Star Trek: TNG Remastered is official – Coming To Blu-ray In 2012 [Updated] September 28, 2011
by Matt Wright , Filed under: DVD/Blu-ray,TNG,TNG Remastered , trackback
Two weeks ago we reported on new details for the Star Trek: The Next Generation – Remastered project. As was rumored, today CBS has made details of the project official. All 178 episodes will be re-scanned from the original films elements and visual effects elements will be re-composited into a 1080p workflow for mastering onto Blu-ray and runs on syndicated television and digital distribution (i.e. Netflix) both domestically and internationally.
The long rumored effort to remaster Star Trek The Next Generation is confirmed! Just in time for the 25th anniversary in 2012. CBS has once again shown its commitment to the Star Trek franchise by remastering it in HD. Each of the 178 episodes from The Next Generation‘s seven seasons will be transferred to high-definition 1080p for release in the Blu-ray format and, eventually, for runs on television and digital platforms in the U.S. and across the world.
The remastering process
- CBS is starting from scratch using the original film negatives, and editing the episodes together precisely as they were when they originally aired between 1987 and 1994.
- Visual effects will not be upconverted from videotape, but instead will be recompositioned from the film elements available.
- The freshly cut film will be transferred to high definition with 7.1 DTS Master Audio.
- Work is being done in conjunction with Denise and Michael Okuda, who are on board as consultants.
- Aspect ratio for Blu-ray release is the original aspect ratio as it aired on televsion – 1.33:1 (4:3) - confirmed by TrekMovie.com and The Digital Bits
Release date
The sampler as was discussed yesterday now has an announced release date of January 31, 2012 with a suggested retail price of $21.99. With all seven seasons to follow.
Cover Art for “Taste of TNG”
Click for a higher resolution versions of the cover art direct from CBS Home Video.
More detail and better color timing already apparent
Even with the teaser flash video more detail is obvious. This is especially true for the Enterprise model in the credits. Trek Core has a comparison page already up with more images comparing the DVD version to the trailer footage.
Full Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION®
TO BE AVAILABLE IN HIGH-DEFINITION FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER FOR ITS 25TH ANNIVERSARY
Star Trek: The Next Generation® – The Next Level Blu-ray Disc™ Will Be Released On January 31, 2012
Complete First Season Blu-ray Available Later in 2012
LOS ANGELES – September 28, 2011 – The beloved series STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® will be transferred to high-definition for the first time ever and released on Blu-ray™, it was announced today by Ken Ross, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CBS Home Entertainment.
All 178 episodes from seven seasons will be transferred to true high-definition 1080p for release on Blu-ray and eventual runs on television and digital platforms both domestically and internationally.
“Fans have been clamoring for a high-definition release of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® for years,” said Ross. “Transferring the series to high-definition presented difficult technical challenges, but our team has come up with a process to create true 1080p HD masters with true HD visual effects. We can’t wait to show fans how pristine the series looks and sounds with our upcoming Blu-ray releases.”
Transferring STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® to high-definition presented numerous challenges – The series was originally shot on film and then transferred to videotape, which was used to edit episodes together. In order to create true HD masters, CBS is going back to the original uncut film negative – all 25,000 plus film reels of it – and cutting the episodes together exactly the way they originally aired. The visual effects were all shot on film and will be painstakingly recompositioned, not upconverted from videotape. The newly cut film will then be transferred to true high-definition with 7.1 DTS Master Audio. Denise and Mike Okuda are consulting on the project.
While the first full season won’t be available until later in 2012, CBS Home Entertainment is releasing STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® – THE NEXT LEVEL, a single Blu-ray disc to give fans a taste of the series in HD, on January 31, 2012. The disc will include the feature-length pilot – “Encounter at Farpoint” – as well as two more “fan favorite” episodes, “The Inner Light” (Season 5) and “Sins of the Father” (Season 3). The single disc will be available for a suggested retail price of $21.99.
One of the most popular series in the STAR TREK franchise, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2012. It premiered in first-run syndication during the week of September 28, 1987 and ran through 1994.
Set in the 24th century on the Starship Enterprise, about 100 years after the original STAR TREK series took place, the series starred Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker, LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge, Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi, Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data, Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf, Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher and Wil Wheaton as her son Wesley Crusher.
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® won numerous accolades, including 18 Emmy® awards, and was the first – and only – syndicated television show to be nominated for the Emmy® for Outstanding Drama Series for its seventh season. It was also ranked #46 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list in 2002.
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Comments
Yes, but will Paramount have the good sense to make it a reasonable price? Doubtful!
YESSSSS IM SO EXCITEDDDD!!!
Can’t wait to see more.
Awesome…
1:33:1??? WHY?? Why can’t we just get them all in 1:78 instead of just a couple, you’re already adding 7.1 audio, give us the full episode already. Cheeez.
Great news now that its official and all the particulars can end some of the weird debates. Can’t wait to see some more!
How much do you want to bet that the HD box sets will be $100+ per season, and the Next Level teaser box will be $40-60
Digital Bits has said it will be 1.33:1 on the blu-ray but they might make 1.78:1 for ‘other’ distribution which I presume means streaming online and TV
5. The full episode? Are you one of those people who used to complain that letterbox movies “cut off people’s heads?”
Why would you want cropped, stretched, and or oddly exposed shows. Did you watch I Love Lucy colorized?
“Encounter at Farpoint” is most beloved?
#7 — Uh teaser has an MSRP of $22 (it’s in the article), so expect to be like $16 when actually sold, I’m sure. So you’re already way off base there.
I expect the seasons to be the same price TOS-R seasons, so the MSRP will be a bit high, but real street prices will be better ~$60.
Ok. Can’t wait. Encounter at far point was one of the better 1st season eps. Should be good.
Pointing Out The Obvious – I am pointing out the obvious.
It’s stated above the teaser box will be $21.99.
At $22 for for episodes, we’re looking at $140 for an entire season (usually 26 episodes)…I’m excited about news and I’m looking forward to seeing TNG in true HD, but lets hope they keep the prices reasonable. I would buy them at $60 each as Matt suggested, but would be pretty hesitant at much more than that for a show I’ve got on VHS and DVD already.
Any news on offering the sampler on Netflix or Amazon Prime?
1.33:1 was how the shots were composed, framed and staged with the actors. Yes the film negatives are in widescreen and then cropped for tv at 1.33:1 but the extra info on the sides are just background. You would notice the actors all crowded around each other at the center of the frame because that is how the shots were staged so that all of the pertinent action would fit in the 4:3 “box”. Anytime I’ve seen a widescreen release of a show originally broadcast in 4:3 its looked odd for this reason. In one episode of Angel that was released in 16:9 on dvd (Season 2) you can actually see the lighting tree off to the right in one shot. This due to the fact that that part of the image was not meant to be seen due to broadcasting in 4:3 (the sides cut out rather than squished to fit 4:3).
In short, it ruins the intent of the directors and cinematographers by releasing these episodes in widescreen format. I for one care about such things.
Jaw. Floor. Floor. Jaw. Get to know each other.
The pilot of Firefly suffers the same issues. Some of the shots are framed for 4:3 and some for 16:9. There is one shot where you can see that Wash has his hands up pretending to be flying Serenity, but he doesn’t have the steering column in his hands!
#14. The price for the sampler pack probably isn’t a good way to determine the cost of the season sets. They have to price it reasonably to get casual viewers, but also not too cheaply so they can’t judge how well season sets will sell. BUT keep in mind, that $21.99 is the MSRP, which Amazon.com for example, about 99% of the time discounts at least 30-40%, so we’re really looking at about $15 max for this set.
The TOS remastered seasons were available for around $65 when they came out.
@7, did you even read the article?
“The sampler as was discussed yesterday now has an announced release date of January 31, 2012 with a suggested retail price of $21.99.”
I made my own comparison images, if you want to check them out:
http://picasaweb.google.com/doubleofive/TNGHD
Again, my only issue is Blu-Ray only. That’s a deal-breaker for me. if this were for standard DVD too then you’d have my money in a heartbeat, but sadly no.
What would you gain by having it in standard DVD? You have the series on DVD.
Hmmm…looks like effects are not being redone, just the original FX elements re-composited. I need more than just a clearer picture of the originals to sign up for this…not that I would anyway if I have to buy complete seasons. The ratio of good episodes to mediocre episodes per season just isn’t high enough to warrant buying a ridiculously priced season set. But I’ll gladly stream them if they show up on Netflix.
The Next Generation is one of the best shows and it was about time to get it in HD.
Yes, but there are still some of us who do not have blu-ray because it is still so…idk…expensive, maybe?
I’ll be happy if TNG-HD is ONLY $100. TOS-HD on HD-DVD was originally MSRP’d at over $200, remember. I’ll wager that Paramount will MSRP these sets at around $129. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m probably not.
Ok, I’m going to be the first to say that I think that shot of the Enterprise is a CG re-creation, not a recomposition. The light on top of the bridge is a different committee and the warp effect is completely different. Its much smoother, and in the original shot, it was very easy to see the change from the 6-foot model to the 2- foot model after the flash. The transition is seamless now, so either its the original, but digitally altered, or a completely CG shot. Either way, I’m seriously freakin excited!
Mikey… Blu-Ray players are getting pretty cheap now (many less than $100), and HDTV prices are falling fast.
#21 – “Again, my only issue is Blu-Ray only. That’s a deal-breaker for me”
…
I am bewildered. Have you utterly missed the point of this set? Upgrading it for high definition? Why would they upgrade it to HD and then downgrade it to standard definition so you can buy it?
By all means, keep your money.
Now if they could do this to the directors edition of Star trek the motion picture!
30 – YES!
27 – it’s digitally re compositioned. The did a great job with the original elements filmed. This is not a CGI ship.
@27 It is the original shot. The lighting looks different because when originally filmed, a motion control camera makes multiple passes of the model. The surface of the model with exterior lighting is one pass and the internal lighting of the model is filmed on a separate pass. Because these layers are separate, digital compositing can combine the layers with perfect control that was impossible with the old optical printer. You’re seeing detail that was washed out in the process before. There are new CG elements but they are minor: the new motion starfield (although the background stars are original), the warp glow animation, and the addition of a “lighting pass” to the two-foot model which was not done originally because the stretching effect was in-camera trick photography of the model that was too difficult to reproduce to do matching multiple passes. That’s why the series used the same three warp effect shots for the whole 7 years.
