Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu-ray - Sampler Review

[BouCoupDinkyDau]

I'll buy the first season at full price just to encourage them to continue with the project, but I'm not paying Paramount's outrageous asking prices for all of it. Sale prices for sure.

Whichever episodes they pick for the showcase, it must be f/x heavy, so Yesterday's Enterprise and The Best of Both Worlds make sense. The pilot episode, Encounter at Farpoint, would also be a good candidate, as it is filled with tons of shots: The Enterprise, the USS Hood, Farpoint Station, Q's forcefield in space and his pursuing fireball, at least one phaser blast, beaming, a photon volley from Enterprise, warp speed, the saucer separation, Enterprise "feeding" the farpoint creature, and so on. In a way, they were showcasing with that opening episode to begin with, showing us what a late 80's sci-fi television show could offer.

[Trekkie313]

I'm pretty sure the "saucer separation" was shot on film because if I remember correctly they reused the footage for Generations.

[Maggot]

Originally Posted by Trekkie313

You mean your Season DVD's? I'd hold onto them.


Has anyone watch the BBC America HD? The TNG they show on there is much better than the DVD quality.

I'd have to respectfully dissagree with you there. I seen the "so-called' HD airings and they look like utter doo-doo. A huge stretch by any imagination that what they are showing is HD. It's actually quite painful to watch and I hope they really go all out on this project. Again, I'd pay 200 a season no problem. Just do it right!

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Trekkie313

I'm pretty sure the "saucer separation" was shot on film because if I remember correctly they reused the footage for Generations.

It was reused in Best of Both Worlds I believe too.

[hipster.doofus7]

Originally Posted by Trekkie313

I'm pretty sure the "saucer separation" was shot on film because if I remember correctly they reused the footage for Generations.

I'm pretty sure that the saucer separation sequence in Generations was not the same as the one from Farpoint.

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by Imrahil2001

I don't mind the reframing idea either, and I'm especially excited about seeing it look filmic instead of videotapey.

I'm pretty sure they are going to. It doesn't make sense for them not.

While I detest "zooming" and stretching people do to manipulate SD at home, when done well at the level they are going to have to recreate the show at this point for HD anyway, so they essentially will have to patch it together shot for shot again and it wouldn't be that difficult to handle the reframing that way either.

Basically, the problem with reframing is that if you just do it blanketly to a finished piece of film it's going to work better in some shots than others - i.e. a head might get cut off here or there, etc. Since they basically have to rebuild the show anyway, they could easily adjust the framing on a shot by shot basis when it was necessary.

I have a feeling it's all but a sure thing it will be in widescreen. They aren't going back and remastering these just for Blu, they are doing it for syndication, and syndicators are going to pay a HECK of a lot more for widescreen content than the same old episodes being sold for the last 20+ years. Look how popular TNG remains in syndication as is - the market out there is just too big to ignore, and syndicators want widescreen content very badly right now. They, and the general public, don't care so much about fancy new FX - they just want it to fill their screens.

Eventually, DS9 and Voyager will be done, too. It may not be for 10 years, but it will be done. The tech is getting cheaper all the time - we are almost at the point where if they just scan the original film from an episode, they could hand it over to a kid with a MacBook who could put together an episode in a weekend. Trek is Paramount's ever-giving cash cow, and they will restore and resell every bit of it for as long as they can - and at this point, HD is pretty much a given as to the direction they need to go to maintain the libraries value.

[MarcelS1]

Don't know if this is posted yet:

Star Trek: The Next Generation - An Update About the Blu-ray Disc Chances for ST:TNG

Our friends at The Digital Bits say that we'll see 4 'sample' episodes later this year, and more in 2012!
Posted by David Lambert
7/27/2011


Yesterday our friend Bill Hunt at TheDigitalBits.com posted his two cents about various home video tidbits he found out while visiting the 2011 San Diego Comic Con last weekend. A couple of months ago we passed along word from The Bits that Blu-ray versions of Star Trek: The Next Generation might be in the works. Now Bill has an update about this:
Multiple sources I spoke with at Comic-Con have also confirmed our report from earlier this year that CBS is hard at work on Star Trek: The Next Generation - Remastered for Blu-ray release starting sometime in 2012. The latest word is that 4 test episodes are currently being worked on for release as a sampler/demo BD disc of the project, and that sampler disc will somehow be available to fans by the end of this year. Watch for additional news in the months ahead.
Wow, nice! Our thanks to Bill for finding that out and posting about it, and to reader Mark Collins Henderson for the heads-up about what was written over at The Bits. Stay tuned, of course, and we'll continue to update our readers about this as soon as we find out anything further (whether from Bill or anywhere else).


Taken from: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Sta...#ixzz1TNggV9eF

[PaysBart]

Originally Posted by Anth

While this is superb news.

To be honest I would rather have Deep Space 9 on Blu-Ray first.

This is the pinnacle of the Trek franchise in my opinion.

