Lost in Space (Series) - Remastered in HD

[Dex Robinson]

Originally Posted by mar3o

So then my question is - why are they even asking this? If this is literally the same situation with all of these tv shows, why didn't this become a discussion for Star Trek, Space:1999, etc? Is it just because really most would never even consider the 16:9 format for release?

The answer is pretty straight forward.

It's only recently that widescreen HDTV has become dominant in the home of average consumers.

When widescreen HDTV started to become available, it was us A/V geeks who first adopted it over a decade ago. But even as 16:9 sets replaced 4:3 sets on the sales floors of stores, most people still had 4:3 TV sets in their house. It's only very recently that the last of the 4:3's have started heading for the dumpsters.

SPACE:1999 and STAR TREK were released 3 and 4 years ago. People still standard def 4:3 TV sets and Blu-ray was a niche product for hardcore high-def geeks and fans. Because we geeks and fans were the market, it was our wants that dictated the product.

That's not today's market. Everybody today has a widescreen high def set. The market is controlled by 1)average consumers who don't want to see black bars and 2)Programmers who want want to fill up the screen.

So, unfortunately, TV shows are being processed with the syndication market in mind as well as the possibility of sales to average consumers.

Those dedicated fans among us who passionately care about the preservation of the original presentation are now in the minority. We don't control the market or the product anymore.