase. That being said i wonder how this would work for international buyers who imported the set😬

It seems Bullmoose was also affected, see their response: "We're sorry about that, we just found out that this whole set was recalled due to this exact defect. Please use the attached return label to send the package back our way and let us know when it's in the mail. Once we see that reflected in the tracking we will issue a refund. If you have any questions please let us know and have a good day!"

I am selling them, yes. They're actually on eBay right now. I'm seriously out of space, so anything I'm not getting use out of and that I won't be enjoying in the future has got to go.

It's the new WB style menus. No music, no animation, static screen with a pic of that season's art with buttons for play, episodes, audio, subtitles, and special features. This may be a unconventional take, but I like the new menus way more than the old animated menus. You get right to it and they're clean, no popups or moving images. I can be watching an episode within just a few seconds now.

Yes, visually, there’s a noticeable bump in quality. They also re-encoded seasons 6-10, and those look better too.

31st December 2022

I have digital copy of complete series if interested

@@ronniedavis9627 you don’t want it?

@@LK3185. no I got blu ray boxset got the blu rays don't need digital I'm selling if you're interested

They were shot on film, but they were finished at 480p because that was the standard for television at the time. Even the effects and opening credits were rendered in 480p. To get the full HD transfers, WB would have to go back to the original source elements, rescan everything, and re-render the special effects at a higher resolution, which doesn't seem likely to ever happen. The last show that did this (Star Trek: The Next Generation) for Blu-ray was a huge financial failure. It's a money-losing proposition.

That would be asking for copyright trouble from Warner Bros, but each menu is static (not animated) and features an image of that season's cover artwork. There are buttons for Play All, Episodes, Audio, Subtitles, and Special Features.

There’s no intro or save me song like the dvds

@@stephenberry3110 no song, silent menus

@@kasim2409 oh that sux

yes it does!

@@_cameroncarey_ What about the DVD version ?

The press release is the same for both Blu-ray and DVD so they should be identical.

@@_cameroncarey_ Will definitely be picking it up now

No phone number, but you can email Warner Bros. Home Entertainment a twhv@wb.com

It's clear just from looking at them that they're not native HD and have been upscaled. Now, obviously I haven't watched every episode of the first five seasons. I skipped around and loaded multiple discs to view how things looked, so maybe things do indeed get better from Season 3 to season 5, but what I saw for the purpose of this review was nowhere near full native HD quality.

Just popped some more discs again to double check my original opinion about those earlier seasons. I’m sticking to my statement here: certainly better than DVD, but doesn’t look any better than 720p. I’m very happy with the improved quality, but I think it’s important to set realistic expectations about the video quality so people don’t come in expecting Season 1 of Smallville to look like Season 15 of Supernatural. What would have been tremendously helpful is if WB had disclosed their source for the early HD masters so we didn’t have to have these conversations at all. I think the show looks great for what it is, but it definitely looks like an upscale.

@@CerealAtMidnight The difference between season 15 of Supernatural and Season 3 of Smallville is digital cameras vs. Film cameras. Smallville was filmed on 16mm and therefore will never look as clean as a modern show that aired today. That's not a definition problem, that's just age showing. Plus, those masters are old. Since it was aired in HD quite early on, those masters date all the way back to the beginnings of high definition on TV. Of course they'll look dated. Doesn't mean they're upscaled. Best way to compare is the opening credits. Those are taken straight from how they originally aired, so they are upscaled for seasons 1-3 (season 3 just took the same opening from season 2). You can see a difference between the actual episode and the opening credit in season 1, showcasing how it would actually look if the entire show was upscaled. You can see an uptick in detail between season 1 and season 2 opening credits, hinting that it could now be in 720p. And you can see a major difference between season 3 and 4 opening credits. That's when the opening credits became full-HD, right before they changed its style completely. To be fair, I've only watched the Amazon HD versions of those episodes and haven't gotten my hands on that set yet, but with the heavy compression of streaming, I can only guess that Blu-rays look better and therefore, my point stands. Old masters, yes. No digital cameras, yes. Upscaled VFX for some seasons, yes. But still HD.

I feel like we're arguing the same side. It is my belief from watching the Blu-rays and comparing them directly to the DVDs that Warner has not scanned the original 35mm film footage for the Blu-rays, they've upscaled the existing masters upwards to around 720p. Heck, maybe it's even 1080i...but it doesn't look like that to me. This is up for debate, since Warner has not disclosed this information, but that's what I see, and it's why I am not making definitive statements, I'm sharing an opinion. There's too much hyperbole in reviews and I'm trying to keep buyer's expectations more grounded. I'll reiterate my original statement: this is a nice step up from the DVDs, but it's best to keep expectations modest because it's not a night and day difference, it's a more subtle one. Same goes for the new encodes for the digitally-shot seasons. Subtle improvement, but an improvement nonetheless. All reasonable expectations will likely be met. Update: Blu-ray dot com has just posted their review, which is in line with mine. They mention the likelihood of upscales for the earlier seasons (especially season 1) and note that the visual upgrades are moderate, yet welcome.

They're not the same as the DVDs. There is no animation, and each menu features a static shot of the key art from that season.

just like seasons 6-10 bluray. Thank U so much