DigModiFicaTion said:
I feel like I'm the kid in the room that isn't picking up on something obvious here trying to decode what is different. It looks like it's slightly zoomed in and there is a higher contrast with a sight temperature change. Most tv's can achieve this with built in settings. When Babylon 5 was free on amazon prime last year I didn't notice it being cropped 16:9. It looked pretty similar to my dvd set.
The old transfers previously doing the rounds on Amazon/iTunes etc were the same as the botched 16:9 DVDs, this transfer is 4:3 and likely taken from the original broadcast master, the way B5 is meant to be seen and was originally seen on TV, VHS and Laserdicc, without all the FX footage cropped down to 16:9. The slight differences in colour timing are likely down to it being from a different source rather than any deliberate choice I suspect, although happily they do look marginally better (less of that pink hue that the DVDs tended toward). Vudu in the US already had these 4:3 masters for a few years but this is the first time they've been available to buy on other more popular platforms and in other parts of the world.
I'm just unclear as to what the above video is comparing them with? Its not against the DVDs.
EDIT: I made a diagram which explains it better than my waffle
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