I agree also. I liked how the original series looked on Blu. I have seen the whole TNG series on dvd but I don't feel the urge to replace them for Blu

Imho DS9 is also the best ST serie so I would want these on Blu

[MarcelS1]

Originally Posted by PaysBart

I agree also. I liked how the original series looked on Blu. I have seen the whole TNG series on dvd but I don't feel the urge to replace them for Blu

Imho DS9 is also the best ST serie so I would want these on Blu

I also fully agree but I think my avatar makes that very clear!

[stevo4264]

Hope they release the entire series, never got the Dvd releases, so am looking forward to a BD release.

[lkmg]

You Star Trek fans are so lucky. Hope SG-1, 24, and X-Files will be released in Blu-ray in the near future.

[Blu Lemmy]

X-files would be epic, but Im stoked for STTNG

Any more news?

[jlaavenger]

I think they should at least remaster "The Borg Collective" on Blu Ray. I loved Star Trek Voyager myself, one of my favorite episodes was the one the featured the planet of water, but I also liked anything with Seven of Nine in it. For me though the ultimate collection would be "The Borg Collective."

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Imrahil2001

Yeah, I hate the soft-lit look. All the post-TOS trek shows have it.



I don't mind the reframing idea either, and I'm especially excited about seeing it look filmic instead of videotapey.

Originally Posted by BillieCassin

I'm pretty sure they are going to. It doesn't make sense for them not.

While I detest "zooming" and stretching people do to manipulate SD at home, when done well at the level they are going to have to recreate the show at this point for HD anyway, so they essentially will have to patch it together shot for shot again and it wouldn't be that difficult to handle the reframing that way either.

Basically, the problem with reframing is that if you just do it blanketly to a finished piece of film it's going to work better in some shots than others - i.e. a head might get cut off here or there, etc. Since they basically have to rebuild the show anyway, they could easily adjust the framing on a shot by shot basis when it was necessary.

I have a feeling it's all but a sure thing it will be in widescreen. They aren't going back and remastering these just for Blu, they are doing it for syndication, and syndicators are going to pay a HECK of a lot more for widescreen content than the same old episodes being sold for the last 20+ years. Look how popular TNG remains in syndication as is - the market out there is just too big to ignore, and syndicators want widescreen content very badly right now. They, and the general public, don't care so much about fancy new FX - they just want it to fill their screens.

Eventually, DS9 and Voyager will be done, too. It may not be for 10 years, but it will be done. The tech is getting cheaper all the time - we are almost at the point where if they just scan the original film from an episode, they could hand it over to a kid with a MacBook who could put together an episode in a weekend. Trek is Paramount's ever-giving cash cow, and they will restore and resell every bit of it for as long as they can - and at this point, HD is pretty much a given as to the direction they need to go to maintain the libraries value.

When I made my first quote I thought it was suggested that they were going to reframe it for 16x9 and that it wasn't just speculation.

However, there is plenty of reason to believe that they will NOT reframe it. TOS wasn't reframed. I am in favor of it because I just cant stand watching 4x3 content on my 16x9 TV. I don't claim for that to be the enthusiast view, but it is MY view.

Based on the fact that TOS wasn't reframed do we really have reason to believe that they will do the same for TNG?

I hope so, but I certainly understand why there are those who wouldn't want them to do that, but I don't hold director's intent as highly in a TV show as I would in a movie.

[Aristide Massaccesi]

Originally Posted by hipster.doofus7

I'm pretty sure that the saucer separation sequence in Generations was not the same as the one from Farpoint.

The whole sequence was not taken from Farpoint, but the shot of the saucer physically seperating from the stardrive section was.

[horizonline]

Originally Posted by lkmg

You Star Trek fans are so lucky. Hope SG-1, 24, and X-Files will be released in Blu-ray in the near future.

I was the one that said we would get 24 after Mirrors. Major oops, they are not listening moment for me.

[MerrickG]

Its not so much the updated FX that has me excited, its seeing it in HD and *possibly* in 16x9.

We shall see what happens.

DS9 is still my preference for best Trek series, but TNG is still amazing.

[Maggot]

Dear Lord, I hope they don't do a 16x9 on these. Don't even think that. They were made for the 4:3 TV ratio. That would be a disaster with stretching and zooming. Why in the world would you want to ruin it? The TOS looked absolutely fantastic. Leave the aspect ratio alone.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Maggot

Dear Lord, I hope they don't do a 16x9 on these. Don't even think that. They were made for the 4:3 TV ratio. That would be a disaster with stretching and zooming. Why in the world would you want to ruin it? The TOS looked absolutely fantastic. Leave the aspect ratio alone.

HBO, Spike, TNT, TBS, FX, and several other stations do it. Why not Paramount?

This is why J6P will never understand the concept of differing aspect ratios.

[horizonline]

So for having to ask, but why are the Next Generation movies only sold separate from the original motion pictures?