Bummer on the aspect ratio. For this particular series I really wanted 16:9, even at the cost of some framing.
You can see little people moving in the observation lounge!
I wouldn’t mind them redoing some effects. The space jellyfish from Farpoint look absolutely ridiculous, and I’m not sure how much the HD treatment is going to improve them. Still, this is awesome and I’m so happy we aren’t just getting uprezzed versions.
36… It would be nice to replace that silly Energy Beam, too.
The money I did not give to George Lucas for his SW abominations may have to be saved for this glorious release.
Assuming Blu-Ray is still around by the time all 7 seasons are done.
With the aspect ratio: you guys, it was not filmed in widescreen. 35mm film has natural aspect ratio of 1.37:1. (4:3 is the same as 1.33:1, so it’s actually really close to 4:3) When they use it to film movies they use an anamorphic lens to squish the widescreen (often up to 2.39:1) down to 1.37:1 on the film and another anamorphic lens on the projector to take it from 1.37:1 back to the widescreen format on the screen. For a TV show that uses film like TNG, they just use a plain lens and it’s filmed at 1.37:1 and cropped slightly down to 1.33:1.
I’ll wait for it appear on Netflix. Shoulda done that for TOS but I was impatient.
Will this be available from the iTunes Store?
40. You think NetFlix will still be around by 2013? They seem to be doing everything in their power to commit corporate suicide.
1. Harry Ballz – Trek has never been reasonably priced, so I don’t expect to be able to afford this set. Why they price Trek so much higher than other series is frustrating.
Thank goodness they’re recompositing the film elements. That’s the best scenario is as praying for!
I would have preferred that they come up with a Top 25 episodes for $75 — I would pay for that. A lot of the episodes on TNG just arent very good, and there is no way I am going to pay $500 to get at the 25 episodes that I really liked. This is not like TOS, which has timeless “classic” value, like classic cars, Route 66 or soda fountains.
** I was praying for.
Don’t mind the 1.33:1 at all. While I have trouble watching some things in pan and scan, I dislike more having picture information missing. TNG is one of those shows that used the whole frame very well.
What I would love is some new ship shots, just because there are so few of them. What would be great is if when we see the other Galaxy class “sister” ships, maybe they have a different sheen to them? Some way for us to tell the Enterprise from the Yamato (brilliant) at a distance.
@37 HD may reveal too much of some physical models, but the trade-off is digital recompositing eliminates matte lines, spill, and color mismatches that make an entire shot look fake no matter how good the elements are. A great example is Superman: The Movie. It’s amazing how much better Christopher Reeve’s flying effects look when digital compositing puts him in the sky with without changing the color of his costume or making him transparent or too dark. I think the Farpoint creature puppets will look pretty good because they’re supposed to look organic and their scale is vague. The creatures’ glow effect is a separate layer and will be adjusted and I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised.
@47 “What I would love is some new ship shots, just because there are so few of them.”
Yea, and this is a golden opportunity to tweak TNG Enterprise design, which I think we all realize was not the best looking Trek model ever done.
The cover-art was updated, the registry number is no longer backwards.
#30 and 31. true. I still have not gotten Tmp on Bluray because they did not make it with the Directors Edition. I have Treks 2 through Trek 09. But not Trek 1 on Bluray. As soon as they do. Then I will get it.
While I personally want it on blu-ray, at the same time I said 10 years ago that it looked like crap on DVD. I mockingly said what did they use a tape or something? Later on I realized yes this is the truth. So I understand why some people would want that.
Personally I say don’t waste your money on the DVD if they do release it. Even if you don’t have an HDTV, you should be able to get a blu-ray player cheep enough and then you don’t have to buy it again later on.
As for the model being CG or not, I noticed a seam in the model in the closeup of the bridge that can only be explained by it being an imperfection in a physical model not CG. Not to mention shuttle bays 1&2 still look like crap. Personally I would have preferred CG. It would also be nice to only have 1 model instead of the 2 main ones used in the show. Fortunately the show used CG in places which means they will have to as well. I seriously doubt a 25 year old CG file will work in 1080p assuming its still compatible with modern software or even in tact.
23. Jonboc – September 28, 2011
- How can you be serious? This is the way it SHOULD be done. All of the original elements…recomposited…and in HD! Recompositing the original ship footage should look amazing! I am so excited they’re not going CGI with next gen.
52- there is no question any more, they have said that are using the original 35mm model photography.
I’d have to see it before I pass judgement, but the effects on TNG look dated now. If the sacred TOS can be remade with CGI effects, so can its followup TNG.
#49
Not the best looking ship, sure, but I’d still take that behemoth over Abrams’ Enterprise any day. The new ship is just all over the place—a dirty, industrial, work-in-progress engineering section, with a super clean and BRIGHT bridge that looks like it was designed by Steve Jobs and Liberace, and… with uniforms strait out of a 1960s TV show on NBC.
At least the D is consistent throughout—well, consistently a 1980s wall-to-wall carpeted Hilton aboard a luxury liner… but hey, some of us are still on that cruise! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to my hair stylist. “Yeah, give me ‘The Riker,’ babe, and go easy on the beard trimmer.”
;)
Very, very cool. I can’t wait until they get to the best episodes like “The Visitor” , “Trials and Tribble-ations”, “In the Pale Moonlight”, “Far Beyond the Stars”, “Crossover”, “Sacrifice of Angels”, “Little Green Men”, and “One Little Ship.”
As TNG is my favorite Star Trek series I look forward to this. TNGR will most likely finally upgrade to Blu-Ray to see the 24th century (the best era in Trek IMO) as it’s meant to be seen.
Hopefully, in the coming years DS9 (the second best Trek series IMO) and Voyager will be added to the list of HD-Trek.
Thoughts on the trailer:
So far I’m impressed with what little we saw. I was concerned about redoing the special effects because sometimes in TOSR the effects looked cartoonish and not real. Hopefully that won’t be a problem with TNG and so far it doesn’t look like it will be. I’m also looking forward to see how they handle iconic locations such as Qo’noS and Romulus.
Sorry, slight typo above. I meant to say “…will most likely finally convince me to finally upgrade to Blu-Ray…” Sorry for the confusion.
Lookin’ good !!
So disappointed they aren’t reframing the scenes for widescreen. Just look at Seinfeld on TBS and HDNet, it was filmed (on film) and was re-cut to be widescreen. Yes, you can sometimes tell the shots weren’t framed in widescreen, but if it ain’t widescreen, it ain’t HD. Sadly I won’t be buying this now. Gotta have it widescreen.
38, well yes, there is always that. I don’t know how DVD sales are going but since they continue to put seasons on DVD, even more often than on Blu-Ray, I’m assuming they’re still doing well. If they decide to put TNGR on DVD like they did TOSR I probably won’t upgrade and simply purchase the remastered version on DVD like I did with TOS.
39, that’s interesting info that I didn’t know. Thanks for sharing.
Wish they were redoing the effects in CG. Remember how good the “D” looked on the Enterprise finale? Those shots they couldn’t do back in the day but now, wow, they could make this set WONDERFUL if they did it in widescreen and with new CG effect shots.
The fact that they are taking the time to recomp all of the model effects is incredible. As much fun as CGI is, at the end of the day, its going to be dated in a few ears. Heck, TOSR changed CG models after the first few episodes, making some of THEM dated. Models are forever. As soon as the D model was sold, I thought to myself “well, there goes how TNGHD should be made, refilming the model”. I didn’t realize that they had filmed the effects shots, just composited them on video.
I was never a huge TNG fan (not seen enough), but I cannot wait for this.
61, you’ve been spoiled by the modern era. I continue to enjoy TOS-VOY on widescreen monitors. They still look good, obviously with older non-HD special effects and not widescreen, but are still enjoyable and watchable. Modern technology continues to expand at a wild pace so I understand being a little spoiled. Still, just because something isn’t in the all-mighty widescreen doesn’t mean it isn’t good.
Won’t be buying it if it is in 4:3. The widescreen shot of the ship in the promo looks great!
55. GraniteTrek – September 28, 2011
-I’d have to see it before I pass judgement, but the effects on TNG look dated now.
What they’re doing is almost as good as having all new footage shot with physical models. They’re taking all the filmed passes of the ship, scanning that film, and DIGITALLY recompositing it. That means no matte lines or other imperfections, and they can use computers to tweak lighting and add effects. It’s the best of both worlds. The exterior shots of the enterprise remain authentic but fully restored and enhanced. This is fantastic.
#49
The Enterprise-D is actually a beautiful design. It looks great in Generations.
That aside, it won’t happen, so don’t hold your breath.
I’ve got to go change my shorts now, excuse me.
I think what’s going to happen is that the show will be reframed for widescreen for release on TV and in classic 4:3 for blu-ray.
Man, Voyager at the end had some movie-worthy effects,
almost as exciting as Star trek: The Original series remastered- the FX needed it more, but the picture needed it less- next gen its more about the picture quality.
Unlike TOS remastered, which I didn’t buy because the CGI was hit or miss…this I will definitely be getting if all the recomposited exteriors look as great as that opening shot!
Is it true that they’ve overdubbed Data yelling “NOOOOO!!!” when Tasha gets killed by the Tar Monster?
@62 — Don’t hold your breath for DVDs. HD is where it’s at — CBS seems to be in a big push for HD content. Syndication packages in HD are highly desirable. Netflix and Amazon stream in HD, etc. So the point to spending all the money on TNG is to get it seen in HD.
Unlike TOS-R, TNG-R is basically about exposing the detail that was already there on 35mm but couldn’t be seen in the low resolution world of video tape editing, it is far less about trying to replace VFX, which much of TOS-R was focused on. So I would imagine CBS’s answer for legacy DVD-only users, is that you have TNG on DVD already. Though, yes, it’s true, new DVD versions from the HD masters would look much better.
@73 — LOL, way to George Lucas it up!
#15. JP -”1.33:1 was how the shots were composed, framed and staged with the actors. Yes the film negatives are in widescreen and then cropped for tv at 1.33:1 but the extra info on the sides are just background. You would notice the actors all crowded around each other at the center of the frame because that is how the shots were staged so that all of the pertinent action would fit in the 4:3 “box”.”
