Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[Jeff Kleist]

There isn't really a set schedule,

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

There isn't really a set schedule,

Oh I know...but this is usually when there's a decent update as everyone turns an eye to next year...

[Jeff Kleist]

I don't think anyone at the studios is concentrating on anything but Christmas right now.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I don't think anyone at the studios is concentrating on anything but Christmas right now.

Stop arguing, and just update the rumor mill amigo.

[Braktastic]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

RE Pinnoccio, like with Pirates, it's more likely to just appear out of the blue (no pun intended). They are aware of the issue and thats the best I can do

Thanks, Jeff. I'm glad to hear that they're at least aware of the problem.

[Jeff Kleist]

top arguing, and just update the rumor mill amigo.

Here's a preview- Paramount pressed all copies of Braveheart with that disposible rental coating that will go black inside of 6 months, just so they can double dip you again, in 2015 :P

[SpaceDog]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Here's a preview- Paramount pressed all copies of Braveheart with that disposible rental coating that will go black inside of 6 months, just so they can double dip you again, in 2015 :P

They should do that with ALL Mel Gibson films.

[Michael.Schinke]

Hey Jeff, sorry I haven't been keeping up with the thread so forgive me if this has been covered already. In the past you and I spoke about the Star Trek films and what the rationale behind their HD treatments may have been and now I'd like to turn that discussion towards the Next Gen film set. Given that, with the exception of Generations, the movies are far removed from the excuse of being older films, what possible reason could there have been to give them the hard scrub that Paramount chose? Personally, I think it's to try and obfuscate the fact that Paramount has always been notoriously cheap when it comes to the Trek films (with the exception of Trek 90210) and the hard scrub goes a way to cover that up. What say you?

[Jeff Kleist]

The Next Generation movies were mastered before the original movies even, before Paramount's change of mastering standards

I think it's to try and obfuscate the fact that Paramount has always been notoriously cheap when it comes to the Trek films (with the exception of Trek 90210) and the hard scrub goes a way to cover that up. What say you?

Definately not.

Studios have a spec that's included with every order for a transfer that includes general standards and practices they want to see followed. ALL the studios had similar specs to what you see here until very recently, because these kinds of settings produced the best overall results for DVD and HD cable when it came to quality vs compression ratios.

[Michael.Schinke]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Studios have a spec that's included with every order for a transfer that includes general standards and practices they want to see followed. ALL the studios had similar specs to what you see here until very recently, because these kinds of settings produced the best overall results for DVD and HD cable when it came to quality vs compression ratios.

Ahhh.. this is interesting information to have. It's always the little revelations that cast a bright light on so many things. Thanks for that, Jeff.

[jd213]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The Next Generation movies were mastered before the original movies even, before Paramount's change of mastering standards



Definately not.

Studios have a spec that's included with every order for a transfer that includes general standards and practices they want to see followed. ALL the studios had similar specs to what you see here until very recently, because these kinds of settings produced the best overall results for DVD and HD cable when it came to quality vs compression ratios.

I don't know about TNG movie airings, but TOS movies actually had less DNR on the cable airings.

[Jeff Kleist]

There was a second cycle of cleanup specifically for Blu-ray if I understand correctly but it was mostly dirt/scratch removal. What you're seeing may be from the first generation of the new transfers

[God Of War]

Why did Paramount Pictures change some lines in Transformers 2

[hanser]

Hi Jeff,

since now the Italian version of The Good The Bad and The Ugly is out and has clearly better PQ than the MGM version, is there any hope that there will be a new version with English soundtrack? My Italian is nonexistent...

[jaaguir]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The Next Generation movies were mastered before the original movies even, before Paramount's change of mastering standards

Yeah, that's interesting to know. Does that mean they were telecined and not scanned? and then the DNR on top of that. I just watched them last weekend and it seemed to me the clips included in the new HD extras were much much sharper than the movies themselves. I'm severely bummed about that. I guess they didn't take the clips from the old masters?
Is this a scam to double-dip then? Like in a few years they'll release the really sharp looking version of the movies that blu-ray is capable of, and should have given us now, hoping every fan will buy them again? Or they'll take them to Lowry or something... After all, they have to think of new ways to make us double-dip in blu-ray too...

