Star Trek TNG Seasons Remastered on Blu-Ray - Page 76

I also hope that Star Trek TNG will be released on Blu-Ray. I have the conventional DVD set and, while watchable, leaves much to be desired on my 70-inch Sharp HDTV. In general, I am very disappointed that many of my favorite films are still not available in Blu-Ray while so much garbage is available.

UUMMMMM Seasons 1 and 2 already are.

• DTS-HD HR audio can contain up to 7.1 channels of sound at a 96 kHz sampling frequency and 24-bit depth resolution with constant bit rates up to 6.0 Mbit/s.
• DTS-HD MA audio can contain up to 5.1 channels encoded at up to 192 kHz or 7.1 channels encoded at 96 kHz/24 bit, can downmix to 5.1 and 2.0, and supports variable bit rates up to 24.5 Mbit/s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTS_%28sound_system%29#DTS-HD_High_Resolution_Audio

You forgot 2 important points:

*Lossy*

*Lossless*

HR is DTS' version of Dolby Digital Plus.

I can remember watching some other BDs that had DTS-HD HR audio, such as the BBC show Torchwood, and maybe even Sherlock.

But even with TNG S1-2 on BD with lossless DTS-HDMA, I can hear some differences in the static background noise from one scene to another. Sure, I have a nice audio system in my home theater and want the best audio possible, but let's not lose sight of what it was originally developed for: broadcast television of the late 80's and early 90's. It was a very imperfect analog world, and I would guess that most viewers didn't even have a stereo TV setup in 1987. It was not mastered with lossless 7.1 surround sound in mind, and as much as I am a Trek fan and love TNG, it shows that it is not pristine audio.

I'd love for them to continue with lossless audio with season 3, but I don't think we're losing much if it is a well mastered DTS-HD HR audio track. If you haven't been able to hear the audio imperfections in S1 or S2, then you probably won't hear them in S3 either.

Those 2 points, while certainly valid, are in the link I gave and can nevertheless be inferred based on the specs I stated (24-bit, 192 kHz).

Well, no because a signal can be 24-bit and 192kHz (resolution and sampling rate) and still lossy. That and the number of channels are just limited by the codec's specs.

Exactly the point I was trying to make some time ago in this thread. It isn't grain but a very agressive form of color noise that I haven't seen in some years. It's odd as it is not apparent all the time. Many scenes look very clean and virtually noise free, others, almost brittle, oversharpened a tad and noisy.

I'm viewing Season 2 and it seems somewhat better but it can have other issues as reported in this thread, I even checked out some discs from both seasons on another TV/player in my home, which are different brands/models and get the same problems.

Seems a shame since Paramount appears to have done what appears to be a good job in the restoration otherwise.

I think the liveliness of the source grain is a direct result of set lighting, film stock, scanning equipment/methods, or a combination. Most of the very active color noise that I've noticed is most apparent in darker scenes - which should be expected to a degree. So it's probably a mixture of grain and compression all under the right (or wrong) conditions.

I have a hunch that seasons 3+ will exhibit marked visual improvement from a host of improved production factors - production of the show as well as production of the Blu-ray.

At least, I hope they do...

EDIT:
One can only hope that someone at Paramount puts even half the effort going into TNG to properly restoring all the films...

Yup. Aside from the mastering/authoring half-assery being induced by CBS' crazy schedule, these TNG BDs are an absolute pleasure to watch. Considering all the effort that's going in to making them, like rescanning the negative from scratch, rebuilding the effects etc, it would take a fraction of that endeavour to bring the Trek movies up to snuff. We can only hope that Paramount's powers-that-be are looking over the shoulders of their CBS brethren...

The original Trek films could certainly be restored/remastered from the original elements but the TNG films are as good as they are going to get without re-building from the ground-up, though Generations and First Contact could be polished up a little since they used physical model-work.

There was excessive DNR applied to First Contact (maybe Generations too, I don't own that one), so that's one easy correction they could make. The model work in the films is outstanding, if anything, it's the CG that could be improved.

Being films, shouldn't there already be prints in far better condition than the ones they rehashed for the Blu-rays? I'd have thought a decent 4k scan and an unmolested-by-DNR Blu-ray would be all it takes to bring the Trek flicks up to par...

There was a misconception round here that the TNG movies were fine and looked amazing, they all have dnr to varying degrees.