Look around. People tend to huddle around each other when they are talking.
I can’t watch TNG on my big screen as it is. It just does not look like the future. TOS has that sixties nostalgia feel to it. It can get away with it.
At least do the exterior scenes in widescreen and the scenes that lend themselves to it. I can see switching from 4:3 to widescreen. TV does that with commercials aready. You don’t even notice it.
72, you echo my thoughts exactly.
75. the Dogfaced Boy – September 28, 2011
- Lets leave the show as it was intended and just enjoy it for what it is. It was framed for 4:3 and it will look great in HD. Converting to 16:9 would require using some of the ‘out of frame’ sides of the film…and then stretching the picture by 5% or 6% like they did for the Next Gen based episode of Enterprise. It would just be wrong to distort the original images like that. Forcing it into 16:9 is similar to the early obsession some folks had with colorizing old black and white films. The show is what it is, a product of its time. It shouldn’t have to be altered to fit us…we should have the capacity to alter our expectations to accept it for what it is.
This is great! Recomposited film elements is the best solution for this! And I’m so glad they are not trying to remaster them as they are releasing them for tv (as I understand it). That rushed job was such a problem with TOS-R. I remember them responding to our comments here and altering the digital models as the TOS episodes aired. Not exactly a strong sign that they were putting the necessary time in.
For those of you who want widescreen — read the comments, 35mm is not naturally widescreen, and original intent is more important.
For those of you who want CG — original elements are more important and those models will look amazing now. And I’m sure phaser blasts and tractor beams will be CG, those were originally video (low-res) effects.
So… will they change the shot in that one episode where the phaser shoots out of the torpedo bay?
Will Data’s cat still switch from a boy to a girl towards the end of the series?
#73
Ha! Good one!
Oh you know what… things like phaser blasts may have been filmed elements that were just composited in video. The transporter effect definitely was (as per the Reading Rainbow episode). Anyone know if any of the effects were generated in video or just composited there?
Thank goodness they are preserving the Original Aspect Ratio.
This show was intended to be seen 1:33.1 not 1:78.1
changing the aspect ratio would have been a huge mistake.
I for one hope that instead of adding spiffy new CGI, they use the money for new cast commentary on some episodes. This would be a hundred times better. I cannot wait to watch these in HD, the cleaned up fx should more than satisfy, we’ve never seen them the way they were meant to look.
#53. – “How can you be serious? This is the way it SHOULD be done. All of the original elements…recomposited…and in HD! Recompositing the original ship footage should look amazing!”
Because I think, for the most part, the original effects were uninspired and frankly, don’t look very good. Recreating them at a higher resolution isn’t going to change, what I feel, are the problems with the effects….lighting, composition, model design etc.
I think the episode choices in the sampler are fine… except it would be nice to have both “Farpoint” and “All Good Things…” as a sort of bookend comparison of how the series progressed. Plus, the latter episode is in many ways an alternate take on the former.
It shouldn’t be much more than $66 because that’s currently what the TOS seasons are going for on blu ray. Also you won’t find any other TV seasons out for much more than that, so if they do what they did when the DVD’s first came out and price them at $100+ a pop they’ll be shooting themselves in the foot and nobody in their right mind would buy them.
I don’t understand 4:3 being a deal breaker for anybody. Maybe they should make theater curtains for the sides of TVs.
For all the talk of the models vs. CG the best part of TNG HD will be seeing the actors more clearly. The fuzziness and desaturation of the old-process video creates a subtle sense of detachment. Seeing pores and hairs and reflections on pupils will intensify every scene in unexpected ways.
@83 “Because I think, for the most part, the original effects were uninspired and frankly, don’t look very good. Recreating them at a higher resolution isn’t going to change, what I feel, are the problems with the effects….lighting, composition, model design etc.”
Johnboc, for once, you and I are in full agreement. They should pick the best 25 episodes of the series, and do the full treatment, including new special effects and an improved CGI Enterprise. I’d pay $75 for that on Blu-Ray.
77. New Horizon – September 28, 2011
“Lets leave the show as it was intended and just enjoy it for what it is.”
Oh, you’re right. I forgot. I have all the episodes dubbed down on to VHS tape. I forgot. What was I thinking. I’ll have to pull those out and watch them one day.
I have questions I hope to see answered in the weeks ahead:
1) Will this see syndication like TOS?
2) Will there be “old effects” left behind that they couldn’t redo like was the case with TOS?
3) Will they be replacing ALL of the space shots, or just the ones that look bad (i.e. will we be seeing the Enterprise model footage in HD or a CG Enterprise?)
4) Will we have a remastered score like TOS?
Can’t wait to find out!
1 – They’ve said it will be coming to tv and online streaming
2 – With access to the original separate film elements, they should be able to re-do all the effects. The only things that won’t change would be practical on-set effects like lights on props. With TOS, all they had was the final composited film.
3 – It sounds like they are going with all original filmed elements, physical models
4 – The score is in 7.1 surround sound, sounds remastered to me.
89
1) yes these will be available in syndication and for streaming most likely via Netflix
2) Dont have an answer for ya.
3)No CG enterprise, no need for it, this is the original model footage in HD
4) you did see the trailer says 7.1 surround sound right?
#89. I think they mention that it will be in syndication. In the old days, this site would have the stations who have picked it up. It may be too early for that though. All the effects were edited on to video tape, so I’d say they’d have to do them all. If they filmed the origian effect, it would be good, but any CG effects would have to be redone.
With TOS, they were saying they could not redo all the effect because they were added to the master film. This is the opposite, they still have the original film. They can redo all the effects. It will cost more because they can’t reuse the previous CG effects.
If it’s a popular series, it should be well worth it.
#87. “They should pick the best 25 episodes of the series, and do the full treatment, including new special effects and an improved CGI Enterprise. I’d pay $75 for that on Blu-Ray.”
I’m with ya there too MJ. There are a handful of truly engaging, exciting episodes…but sadly, they are the exception, rather than the rule. I don’t want to have to pay for 20 stinkers like Sub Rosa to get one Yesterdays Enterprise.
Yes! Can’t wait for this!
And how I’d love to see “Deep Space Nine” get the same treatment, even though it has held up better than “The Next Generation”. Would be awesome to see the big space battles in HD!
Keep ‘em coming!
#93
Oh, Sub Rosa… that’s the Beverly-in-lust-with-a-ghost episode, isn’t it?
Yeah, would’ve been better if they’d crossed the streams.
;)
The original DVD releases were around 120.00 so Blu Ray will be that much or more. Plus with all the work involved in this remaster it will cost more than 50 or 60.00.
I just played a few episodes of the DVD’s and they really could use an upgrade. Scan lines, bad lighting and color. Looks almost as bad as TOS original DVD release.
4:3 vs 16:9, I really like 16:9 but let’s face it. It’s not possible, someone mentioned they have the shots centered for 4:3 and may not be possible for 16:9. Probably why they’re not going to bother with it. Yet it would be nice.
80,
phaser blasts were paintbox fx, not filmed, so all the animation would be getting redone. To get a really good idea of what was and wasn’t, get Cinefex magazine’s issue 37, which covers the first two seasons. Or a more general view can be had by reading CINEFANTASTIQUE’s coverage of later seasons.
I remember Michael Okuda saying that, on DS9, they used the console- and computer screens (as well as promenade signs) for gags. They put production crew names on them and other internal gags. The reason they got away with it was that the text never would resolve on the SD video transfer and on an SD TV-screen. I wonder if this is also tha case on TNG and fi they will keep them in, now that they will resolve, or edit them out.
What do you guys think?
A note about the aspect ratio: 35mm film captures an insane amount of visual detail. Film doesn’t possess a “resolution” in the digital sense, thus, it would be entirely possible to “magnify” the image, (resulting in some cropping of the vertical space) while including as much of the originally unseen (but nonetheless filmed) horizontal space as possible. Taking this approach, little (possibly no) stretching of the image (a la Enterprise) would be necessary, and you’d still have an entirely 1080p end product.
Obviously, the framing would differ a bit from what was originally shown, but as long as it were to be done with care, the end result could actually be pretty damn fantastic.
As far as I’m concerned, Widescreen is an absolute *must*. Unlike TOS, TNG is a modern enough show that it begs for an immersive, widescreen presentation.
If the folks over at CBS-D/Paramount are reading this, I’d highly recommend giving the buying audience an option; perhaps two sets of Blu-Rays, one set of each aspect ratio. OR, if it would be possible to include both framings in one set, viewers could simply choose which version they’d prefer to watch with the press of a button.
It’s 2011. Widescreen all the way.
Thing is if they did a best 30 episodes only who chooses which episodes–despite some real klunkers-it would be a subjective list–my own opinion–the only episode that was so stupid n totally bored me was the one where the landing party got stuck in the revolving door hotel—reminded me of a boring vacation in vegas hell where u never make it outta the casino hotel hahah—at least the turned on dr crusher ghost thing had sexy gates in it gettin all hot n bothered—-skin of evil was at times stupid ie not scary but has that great holo-msg goodbye from tasha face it its dumb for tasha to be killed by an oil slick–she shoulda heroically died fighting to the desth protecting picard/enterprise with honor–
i notice movies on blu ray dont fill the whole widescreen then u watch the same movie on a hidef channel n it fills the whole 16.9 screen–why dont the dvds have that as an option to choose if we want to watch that way? when watching i feel more into the movie on cable with the whole screen–it seems bigger/closer–one company that does this with many movies is the disney enhanced for 16.9 movies they have rechanneled sound n full screen for home sets–but they dont do it for every movie–anybody know why the cable channels movies fill 16.9 but blu ray dvds dont?
Please send comparisons as they come available. Desperate for comparisons.
Is the DVD format now officially dead?
Damn, have a huge collection.
You had me at Starship Enterprise.
This looks amazing. Can’t wait
This is great. Hopefully DS9 and Voyager follow later in the decade. It’ll be like new again to watch these episodes in HD. Can’t wait to get it, which I will, but $21.99 for 5 episodes…hmm. Trek has always had a reputation of being expensive on DVD. I wonder what Season 1 HD will run, probably upwards of $100. And if that’s the case, it hopefully will have 25th anniversary extras to go with it.