[PeterTHX]

I watched the TNG films projected on a 120" screen, there isn't anything really objectionable that wasn't part of the original photography. People forget how these films looked theatrically (or are too young to remember). Insurrection has *always* been soft, even in the theater. The HDTV broadcasts were riddled with print damage and artifacts.

In the end they are far superior to the DVD versions.

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

I watched the TNG films projected on a 120" screen, there isn't anything really objectionable that wasn't part of the original photography. People forget how these films looked theatrically (or are too young to remember). Insurrection has *always* been soft, even in the theater. The HDTV broadcasts were riddled with print damage and artifacts.

In the end they are far superior to the DVD versions.

I agree 100%.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Here's a preview- Paramount pressed all copies of Braveheart with that disposible rental coating that will go black inside of 6 months, just so they can double dip you again, in 2015 :P

[jaaguir]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

I watched the TNG films projected on a 120" screen, there isn't anything really objectionable that wasn't part of the original photography. People forget how these films looked theatrically (or are too young to remember). Insurrection has *always* been soft, even in the theater. The HDTV broadcasts were riddled with print damage and artifacts.

In the end they are far superior to the DVD versions.

I guess this is partly directed at me, so I'll try to answer. I never meant to say they weren't better than the dvd-s. Also I didn't say they were a disaster. How could I, I defended some of the old generation movie transfers (although not on this forum).... And to be clear, I'll say that I never watched these movies in theaters.

I just meant that they have a very scrubbed look, DNR seems certain, especially some of them, but I wasn't even worried about it until I watched the special features. Then it looked to me, the clips in them looked remarkably better, that's what irked me.

Now I have done a quick comparison with the Generations disc, just to make sure. I have to say, I was probably exaggerating based on first impression, when I said the clips were much sharper. The clips and the movie definitely look different, but the clips don't necessarily look better. (EDIT: I'm using the clips included in the Brent Spinner featurette).
At least with Generations, the movie looks smooth, whereas the clips have what seems to be grain. Maybe it's just the encoding, lower bitrate, I don't know, now I don't see any real difference in detail. But the other day, the apparent grain inmediately signaled "more natural looking! sharper!" to my brain. Also, the color scheme is slightly different. Also, contrast is boosted in the clips, and they are brighter too. Maybe the boosted contrast influenced my perception of sharpness.

By the way, I believe Generations is the best looking Star Trek movie ever (I haven't watched the new one). John A. Alonzo's cinematography is incredibly beautiful.

I'll try to check the other movies in the set too, if I have the time and the mood.

Since we're at it, I forgot something in my previous post: maybe it's just my eyes, maybe I should just check again too, but I'd swear that in many shots the image looked horizontally stretched in "Insurrection", like they were using really old anamorphic lenses. I know this can't be the case, but I'm just saying in case someone noticed too, or knows something.

[Jeff Kleist]

since now the Italian version of The Good The Bad and The Ugly is out and has clearly better PQ than the MGM version, is there any hope that there will be a new version with English soundtrack? My Italian is nonexistent...

That's probably done by the Italian rights holder, and big movie studios typically don't license transfers from other entities. I don't see any new version in the near future.

Yeah, that's interesting to know. Does that mean they were telecined and not scanned? and then the DNR on top of that. I just watched them last weekend and it seemed to me the clips included in the new HD extras were much much sharper than the movies themselves. I'm severely bummed about that. I guess they didn't take the clips from the old masters?

No, they were scanned. Telecine went the way of the dodo years ago, and I know for a fact that these are new transfers and new scans. I couldn't say thev source of those clips in the extras though.

At least with Generations, the movie looks smooth, whereas the clips seem to have grain. Maybe it's just the encoding, I don't know, but I don't see real detail missing. But the other day, the apparent grain inmediately signaled "more natural looking! sharper!" to my brain. Also, the color scheme is slightly different. Also, contrast is boosted in the clips, and they are brighter too. Maybe the boosted contrast influenced my perception of sharpness.

That is exactly what I was thinking. But it does sound like they may be seperate masters. There have been other cases where seperate masters are run for cable use. The videophile one goes to the Blu and the rest are used for cable, online download,etc.

The next time Star Trek is reissued I'm sure they'll be much improved, so far as many of these movies can be improved.