Which TV Series Are You Binging On?

[MacBH928]

Yes, the quality of it is great. The X-Files was one of the first (maybe the first) TV show that had a movie-like production for each episode. Basically, each episode is like a mini movie in terms of production.

Some special effects show their age, but this is rare. Most times you wouldn't even know that there are special effects on a scene.

If you watch the HD version of the show, there are some scenes that the original film was lost, and then there is a cut to SD. Probably less than 2 minutes worth for the first 9 seasons, but still very noticeable, especially when it comes to SFX.

I purchased the Blu-ray collection of the whole series last June, and added them to Plex. My wife and I have been watching it since, and we just finished the 9th season.

The later seasons (7th, 8th, and 9th) were polarizing, some people hated them, but I liked them as well.

Season 10 and 11, well, they are okay, but feel similar to all the other reboots of movies and TV Shows happening lately.

There are also two movies, the first of which is really good, and should be watched in between the 5th and 6th seasons. The second movie is more of a feature lengthen, monster of the week episode. If you do watch the second movie, watch it between season 9 and 10.


I know what you mean, and The X-Files isn't like that.

It is not too procedural. A good mix of monster of the week and then the mythology episodes are more serial-like.

I think you mentioned Fringe in another post. Fringe was probably heavily inspired by The X-Files. Some episode and situations are crazy similar between the two shows. I wouldn't call it copying, but more like a homage to The X-Files.

Actually, IIRC The X-Files is playing on a TV in one of the first episodes of the Fringe series.

Thanks I appreciate the informative reply. The show is indeed high quality production for 1993, maybe this is why it got so famous. Personally, if they released this today I would still find it just as entertaining and quality holds. It was shot on film as it seems, I am not sure if that was a standard back then I recall TV shows were shot on video.

I am about 4 episodes in but so far it seems it has a repetitive formula: Weird mystery happening, Mulder investigates, they come to a conclusion. Rinse and repeat. I am hoping it picks up. I don't think I can do 10 seasons of this formula.

I noticed the digital version is of very high quality as in shot in 4K. Is this because it was shot original on film? Or is there some computer magic happening here?

If you watch the HD version of the show, there are some scenes that the original film was lost, and then there is a cut to SD. Probably less than 2 minutes worth for the first 9 seasons, but still very noticeable, especially when it comes to SFX.

I don't understand what you are saying here? In all 9 seasons they lost only 2 minutes of video but still noticeable? I am watching the HD version from iTunes.

I purchased the Blu-ray collection of the whole series last June, and added them to Plex.

You ripped 57 bluray discs and transferred them to a Plex Server? I am interested to hear that story, how long it took and what software you used? also thats 1.4TB of data. Which disc drive you used?

Fringe was probably heavily inspired by The X-Files. Some episode and situations are crazy similar between the two shows.

Which would you say is the better show? I heard a lot of praise for Fringe.

 

[tlnargi]

Thanks I appreciate the informative reply. The show is indeed high quality production for 1993, maybe this is why it got so famous. Personally, if they released this today I would still find it just as entertaining and quality holds. It was shot on film as it seems, I am not sure if that was a standard back then I recall TV shows were shot on video.

I am about 4 episodes in but so far it seems it has a repetitive formula: Weird mystery happening, Mulder investigates, they come to a conclusion. Rinse and repeat. I am hoping it picks up. I don't think I can do 10 seasons of this formula.

I noticed the digital version is of very high quality as in shot in 4K. Is this because it was shot original on film? Or is there some computer magic happening here?



I don't understand what you are saying here? In all 9 seasons they lost only 2 minutes of video but still noticeable? I am watching the HD version from iTunes.



You ripped 57 bluray discs and transferred them to a Plex Server? I am interested to hear that story, how long it took and what software you used? also thats 1.4TB of data. Which disc drive you used?



Which would you say is the better show? I heard a lot of praise for Fringe.

The X-Files is the better show. Wait til you get to the end of season 1. I’ve rewatched this show many times and despite its age, a lot of it holds up very well. It’s scary too.

The fact they did a movie during the series run shows how popular the show was.

 

[Apple fanboy]

[Mare of Easttown]
I’ve watched the whole series and can recommend it. It’s got some great twists and some unexpected funny moments. Winslet is good and gritty, and Jean Smart is funny, wise and heartful. Apparently a lot of work went into the getting the accent right, but I suppose we’ll need confirmation from someone from that area in PA.

