CBS Testing Remastering TNG in HD

I had a moment to have a chat with some of the CBS team behind the TOS Remastered project at Comic Con about what’s next (after TOS). David Grant tells TrekMovie.com that they have "had discussions" to bring Star Trek The Next Generation onto high definition. They have also created an HD test for one episode. One concern is the visual effects which were were done in video and therefore more difficult to translate to HD. The team are seeing if the effects can be ‘upresed’ or if they need to be entirely redone (as they did with TOS). Ryan Adams says "that is part of the tests that we are trying to massage and figure out." No decisions made yet on if, when or how, but TrekMovie.com will keep an eye on this exciting potential project.

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I’d rather see them do a more complete job with the TOS episodes, but I’m an old-schooler… =)

“Complete” as in “thorough”, I mean…

Boy… I get to have this thread all to myself?!!

Interesting, but I’m not sure it’s necessary

Yeah… I’m predicting that this thread won’t get that much love on this site.

For a universe that preaches tolerance, the regulars on this site tend to re-enforce just how fictional the Star Trek universe really is. :(

If they charge $217 per season, you’d be paying $1500 for the whole thing. That’s almost enough to finance the whole remastering process.

I hope they do expand the project to TNG. There’s been speculation since the TOS episodes started over whether it would be possible to do TNG, it seems to do it they would have to reedit each episode from the original film footage which would be a much bigger job than what they have to do for TOS, there’s speculation that the original film might make it possible to have TNG in widescreen which would be cool.

What if they composited Shatner into every episode? Maybe then this would get some love (and people would happily pay $217 per season)? =)

“upressed” ?

I think the main thing is that the effects are of a higher caliber in TNG, and may scale-up better as-is. I guess the test will tell for sure.

Wasn’t the live action footage shot on film but mastered only on video as well? Would that mean they would have to re-cut the original film footage?

What a brilliant Idea ! Remake ST:TNG in HD, twink the special effect to bring it up to todays standards … and sell the new sets of episode in HD for 217 $ a pop (or more !!!)

The cow milking gods now how to get in our pockets.

Trekies adn trekers of all countries unite !

I love TOS and TNG both, though they bear little resemblance to one another. Which is fine. However, as #4 implied above, fans’ hidebound attitudes towards the show are a constant mystery to me. I can enjoy both shows — and DS9 too — on their own merits.

Having said that, I have paid enough money for Trek. Can’t really see myself shelling out even more, especially at the outrageous prices they charge.

# 3 John N

Indeed… This thread would have been great if they had been talking about a “more thorough” remastering of the TOS episodes… ;)
which they should be, considering the price point of the initial HD DVD / DVD combo sets…

Off topic

For those interested, go to http://www.indianajones.com and see the photos of just who’s been confirmed… Now THAT was great news today… :)

I am perfectly happy with the TNG DVDs I have.

Theeee…ennnnnnd!

“Upressed” That’s the new cheapass buzzterm for TNG:HD, like “inhouse” was for TOS:HD.

I would give my soul for a chance to speak with these people.

Aren’t they releasing a TNG full series DVD set soon?

I’d love to see them bring TNG to HD, if it’s possible. Re-do the effects to today’s standards? An extra treat. Best of luck to them and I hope they get to pull this off.

It’d be nice if they could make an announcement sometime this year, too. It IS TNG’s 20th anniversary at all!

And yeah, to all of those who I know are gonna bash TNG here–save it. We’ve heard it from you all before. Over and over and over… And you’re still wrong. :-)

I am tantalized by the possibility that every episode of TNG could have “Nemesis” caliber FX. Reality tells me that is total crap!

Even if the effects were perfect, the problem with upscaling to HD resolution is that it doesn’t work well unless you have access to higher definition sources (as is the case with film). In other words, they can’t sell TNG to HD consumers if all it is is upscaled video: most people’s existing disc players or TVs are already upscaling anyway.

I hope this means that the film still exists; which it probably does. They are probably referring to the old digital files that are upscaled and reinserted on top of the film. It takes less than 5 minutes to make a decent phaser effect in after effects and the result is way better than upscaling 20 year old FX.