TNG on DVD was the most expensive set I ever bought. When they first came out some 9-10 years ago, it was near $110-120 a season. Now you can get them for around $50 a season. I hope they don’t go crazy on the price just because it’s HD. Most Blu-Ray season sets go for $50-70…and TOS-R went for around that price as well, I believe.
So that will probably make this sample disc either overpriced if TNG-HD goes around that $50-70 mark, or just right if they plan on selling the seasons for $100+ (in which case a lot of people are really gonna have to want it enough to spend that kind of cash for one season with the whole series available on regular DVD for $250-300). Anyway, what can you do about it?
Cost effective or not, I look forward to it!
Presuming that no production elements are present on screen, I would offer up a concession of releasing the episodes in their raw 1.37:1 aspect ratio.
If someone wants to have it “so there are no bars on the sides” – they can zoom in to their hearts content.
Film does possess a resolution very much comparable to digital resolution, it’s called film grain, the finer it is, the higher the resolution. On top of that, size of film has an obvious even greater impact on film resolution. (16mm / 35mm, 70mm, …)
As much as I’d love to see TNG in widescreen 16:9, as a restoration, 4:3 is probably the correct way to go. Who knows after you’ve bought all the 4:3 Blu-rays they’ll come up with a 16:9 version (aka copy Lucasfilm company policy).
it amazes me how many of you on here have no respect for a productions Original Aspect Ratio.
TNG is NOT and never has been intended to be a widescreen production.
It was framed and shot with the intention of being presented 4×3
I thought we were past the days of people wanting a movie/show modified to fit their tv screen for no other reason than to fill their screen.
Thank goodness Paramount agrees with preserving the creators original intent for the bd release.
Also all of you trying to create panic over pricing with your DVD msrp prices from over 6 years ago. TOS on Bluray was readily available on release date for all three seasons for less than 69 dollars at many retailers and in a few instances even cheaper. It can readily be had today as well in that price range or even a bit less. and TOS season 1 and 2 had more episodes than the TNG seasons had.
Those of you trying to say that paramount is price gouging trek fans with the msrp of 22.99 for the bluray disc sampler are wrong.
first off unless your buying from Columbia house one of the only places to charge full msrp for a release, this will easily be had in the 9.99 to 13.99 price range once released.
your getting almost 4 hours of entertainment for a great price, not to mention all of the hard work thats gone into even making the TNG releases possible. What other studio has gone and done this for TV shows shot back in the 80s and 90s that required this kind of extensive work. NONE.
would you have preferd they go the Highlander route and just upconvert episodes without putting in the effort to make them look and sound great?
seriously some of you go on and on about how paramount is only looking to milk the fans but again i ask what other studio is doing this sort of work to give popular effects heavy tv shows on bluray from that period.
You think fox would do this for Buffy or Angel fans? Do you think WB is going to ever get around to actually get past the “were looking at all of our options in regards to an HD release” phase on Babylon 5? No
Will scenes out in space be remade?
A necesary limitation of a show like TNG was the need to reuse special effect sequences and matte paintings for planets! I hope with the new versions they can rectify this like they did with the TOS remasters.
They’ll go back to the original film material of the Ent-D model and re-composite this material digitally, meaning, it should look identical to how it looks now, except it will be far better quality; higher resolution and better colour.
I never bought any TNG on DVD (except STFC). I love HD. This is getting me excited about seeing the series again. I’m in.
I would love to get this on Blu-ray but can there be no problem with the set’s audio like TOS Season 1?
Looks good but Paramount will price them sky high. They like to squeeze us poor fans. If they priced them say 60 bucks, they would sell more and in the end make more profit. But noooo…
Jeez, so much love here for 4:3, are you guys all over 85 years old or something? You all looking forward to watching it on your pristine RCA Victrola televisions too?? Heck, when it was filmed it was never intended to be seen on anything except a standard def picture tube, so sacrilege that the want to remaster it in high-def in the first place eh?
Here’s the thing, I love that they are keeping the original effects and not re-doing them with CGI. I think it is great to see the original effects cleaned up and enhanced. I would even support them adding some CGI in certain scenes, moments just to spice the original effects up a little.
Most of the older sci-fi shows had limited special effects because the producers/makers were limited by their budget and the technology of the time.
If they can go back today and look at original production notes and add the things they wanted to do at the time and couldn’t, well that would be great.
WHY? Because most filmmakers are unable to fully realize their vision due to limitations outside of their control.
I would however be against them adding stuff, just for the sake of adding stuff.
AND I would be in support of having them put out these episodes in widescreen IF they can do it WITHOUT losing any of the original material due to the re-framing. If they cannot do widescreen, then the original aspect ratio is just perfect.
The only place where I’d be 100% for them re-doing the CGI would be on the TNG feature films. Those movies mixed practical effects and CGI and the CGI was always a step behind the industry due to budgetary limitations. Re-doing that CGI with top notch tech would be great.
I cannot wait for these to come out.
What I would love for them to do is to get the directors of the Star Trek feature films that are still with us on this mortal soil and give them the resources and budget, etc to put out director’s cuts in HD with their vision.
I am willing to bet that Frakes would like to re-edit First Contact and Insurrection and to redo some of the effects. Also, Nemesis has a bunch of unused material on the cutting room and if there ever was a movie in need of cleanup and re-edit, then that is the movie.
I am always of the opinion that any movie using CGI there’s no problem with them going back and making the CGI better. However, I am against of what Lucas is doing where he is re-editing the movies and adding pointless stuff just for the sake of it.
Imagine Nemesis re-edited and with upgraded CGI handled by another director than Stuart Baird. How about if Frakes or Nicholas Meyer would re-edit that movie? That would be something I’d like to see.
Also, let’s get Star Trek The Motion Picture – Director’s Cut on Blu-Ray already!
@#20 doubleofive
Up till now I’ve leaned towards the unoptimistic side about how this ‘Next Gen’ remastering would turn out. That’s because I was disappointed and underwhelmed with some of the shoddy stuff left unenhanced in the TOS remastering (such as lots of dodgy handphaser lasers etc.).
But thanks to your trailer comparison shots of the ‘Enterprise’, I have had a complete turnaround about how things may end up looking overall. It’s obvious that a bit of very good work went into that particular shot at least now, and if the rest of the remastered effects look anywhere as good as that one, then ‘Next Gen’ fans are in for a treat in future.
Anyone interested in amazingly well done effects should click on doubleofive’s name to check out some of the stuff on his great blog by the way. I sure wish Adywan had been involved in the TOS remastering!!
P.S. I love Insurrection. I think it is a terrific TNG movie.
BUT, I would love it if they removed the joystick scenes and if they would add some stuff to make the space battles better.
Same thing for Nemesis, that movie needs to be re-edited and to have the CGI cleaned up and enhanced. Nemesis will never be a great movie, but with a bit of “elbow grease” it can be turned into a decent movie.
Imagine if the scene with Data and Picard escaping Shinzon’s Scimitar Warbird in that small ship would be enhanced with having some Remans in similar ships following them and a brief, short space battle between Picard+Data and The Remans take place.
I wanted that scene from the first time I saw that tiny 2-man ship. It looks like a thing made for battle, like a fighter jet. Instead they underused it in the the movie and basically turned it into a fancy shuttle.
Stuart Baird is good editor but he is a pretty bad director.
A reminder about prices: TOS was available at one point from Best Buy for $40/season (which I was happy to take off their hands at that point!). :-)
TNG on bluray? Nah, dont need to see all those pastels and 80′s aesthetics in HD. NOt enough episodes I want to rewatch anyway, found the show to be quite boring actually. But I will agree, that it needs to remain in the 4:3 aspect ratio in order to retain the integrity of the original intentions of the directors. The reason any particular scene is staged a certain way, is because the director wanted it to look that way. You start magnifying and stretching and panning and scanning and you lose that original intent, turning the show into something altogether different. Besides, who wants to see the top of Picards head lopped off just to fill the screen? Use the zoom control on your TV if you want, but leave the content on the DVD as it was originally designed and intended to be seen.
I hope to see DS9 in HD as well!
I know it’s pointless with the DVD already out there, but the completist in me wants them to include the original SD versions of the episodes on the Blu-Ray discs in addition to the new, remastered episodes.I just think it would be good to have the “original” versions available, also I could get rid of the DVD versions I already have.
If they do this, please just keep them SD resolution and don’t uprez them like they did with Trail and Tribbleations on the TOS Season 2 set. My Blu-Ray player did a better job make the original DVD release look better than the version of that Blu-Ray.
I’m not a big fan if TNG: I think it represents a wooly-minded revisionist view of Star Trek that has fooled people into thinking that’s what Star Trek is about. I loathe the lie that is called ‘Gene’s Vision’ even more. And 90 per cent of the series is badly-paced, pompous dreck. That said, after the seasons get released, there will hopefully be more special packages, such as Borg, Data, Romulan eps and so on, as many of those will factor in the ten per cent of eps that I think are worth my valuable time.
As for the remaster, I applaud the decision to keep the 4:3 aspect ratio for the Blu-ray release and equally sympathise with the 16:9 cropping for TV airings. For most of my life, movies were cropped to 4:3 for TV airing and none of us really complained about it. We hated it when movies had black lines, in fact! When I got older and came to understand aspect ratios, my desire was to watch movies in original ratio on media I spent money on, of course.
The recompositing of the original model FX is nice to see, although, the overly bright grading is disappointing. I’d have seen this as an opportunity to modify the lighting on the ship and give it a little more variation. I would also hope some new ship FX can be added as the same old shots of the Ent-D in each episode became extremely dull very quickly.
Oh well, I probably won’t be buying the sampler set as Encounter at Farpoint is dire (although its inclusion makes perfect commercial sense for the unwitting younger fans of ST09 they want to fool into buying it), The Inner Light is a joy to behold, but not my first choice as an example of what HD can do for Trek as it’s lacking much in the way of action, space scenes or even much of the regular cast. Sins of the Father is all right, but I’d rather have seen something like Q Who. Klingons also bore the Hell out of me.
Well, TNG fans, you got your wish for an upgrade. I will say I’m surprised TNG isn’t getting a simultaneous DVD rerelease as the HD upgrades will also knock down to a vastly better SD image than is currently available!
Good luck guys and enjoy yourselves . . . and God help your wallets! ;)
you are the king …
If they are going to reassemble this from the original source material, what is to stop them geting scenes that were shot but deleted for time like:
Picard and Riker in the fencing room from “Measure of a Man”
Wesley’s birthday pary in “Coming of Age”.
