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

[Geoff D]

Goddamn this new DE is lackadaisical as hell

[infiniteCR]

It's almost like the director was dead in his chair while overseeing this one.

[KC-Technerd]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Hmm, not with you on this one as far as "Archon", I could always tell he said "Urgent".

I find the consonants in "Urgent," particularly the "G," nearly unintelligible in all the previous audio mixes.

Can you tell what Mr. Scott's new line during the Red Alert is? In the 2001 DVD DE it was a repeat of his earlier line to Cleary, "Put a new backup sensor into the unit." In the new version I think I'm making out "right lass" and something about "integrator." I'm not sure it's supposed to be an intelligible line. It sounds a bit like a Latka Gravas line to me.

[KC-Technerd]

Originally Posted by Jeyl

So someone highlighted the shuttle and took a screen capture of the window with the image on it and tried to crop out the lines. The establishing shot didn't have a good crop so the lines are still visible. When we cut back to the wide shot of the hanger, the highlight lines are gone, but so is the Shuttle's rear brace. It reappears suddenly the moment before the shuttle actually takes off since that's using a less cut cropped version of the shuttle.

And as an added bonus? The shuttle comes to a complete dead stop before the shot ends.

I can clearly see that too now that you pointed it out. I do like the additional clarity of the live elements in these shots, but the issues you point out in the TOS era shuttle are just some of the errors made in updating this sequence of shots. The previously mentioned issue of the new shuttles missing the red stripes is another. The shuttle Kirk arrives on appears to touch down with about 1/3 of it off the right side of the landing track. I don't think the perspective of it looks quite right through the landing and rollout. To me that all looks better in the theatrical version. Then of course the Golden Gate Bridge is missing the east side of its Fort Point Arch in the preceding external shot, and later there's the new travel pod added to the wrong port of the orbital office complex. There's probably more errors that I have missed.

I'd love to see all of these fixed for the September release on disc, but being Paramount and Star Trek I suspect it more likely that we'll have to live with these for another 10 or 20 years at which time Paramount will authorize a new set of fixes that will introduce a new set of errors. There is a lot I like about the DE. I just wish the standard had been a little higher than what seems to be typical when Paramount brings Star Trek to home video.

[Maxwell Everett]

Originally Posted by Jeyl

I have a question. What is that 'highlight' animation that covers an area you select with the select tool in photoshop?

It's not aliasing... It's the highlight select animation from Photoshop's select tool (Or any other image editing software that uses the same effect).

It's called "marching ants," but I don't think that's what we're seeing here, is it? Because if it were, why is it only visible on the top of the shuttle and not all around its edges?

Also, I have never, ever heard of anyone in the vfx industry making that kind of a mistake, i.e. doing a screen capture from Photoshop with the layer displaying a marching ants animation. I mean... wha, how? Why? Just go back and do it right if you made a boneheaded mistake like that!

It just beggars belief! There's clearly a mistake here (and it's amazing you spotted it!) but I'm not sure that's the right explanation.

My two cents anyway. I could very well be wrong. If true, that's just crazy!

[Jeyl]

Originally Posted by Maxwell Everett

It's called "marching ants," but I don't think that's what we're seeing here, is it? Because if it were, why is it only visible on the top of the shuttle and not all around its edges?

It is visible on the edges during the opening shot. The first shot is the most aggregious but whoever was working on it must have noticed something because in the next shot, they're gone. However, the ants aren't gone because they used a different still. They're gone because they cut off the areas that showed the ants. This resulted the physical edges of the shuttle being erased. Just look at the brace component underneath the shuttle. It's there in the first shot, gone in the second and before it takes off, it suddenly re-appears. And the fins that the necelles are attached to.

And here's another bonus. The moving sky plate in the background literally repeats itself when we cut back to the shot when Kirk and Sonak going up the escalator.

[KC-Technerd]

I've figured out part of what has been bugging me about the perspective of the shuttle Kirk arrives on. After it comes to a stop it is nearly abeam the two shuttles to its right and should be appear about the same as far as being tilted fore/aft, but it appears to be tilted nose down significantly more than they are. I also noticed identically to the theatrical version, the shuttle Kirk arrives on appears with both doors closed only 10 seconds after we see two people having a conversation in the open forward doorway, although the shuttle to its right has both doors open throughout.

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Darthbooth1978

What is the quality of the new shot of vger exploding at the end? Hearing mixed views regarding this shot.