Finished this yesterday. Thought it was utterly depressing. Really enjoyed it!

 

[Juicy Box]

I am about 4 episodes in but so far it seems it has a repetitive formula: Weird mystery happening, Mulder investigates, they come to a conclusion. Rinse and repeat. I am hoping it picks up.

This is mostly the 1st season, with the exception of the last episode, but things change quite a bit a few episodes into the second season, episode 5 IIRC.

It is actually pretty interesting, as it was more or less an accident for the writers of The X-Files to make this major change in the show. I won't spoil anything, but one of the actors had some personal event happen to them that needed to be addressed in the show, and the changes that ended up happening in the show just made the show a lot better.

This change led to other changes, and basically created the mythology of the show which wouldn't have happened other wise (according to the show creator).

The formula is pretty still there, but it broken up with what they call mythology episodes which break up procedural, the monster of the week episodes.

I think I understand what you mean though. Another show I watched, Grimm, was pretty good, but it was just too procedural with the same exact formula each episode. Really no surprises, no mystery. The serial part of the show was not given enough time imo.

I don't understand what you are saying here? In all 9 seasons they lost only 2 minutes of video but still noticeable? I am watching the HD version from iTunes.

No video was lost, just the original film was lost, meaning it wasn't able to be remastered in HD.

There are some scenes that cut from HD to SD back to HD again. It isn't a big deal, but if one didn't know this, they may not understand why some scenes look off.


Another thing with the HD version of the show is that there are at least two scenes that should have been cropped due to showing the crew. I assume this was a mistake, and most people may not even notice it. Both times, it appears it was animal trainers, one was for a tiger and another for a dog. But, once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Overall it is an awesome remaster, especially when compared to some shows like Buffy that was horrible and should have never been released.

You ripped 57 bluray discs and transferred them to a Plex Server? I am interested to hear that story, how long it took and what software you used? also thats 1.4TB of data. Which disc drive you used?

I have a lot more than just The X-Files, and it is all the episodes and special features. Also both movies and special features from my Bluray.

I used MakeMKV to rip and Handbrake to encode to a more reasonable file size. Still in 1080p though, and looks as good or better than what is available on streaming. This a lot of space taken up though, almost 1TB. It would have been a lot larger that 1.4TB without using Handbrake. This isn't counting the movies:

One piece of advice that I would give to anyone doing this it to watch the auto-crop in Handbrake. Some episodes would auto crop too much, cutting off about 25% of the right side of the video. It only happened maybe 5 times, but I didn't catch it until watching the episodes, leading me to have to redo those episodes.

I used a portable Samsung drive for this show.

Which would you say is the better show? I heard a lot of praise for Fringe.

The X-Files is a better show, imo.

Not that Fringe was bad or anything, but I think that the quality of the writing, the setting, and variety of the type of shows on The X-Files was much better.

The X-Files was also supernatural based with scientific elements, and Fringe is purely scientific. Even still, when watching The X-Files, I think I am able to suspend disbelief a lot more than Fringe. Not saying either one could happen, but if I was going to pick which one was more realistic, it would be The X-Files, by far.

But Fringe is a very good show, it probably has a better hook as well. I have actually watched the whole series more times than The X-Files.

I watch The X-Files when it originally aired, and now again with my wife. I have watch Fringe probably 4 times now.

 

[Apple fanboy]

This is mostly the 1st season, with the exception of the last episode, but things change quite a bit a few episodes into the second season, episode 5 IIRC.

It is actually pretty interesting, as it was more or less an accident for the writers of The X-Files to make this major change in the show. I won't spoil anything, but one of the actors had some personal event happen to them that needed to be addressed in the show, and the changes that ended up happening in the show just made the show a lot better.

This change led to other changes, and basically created the mythology of the show which wouldn't have happened other wise (according to the show creator).

The formula is pretty still there, but it broken up with what they call mythology episodes which break up procedural, the monster of the week episodes.

I think I understand what you mean though. Another show I watched, Grimm, was pretty good, but it was just too procedural with the same exact formula each episode. Really no surprises, no mystery. The serial part of the show was not given enough time imo.



No video was lost, just the original film was lost, meaning it wasn't able to be remastered in HD.

There are some scenes that cut from HD to SD back to HD again. It isn't a big deal, but if one didn't know this, they may not understand why some scenes look off.


