TV On Blu-Ray Why Do Alot Of Ppl Think Alot Of TV Won't Make It To Blu-Ray

[RustyK94]

They done Star Trek in HD so why is it so hard to believe that other TV shows might not make it.

Im not so knowledgeable so plz do enlighten me

Thanks.

[Kynch]

It all depends on the source material available and the studios' willingness to re-release shows.

It's just that people, like me, have little faith in shows they love but aren't renowned.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Shows shot on standard def videotape will not benefit from a Blu release. And if I'm not mistaken, that pretty much includes most shows from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

[Clark Kent]

This has been explained before but some shows simply do not exist at HD quality resolution. Most of the shows that were shot on analog videotape look as good as they can on dvd. The other reason some shows are not appearing on Blu-ray is the market economics of tv releases. Many shows need an installed player-base in the tens of millions to generate sufficient sales for the studios to turn a profit.

[JamesKurtovich]

A lot of TV shows were shot with videotape and thus will never benefit from hi-def. The only thing I see is fewer discs, meaning smaller packaging, which is something I'd like.

[ryoohki]

Most shows from 1980 to 1999 were recorded in Video Mode, locking them in 720x480 or 640x480. Some were shot on 16mm film and 35mm film..

[RustyK94]

So what does this mean for the future of Blu-Ray

Does DVD still serve a purpose

That must mean Blu-Ray will lose out on a lot money for sure. I hope to see Star Trek TNG in HD will that ever happen?

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by RustyK94

I hope to see Star Trek TNG in HD will that ever happen?

Probably the original series will be released when the new film hits theaters or Blu.

Who knows about TNG.

[GGX]

All the special effects for the original Star Trek series were re-created from scratch for high-def resolutions. Thats why that series specifically got an HD DVD release of the first season.

[ryoohki]

And ST:TOS was shot on film also. Most older shows were Pre Video Era..

[nycomet]

Does ST:TOS on (yuk) HD-DVD have a 1:133 aspect ratio? That means there will be black bars on the left and right sides of the image. I like widescreen (top and bottom bars are okay with me). I hate "sidescreen" (black bars on either side of the screen on 1:133 presentations).

[smiley]

Originally Posted by RustyK94

So what does this mean for the future of Blu-Ray

Does DVD still serve a purpose

For a lot of old stuff DVD still has a perpose. Anything recorded on tape or any other type of SD media where unlike film it can't be remastered in HD. But the future is blu.

[VHS4Ever]

Some TV shows never made it to DVD yet.

[hanumang]

Originally Posted by RustyK94

I hope to see Star Trek TNG in HD will that ever happen?

Probably not.

While the show - like most TV shows, including sitcoms - was shot on (35mm) film, it was mastered on video. That means the final, edited versions of the show - the very versions that you would want to create Blu-rays from - are not up to the right standards.

To 'solve' that problem, you would need to retelecine - convert from film to video - at the proper 1080p (or better) quality. And that is enormously expensive. Also, since film degrades over time, the footage would need to be restored in many cases (perhaps most expensive of all). Of course you'd need all the original material, and that isn't always going to be available.

For Star Trek: The Next Generation, also, the effects shots were done at video (roughly 720x486) quality so they would have to be redone. I'm not gonna say it'll never happen, but it's very unlikely.

[hanumang]

Originally Posted by nycomet

Does ST:TOS on (yuk) HD-DVD have a 1:133 aspect ratio? That means there will be black bars on the left and right sides of the image. I like widescreen (top and bottom bars are okay with me). I hate "sidescreen" (black bars on either side of the screen on 1:133 presentations).

Yes, Star Trek on HD-DVD is pillarboxed 4:3.

When they went back and redid the visual FX of the show, they did them in 16:9 (made the shots wider) with the idea that, if they wanted to later, they'll recompose the actual footage (of actors and sets, by chopping off some of the top and bottom) to create a 16:9 version of the show.

But that's only a possibility, CBS could choose to use the same masters from the HD-DVD version...

[brps3]

I would be curious to see how the re-mastered original ST would look on blu-ray.

TNG I think would look great.

I cant wait for Babylon 5 to appear on blu-ray. It was mostly CG so I think it would look pretty good.

[Zaranyzerak]

Originally Posted by JamesKurtovich

A lot of TV shows were shot with videotape and thus will never benefit from hi-def. The only thing I see is fewer discs, meaning smaller packaging, which is something I'd like.

The other benefit would be they can bump up the bitrate so there isn't any pixelization (which has plagued many a TV show release in the past...). That, plus fewer discs, is something I would welcome on Blu-ray.

Just because DVD is capable of the same resolution of an analog SD master tape, doesn't mean that's the quality we GET a lot of the time with those old videotaped shows... Bitrate is just as much a factor as resolution, and I've seen some pretty awful transfers of shows on DVD that would benefit from a bitrate boost on BD.

Originally Posted by brps3

I would be curious to see how the re-mastered original ST would look on blu-ray.

TNG I think would look great.

I cant wait for Babylon 5 to appear on blu-ray. It was mostly CG so I think it would look pretty good.

Except for one thing. The only footage from B5 that would benefit from HD is the live action shots (which exist on film, and were shot in 16x9). The effects shots (this includes ANY overlay or title effects mixed with live action shots) were made in 4x3 at SD resolution. To have some idea of how B5 would look on Blu-ray, just check out the current DVD releases. ALL re-framed for 16x9. The non-effects shots look great, since they were all re-transferred from the original film. The effects shots, however, look AWFUL. They've essentially zoomed in and cropped the frame, so any time there's so much as a title graphic overlay it looks all pixelated and fuzzy.

Love the show, but if they were going to do the live action shots in 16x9 to make them "future proof," they really should have done EVERYTHING that way. It really suffers in picture quality as a result...

As for TNG, there's another problem - while it was SHOT on film, all the editing and post-production effects were done on videotape. So the only complete masters of the episodes would be the standard def videotape masters. With TOS, all the episodes were in final form on FILM. So the HD transfer was quite simple (without taking the CG effects re-dos into account).

To do a HD remaster of TNG would mean re-transferring all of the original film elements, and re-creating the digital effects that were originally done on video in HD. I'd love to see them do that, sure, but I don't see it happening any time soon.

[djluis2k6]

TV Seasons on DVD are only hot when they're originally released.

[RustyK94]

Well im sure it's not going to be impossible and studios must be investing money into mastering technology.

There not just going to say that's it DVD is fine for most TV shows.

[PowellPressburger]

It has a lot to do with the source material, granted there are a lot of classic shows shot on film such as even I Love Lucy.

I think the major issue is can the show sale. Most tv shows never make it to DVD and some shows get a few seasons released before the studio decides not to release any more seasons. I would think the show would have to have a large following and be very popular like Sopranos etc to get a Blu ray release.

I love Blu ray but I can't think of a lot of shows I'd rebuy just to have in HD.