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270K views 2K replies 259 participants last post by  Killed_by_Death 
#1 ·
I know there is a locked thread on this subject that turned into a reboot movie vs. this and that, but there is some new info over at trekmoive.com and at digitalbits.com

It looks like this is going to happen, but its unclear what we will get. I really can't see Paramount/CBS spending the money to properly remaster the show for HD. I think anything will be better than the DVD sets we currently have because they look terrible on anything larger than 42" screen. I bet we will see something like the the original 35mm film frames scanned in HD and the original effects added back in and upconverted from SD to HD. If done right maybe it will blend in, I don't know. I just can't see them shooting all new CGI effects for every show across seven seasons.


I really want to see this on Blu-Ray, TNG is my favorite.
 
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#3 ·
they can't "remake" the original effects without completely redoing them, there are 2 options:

1. spend the money and redo them like tos.

2. upconvert the effects sequences and just throw them between the newly scanned scenes.


By the way, was tng framed for 4:3 / are there going to be issues with 16:9?
 
#4 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by stevestevenson /forum/post/19047160


they can't "remake" the original effects without completely redoing them, there are 2 options:

1. spend the money and redo them like tos.

2. upconvert the effects sequences and just throw them between the newly scanned scenes.


By the way, was tng framed for 4:3 / are there going to be issues with 16:9?

There is a 3rd option, believe it or not. The space-based, miniature shots and all the respective motion control "camera passes" were filmed on 35mm as well and could (at even greater expense) be scanned and re-comped. But they are more likely to use both of your options like they did on the TOS sets and let the viewer switch back and forth.


To your question, the show was framed for 4:3 but there WAS additional (unintentional) picture information that was exposed on the negatives. They followed the SMPTE recommended practice at the time and shot "open matte" and when the telecine to video was done, a 1.33:1 TV Transmitted Area was extracted and the rest of the exposed image was ignored.

http://www.panavision.com/aspect_ratio.php

This image is from Panavision's website -- they used the 5th one down (in the 35mm group, labeled "1.33:1") to film TNG.

A comparison and a "preview" of TNG Remastered
 
#5 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason One /forum/post/19047257


This is stupid.

You're right, there is something stupid here, but it's not this. It's the idea that Paramount is involved. Paramount owns the film rights, the television rights rest with Viacom/CBS (Paramount just distributes the final product).

Quote:
Paramount should be focusing their time and money on releasing high-quality BDs from material that is already fit for high-def -- namely, films. It would be ridiculous for them to expend all this effort to overhaul TNG when they couldn't even manage proper BDs for the Trek films.

I expect that had CBS/Viacom been involved with the Trek films we'd have gotten a vastly superior product.
 
#9 ·
The interesting thing here is that some one thinks that there is good money to be made by putting in all the work to do this. If they think they can make this profitable then it makes me feel good for a whole lot of other titles that don't need any where near the same amount of work that people keep telling us we would never see because a new transfer is just to expensive.
 
#10 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason one /forum/post/19047257


this is stupid.


Paramount should be focusing their time and money on releasing high-quality bds from material that is already fit for high-def -- namely, films. It would be ridiculous for them to expend all this effort to overhaul tng when they couldn't even manage proper bds for the trek films.

+1 was this series even shot on film?
 
#11 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by PRO-630HD /forum/post/19048410


+1 was this series even shot on film?

It was shot on film, but all of the editing and compositing of the visual effects was done at 480i. They'd literally have to go back and recreate each episode as if they just got done filming it, a lot more work than what went into the TOS Blu-rays.


That's making the big assumption that the original film negatives are in good shape.
 
#12 ·
Seven seasons is a huge undertaking. If they tackle this, I would hope they'd initially do a "best of" set... maybe 16 classic episodes from across the series. If that's successful, they might see an advantage in doing more. I just hope they wouldn't do Season 1 first, because although I love the show, the initial season was cringe-worthy and I wouldn't buy it.
 
#13 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by mazzer /forum/post/19048550


Seven seasons is a huge undertaking. If they tackle this, I would hope they'd initially do a "best of" set... maybe 16 classic episodes from across the series. If that's successful, they might see an advantage in doing more. I just hope they wouldn't do Season 1 first, because although I love the show, the initial season was cringe-worthy and I wouldn't buy it.

