Star Trek The Motion Picture Director's Edition 4K UHD/DLX (1979)

[MifuneFan]

Not sure how many may be interested in this, but I just noticed the novelization of TMP, written by Gene Roddenberry, is just $0.99 at the Kindle store, Google Play Store, and probably other ebook stores too

https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Mot...42J29M6S0EQV58

https://play.google.com/store/books/...d=5dNYcBJ1tPUC

[JohnCarpenterLives]

Originally Posted by Alan Fraser

[Show spoiler]--------------

I looked in this morning to see what people are saying, and I'll say something that I probably won't respond to.
I've asked questions from the contacts I have (for a few years) regarding DS9 and Voyager, and the word that you used "nudge" has already happened - several times in several meetings and for various reasons.
From what's been suggested, the suits have crunched the numbers (several times in several meetings) to see if there's profit in (at least) blu-ray issues and it seems to be left on the table for consideration every time for one reason or another.
I've also been told that while the planning stages of Paramount + was a thing, the suits were looking at what they had for property rights and why they're now limiting what Amazon Prime gets as well, pulling back on reissuing the rights to carry on streaming services... some may have noticed that Amazon lost the rights to stream some of the shows now?
It's all to bump up subscription sales to the streaming service.
We all hear things like "the end of the physical media" but the fact is, there's still a profit margin in that (to some of the larger studios), so the end is probably not as near as some speculate. The reasons for that is speculation though, but the thinking is based on those profit margins as changes have taken place, especially the last couple of years.
Several times, I've heard - based on what the pandemic has done to literally screw up the streaming services - "tip the ship on its side" was the wording... there are more suggestions of possible season one issues on blu-ray for DS9 or Voyager or both, just to see if the sales support the costs.
Cross your fingers on this if you're interested because it may be coming sooner than later as a test to see if the costs justify the project(s).

Good Hunting.

If they release it I will come.
Not Voy though. Sorry.

[Put_The_Candle_Back]

I pre-order a little late, in early August. I got an email from Amazon arriving September 19 - October ?. Later I got a second email from them with a revised date of September 19-22. So I kept waiting for a shipping email from Amazon and still haven't received one. I checked today and the web page states "Temporarily Out Of Stock" and my pre-order still states "ariving September 19-22". I think I'm not going to get a copy which sucks. Someone had stated that they might be more copies coming but I doubt it.

[Bobbyjoe766]

Originally Posted by GrouchoFan

To anyone who's got one in "mint condition," good luck trying to keep it that way. That outer sleeve is likely to buckle just from the act of picking it up.

Got mine mint, but don’t care about the packaging. Moved the 5 discs to separate CD cases as soon as I received it. Rubbish way to store the discs (the set’s packaging).

[KC-Technerd]

Originally Posted by Bolty

Hunting down every film trim and re-editing 176 episodes from scratch. It'll be a snap!

Sarah Paul and the CBS Digital team did an amazing job with TNG. Still a few shots were replaced with up-rezzed video, and some were replaced with alternate takes, presumably because they couldn't find the originally used takes in the dailies. I wonder what more they would have found if Paramount had taken it just a bit slower. I doubt most remember, but the releases of TNG seasons on Blu-ray were more frequent than the overlapping releases of "Enterprise" seasons. "Enterprise" already had HD broadcast masters, so in comparison to TNG it needed almost no work for release in HD on Blu-ray.

[StarFuryG7]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

B5 sets a precedent but it’s not quite apples to apples as I *believe* it got a cut negative so there’s hunting around for umpteen separate pieces of film, scanning them all one by one and then doing a digital conform, you just scan your cut neg. The former isn’t an impossibility of course, but it just adds to the timescale and thus expense of the project. And as the B5 VFX were not re-rendered, just upscaled, that’s also something which saves on costs.

And it took them six years at WB to finish the project.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by KC-Technerd

"Enterprise" already had HD broadcast masters, so in comparison to TNG it needed almost no work for release in HD on Blu-ray.

It's too bad because Enterprise could have used a HD "remaster" with the on set footage transferred at a higher resolution. I believe the masters used were from a HD analog format which was then digitized...my memory's a bit fuzzy on that one. I do know TNG in HD looks better having been digitally transferred a decade later. Unless re-rendered from scratch we're stuck with 480p - 720p (1K) CG VFX uprezzed until the end of time.

[rocknblues81]

Never watched any of these films. Which ones are the ones to get?

[BerryTheMusicMan]

Originally Posted by rocknblues81

Never watched any of these films. Which ones are the ones to get?

All of em !
Mileage may vary on 5 .

[88Saleen5.0]

Originally Posted by rocknblues81

Never watched any of these films. Which ones are the ones to get?

Personally, my favorite out of all of them is Wrath of Khan. Many people really like Undiscovered Country. I didn't watch all of it to really rate it. They're all sort of different in their story and have their own charm and tone. I personally thought the first original film was a bit slow and a bit anti-climatic at the end. That was probably my least favorite of the 6. That being said, the score on the original was excellent.. really brings out the Star Trek music in all its glory. I would only get it for that reason.. just to hear the original music as the Enterprise rolls into space as the astronauts in space wave at it.

People kinda panned The Final Frontier but I actually liked it.. it had a very spiritual meaning/theme to it beyond what we know and a search for answers.

Since the original was my least favorite of the 6, I wonder why it's hard to find at Best Buys. Doesn't look like any available. Guessing people who don't know the series always think the original was the best to get and hoard?

[IdeaOfEvil]

Originally Posted by rocknblues81

Never watched any of these films. Which ones are the ones to get?

There is a kind of through-line story starting with 2 that goes all the way to 6. Whatever you decide, go in order because things do get said that kinda only make sense if you've seen the others. But if you're really struggling to watch them all, then you can stick to 2, 3, and 6.