Looked to me like a 2D cutout of V’Ger was just stuck on, was better as it was before IMO

[Darthbooth1978]

Originally Posted by Indiana Jones

Looked to me like a 2D cutout of V’Ger was just stuck on, was better as it was before IMO

Dear Lord, have they gotten anything right on this??

[JohnCarpenterLives]

I was really excited for the UHD, but now it sounds like a gimmick with all these botched and obvious "fixes."

[RalphoR]

Have not seen it but am getting the uhd disc in September. That's plenty of time to fix issues. That is if Paramount sees them as issues.

[LexInHD]

I'm gonna wait to buy this until I see a review that says things are "visually solid".

[Darthbooth1978]

Originally Posted by Bolty

^Have you seen it?

Obviously not, hence why I’m asking the question.

[Darthbooth1978]

Originally Posted by Bolty

^People who have seen it are still asking questions.

Some like/liked it and are now seeing all these things pointed out.

I’ve no doubt I’ll like it, it’s the motion picture after all, but one can’t help but be concerned when there are a lot of folk raising issues on what seems to be a daily basis. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

[RalphoR]

Originally Posted by Bolty

^People who have seen it are still asking questions.

Some like/liked it and are now seeing all these things pointed out.

Originally Posted by Darthbooth1978

I’ve no doubt I’ll like it, it’s the motion picture after all, but one can’t help but be concerned when there are a lot of folk raising issues on what seems to be a daily basis. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

These are all worrisome issues. I don't have the Paramount streaming service nor have I ever watched anything on it from anyplace. My question to those who have it is would you say their video presentation of movies is pretty good? I'm hoping the uhd vs. the streaming would be a big upgrade and potentially fix some of the concerns.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Jeyl

And here's another bonus. The moving sky plate in the background literally repeats itself when we cut back to the shot when Kirk and Sonak going up the escalator.

Well the starfield behind the Emperor in Return of the Jedi keeps resetting itself with every single shot of Palpatine in his chair during his conversation with Vader about Luke being on the Endor moon (after Leia meets Wicket), with the sole exception of the very last shot of the Emperor swinging his chair back around. I noticed it in '83 when I saw it again for the 3rd or 4th time in the cinema.

Anyway, it's a trick they've used since forever I guess.

[The Admiral]

I agree it is both a bit concerning and disappointing but on the other hand, in all honesty I have to admit that I did not notice most of the issues that have been pointed out so far when I watched it on Paramount+ a couple of weeks ago. The opening credits and the lounge thing didn't impress me, but I'm ashamed to say the rest totally got past me - so, I'd be in a poor position if I started complaining about those issues, I think.

Well done to the eagle-eyed people here who spotted those, though. Perhaps thanks to you guys they'll be fixed for the UHD Blu-ray release (I have no faith in that but, hey, more unexpected things have happened before!).

[PeterTHX]

Personally it's a lot of nitpicking - in the end it fixes a helluva lot more than it "breaks". The movie itself was a compromise - rushed to meet a release date set in stone. I will always watch the theatrical cut and will be adding this new version to the rotation.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by KC-Technerd

Can you tell what Mr. Scott's new line during the Red Alert is? In the 2001 DVD DE it was a repeat of his earlier line to Cleary, "Put a new backup sensor into the unit." In the new version I think I'm making out "right lass" and something about "integrator." I'm not sure it's supposed to be an intelligible line. It sounds a bit like a Latka Gravas line to me.

Sounds to me like "Bypass alternate integrators".

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Personally it's a lot of nitpicking - in the end it fixes a helluva lot more than it "breaks". The movie itself was a compromise - rushed to meet a release date set in stone. I will always watch the theatrical cut and will be adding this new version to the rotation.

What does it being rushed originally have to do with the DE remastering being slack AF in several instances? One has absolutely nothing to do with the other. For all the hype - or rather the sniping that people did at Paramount for their overly processed 4K transfer of the theatrical and that the sainted DE would fix it all - it's proven to be curiously uneven in its own way.

I mean, they didn't have a blank cheque and clearly they had to sacrifice some quality here and there, it's just disappointing to have work done that looks like a spotty 15-year-old cranked it out on a laptop in an afternoon next to stuff that looks every bit as good as we'd hoped. Two steps forward... etc etc.

Of COURSH I'd still rather have it than not at all, let's not bring any more straw men into this, I just thought it would have been more polished.