This sounds great! can’t believe it is getting done. Definitely buying the taster Blu-Ray. Guess I will stop buying the TNG DVDs then?
To echo other poster sentiments;
* Get ST:TMP – TDE out onto Blu-Ray (with the new effects re-rendered at 1080p) Which is the only reason why it has not yet had a Blu-Ray release.
* Stuart Baird is a rubbish director, but a great editor.
* Leave TNG framing as is, 4:3. All modern televisions have zoom functions these days. Create your own 16:9 episodes!
* Hope that there is an original episode version available on the same Blu-Ray like ST:TOS had.
I think people are still arguing about 4:3 and 16:9 like it’s still up for debate. They’ve already announced it will be in its original broadcast format. In order to get season one out this time next year they’re already hard at work now.
I believe from what I’ve been reading that the cgi external shots were on 35 mm as well, so those won’t be completely redone. But I think there will be enough improvement to warrant a repurchase.
124. Dom
I partly agree. TNG suffered from the 80′s-Heal-the-World-syndrome. Most episodes ended on a positive note without any reflection in the next episode. Too much do-good, self righteousness going on. But I grew up watching it so it’s still has its charm.
Are they going to keep in the cliffhanger music in the first three episodes leftover from TOS? What about that strange shadow over Picard’s head at 27:11 in Encounter at Farpoint or when Troi yells to Riker: “Don’t, if you should be hurt!”? Please, please take that out.
Can they edit out the Man Skirts or Wesley Crusher (all episodes)? And give Troi some decent hair and cloths.
Something should be done about some of the really bad episodes:
My list of the worst episode from each season
Season One: Angel One ( I choose this one because of how many times the city shot had been reused in TNG and DS9, but Code of Honor, Justice and Haven are equally as bad.)
Season Two: Shades of Gray (obviously, Loud As a Whisper a very close second)
Season Three: The Offspring (not a bad season, getting better)
Season Four: The Host, (Night Terrors possibly just as bad seeing Troi from a cable, show getting better now, more great episodes)
Season Five: The Outcast (easily the worst here, Masterpiece Society gets skipped now as well and I get tired of hearing “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra” a thousand times, but a decent episode.
Season Six: Very hard to pick a bad episode in Six, If I had to pick my least favorite it would be Lessons.
Season Seven: Sub Rosa (just leave this one off the Blu-ray. In fact I think it might be worse than Angel One.)
There you have it. The worst episode from each season.
I’m so excited for this.
4×3 with recomposited special effects is going to be fantastic. I’ll take models over CGI any day. This is a dream come true.
I’m really surprised that fans of this show think there is hidden footage that is not being show because it was on “film” and they site shows that were fullscreen but they are on TV now with widescreen. Folks, those shows have been cropped (tops and bottoms chopped off). It has been mentioned that 35mm film is square. That is its natural format. Old movies were square and not widescreen because they used the whole negative. TV came out and movies wanted to compete so they figured out a way to squash a widescreen image on a square negative and then project that squashed image on a movie screen. There is no such thing as “widescreen” film, it’s all square.
So, TNG has no hidden data (pun intended) on the side. 4×3 fullscreen is everything there is to be seen. You would have to crop the top and bottom to make it widescreen (just like they do with Seinfeld and other shows on TBS. I think they stretch it sideways as well because it does not look right). Have you ever seen the article on this site that shows what you have to lose to see a 4×3 image down converted to a 16×9?
http://trekmovie.com/2007/07/31/tos-r-goes-widescreen-in-japan/
You have a crop button on your TV if you need it to fit the sides that bad.
I bought TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise as soon as they were released. Each season was on PreOrder from Amazon. In 2006 invested in a 61″ flat screen with Home Theater sound system. Have over $2,500 invested in the DVD’s alone. I won’t be moving to Blu Ray ever. Digital download through my Xbox 360 is my new chosen means of delivery. If their smart, these remastered HD episodes will be individualy for sale on Xbox Live and iTunes.
130, you obviously are a cinemafile as I am, and certainly understand that th HD episodes, when streamed will not be true 1080p as the blu-rays are. If you have invested as much as you have, and have never pumped a bluray through your system then you are doing your self a disservice.
There is a BIG difference in quality when viewing on high end HD equipment any current streaming, and Bluray 1080p HD.
If they are doing NG in both 4;3 and 16:9 then give us both. maybe we could use seamly branching to compare both. If they’re doing 16:9 for broadcast and on-line, give us an option to buy it that way.
I’m happy to zoom but a properly recropped and reframed image off the 1.37 negative would be fine as long as they edit each scene. Some scenes may need more top, others bottom.
132 I agree.
Since phasers will have to be redone, I hope they fix the ‘phaser from the torpedo bay’ shot in Darmok! The only blemish on a perfect episode.
I guess if they had to have a “Pan and Scan” version for VHS because some people hated black bars they will have to have a “Tilt and Scan” version for BlueRay?
Even though I don’t have blu ray, I was kind of hoping (for future Netflix sake) that they’d update many of the dated visual effects; especially some of the visuals from the first two seasons. Many of them had a really cheesy, almost ‘Land of the Lost’ tv show kind of look (especially with the video compositing). Oh well, I didn’t intend to buy them anyway (I’m more of a DS9 fan anyway), just thought it would’ve been nice. At least the Okudas are involved; the project will have great integrity. George Lucas could use honest people like the Okudas in his cadre …
It’ll be ironic that TOS’ remastered visuals will look sharper and more futuristic than it’s sequel series! I own all three seasons of TOS remastered and all I can say is, “THAT’S how you do a special edition, folks!”
;-)
if it was filmed in 4:3 than how is it possible that the Trailer shows the 1701-D in 16:9 ?
compare yourself:
https://picasaweb.google.com/102542760950977079734/TNGHD#
WTF?
16:9 for the trailer but 4:3 on the Blu Ray?
that makes no sense to me.
either it IS possible or NOT…
well i suppose in 10 years we get the Widescreen version
and in 20 the Widescreen Version with remade CGI
and DS9 + VOY will get the same treatment so that there is no downtime in buying Trek BluRays without the need to invest into a NEW show.
Holy cow…that Big E is…sooooo beautiful. Such a beautiful model, and the level of detail in HD is just insane.
Words cannot express how happy I am that they’re using the physical models and recompositing them, rather than going with CG. The TOS-R effects were rarely up to par, and I’d hate to see the same thing happen to TNG.
Very, very cool.
137. Z3R0B4NG – September 29, 2011
The outer space shots are being ‘reassembled’ and ‘recomposited’ from the original layers of film. With this in mind, it is possible to recomposite the ‘ship’ over a wider starfield without any of the stretching or cropping required for the ‘live action’ shots.
It’s not a simple black or white, yes or no, issue.
Make sense?
“Make it so!”
…… “Dude, where’s Picards eyes?”
“Who cares!! It’s 16:9 man!”
137. Z3R0B4NG Here Here! You just got it!
If the shots we’ve all seen are composited from original negatives and the side by side frame sequences are correctly timed HOW CAN THE HD VERSION BE WIDER?
It stands to reason if the original negatives are 1.37 wide how is it the Enterprise can be shown in comparative frame by frame shots with obviously more picture on either side? Something has been done here. CGI? I don’t think so. This will need some explaining CBS HD Team.
139. New Horizon
so they tease with 16:9 footage and then give us 4:3 anyway
i would have no problem if only the space shots were 16:9
also if you crop a Series to 16:9 you dont have to cut off heads…
you can cut top OR bottom by any number of pixels you like,
zoom in and out a bit if necessary. etc.
but that would be time intensive hands on work
and not every single shot might end up perfect,
but if 95% do, i’d be fine with that.
139. New Horizon – September 29, 2011
If you look at the frame by frame comparison here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/102542760950977079734/TNGHD#
you’ll see that the Enterprise is in the correct spacial position with the same space above and below the ship frame for frame.
If the that is the case, where has the extra side vision come from?
5.
I had the same problem with the TOS blu rays, my picture was cropped on the sides of my widescreen high def LED tv. That is until I discovered my “fullscreen” button on my remote and now I can watch the TOS blu rays in HD and widescreen. Woo hoo!
I hope they’ll release on DVD, too.
137. Of course its possible, we’ve been discussing that on every thread of STNG-R news…but it will have to be cropped on the top and bottom. STNG was filmed in 1:37:1 format, and there’s even some extra area beyond that that has info on it, that will gain some size beyond the original. There would also likely be a slight stretch to fit the full 1:78:1 format for 16:9…as in the Ex Astris Scienita images taken from the STNg footage used for Enterprise’s TATV finale.
@143.
It’s not a conspiracy.. it’s from composited footage of a model from far away. You know the camera moves and not the ship right? Stuff was done to give the appearance of movement. This is a small issue now, but there will be other more sophisticated shots with multiple ships that will have to be rearranged somewhat to fix the 16×9 effects shots.
What they probably did for this shot was, back up and magnify the part of the nacelle that was not in the original footage and then composite it. If you can make giant blue surfs run in a alien forest on dragons.. moving a nacelle would be easy.
Good god, people, with your “Durr, I want 16×9, because apparently I’m too addled to appreciate original aspect ratios!”
By your reasoning, we should go back and crop Casablanca and every movie made before widescreen so that your limited “I want my picturez to fix teh box” mentality can be sated?
Films and television should be viewed in the original presentation. Cropping, magnifying or showing more of the shot is a blow to careful cinematography and is the equivalent of cropping the Mona Lisa because you don’t like how it sits in the frame (she’s already been hacked at quite enough).
If you don’t want to buy the damn episodes, fine by me. Just don’t complain that this is a dealbreaker for you. If it is, I hope I never have to talk with you or meet you in person.
Really, the only truly terrible and unwatchable episode of TNG is Code of Honor. How they let that racist crap on the air, let alone as part of a Star Trek series is totally beyond me.
“I want my picturez to fix teh box” LOL
137. Z3R0B4NG – September 29, 2011
The reason the VFX shots in “Encounter at Farpoint” look wider is because they are. But they were intentionally framed in-camera for the center 4:3 “cropped” area.