Another thing with the HD version of the show is that there are at least two scenes that should have been cropped due to showing the crew. I assume this was a mistake, and most people may not even notice it. Both times, it appears it was animal trainers, one was for a tiger and another for a dog. But, once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Overall it is an awesome remaster, especially when compared to some shows like Buffy that was horrible and should have never been released.



I have a lot more than just The X-Files, and it is all the episodes and special features. Also both movies and special features from my Bluray.

I used MakeMKV to rip and Handbrake to encode to a more reasonable file size. Still in 1080p though, and looks as good or better than what is available on streaming. This a lot of space taken up though, almost 1TB. It would have been a lot larger that 1.4TB without using Handbrake. This isn't counting the movies:
View attachment 1786011

One piece of advice that I would give to anyone doing this it to watch the auto-crop in Handbrake. Some episodes would auto crop too much, cutting off about 25% of the right side of the video. It only happened maybe 5 times, but I didn't catch it until watching the episodes, leading me to have to redo those episodes.

I used a portable Samsung drive for this show.


The X-Files is a better show, imo.

Not that Fringe was bad or anything, but I think that the quality of the writing, the setting, and variety of the type of shows on The X-Files was much better.

The X-Files was also supernatural based with scientific elements, and Fringe is purely scientific. Even still, when watching The X-Files, I think I am able to suspend disbelief a lot more than Fringe. Not saying either one could happen, but if I was going to pick which one was more realistic, it would be The X-Files, by far.

But Fringe is a very good show, it probably has a better hook as well. I have actually watched the whole series more times than The X-Files.

I watch The X-Files when it originally aired, and now again with my wife. I have watch Fringe probably 4 times now.

Fringe was better for me. Only recently watched it for the first time (this year). One of the better shows I’ve found in a while.

 

[AZhappyjack]

Just started watching Scrubs for the first time... about half way though season 1 ... nine seasons it 180+ episodes.

 

[Juicy Box]

Just started watching Scrubs for the first time...

I have watched the entire series of Scrubs probably 10 times.

It is something I put on the TV when doing other things, so basically I just listen to most of it now and not even watch it.

The show is great, and probably the most accurate and realistic medical drama on TV.

The later seasons start to get a little too goofy, especially season 8, but some earlier episodes as well. In some later episodes, the characters are more of a caricature of how they were in earlier seasons, almost to the point of being cringey.

But overall, it is a great show, with some very dramatic and powerful storylines. Some of my favorite episodes are My Lunch and My Hero.

 

[Juicy Box]

Fringe was better for me.

I also really like Fringe, but would put The X-Files above it in terms of overall quality and entertainment. I watched The X-Files as it aired starting with the first episode, so nostalgia is maybe influencing my ranking.

Watching Fringe over a few times, it is easy to see the plot holes and some unfinished storylines.

Anyone remember when Meghan Markle showed up with what seemed like a new, important character of the show, until the next episode where she was never thought of again?

I could actually list a few big holes, but don't want to list spoilers. I guess one could say that The X-Files as some holes itself, but due to the nature of the show and the mysterious and open ended style of the episodes, this is less noticeable also less impactful. I still want to know what happened to Lucy Lawless though.

Even with the downsides to it, the show Fringe is still great, and I wished there was more shows like that on TV. I love the characters, and wished some of the characters was given more time to explain their backstory and off-screen life.

 

[bradl]

I've been binging on some reality TV... but not the cliche "Reality TV" most people think of..

Thanks to a random clip of Planet Earth (and subsequently, Plizzanet Earth) showing up on my YouTube feed, what I think is being amazingly produced are livestreamed safaris. One company in particular is Wild Earth. For the past couple of weeks, they have been livestreaming safaris at sunrise and sunset in the Kruger National Park in South Africa. There are 4 or 5 crews that hand off to each other in different parts of the park, and one person who goes on a bushwalk. Really beautiful stuff they find, from lion prides to cheetahs to leopards to batteleur eagles learning to fly, to impalas.

While they are live right now, here's a clip of what they do:

BL.

 

[MacBH928]

The X-Files is the better show. Wait til you get to the end of season 1. I’ve rewatched this show many times and despite its age, a lot of it holds up very well. It’s scary too.

The fact they did a movie during the series run shows how popular the show

This is mostly the 1st season, with the exception of the last episode, but things change quite a bit a few episodes into the second season, episode 5 IIRC.

It is actually pretty interesting, as it was more or less an accident for the writers of The X-Files to make this major change in the show. I won't spoil anything, but one of the actors had some personal event happen to them that needed to be addressed in the show, and the changes that ended up happening in the show just made the show a lot better.

