Star Trek TNG Seasons Remastered on Blu-Ray - Page 73

Ill wait to see how atrocious and not worthy of production or retail the set is with my own eyes. Ive learned that when it comes to Star Trek, Trekkers will trash an entire set because one star is missing in the opening intro.

Well one thing I've read is that a single shot of the Enterprise in orbit has the elements on the ship mis-composited slightly to the left. If that doesn't warrant a recall, I don't know what does.

Yep someone re-hosted the screenshot in question from TrekCore's Facebook page here:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/169262_529578720388253_1269606073_o.jpg

It's pretty sloppy work...

Must confess, I had to stare really hard at that before I saw anything wrong with it... Even then I wonder if I'd ever notice that in a brief establishing shot.

All I'll say is this: this is an important old tv show and its HD restoration should be treated with a sense of finality. That means no shortcuts and outsourcing, period. If you want to do that for some crap tv show that failed after 1 season, fine. Don't do it for STTNG.

I wouldnt be surprised if the severe nitpickiness ends this whole project after season two.

I would be!
Are they selling???

Besides, I really doubt they waited too see what the backlash would be on S2 before starting on prepping the subsequent seasons.
(for all I know the mastering & transfers have been completed for the entire series already)

Season 3 is almost done now. That's why CBS Digital farmed Season 2 out to HTV Illuminate, so they could meet the powers-that-be at CBS's new schedule of having all seven seasons out by the end of 2014. So that means 2 season in 2012, 3 seasons in 2013, and 2 seasons in 2014.

And yes CBS is very happy with the sales figures from Season 1. The projector managers said so in an interview with TrekCore a couple of months back.

I guess I'll just wait for the inevitable seven season boxset with extra discs.

I think it's a combination of 5 disc's catching up with them and huge corners cut. Season 1 is a dream and the barometer for the rest of the project. To me, when looking at stuff like the below, they didn't even clear the hurdle, let alone finish the race close.

http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/600/16926252957872038825312.jpg

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/160480

And don't forget, this is after the audio sanfu in season 1. What has yet to be found?


Looks like the live action stuff is up to snuff, but anything that involves FX was DNR'ed to hell, some of it just utterly bad looking.

Screenshots look icky. Clumpy texture and edge enhancement, not good.

If you really want to appreciate the Blu-ray efforts. All you have to do is watch one episode off of Blu (doesn't matter which), and then put in the old DVD of the same episode. Afterwards, I doubt you would ever complain about the Blu again.

While I appreciate the monster effort needed in getting this done in HD, I don't appreciate corners cut at the last second. Especially seeing as these will now be the masters from here until the mayan apocalypse. I was worried when I heard CBS was going to involve another studio independently, and this seems to confirm my fears. Hell, I even made a comment about the season 2 trailer that something was off, and was assured it was just because it was "early". We have a barometer already in the sampler, and season 1 that needs to be maintained, now that CBS has decided they're doing this. DVD's be damned.

I mean, really? http://tng.trekcore.com/bluray/images_s2review/review20.jpg

CBS made a killing on season 1, even with the audio issues. They were very pleased, so much so they've hinted at DS9, and announced ENT.

They need to do right by their fans and the show and make sure not to cut corners, and to future proof the work now. If they're not going to hold the line against QA, the fans should raise hell to hold their feet to the fire. There's already been a slight dip in quality from the sampler because they crammed a whole season and extras on only 5 discs. Now there's sloppiness with all the VFX shots. Sounds like Season 3 will be back to where it should be, but what about 4 & 6 if this studio keeps on keeping.

You're really fine with a set that swings widely from season to season because of the other studio involved in the restoration?

Edit: Didn't make this connection before, HTV-Illuminate was apparently responsible for the Patton fiasco, which FOX then had to go back and recommission a new restoration. Gulp...
Edited by TyrantII - 11/28/12 at 6:44pm

Yep and what makes it a bit more sad is that HTV is where Dan Curry who was one of the two VFX supervisors on TNG now works... So he should really know better...

Forgive me, I am new here. But what is wrong with the new blue ray release of STTNG that would cause my Trekkie friend to yell at me if I bought it for him ?

It's a bit complicated. Season 1 is pretty great, Season 2 is hit or miss because of farming out the remastering to a different company. However, I sincerely doubt anyone would yell at you for gifting it. Season 2 is still a huge upgrade over the DVD version.

If any friend yells at you for giving him a gift... find a new friend.