[KC-Technerd]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

It's too bad because Enterprise could have used a HD "remaster" with the on set footage transferred at a higher resolution. I believe the masters used were from a HD analog format which was then digitized...my memory's a bit fuzzy on that one. I do know TNG in HD looks better having been digitally transferred a decade later. Unless re-rendered from scratch we're stuck with 480p - 720p (1K) CG VFX uprezzed until the end of time.

I also suspect the first 3 seasons could benefit greatly from new scans of the camera negatives & original film elements. I'm under the impression that the scan/transfer technology is much better now than what was used for Enterprise from 2001-2004, but don't know the details. I also believe the premier episode "Broken Bow" would benefit the most, as I understand it suffers from a last minute decision to extract 16:9 from a 4:3 scan, resulting in it being roughly 810 resolution uprezzed to 1080 rather than being a true 1080 scan. I also agree regarding the CG VFX in Enterprise.

[Eusthenopteron]

Like many here I'm sure I have seen TMP more times than I can count, both the TC and to a lesser extent the DE. It has never been one of may favourite films or Star Trek films in either cut for mostly the reasons that have famously been levelled at it. Always appreciated the technical side of it though.

I still purchased the new Complete Adventures set though, out of a sense of loyalty to the franchise I guess. My partner loves Trek but amazingly has never seen most of the films so we started yesterday with the new DE of TMP on Blu. I am still hoping to upgrade my setup to 4K sometime soon.

As before I expected it to be a slog through but let my partner make up her own mind.

To my absolute amazement instead I saw a masterpiece and I was stunned at just how much I enjoyed it. So many people have said how much they love this film and how much of favourite it is to them; I've never understood why until yesterday. It was simply amazing from beginning to end and I literally can't wait to watch it again. I'll try the TC next time and see how that goes.

I won't be able to see the Special Longer Version of course as I don't have 4K yet, in fact I have never seen that version at all so am really looking forward to seeing it. It may well be the final push to make me upgrade.

[pjl69]

Nice to hear you liked it. I watched the TC just recently and enjoyed it more than ever. I'll probably watch SLV next and director's edition last. I chose to follow my rule of watching movies in production order.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by KC-Technerd

I also suspect the first 3 seasons could benefit greatly from new scans of the camera negatives & original film elements. I'm under the impression that the scan/transfer technology is much better now than what was used for Enterprise from 2001-2004, but don't know the details. I also believe the premier episode "Broken Bow" would benefit the most, as I understand it suffers from a last minute decision to extract 16:9 from a 4:3 scan, resulting in it being roughly 810 resolution uprezzed to 1080 rather than being a true 1080 scan. I also agree regarding the CG VFX in Enterprise.

I doubt that Enterprise will ever get revisited but I realllllllly hope they do TOS in 4K, the HD transfers were never great and their encoding to disc less so. Heck, doesn't even need to be in 4K, just a fresh new transfer would be much appreciated (someone posted links of raw scans that were done for the DS9 Tribbles episode and they look so good despite being umpteen years old).

[starmike]

Voyager is apparently getting scans for its upcoming documentary, so we'll see how good that looks as well.

I'd like to get TOS rescanned in 4K, but some of the updated effects need to be revisited. Some of the early episodes have goofy star fields, and the Enterprise moves a little too liberally in Doomsday Machine.

[Geoff D]

I'd love to have the OG VFX updated. Most of the VFX plates are long gone but those brief clips they showed in the Roddenberry Vault thingy were tantalising.

But yeah, that CG has not aged well. It didn't look good to me at the time, I hated how they did the ships in CG but kept the lighting static as if it was still a '60s miniature shot quick and dirty as needs dictated, such a silly thing to do. Either update the VFX or don't, instead it's this halfway house that is indeed more fluid and dynamic with the camera moves but is lit in the most incongruous old-fashioned way. So I wouldn't be opposed to that getting redone either.

[starmike]

The lighting is bad, for sure.
I'd *love* to get the extended battle in "The Ultimate Computer" that they teased. Shame it wasn't done.
There are so many good things that came from the new VFX. Shield hits, the effects of the anti-matter explosion in "Obsession", the movement of the ships are better (but can be improved) in "The Doomsday Machine", the ship's proximity to the planet in "The Naked Time", "The Corbomite Maneuver", the list goes on. Just fix the mediocre stuff and the lighting and I think we're good.

[suspiciouscoffee]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I doubt that Enterprise will ever get revisited but I realllllllly hope they do TOS in 4K, the HD transfers were never great and their encoding to disc less so. Heck, doesn't even need to be in 4K, just a fresh new transfer would be much appreciated (someone posted links of raw scans that were done for the DS9 Tribbles episode and they look so good despite being umpteen years old).

Do you remember where these links were posted? I’d love to see that.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by suspiciouscoffee

Do you remember where these links were posted? I’d love to see that.

Sure! Follow the link in the post below for the other scans. There are only four in total but mein Gott they look amazing. They're 4K too. Edit: there are a few more in the original blog post by Doug Drexler: https://web.archive.org/web/20130126...-or-j-squared/

Originally Posted by Joseph Goodman

I never liked the abundance of smeary DNR on the TOS remasters; the non-DNR'd versions of some episodes on the Rodenberry Vault set, though perhaps bitrate-starved, look more pleasing to me.

On a side note, years ago, SFX artist Doug Drexler had a blog where he uploaded content spanning his career, mostly focused on his time with the Star Trek franchise. One of these posts had several frames from scans of "The Trouble With Tribbles", done for the DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". The surprising thing was that these frames were from full 4k scans, despite having been made for a standard-def final product.



(though captioned "Star Trek 2K", the pixel dimensions match the old Cineon standard for 4k sound aperture 1.37:1)

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