ILM shot them with 8-perf VistaVision cameras for the VFX shots. 8-perf is just like the size of an exposure in 35mm still photography and has an aspect ratio of 1.47:1. It’s roughly double the size of standard 4-perf motion picture film because the negative is run through the camera gate horizontally — again, just like a 35mm still camera. This is why a few of these “Encounter at Farpoint” shots were deemed usable in Star Trek Generations.
148. davidfuchs
Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
You want it your way great! Using your reasoning the producers never expected STNG it to be shown in HD or they might have cleaned up a few more panels here and there that had marks on them. DVD should be fine by your reckoning because thats the way they made it!
This is a forum for like minded people to express their opinions and ask questions. As someone called Spock once said “There are always possibilities”
I’d like to think that if CBS monitors this board that they consider releasing both versions 4:3 (original cropped 1.37 at the sides) & 16:9 (cropped at the top and bottom) on the one BluRay.
I watched TNG in 1st run syndication, and, in 1987, the SFX on my Sony Trinitron were jaw-droppingly amazing, considering it was TV, and “Star Trek” after all.
Also, this was a time when Laserdisc was creating its niche, and fomenting the argument that letterbox was a more accurate representation of the film than the cropped pan-and-scan versions which were adapted to smaller screens.
Move 25 years into the future, out of physical models to CGI, and onto HD wide-screen TV’s, and both discussions have been turned upside down. Many consumers just keep their plasmas on “widescreen,” which makes everyone in 4′x3′ series/news broadcasts look like fat Hobbits, with the contrast and “sharpness” (i.e. distortion) controls set to maximum.
My opinion is: Keep the original aspect ratios, and focus on the content within them. They are the more accurate representations of the original works.
151. Yes, to Max you listen! ILM shot on VistaVision/widescreen for the pilot. After they left, are we sure they just didn’t shoot the new model shots on regular 35mm? Because if they did, then ONLY the shots from the pilot that were reused in later episodes would be 16:9, the rest would be 4:3.
152 – I know what you’re saying but technically, they didn’t ‘make it’ for DVD, it was filmed on 35mm film so it would have the depth and quality look of features. Sure it was airing on SD tv at the time, but they knew enough not to shoot it on video :)
I do agree that a purposeful 16×9 cropping would be welcome, just doing arbitrary top and bottom slicing would work for prob 70% of the shots, but more than a few would need to cheat more to top than bottom.
Looking forward to this as well…I was always very disappointed with the TNG DVDs…I only bought my favorite Seasons (3 and 4) because of my dissatisfaction.
But if the teaser is any indication, I’m all over these :) .
Take heart, too..the TOS Blu-ray sets were very reasonable, IMHO, considering all of the work that went into them. I think I paid between $40-$50 for each set which is acceptable I should think for a 6 or 7 disc set.
Hopefully, Paramount/CBS will price these sets similarly….I certainly have no problem paying a reasonable price for something of quality and that was produced through much hard work.
Stuff can’t be free, you know, despite what a lot of folks seem to expect these days… :)
153. Sad to say, but although the show looked decent on my little 19″ color CRT in 1987, I already noticed the distorted lines from the low 480i resolution of the FX in the episode “Naked Now”. The Tsiolkovsky was particularly bad against the collapsing star. I thought, how is that possible on a state of the art TV show!??
157 I remember thinking the same thing :)
480i resolution is DVD resolution. Don’t know what the video mix resolution was they used, but it’s not close 480i or the DVDs would look better then they do
@131 I’m sure your right that Blu Ray will be better quality than streaming the remastered episodes. However, my 61″ Panasonic flat screen only has one Hi Def plug, and that one has to be used by the Xbox 360, there isn’t any place to plug in a Blu Ray player. When I eventually buy a new TV I’ll upgrade to Blu Ray, but not until. (the TV cost $2,900. back in 06, and all you have to do is replace the lamp’s every three years).
Will this be coming to the UK? Amazon.co.uk has no listing.
In a nutshell (this being the perfect place for nuts and their shells):
Altering the aspect ratio of TNG would look like crap. When you watch it on your wide screen TV just pretend that the sidebars aren’t there. Maybe turn the lights off or something. Learn to adapt and don’t worry about your cheese being moved.
143. Kevin A Melbourne Australia – September 29, 2011
The show intro shots were filmed by ILM and they were filmed with a different camera that allowed for a wider view. However, even if that weren’t the case…that shot could have easily been made widescreen because the ship shots are being ‘reassembled’ from the original elements. If the CBS editors wanted to, they could scan all the passes on the ship into their computer…which would be nothing more than the ship on a blank canvas…no star fields. Then they would create a wider starfield and composite the original ship on top of it without any adjustment to the original size of those shots. Like I said, this can’t be done with the live action because it’s ‘live action’ there is no compositing going on.
#160
You realize all you have to do is pull the HDMI cable out of the back of the Xbox and plug it into the Bluray player, right?
148, By *your* reasoning, we should be shunning this HD remastering of TNG, because it was originally edited on video, and presented in SD! If you want to view TNG as it was originally intended, go watch the muddy looking SyFy reruns.
If the whole point of remastering this show is to take advantage of current technology, then it doesn’t make any sense to go halfway. Cleaning up the picture, rescanning the model FX, and redoing the rest of the FX from scratch does a lot to change the original show in the first place. Putting in a full effort, and giving us a Widescreen option absolutely fits the idea of bringing TNG into the 21st century.
Also, if the reports of 16:9 edits being used for broadcast are true, then it’s simple, they should absolutely be available on Blu Ray. This shouldn’t even be up for debate.
#160
Also……
I have an older HD TV that only had one HDMI port. When I got my bluray player I also bought an HDMI multi-port adapter for about $30 that has a credit card remote that I can switch between my satellite, X-Box 360, and bluray. You can get the thing at Radio Shack or Best Buy or just about any decent electronics store.
Just a reminder that one of the shots by ILM of the Enterprise for Farpoint was used in Generations, demonstrating what can be achieved with those original film elements.
@160 you can get receiverer that has a HDMI switcher build into for a few hundred. then you can get bluray and HD 7.1 audio ;-)
Will be nice to see them when they air on TV, instead of the old SD versions. Not interested in the ransom they charge for the discs though.
Ok, I didn’t have time to read EACH post, SO…does this mean that TNG is getting the TOS treatment?? I mean, I know they aren’t creating new special effects, but what does ‘recompositing’ mean?
I am happy for this, and will purchase all 7 seasons.
better then TOS treatment. the effects will be the original effects not CGI. They will take the models shots and re-edit them so they will be movie quality.
165.
It’s not up for debate. It’s going to be 4:3. If there is more content that wasn’t used on the left and right margins, there’s probably microphones and crew in the shots. And maybe they used the entire frame for the best picture quality. You can’t make it widescreen if there’s no content to get it from. The only solution is cropping, which you can already do on your newer televisions.
Really, why are we still arguing about 16:9? It’s going to be 4:3. If they thought they could convert it to 16:9, and they’re going back to the original films and reediting each shot, don’t you think they would have thought of expanding the ratio already? It was probably discussed early and the techs took some samples and said, “No way. Not possible”
160. I’d ditch that old DLP before you go broke replacing bulbs. Isn’t that annoying in the middle of a movie and out it goes? DLP’s are the worst. Get rid of the Xbox too, and get a PS3. Knock out two birds with one stone (Blu-ray and game system).
I have all my movies/dvds/Blu-ray, music on my media center, so don’t have to throw discs in, but it’s nice to have the discs for backup incase a drive fails.
I’m so psyched. Though watching the show now I wonder how the titles will look, something about the Senfeld HD titles didn’t feel right to me. I’m very particular about titles and credits.
You know, it occurs to me that if they wanted to experiment with new effects and so on, the first two seasons (where things were more inconsistent) would be the place to do it…
Oh, sub-question: what are those two square-like “O”s on the back of the Enterprise? Are those just clusters of windows? It feels like they’re supposed to do something.
I purchased the ST-TNG DVDs as soon as each season came out. I then paid full price which was $150 per season tax-in or roughly 1G for all. CBS will issue each season separately again for another milk run, not with me though as a must have absolutely upon release. I can wait.
OH, does anyone remember that episode where Geordi glows in the dark? Watching the episode on Netflix it feels very video-y, I wonder how that’s going to look in HD.
Honestly, the creature effects (especially the more monstrous ones) are what I’m excited to see in HD. The crew mutated quite a few times in that show, now that I think about it.
The Dauphin should pose some interesting issues. Those transition effects never looked great.
Great news! I’ve purposely avoided watching these shows since Enterprise was cancelled so the idea of seeing them again in better quality than the original broadcast is going to be awesome.
As far as people dissing the first 2 seasons of TNG? Well, yes they were a little nancy reagan/politically correct but I think they started to play that down alot once Roddenberry started to take a back seat around the third season. The situations they ran into started to become a lot less simple and required more complex solutions or didin’t have a happy resolution after all (like the one with Famke Jensen or Data’s daughter or The Outcast).
And, as far as the cheese factor goes…bring it on. The 80′s cheese factor of the first 2 seasons made it feel like the 60′s cheese of the original. It’s like seeing the original series if it was never cancelled and just kept running into the 80′s or if you prefer; the closest we’ll ever get to seeing what Star Trek: Phase 2 would have looked like. Sure, I cringed back in ’87 too when i watched Code of Honor but now it’s an awesome nostalgia trip and it’s interesting to watch the show go from a cheesy imitation of the original to a serious science fiction series dealing with quite original and though provoking concepts (i’m looking at you Darmok).
As far as Blu Ray, well since absence makes the heart grow fonder and I’m an optimist; I’m not buying any of these until ALL the shows have been remastered because I’m holding out for the hope that they make a Complete Voyages Box Set with ALL the shows in internal Star Trek chronological order. It should start with Enterprise, The Original Series, followed by The Animated Series and then the first 6 films, TNG and when they get to TNG’s sixth season, the disks should then alternate between DS9 and TNG episodes. The same with Voyager. Finally, drop the TNG movies in where they belong on the timeline. Who else would buy that? I would fork over 2 grand for that sucker. Ahhhh, dare to dream….
I JUST NOTICED A GLITCH IN THE NEW EFFECTS, WHERE ARE THE RUNNING LIGHTS?!
As a Star Trek fan I am glad that TNG is being released in HD.