This change led to other changes, and basically created the mythology of the show which wouldn't have happened other wise (according to the show creator).

The formula is pretty still there, but it broken up with what they call mythology episodes which break up procedural, the monster of the week episodes.

I think I understand what you mean though. Another show I watched, Grimm, was pretty good, but it was just too procedural with the same exact formula each episode. Really no surprises, no mystery. The serial part of the show was not given enough time imo.



No video was lost, just the original film was lost, meaning it wasn't able to be remastered in HD.

There are some scenes that cut from HD to SD back to HD again. It isn't a big deal, but if one didn't know this, they may not understand why some scenes look off.


Another thing with the HD version of the show is that there are at least two scenes that should have been cropped due to showing the crew. I assume this was a mistake, and most people may not even notice it. Both times, it appears it was animal trainers, one was for a tiger and another for a dog. But, once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Overall it is an awesome remaster, especially when compared to some shows like Buffy that was horrible and should have never been released.



I have a lot more than just The X-Files, and it is all the episodes and special features. Also both movies and special features from my Bluray.

I used MakeMKV to rip and Handbrake to encode to a more reasonable file size. Still in 1080p though, and looks as good or better than what is available on streaming. This a lot of space taken up though, almost 1TB. It would have been a lot larger that 1.4TB without using Handbrake. This isn't counting the movies:
View attachment 1786011

One piece of advice that I would give to anyone doing this it to watch the auto-crop in Handbrake. Some episodes would auto crop too much, cutting off about 25% of the right side of the video. It only happened maybe 5 times, but I didn't catch it until watching the episodes, leading me to have to redo those episodes.

I used a portable Samsung drive for this show.


The X-Files is a better show, imo.

Not that Fringe was bad or anything, but I think that the quality of the writing, the setting, and variety of the type of shows on The X-Files was much better.

The X-Files was also supernatural based with scientific elements, and Fringe is purely scientific. Even still, when watching The X-Files, I think I am able to suspend disbelief a lot more than Fringe. Not saying either one could happen, but if I was going to pick which one was more realistic, it would be The X-Files, by far.

But Fringe is a very good show, it probably has a better hook as well. I have actually watched the whole series more times than The X-Files.

I watch The X-Files when it originally aired, and now again with my wife. I have watch Fringe probably 4 times now.

Thats the problem with TV shows it needs time to pickup. X-Files season one is 24 episodes amounting to about 18 hours, thats a lot of time waiting for the show to pickup. Then there is the price, they are $3/ episode but if you buy the seasons its a more reasonable $0.56/episode especially when you consider you have the "complete my season" option.

@vertical smile

How much time does it take to rip 1 BD then transcode it using Handbrake? which presets you used?

 

[MacBH928]

The show is great, and probably the most accurate and realistic medical drama on TV.

I thought Scrubs was a sitcom?

 

[Juicy Box]

I thought Scrubs was a sitcom?

It is, but it is also a medical drama, and more representational to what working at a hospital and life as a doctor would be like than most, or all other medical dramas.


There has been may other polls and articles as the following one showing that when tv shows are ranked by medical professionals as more realistic, scrubs consistently ends up on top:

What Is the Most Realistic Medical Show? Ranking 'Grey's Anatomy,' 'The Good Doctor' & More

From 'ER' to 'Grey's Anatomy,' we're breaking down their accuracy.

www.tvinsider.com

Most other medical shows often feature exotic medical conditions that are rarely ever seen in real life, Scrubs usually has common medical conditions and situations, stuff that most medical professionals would see in their daily lives.


Of course there is a comedic and satirical style to the show that doesn't necessarily represent what working at a hospital is like, but the actual medical part is pretty accurate according to a lot of sources.

According to the creator of the show, the main character is based off of his best friend, and this friend's experience as an intern in a teaching hospital. Also, the medical situations are based off of real medical situations, and the more exotic ones, which are rare for the show, are based off of real life situations.

For example, the storyline that happened in "My Lunch", is based off of a true story where:

Spoiler: Spoiler for "My Lunch"

A transplant donor, which was thought to have died from a suicide ended up having rabies, and all the organ recipients ended up dying from rabies as well

It is a good show, maybe a little goofy for some. I really disliked a lot of the later episodes as they started getting more and more goofy, but overall, worth giving a try.