My point was that those two films could be revived like TNG season 1. It would be great if they did re-do both of those in such a manner AND get ILM to re-do their CG shots for both films, but the most we can hope for is a simple visual clean-up to make both films look better. Insurrection had a pretty nasty transfer that made it look funky and the encoding only made it worse but I don't know if we'd ever get that one cleaned-up.

Sorry, I didn't mean to reopen old wounds. I'd settle for just proper transfers of the films, bad CG and all.

Bad CGI?????

Yeah, not sure where the bad CGI was. As far as I know it was up to movie standards, and looked fine.

Now if you were talking about TOS:Remastered, yeah. The CGI in that was horribly rushed, very inadequate/poor, and then pawned off as "we made it look like the "original". Matt Jefferies is turning in his grave at that. While the model work was much more simple, it was vastly more detailed then the crap TOS:R pulled. Too bad the FX film elements were so damaged, they couldn't be re-purposed ala TNG.

...Honestly, I'd pay just to get the existing transfers without the DNR. It wouldn't be perfect, but it'd be a hell of a lot more watchable.

Sorry for not being more clear. Lex made reference to remaking CG for those two films in the same manner as current TNG remaster to which I stated that I would settle for just proper remasters (meaning, modern scans, no filtering) without rebuilding CG. I personally think that those two films AND the other eight all of some CG problems that could be improved (but I don't require them to be changed). I just want excellent transfers and encodes.

Again, sorry for stirring the pot!

I don't think well ever get a TMP DC, which did have new CGI to round out the unfinished FX. They apparently only mastered it at SD resolution to cut costs.

Typical Paramount.

This this this this this this. The clips of the movies on the 'Captain's Table' Blu-rays make me do a sad face, because they prove that unmolested masters do exist. Come on Paramount, I gots money here that I WANT to give to you. Make it so.

As for TNG S2, I've just finished off the first disc and I'm pleasantly surprised. The DNR is there on effects shots, oh yes, but in a weird way I'm fine with it, because all the years of watching optical effects lose a generation of quality has conditioned my brain for such things. (Yes, I know that they're digital composites, I'm just making a comparison.)

But there are a couple of bits which are absolutely tragic in terms of DNR, funnily enough they're both panned-and-scanned anamorphic shots (one is Picard on the bridge walking up to the viewscreen, the other is the 'child' sprite thingy floating out of Troi's hands and going through the bulkhead).

We know how variable the grain is on this show, and given that the P&S process basically zooms in on a portion of the frame, it's possible that those sequences were uber-grainy which is what made HTV smack them even harder with the DNR stick.

Is there a particular Blu-ray you are referring to, or are you just speaking hypothetically?

TNG Season 3 - April.
"Best of Both Worlds" Special Edition (???) - April
Star Trek Enterprise Season 1 - March 26 (same MSRP as TNG)

So what is the BOBW SE? Just the two episodes in one seamless version? (<-- my guess) New scenes? A more cinematic version with more changes in post? BOBW is one that I wish they could scope and make it look more like a movie with color grading or something. We'd still have the as-aired episodes in the collection, but it would be cool to have a truly cinematic version.

http://trekmovie.com/2013/01/07/star-trek-enterprise-coming-to-blu-ray-in-march-tng-s3-best-of-both-worlds-special-edition-in-april/

It's both episodes edited together as a single feature, which is how both episodes have been released in the past on special DVD and VHS releases along with other two-part TNG episodes combined in the same way.

I wonder... does that mean that CBS-D are handling both parts of BOBW? Sounds much more plausible if they're releasing the double feature - and besides which, you'd think that they'd give both parts of a cliffhanger to the same studio for the sake of consistency throughout.

Yes, they most likely are handling both since both episodes are technically - despite the air dates - 3rd season episodes and not part of the 4th season filming.

Really? I could swear I remember hearing at the time that they felt they had painted themselves into a corner with Part 1 and had no idea how to resolve it until they got to S4.

The Best of Both Worlds, Part II was definitely part of Season 4, and wasn't even written until two months after the first part aired.

CBS-D will be doing the FX for both episodes. I remember reading that the same FX house will handle the two-part episodes spanning seasons, to maintain consistency. So, whoever replaces HTV Illuminate on Season 4 will do both parts of Redemption, CBS-D will do Time's Arrow, etc.