However I don’t know that I am going buy this version. I purchased them on regular DVD. It was very expensive. I paid 100 dollars a season back in the day. 700 for all 7 seasons. I personally don’t know that I am going for it in this economy.
175. Those Geordi glowing lizard UV FX were done in camera on the set, they are on film already so they will look fine!
I’m happy they’re going back to the original elements, but some of the planet effects in the first season are just awful, and this has nothing to do with the fact they were composited on video.
I *am* in favor of CGI enhancements where it makes sense to do so. Keep the Enterprise model, as it’s gorgeous, but please PLEASE redo the planets in the first season. I loved the new planets (some with rings and moons!) that were added to the TOS remaster. Please do the same here.
Otherwise, it’s still crap. Just crap in HD.
@174 where did you purchase? I got all seasons for $100 as they were released. Bought at Amazon.
@166 Thanks did not know about that. I will look into it.
@164. I will not be pulling out tv every time I switch devices, which I do often.
@#178 Gary A. Neumann
Never mind the 2009 sequel news, I’m personally looking forward to all the inevitable future controversy about any less-than-perfect enhancements in each ‘Next Gen’ Remastered episode…as was the case with too many TOS:R episodes! ;)
180: I know they were done in camera but something about the motion of everything looked odd… have you ever seen a movie on display at Best Buy or the like where it’s running too smoothly, too cleanly? That’s what that episode looks like..
181: Yeah, I would love a couple new planets… some of the “complex galaxy” shots (where the frame is filled with eye candy) are gorgeous, but there are some lousy looking planets. And I do think Earth should be updated since we have HD photos of that particular planet.
Maybe they’ll make enough money to go back and redo that awful Klingon ship cgi from the original show. Lots of problems with the windows, lack thereof and the size.
Good luck to those who are buying this sampler.
Oh, if only the sampler came out in December, LOTS of Trek geeks would be getting it for Christmas… that’s money in the bank.
184
They could do some amazing things with new planets, especially the generic “planet of the week.” Using NASA images and the like, it could be really sweet.
IIRC throughout the series they visited Jupiter and Mars which, like Earth, could also be updated with the available HD photos.
@61 – Baxter, @66 – Will
Widescreen fans, I have advocated the idea of doing the external ship/planet effects in widescreen and then retaining the footage of the actors in the original 4:3. Everybody seems to think it’d be a distraction, but I definitely disagree. Thoughts? (Thank you, Dogfaced Boy [75]… I think you and I are alone in this. :p)
@15
JP – “Yes the film negatives are in widescreen.”
Wrong! Refer to post #39; Andrew Watts puts it far better than I could!
@23
Jonboc – “Hmmm…looks like effects are not being redone, just the original FX elements re-composited.”
Not exactly; the only re-compositing, it appears, will be done with original FX elements that were shot on 35mm film. That would include ships and matte paintings and that’s about it, I believe. Everything else, whether it’s phaser fire from the ship or from one of the actor’s props, or anything else of that nature WILL have to be recreated/rendered in HD.
@27
Jonny Boy – “Ok, I’m going to be the first to say that I think that shot of the Enterprise is a CG re-creation, not a recomposition. The light on top of the bridge is a different committee and the warp effect is completely different. Its much smoother, and in the original shot, it was very easy to see the change from the 6-foot model to the 2- foot model after the flash.”
Could be; I thought the whole thing was CGI, too, but the still shots that trekweb posted REALLY look like a model; although the section from the warp effect onward may be completely CG.
@34
Schnotty – “For this particular series I really wanted 16:9, even at the cost of some framing.”
No you don’t! :p cut yourself a pair of “black bars” out of paper and stick them in front of your tv screen on any shot where an actor is shot in close up, and see just how much you lose.
@98
Benno – “I wonder if this is also tha case on TNG and fi they will keep them in, now that they will resolve, or edit them out.”
Not likely; the fans know they’re there already, and it would probably be even more work to change it.
@99
Major General Morpheus – “if it would be possible to include both framings in one set, viewers could simply choose which version they’d prefer to watch with the press of a button.”
There’s an idea! Probably won’t happen, though; there’s just not enough extra material on the film to make it widescreen without seriously destroying the original filmed intent. Now if they’d shot TNG on Super 35… I’m still up for external effects widescreen, filmed actors 4:3. :D
@106
Chris of ODU – “Presuming that no production elements are present on screen, I would offer up a concession of releasing the episodes in their raw 1.37:1 aspect ratio.”
Another nice thought; I just wonder how many scenes are possible to present that way.
@116
Alf – “Jeez, so much love here for 4:3, are you guys all over 85 years old or something? ”
No, we just have respect for the way the show was ORIGINALLY done. You must love what George Lucas has done with Star Wars.
@144/146
NO STRETCHING. NO CROPPING.
@151
Thank you for the explanation!
@170
James T. West – “what does ‘recompositing’ mean?”
It means taking the original film of the models and/or matte paintings, (just like the film they have of the actors), scanning it into the computer, and using a computer program instead of a bluescreen to combine the models and the special effects like phasers and such (which WILL have to be redone unless they were originally done on film) into the final shot you see.
@177
seniorspielbergo – “I’m holding out for the hope that they make a Complete Voyages Box Set with ALL the shows in internal Star Trek chronological order.” My wallet hurts already. Can you imagine the chronology arguments?
At least one scene has been (fan altered) for widescreen. Quite frankly, I think it looks fantastic (oh noes! Some of Geordi’s hairz is cut off!!). I think it shows some of the potential that *careful* reframing would have for the show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKPztRLaJw4&feature=player_detailpage
I like the idea about leaving this for an option… not every viewer wants the same thing, obviously.
lol now that I’ve seen the trailer on a screen larger than my phone, I can definitely see that the Enterprise shot is indeed the origanl, recomped shot. The warp effect has definitely been touched up. Looking sweeeeet! I hope that CBS goes the extra mile to make some enhancements here and there.It wouldn’t be nearly as extensive as the work on TOS, but there are shots here and there that could use some CG-enhancement I think. Just wishful thinking lol, but I wont care either way. I’m super stoked that my favorite TV show ever is coming to Blu-Ray and that its being done the best way possible. Kudos to CBS!
And the activity in the observation lounge has been redone I believe.
The Next Generation will follow the example of the original series and released in a remastered HD next year. The official website reveals 2012 will actually two versions of TNG on Blu-ray in honor of its 25th anniversary…
Read more: http://www.tech.currentblips.com/2011/09/star-trek-next-generation-is-coming-to.html#ixzz1ZQdH6qlS
I don’t know why people are having such a hard time understanding the extra hurdles going 16:9 would present, or why a lot of us would prefer CBS invested their funds into actually restoring the show…rather than having to cut corners somewhere else.
It will take a lot of extra work to do a 16:9 conversion of this show and I would much rather see all of their time and energy go into restoring the original footage, recompositing all the ships and then redoing any effects that need to be redone. Adding the extra task of painstakingly converting every single episode to 16:9…especially when they would either have to be careful not to get crew and equipment into the borders, or have to erase it out frame by frame….and still have to stretch the film by 5% horizontally.
Just enjoy the show for what it was. If there is enough money after the original prints are restored, perhaps they will be able to go back and throw another load of cash and do a proper 16:9 conversion….but I don’t want to see a half baked version of either scenario.
I think they should RE-EDIT the shows, including NEW footage not released due to time constraints. They’re doing it anyway, so make it extra-special. I remember reading that “The Inner Light lost some of the light when trimmed for time.” So put it back in!!!!!! What an opportunity….
will there be official bloopers now that they are rescanning the reels?
I would love getting never-before-seen bloopers and deleted scenes for TNG!
194. John Kirk – September 30, 2011
That might be nice for a few special episodes, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable with a re-edit of someone elses work. Some of the artists behind this show are dead. I don’t think it would be very respectful to barge in and revise their work…just because we can.
Can you imagine what they could have done with TOS if all the separate elements for the enterprise fly bys had still existed? Cleaning the original fly by negatives and recompositing the original model work with todays latest tech? Best of both worlds…honoring the original work…but also cleaning it up and enhancing it for todays viewer. A little CG clean up here and there would have looked great on the old TOS ship footage.
Awesome! However, I’m not buying any of these Blu Rays until ALL the shows are remastered. I’m holding out for the hope they release a Complete Voyages Box Set which I hope will have ALL the shows presented in an internal star trek chronology order. In other words, it should start with Enterprise then The Original Series, The Animated Series, followed by the first six movies, TNG, then the disks should alternate between DS9 and TNG episodes after Chain of Command 2 parter. Same with Voyager then finally, drop the TNG movies where they belong in the timeline. Who else here would be interested in buying this? I’d drop 2 grand for that.
Ahhhh! double post sort of. sorry.
@ 188. Yeah, my wallet couldn’t take the hit right now either. But two things: 1. If you were to wait a year or two, the price on a set like that would drop and you could pick it up on amazon, hopefully for about half the retail price.
2. I’m working on the premise that sometime in the future I will have more of a disposable income. Like i said earlier, I don’t mind waiting because it will be just that much more sweet when i finally watch all these shows again. I’ve intentionally avoided reruns and the dvd’s because I knew they were going to do this one day and it’s been so long since I’ve seen these shows, I’ll have an almost fresh perspective when I watch them again. Besides, how long will it take to remaster ALL these shows? I’m thinking between 5-10 years.
My God, the ILM 6-footer looks great!!!
Finally we get to see all the detail they put into it. Ahh, the final golden age of the physical model…
And it was shot 4:3, NOT 19:9!! Use your zoom button and get a life!!
Nor was it shot 16:9…. dammit!
With the presence of HD T.V. channels going on in Canada and the U.S., here’s hoping that the remastered version of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” gets brought onto the airwaves a few years from now.
203. Christopher Arnold
Oh it will, all the TOS episodes on TV standard def or HD are all blu-ray or remastered version. It has been said that the same thing will happen with TNG.
“Its the next generation, of the next generation.” Serious!? This teaser video was so good, so tasteful…..but oh wait….here comes the MARKETING!!!! Can’t have a teaser of TNG in HD without promoting an item to sell right? It was just such corn, such cheese, granted lots of that in Star Trek lol, but that ending trying to sell us the blu-ray set, that next generation line just killed it, but HOT DAMN am I excited!
