DVD Compression Artifacts?

[volvowagon]

I'm just now watching the first season of SG-1 on DVD for the first time (I've already watched all of Atlantis and seasons nine and ten of SG-1; I was a huge Farscape fan and jumped over to SG-1 for the last couple of seasons because of Ben Browder and Claudia Black), and I've noticed that on the first season DVDs, there are extremely noticeable compression artifacts--flickering images (especially in dark scenes), lots of noise in the picture, and even severe pixellation, especially in CGI shots. At some points, the pixellation is so blocky that it actually looks like a low-quality avi rip of a DVD instead of actual DVD. Has anyone else noticed these problems? I'm guessing that part of it is the fact that this is a show that aired on cable in the nineties, so the source material probably isn't great, as well as the fact that MGM is cramming five episodes onto a disc in many instances. Also, I'm wondering--in which season do these artifact problems go away? I didn't notice anything like this in seasons nine or ten, but is this going to be an issue through several seasons of the show?

[escyos]

My dvd's do sometimes look a little grainy on darker scenes, just the quality of technology back then.

[Inquisitor]

It's only in season 1 they have 5 episodes on a disc. In season 2 to season 6 they have 4/4/4/4/4/2. In season 7 to 10 they have discs with 3 episodes on them, but I forget the pattern.

[Snowman37]

Your DVD's aren't Region 1 if that's the case.

Seasons 1-7
22 Episodes per Season across 5 Discs
2 Discs with 5 Episodes, 3 Discs with 4 Episodes

Seasons 8-10
20 Episodes per Season across 5 Discs
4 Episodes per Disc