Although, #20, this is the same company that cannot make a monumental ship into a believable model, can’t make believable eyelids, or get their ship to fly right. Upscaling video to pseudo HD is not out of their realm.

If the people that did the FX for the movies (and the more recent Trek shows) did the remastering FX for TNG, then it would be really great. But I don’t think that CBS-Digital is THAT good. They’re good enough to update the TOS FX, but the original FX on TNG are so much more detailed compared to the original FX on TOS.

If CBS-Digital does it with the same level of detail as what they’re doing with TOS Remastered, it would just feel like a step back.

But I’d still like to see what they can do with it. I’ll make my judgments afterwards.

why? the fx for TNG arent too bad…

i guess they could redo the borg to make them look more like they did in First Contact

i think theyd be very few people replacing their TNG dvds with new ones…

but…..i havent got any TNG on dvd (or vhs for that matter) and i was planning to buy the new slim line sets of TNG fairly soon…think i’ll hold off for more news about if they plan to do them all remastered now…

Will they do the same for the movies i wonder??…especially in light of Meyer saying he was open to the Genesis cave FX being redone…

they wouldnt need to touch TMP as thats been done…

with II i guess they could redo the reused FX they used from TMP and the genesis stuff….III is fine as it is, as is IV…V needs alot of work….VI is fine – and the TNG films are all ok.

If they do go ahead with this, I at least hope they’ll finish the TOS episodes first, rather than forcing even more onto the CBS:D team’s plate. They seem to be stretched enough already just doing the TOS:R episodes that are aired, plus the remaining season 1 episodes for the DVD set.

I’d be in support of a HD:TNG set if it was possible to clean up the first couple of seasons. While the models they used were very detailed, the video came out quite ropey looking IMO.

For this last DVD set they should have upscaled to make more detail then reconverted to standard dvd res with a lot more detail. then say goodbye to standard def.

If all of the original film elements are still in existence then they should have all 10 film remastered by the same company that did 20 james bond movies.

CBS WILL NOT SPEND THE MONEY TO HAVE DTS IMAGES AND ILM/EDEN FX REMASTER THE PROJECT.

THEY ARE TOO CHEAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Snake you’re right, if CBS uses the same level of technique then they’ll look even worse than bad 80’s FX. What a waste that will be!

One thought, if they actually proceed with this project, the down side is that they’ve learned so much from the effort on TOS, the new TNG effort could look much better then the TOS effort.

meh….no thanks

”upresed”

Frigging hell, decent upscaling DVD players do the same thing, but they want to sell us it predone for $218 a pop.

Cheap barstewards.

Will this eventually cost us $999.99 per season?

I think it’s supposed to be:

“up-rezzed”

Still haven’t seen anything about the TOS-HD-DVD presentation at the Con. Anything come of that?

yeah…I would like to know what was said then…that was actually before the Abrams presentation

I’m not opposed to this, but redoing TNGs effects would be difficult, considering TOS-R effects now are just about as good as TNGs effects by about season 4.

Give it all to Gabriel Koerner. Let him do the special effects. :-)

I’m a huge TNG fan, but frankly I don’t think this is necessary. Most of the worst FX are in the first couple seasons, which weren’t that good anyway.

And unlike TOS, those effects still do an adequate job of telling the story (if someone’s looking at a ship on the viewscreen, there’s actually a SHIP there and not a blob of light, etc).

Well, I for one would love to see TNG’s effects redone… respecially for the earlier seasons. I remember that every time there was supposed to be a “battle” we’d see a stationary Enterprise firing a photon torpedo. It was nice to see the battle of Wolf 359 in DS9’s pilot because those ships moved around a bit…

But at $220 a season, I can deal just fine with my TNG DVDs thank you. But like I said in the TOS thread, the prices will eventually come down. We’ll just have to wait 5+ years.

I’m for remastering if they do it right. For instance, there were some FX shots that made me personally want to cringe. Like when the Enterprise was orbiting a planet, and the sunlight was coming from one direction or and the light hitting the ship was coming from another. I know that’s small, but kinda stuck out like a sore thumb to me.

I’d be very interested in seeing what they could do, but might would rather Eden FX do it.

#39 – I think you’ve missed part of the point – its not that the effects aren’t good enough – its that the ONLY way to get a high definition version of TNG is to redo the effects, since the episodes were not finished on film.