Not only Patton, but also Out of Africa, Tora Tora Tora, The French Connection, Back to the Future, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The Phantom Menace, American Graffiti, Scarface, Spartacus. Sense a pattern there?

http://www.htvinc.com/content/content.php?content=Awards%20and%20Acknowledgments&subchoice=credit-list&subnav=about-htv&hx=2050

Unless something is done to improve the quality of work from HTV (or take the work away from them), seasons 4 and 6 are going to look like crap while seasons 3, 5, and 7 will have polish. But based on their track record, they don't deserve to work on this. They're hacks.

Imagine, Best of Both Worlds Part I will look great, and then you'll switch to Part II, and the visual effects will take a huge nosedive. The quality is pretty much Star Trek V-bad.
Edited by jimbotron - 11/29/12 at 2:04pm

Bloody hell, that list of credits reads like a rap sheet compiled by the DNR police. Funny how Patton is listed twice in the restoration credits, it's either a typo or Fox went back to them and said 'try again'.

They apparently have a trademarked DNR tool "iGR™ - Illuminate Grain Reduction." Of all the wasted trademarks...

LOL. Award winning detail removal! If we can't make 1080p look like 720p through smudge filters, no one can! May as well get your suits tailored at the butcher shop.

I won't argue that this shot doesn't appear to be somewhat de-grained -- it definitely does. In fact, most shots that have a visual effect in them in Season Two appear to be de-grained a bit before the effect was added. But I don't think Wesley would have appeared sharp even in the original scan, because he's not the focus of the shot -- the transporter pad is... where the Salia effect was added. Wesley walks into that position after stepping off the pad and turns around to look back at her. And of course, the effect calls for an amorphous look for Salia. So it's kind of a perfect storm of issues, removing any place in the shot that could look razor sharp.

But I have seen this shot in motion and it looks fine in context.

Probably not much, as it will be a huge upgrade over DVD. AVS friends? Quite a bit!



Well, I will have to wait and see, but from the still on my HD screen here, I don't even see a hint of film grain left. Almost all the still FX shots look like this, either blury or claymation. This is much worse than the Paramount movie release, much much worse. Luckily it does seem the rest of the live action shots were not butchered, but playdough VFX is sort of disturbing when season 1 was done correctly...

And now we have to worry about season 4 and 6 too. What happens when as mentioned above BOBW1 is reference, and BOBW2 is butchered? Hell, looks like we'll never get a clear shot of the wreckage of Wolf359.
Edited by TyrantII - 11/29/12 at 5:46pm

Maybe we don't have to worry.
It seems that CBS-D can do two seasons a year on their own, it's the fact the head honchos at CBS Home Video want all seven seasons out in three years, which means that CBS-D could handle all the remaining seasons. Because HTV did Season 2 it let CBS-D get on to Season 3 in late 2012 (rather than start it in 2013 if they had to do Season 2 as well) so they may already have their accelerated schedule under control *fingers crossed* and have no need for HTV again. A recent interview with the Okudas implies that HTV was only explicitly contracted with for Season 2 and there are no concrete future plans to keep using them.

http://tng.trekcore.com/bluray/25110212_okudainterviews2p2.html

Wow Wow Wow WOW!!!! How in the hell do they get any work after that mess? Not only did Robert Harris publicly slam it, but numerous directors in Hollywood told FOX they needed to fix it. It was a complete fiasco.

Interesting to see that they *weren't* responsible for Predator (according to that list anyway... just Predator 2).

I just came back from the season 2 screening. Overall.....meh.

This particular shot done in HD looks awwwwwwwwwful



You'll know it when you see it. The DNR is up to 11, and the matte lines around Picard and Maddox's heads are so bad, it cuts off some of them. From the other screenshots, I can conclude with this: If it's live action and has an effect element or blue-screen element, expect heavy DNR.

The trailer for season 3 was incredible. Looking at the pale, gray, squished Enterprise for 2 hours, and then seeing it the way it should in the trailer, it just shows how unsatisfactory HTV was.

It says "multiple seasons" in the htvinc link, though.

If it's as bad as the internet suggests, then I expect CBS are going to get a LOT of e-mails from angry Star Trek fans very shortly (if not already).

Makes you wonder why they wouldn't vet the stuff that comes back from HTV-I more carefully... I mean, they know what Star Trek fans are like, right?

Or maybe they're banking that all the fans will still lap it up no matter what...