 

[Juicy Box]

Thats the problem with TV shows it needs time to pickup. X-Files season one is 24 episodes amounting to about 18 hours, thats a lot of time waiting for the show to pickup. Then there is the price, they are $3/ episode but if you buy the seasons its a more reasonable $0.56/episode especially when you consider you have the "complete my season" option.

It is available for streaming on Hulu if you want to give a few seasons a try. I suggest getting the ad-free version, as I wouldn't want to watch it with ads.

How much time does it take to rip 1 BD then transcode it using Handbrake? which presets you used?

The time is going to totally vary from one person to another depending on many things, like what computer is used, disk drive, presets on Handbrake, how much they want to include such as special features.

At the time, I was using my Late 2012 iMac with the i7, a portable Samsung Blu-ray disk drive, the ATV 1080p preset but with some changes to the settings, and I included all the special features except the foreign ones.

I don't remember how long exactly each disk took, and I would normally not encode one disk at a time, but rip a whole season and then encode it.

I think ripping would probably take an hour per disk, and encoding was probably like 40 minutes per episode.

You can't go by that figure though because one little change to one setting in Handbrake could greatly change the encode time. For example, under encoder options>Preset, if you choose the default of Medium or change it to slowest, this could be the difference of having an encode done in 20 minutes or 6 hours.

 

[Canyda]

Just finished season 1 of Ted Lasso and it was terrific.

 

[AZhappyjack]

Where can I stream Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

 

[0128672]

Where can I stream Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Here’s some services that offer it:

 

[Juicy Box]

Where can I stream Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

I have been watching it on Hulu.

 

[sjsharksfan12]

Just finished Season 2 of Breaking Bad.

Holy Crap that was an roller coaster of emotions. For one, seeing John De Lancie in this show was kind of surprising, but where his story goes is heartbreaking. I really liked how this season game together, and the first thing we saw in this season was the end of the season. That was tremendous payoff.

 

[pachyderm]

VEEP season 7

 

[radamo]

VEEP into season 4 now...

Tried this last year and didn't really care for it... disappointed.

 

[pachyderm]

Tried this last year and didn't really care for it... disappointed.

She was President Trump before he was President Trump...

 

[rhett7660]

Just started the second half of Season 5 of Lucifer... So far not to bad. They even had an all signing episode. Reminded me of the Buffy The Vampire episode which did the same thing!

 

[SteveManila1960]

Just started the second half of Season 5 of Lucifer... So far not to bad. They even had an all signing episode. Reminded me of the Buffy The Vampire episode which did the same thing!

I finished already and really enjoyed it except for the singing episode I fast forwarded through most of that it just wasn't for me.

 

[MacBH928]

It is available for streaming on Hulu if you want to give a few seasons a try. I suggest getting the ad-free version, as I wouldn't want to watch it with ads.



The time is going to totally vary from one person to another depending on many things, like what computer is used, disk drive, presets on Handbrake, how much they want to include such as special features.

At the time, I was using my Late 2012 iMac with the i7, a portable Samsung Blu-ray disk drive, the ATV 1080p preset but with some changes to the settings, and I included all the special features except the foreign ones.

I don't remember how long exactly each disk took, and I would normally not encode one disk at a time, but rip a whole season and then encode it.

I think ripping would probably take an hour per disk, and encoding was probably like 40 minutes per episode.

You can't go by that figure though because one little change to one setting in Handbrake could greatly change the encode time. For example, under encoder options>Preset, if you choose the default of Medium or change it to slowest, this could be the difference of having an encode done in 20 minutes or 6 hours.

40min encoding per episode = 16 hours for a full season= 7.3 days for the complete series... yikes!

 

[Juicy Box]

40min encoding per episode = 16 hours for a full season= 7.3 days for the complete series... yikes!

Well, the actual time took a lot longer, as I wasn't working on it all the time and there was plenty of breaks between encoding sessions. The whole series probably took me a month to complete.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the estimated time encoding is where my Mac was doing majority of the heavy lifting, not me. So, I could just press a few buttons, and walk away. Most times, I was sleeping when the encoding was happening.

Lastly, The X-Files, while large, is a tiny part of my library. I own a few thousand DVDs and Blurays, and my collection grows all the time.

I have about 90% of my total collection already ripped and encoded on Plex. It may take a long time to set up, but it is like my own personal Netflix, without the ever increasing monthly fees and crappy content to filter through.

That said, I wouldn't buy The X-Files unless you know you are going to like it. Stream some seasons on Hulu first, and see if it is for you.