topic Re: SG1 on Netflix in What's On

SG1 on Netflix

trevforum — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 18:57:46 GMT

Just watching SG1 from the start. Pilot looks like it's 480p which looks very blotchy. Surprised they are prepared to stream such poor quality content.

Re: SG1 on Netflix

mr.tickle — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 10:17:00 GMT

@trevforum wrote:
Just watching SG1 from the start. Pilot looks like it's 480p which looks very blotchy. Surprised they are prepared to stream such poor quality content.

I assume you mean Stargate SG-1. It ran from 1997-2007 so in the pre-HD era. Early seasons were shot on 16mm film, so it might be possible to squeeze more out of it but would cost a lot of money. Tech details on the IMDb "Technical specifications" page for that series.
Negative Format: 16 mm(seasons 1-3)35 mm(seasons 4-7)HDCAM(seasons 8-10)

We in the UK were lucky to get Standard Def widescreen for many programmes in that era. America was stuck in the dark ages and didn't really go widescreen for TV broadcasts for years later, only when they went to HD!

If you google for the Stargate SG-1 blu-ray you'll find a reddit thread where they discuss very heavy-handed Digital Noise Reduction on the blu-rays. "It's not HD not even close, they went too far with the DNR and they messed up the 5.1 audio mix tracks". So it's not Netflix's fault - it's what they've been given 😞

However, I do find that the great acting, writing, characters and stories more than make up for poor technical quality in series like this.

I watched the complete Blake's 7 on a copied VHS set in the earlier 1990s. Now that was bad. 50-minute episodes really dragged, with very slow scenes, slow cutting, big pauses bewteen dialogue - really shocking pace when viewed now!

Re: SG1 on Netflix

lettice — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 11:31:50 GMT

@trevforum

Remember this was discussed before here quite sometime back for the Sky channel broadcast SG1 ten seasons.

Notice, having just searched that all ten seasons are on Sky Max/Sky One still as well as now Netflix.

Remember it was mentioned that the original 16mm filming was transferred to a low quality tape and produced the very grainy look.

Think some of the mid seasons it improved slightly from using a higher filming rate than the 16mm, but was still transfered to low quality tape, so assume was not that a big improvement.

I remember that from series 8, the quality improved as it was all transferred digitally.

Just played out a little of the first episodes on Netflix and Sky Max. Agree, very poor indeed.

By the way, an excellent series.

Long time since I've last watched any of it.

Re: SG1 on Netflix

Timelord2018 — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 11:18:00 GMT

Picture quality isn't any better on Sky One

Re: SG1 on Netflix

mr.tickle — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 11:29:17 GMT

@lettice wrote:
By the way, an excellent series.

"Indeed." 😉

Re: SG1 on Netflix

trevforum — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 17:32:07 GMT

The picture might be poor but the sound is the old Dolby Surround which my AV Amp decodes nicely into 5.1 sound.