#173.
Those square circles behind the main shuttlebay on the saucer? I’ve always wondered what they were. I don’t think they were specified in the technical manual.
That’s a really good question. Maybe Rick Sternbach can answer that one!
Some blueprints have identified the two large windows below the main shuttlebay on the Enterprise-D model as the arboretum windows, although the set had no such windows. It is possible there is more than one arboretum on the Galaxy class.
It was shown in several episodes were the crew took a stroll in it. Also Keiko O’Brien worked there.
In newer effect shots the windows were all lit up.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Arboretum
All VFX were done on tape (480i) they are definitely not scaled up original shots. This is a new, CGI Enterprise-D. An extremely well done one.
I’m already looking forward to “Birthright” and the updated Deep Space 9!
208. xeos – October 1, 2011
All VFX were done on tape (480i) they are definitely not scaled up original shots. This is a new, CGI Enterprise-D. An extremely well done one.
You must not have read the press release very carefully. :) Allow me to quote the pertinent section.
“Visual effects will not be upconverted from videotape, but instead will be recompositioned from the film elements available.”
What they’re talking about here are the various filmed ship elements of ST:TNG. The ships of TNG were filmed on 35mm, scanned to video and then assembled into the finished shots. They did it that way because it was faster than working with the 35mm film. The ORIGINAL space ship footage and many other things were all filmed on 35mm. The shot of the Enterprise D is not CGI. It is the original footage filmed by ILM back in the late eighties. :) It has been scanned into a computer from the original 35mm negatives, then reassembled with modern computer software. They obviously CGI’d the lights on as the ship warps away, and a few other tweaks that technology now allows them to pull off, but it is the original footage of the 6 foot model.
210. New Horizon – October 1, 2011
wow, that’s my mistake! What an incredible clean-up job they did on that shot!!!
Still, I really hope they do replace some elements — all those blurry planets that looked nothing like planets, and all the shots with the less detailed season 1 and 2 model. oh, and the incredibly bad ‘jellyfish’ from EaF
The miniature jellyfish kicks the crap out of the CG xmas tree in DATALORE, I think people just dislike FARPOINT and give the jellyfish the blame instead of the producers.
I don’t know what people have against the Jellyfish. I thought they looked fine, sure the miniature shots of the surface, exploding, etc… looked really crappy but I thought they looked angelic, alien to me. Wasn’t that the point?!
#206, 207;
There’s no way there could be an arboretum there, whoever came up with that idea forgot that this is where the saucer separates, and that area is extremely thin.
That exact location is in fact where the Battle Bridge is located. The bridge extends into the saucer, so there isn’t even room for these to be considered windows.
#214.
There’s still enough room for a couple of decks. Those squares are on what appear to be deck 6, while the Battle Bridge is located on deck 8.
But it can’t be the arboretum because we’ve seen that room and it had no windows.
There’s no room for anything, much less two decks. I know the ship quite well, this is a fact.
The squares would have to be some kind of emitter or other tech, there’s simply not enough wiggle room to pretend something could fit there when it couldn’t.
Since TNG was sent down the satellite during its original run in 5.1, there is no need to redo the opening music.
87–Chances are sometime down the road they will start releasing “Best of…” sets much like they have on DVD now. They may not do all in one, but perhaps a “Best of…Borg, Klingons, Romulans, etc”.
212. Both would have to be redone in my opinion…the CGI because it was done on video and the original jellyfish because they don’t look alive.
211. Yes, since the planets were edited only on video they will have to be remade.
@217 – “Since TNG was sent down the satellite during its original run in 5.1, there is no need to redo the opening music.”
Not sure it would have been 5.1. Dolby Surround, maybe?
I’ve hearing over the years that it was IMPOSSIBLE to upgrade TNG to bluray quality because on Season 3 and beyond I though the raw video footage of the episodes weren’t being recorded on reels on film anymore, but on an early generation of digital storage that wasn’t very good quality!
What happened to that arguement?
222. danwat1234 – October 8, 2011
It was always said to be ‘difficult’ but never impossible.
TNG was always ‘filmed’ first but after an episode was filmed, the editing crew transfered the filmed footage to video tape for much faster editing and effects application.
All this means is that all of the appropriate footage from each episode has to be scanned, and re-edited to match the aired episode. All of the original ‘filmed’ ship model work, will also be scanned and recomposited.
The technology exists to do it properly now.
I’m happy they are redoing this in HD, I love the Star Trek shows, tng, voyager and ds9 are my favorites, I hope they do all of them in HD.
It’ll be nice to see TNG in HD and hopefully those reports of the Blu-Ray being in 4:3 are false, since the masters exist in widescreen (I’ve gone through all my notes and books on all the shows, and all the books, such as “The Making of Deep Space Nine”, mention that the current era shows were shot with theatrical lenses and not TV lenses, but everything was framed for standard definition broadcast. Plus if you look at the promo for ‘Enterprise’ that was included on disc 2 of TMP’s Director’s Edition, the scenes are cropped to 4:3, but look just like scenes from TNG, DS9 and Voyager in terms of depth of field and detail, even though the shots are framed for 16:9.). This isn’t like TOS or TAS that only exist in 1.37:1. Plus shots of the Enterprise-D that were shot for ‘Encounter At Farpoint’ appeared in ‘Generations’.
But I hope that DS9 and Voyager get this same treatment and are put out in widescreen.
I just got a boner watching the trailer!
insta buy!!!
144 ‘John from Cincinnati’ said:
“I had the same problem with the TOS blu rays, my picture was cropped on the sides of my widescreen high def LED tv. That is until I discovered my “fullscreen” button on my remote and now I can watch the TOS blu rays in HD and widescreen. Woo hoo!”
No, what you had wasn’t a “problem”… it was how it was shot, how it was screened and how it was supposed to be watched. What you did with your “fullscreen” button was bastardise it… you either zoomed it, pan scanned it or worse… you played 4:3 stretched to 16:9, giving everyone elliptical heads and stumpy legs. “Woo hoo” indeed. Doh!
I’m so glad they never pandered to a handful of village idiots who can’t handle a couple of black bars at the side to respect the original ratio. I just bought Farscape on Blu-ray and I’m sick to the back teeth of people moaning on forums over the “black bars”… some even going as far as to send the Blu-ray sets back for a REPLACEMENT, as they’re convinced it is a fault… some even blaming their TV’s and threatening to get an engineer out. Some say it comes down to a matter of preference, but I’ll wager 99.9% of the people wanting it to “fit ma screen” are just plain ignorant of the technical side of ratios and don’t exactly know what they’re asking for. If they want a good cure for their black bar phobia, and a fast education, I suggest they import the PAL (region 2) DVD set of ‘From Earth to the Moon’ – and see what something shot for 4:3 looks like when bastardised to fit a 16:9 screen. Even though they did it on a scene by scene basis, i.e. deciding how much top or how much bottom to sacrifice for each scene, it looks claustrophobic, blurry and horrible… SO wrong. That DVD set was the first time I’d watched the series and I spotted straight away it had been screwed with. For those who had already watched it broadcast in the original 4:3 ratio, it was even more painful. You can’t even give the region 2 set away now – everyone imports the region 1 set from the States instead, that kept the original 4:3 ratio.
Heck, even the producers of Sharpe on Blu-ray made a FAR slighter/subtler jump… from 15:9 (it was shot on Super 16mm) to 16:9, which is FAR less drastic a hackjob, you’d THINK, and even that looks wrong. We Sharpe fans were livid they never stuck with 15:9 on Blu-ray. So please don’t tell me it’s just a matter of preference, it isn’t. It’s just a matter of understanding ratios and, once you do, you will learn to appreciate original ratios and understand why we strive to keep them.
The only recent exception to the rule I have come across is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Which was shot in 16:9, but framed for 4:3, so they released the later seasons in the UK in widescreen (against Whedon’s wishes). But this is TOTALLY different as it doesn’t have to chop or zoom, it is just giving you side of screen information that wasn’t meant to be seen. In the whole series, there are just two scenes where it causes problems… one where you see a studio light stand in the frame, and another where you see a little bit of an actor waiting to come into shot… which kind of spoils the scene I have to admit. However, nothing is chopped, zoomed or in any way butchered… so that gets away with it. Besides, some of the scenes in Buffy are beautifully panoramic in widescreen. You will never get that from TNG… or anything else where they have had to deduct screen information.
4:3 was a big mistake.
I was so looking forward to 16:9, and i cant stand black bars.
Very disappointed.
The intro looks incredible. But I can’t believe they kept the messed up transition between Saturn and the Enterprise. Originally in the second version of the TNG intro they spliced in the original Enterprise shot from the first version of the intro probably to save money.
But why did they do that if they redid the intro in HD? There would be no need to. Maybe for nostalgia? It’s even more noticeable in the remastered version.
Excitement faded to complete disinterest when i read about 4:3.
It was the directors original vision argument doesnt sway me at all.
No sale.
The one and only reason to buy a BD :)
I just love TNG in HD, but I don’t like the way the format issue is handled on The Next Level preview Blu-ray and in discussion forums.
Yes, TNG was shot on film with an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 (Full Aperture 35mm) which is basically 4:3. Whether the directors also considered a later reframing for widescreen is not yet known, there is no official information explicitly stating they did not and various people say it was an option they kept in mind (sounds credible as already in summer 1987 plans for 15:9 HDTV circulated in the industry).
The visual space effects in the beginning were done by ILM in Vistavision 1.85:1 (compare the widescreen shot of the HD teaser with the pan & scan cropped one in the opening credits).
I don’t know whether 16:9 full widescreen (1.78:1) is aesthetically possible but 15:9 (1.66:1) is very likely an option, IF additional camera negative information left and right could be used.
Regardless, a wider 4:3 picture (1.50:1) definitely IS an option. Except for “Sins of the Father” the other two episodes on the Next Level disc reveal 4:3 pictures with expendable visual information at the top and bottom which the directors (!) expected to be cropped by the overscan of the 4:3 television sets, then.
For a modern 16:9 HDTV flat screen the overscan can be reduced to zero and CBS Home Entertainment should, IMHO, trim those expandable, nonessential top and bottom overscan areas on the upcoming BD sets.
The result would be a wider 4:3 image, still a far cry from full 16:9 widescreen but definitely an overdue step into a wider world.