Redoing TNG would be a huge job: effectively they’d have to rescan the original negatives and resynch them to the standard-def images – incredibly difficult, unless the source video tapes from the original edits carried the film key frame numbers, at the very least, in the underscan area or something!

Then the FX would need rebuilding from scratch. I always thought the TNG FX stank in comparison to TOS anyway. Although at times rough and ready, at least TOS sourced its ships from film. TNG’s FX were all video-sourced and looked like it, too: cheap’n’nasty! And as for that awful going to warp ‘stretch’ effect, followed by a naff ‘explosion’ that dogged all the modern Trek shows . . .

It would be fantastic if TNG and and of its successors’ standard def shows could be remastered fully in HD. But it would be a vast job that would take many, many years and many, many dollars.

Personally I’d rather they got on and made a revised version of TAS with 3D animation replacing the 2D original images. Right now, TOS is the ‘active’ incarnation of Trek and Kirk and Spock-related material should take precedence. I suppose, though that a revised TAS could make use of designs from the new movie . . .

Why is StarTrek.com so slow about TOS-Remastered previews anymore?

How by any stretch of the imagination are TNG’s effects worse than TOS? Nope, that’s the nostalgia clouding your vision, Dom…

I don’t think interest in TNG ,or the subsequent Treks, in HD, warrants the expendeture at this point. Maybe someday down the road, if there is some resurgence of popularity.

To me, everything they did for TOS wasn’t an improvement, though some shots were. Those 3rd season shots of the ship were very convincing, and to me, the obvious paneling on the computer model makes it look like its made of stainless steel sheeting, not the product of super-advanced technology. I’m not saying there work isn’t good, it is, but they have a design philosophy which contradicts the ‘smoothness’ of everything else. Has anybody seen TOS DVD on an HD set to verify how unwatchable they’re supposed to be? Or is that a marketing gimmick to sell the new sets? TNG’s computerized starfields wouldn’t suffer much if they redid them, but they should wait to see how these new TOS DVDs do before stepping into that pool.

If they don’t redo the FX, I’m not really interested. They got a huge opportunity here. TNG reused FX too often (like the Angel One matte), and some of the greatest eps like “Chain of Command” or “Redemption” had crap FX, even by that time’s standards and would immensely gain from new FX.
Come on, CBS. TOSR’s FX wipe the floor with 1st season TNG’s FX, we can’t have that, can we?
Plus I GUARANTEE there will be much less of those pesky purists this time.

A lot of moaning and groaning in here and I am guessing th reason is because most of you probably don’t have high definition dvd players let alone a tv that supports it properly. I have to say flat out and truthfully that the remastered epps of TOS look so wonderful in high definition and if they want to remaster TNG I know for a fact that it will look utterly brilliant. Most people still dont have a hi def player and are watching movies on standard DVD and standard while its ok just isn’t the same thing. I am not trying to insult anyone I realize they are expensive TV’s and players but I do believe that until you see the epps in the format they are intended for you should not bash. I for one knew that hi def was coming a long time ago and stopped buying seasons for the specific reason that I figured HD was coming. Hence here we are a lot of people paid top dollar for regular DVD seasons and now are going to feel slighted but shouldn’t… Don’t blame the HD team and the higher ups who made the choice to bring Star Trek up to the next level that it deserves… and it did deserve it. Don’t blame them for you spending money on regular edition DVDs anyone who did their homework like I did could have seen a long time ago that HD was the wave of the future and was to going to be the next big thing. As for the price… come on now. Price goes down inevitably look at TNG regular they retailed for 175$ at many stores and now they are down to 50$ at wal mart 45$ at Costco or Sams Club… I suppose your probably mad about that too??? Don’t derail the process with your negativity because its not helpful for Star Trek in general I don’t care if your a hardcore TOS fan your still a trekkie right?

Aaron R.

P.S. Incase you wondered the only way I have seen the HD epps is through my xbox360 marketplace and they look astounding.

I’d love it if they’d update TNG’s effects to more accurately fit in with TOS.

At $220 a season for the DVD, I couldn’t care less if they rendered the whole series in South-Park style SpOOOky-Vision.
I aint gonna waste my money.