It doesn't really start hitting its stride until Worf fixes his hair.
 
#14 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by mazzer /forum/post/19048550


Seven seasons is a huge undertaking. If they tackle this, I would hope they'd initially do a "best of" set... maybe 16 classic episodes from across the series. If that's successful, they might see an advantage in doing more. I just hope they wouldn't do Season 1 first, because although I love the show, the initial season was cringe-worthy and I wouldn't buy it.

Ugh, I hate "Best Of" sets. That would be a complete waste of money. Either give me full seasons or nothing at all.
 
#15 ·
I would be totally for this if they did it right and redid all of the special effects in HD like they did with TOS. If they could do it in 16:9 because they had additional area on the film negative, that would be totally awesome on the scenes with the new effects. It would also be cool if they could start it off with seasons one through three, then do the rest as single seasons so it would give people time to watch quite a bit before moving onto the next season. I agree the first season wasn't the best, but I would still want it, especially if it was included with season 2 and 3. I don't expect it to be cheap though.
 
#17 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by thorr /forum/post/19049793


I don't expect it to be cheap though.

It's Paramount.. if anyone knows how to ridiculously overprice their TV shows, it's them.
 
#18 ·
They'll probably just do what they did with the DS9 episode on the TOS season 2 set:


Upconvert the 480i file and glob a bunch of EE on top and call it "HD."


That episode looked horrible.


Paramount uses Trek as their bread 'n' butter franchise, but always does the bare minimum for quality and effort when it comes to the video releases.


And that's even when they ask for over $100 per season on DVD!!!


Even the CGI that CBS did for the classic TOS wasn't exactly top drawer stuff and they had far fewer episodes to do.
 
#19 ·
Many TV series made in the 90s and before have poor SD quality unless a lot of work put into the restoration. I rather stick to the DVD edition that has more "natural" look especially the special effects. Once enhanced to the Blu-ray resolution, so many of the low tech/budget special effects look very cheap and fake unless they are redone like the TOS.


Maybe audio will be the only better enhancements on the Blu-ray edition.


With most Star Trek TOS and Next Gen movies poorly restored on the Blu-ray edition, Paramount is probably going to do a quick Blu-ray conversion for the TV series just to sell them at higher price. It will be surprising if the Next Gen is going to look as good as the TOS.
 
#20 ·
The reason it might be worth it for the studio to redo the entire series in HD is syndication, not Blu-ray. The Blu-rays would naturally follow of course, but I doubt the sales alone would support the costs. But a new syndication package, featuring all-new remastered elements in HD, might command a premium price. That is the consideration for a show like TNG.
 
#21 ·
I'm not sure how many F/X shots per episode vs the original Star Trek there are... or how complicated it would be per episode...


BUT... one thing to consider is that even though TNG had 7 seasons vs TOS only having 3... there were many more episodes per season of the original Trek... so there's only about twice as many actual episodes of TNG.


I don't think it will happen in the current economy, however... TOS only happened because it had already began with some extra assist in funding by Toshiba who wanted to help push HD-DVD as a format... otherwise we might not have TOS in HD and on Blu right now.


I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for these any time soon.
 
#24 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jedi2016 /forum/post/19048510


It was shot on film, but all of the editing and compositing of the visual effects was done at 480i. They'd literally have to go back and recreate each episode as if they just got done filming it, a lot more work than what went into the TOS Blu-rays.


That's making the big assumption that the original film negatives are in good shape.

What Fox did for Firefly is what will likely happen with this show. Firefly was also shot on film and FX done in 480i, so what you got on the Blu-rays was upconverted 480i FX sequences and everything else scanned from the film in 1080p.
 
#25 ·
I would buy all the seasons in a heartbeat.
 
#26 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Faceless Rebel /forum/post/19051066


What Fox did for Firefly is what will likely happen with this show. Firefly was also shot on film and FX done in 480i, so what you got on the Blu-rays was upconverted 480i FX sequences and everything else scanned from the film in 1080p.

The difference is that, even though Firefly's VFX were rendered in SD, the show as a whole was post-produced in HD. Shots without VFX were transfered and edited in the HD realm, and then intercut with upconverted VFX footage.


That isn't the case for Star Trek TNG. That entire series was post-produced in standard definition video. CBS will have to go back to the original camera negatives, retransfer all of the live-action footage, and re-edit from scratch.
 
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