The release of the "Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Next Level" Bluray sampler with four episodes is coming up in a couple weeks. And today TrekMovie has two exclusive images to show off what TNG looks like in HD. Check them out below
Images From Star Trek: The Next Generation on Bluray
The "Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Next Level" sampler disc comes out in a couple of weeks. To give you an idea what you can look forward to, CBS has provided TrekMovie with a couple of exclusive screenshots.
Click images to enlarge
(note shots show how TNG in HD is presented in 4:3 aspect with pillar boxes on each side)
Bluray Image:
Bridge shot from "Encounter at Farpoint"
Click to compare to TNG on DVD
Bluray Image: Klingon skyline from "Sins of the Father"
Click to compare to TNG on DVD
So far everything we have seen from CBS for this project has been beautiful. The transfer to HD looks great and provides a lot more detail than the DVD release.
The "Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Next Level" sampler disc will be released on January 31, 2012 with a suggested retail price of $21.99. 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).
You can pre-order it on Amazon for $14.99.
All seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation will follow, with the first season coming later this year.
Trailer
If you missed it last week, here is the latest trailer showing old vs. new for the Bluray transfer of the Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot "Encounter at Farpoint."
[Select HD and go full screen to get the full effect]
TrekMovie will continue to track this project as further news is announced.
I know this might have been covered somewhere else, but can someone tell me if the FX are being redone like TOS remastered?
looks great!
Looking forward to getting this. The videos they’ve released have looked great. These two screengrabs look somewhat muted, however.
They should do these in BluRay Anamorphic Widesceen or is it 2:85:1? 4X3 Pillar Bars stinks. I wish all old TV shows and movies could be upgraded that way.
Plus all commericals.
Can’t wait!
I’m onboard for all 7 seasons. Some will say TNG is dated. And I’d agree in certain respects. But that’s fast becoming part of its charm to me looking back having been a fan during its initial run on tv.
And I cant wait to marathon, “Q Who”, “Best of Both Worlds”, and “First Contact” all on Blu Ray in a row.
I also forget 21×9 HDTV’s are being developed.
The effects are not being redone like TOS because the original film elements for the effects shots are in good enough shape for an HD transfer. However some effects done in video will be done in CGI (like phasers).
I will be doing an interview with the Okudas talking about this project coming soon. Please post your burning questions.
I wonder how the 1701-D and other TNG ships would look if they would be redone with today’s CGI? Would their be that much of a difference?
I’ve been holding off getting the DVDs of TNG for years now, am both glad I waited for this and totally frustrated!
Trek ’13 will be out before these are cheap enough for me to buy the box set.
And you thought waiting for that was bad!
Can’t wait to see Baldy, Crinkly, Moody, Beardy, Yellowy, Blinky, Slinky and The Brat in glorious actually-in-focus-and-not-a-blurred-out-washed-out-mess-O-vision.
Bring it.
Looks great! The transfers on the DVD sets were never very good so I’m stoked for these Blu-Ray releases. I just hope when the full seasons come out they price them competitively with other TV show seasons. The DVD box sets for Star Trek were always WAY overpriced.
I’ll say it once again for peeps who might be unsure/confused:
TNG was framed for 4:3 sets and did not use anamorphic(widescreen) lenses. Any attempt to reconfigure it for 16×9 will simply distort the image and defeat the whole purpose of this project.
These stills look phenomenal. It’s going to be like watching the series for the first time.
With today’s technology can’t TV shows shot in 4×3 be upconverted to Anamorphic with no black bars and not look streched?
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/103359
The DVD image is taken directly from the region 1 DVD in png format @ 720×540 and upscaled to 1920×1080.
Oh man, I cannot wait. Looks gorgeous!
The bridge shot is almost as good quality as a publicity still.
Way to go Denise and Mike O!
@13 “With today’s technology can’t TV shows shot in 4×3 be upconverted to Anamorphic with no black bars and not look streched?”
What does technology have to do with turning a square into a rectangle? It is literally impossible to make one shape into another without cropping or ditorting it.
Looking good, can’t wait. Got one for myself and another as a gift!
Anthony:
Question for the Okudas:
Regarding the missing 13 seconds of footage from “Sins of the Father”… have they thought of looking in the “Enterprise” archive? I know the editors pulled stock footage from the season 3 episode “Menage a Troi” for use in “These Are the Voyages”. If they’re also missing that Ten Forward shot, then maybe a few TNG reels are hiding over there?
I got my review copy today. I will be live tweeting impressions of Encounter at Farpoint starting at 7pm pacific
I am so glad they reduced that reddish-orange tint to the first/second season that made it feel really dated.
Question for the Okudas:
Are they going to remove that blue tint that can be seen in the lower left side during the closing credits? It’s subtle, but it is definitely there.
Will they replace the morphing effects in ‘the Dauphin’?
Preaching to the choir, guys.
Let’s sell some hotcakes!
#21: Can’t wait. Will you be posting them in this thread or a new one?
nm, i see your posting your impressions on the twitter stream. Good stuff. Suspect having a shrink on the bridge is due to the therapy craze back in the 80’s.
Geez, how many times does it have to be said that TNG was filmed in 4:3 format, and cannot be converted to widescreen without cropping the top and bottom of the image?
I think I’d rather see the images as intended, and as they were originally framed.
Not a fan of TNG but I’m very impressed that they went back to the original film elements rather then just milking the fans for an up-rezzed conversion.
Let’s not kid ourselves though, I’m sure this was as much a “corporate asset preservation” project rather than any service to fans. If they do it right, this is a one-time project that keeps TNG from disappearing into deteriorating video oblivion. They’ll be able to use their new scans of the film to press the new “Super-Ultra Def-purple-ray” version 10 years from now.
What comes after Super-Ultra Def?
Will we be able to see through the actors?
No, but the shows will be better. The plots will have more action and less magic resolutions in the last 5 minutes; there’ll be no Whoopie Goldberg, Wesley Crusher, or Deanna Troi; and Riker will act like a First Officer instead of a co-captain.
I’m THRILLED they aren’t attempting to crop the show to 16×9 or 1.85×1 or whatever.
I’m very much a film/tv purist. I want to see films & TV in the aspect ratio that the director shot for. Don’t crop it, or zoom it, or otherwise change the original ratio.
I’m kind of surprised to see people have issues with “pillar-boxing”. Man, I remember when I first started collecting new-fangled DVDs, and how thrilled I was that I could FINALLY find movies in their proper format… and there were still people bitching about black bars on their 4×3 screens. Now we’re going the other direction. Makes me chuckle.
If you must fill your 16×9 TV with image… use your zoom button. Otherwise, watch your programs as they were intended to be seen. But please don’t ask the producers to change it.
/rant :)
Anthony: How are the grain levels? Do they look filmlike or have they applied heavy amounts of DNR to these transfers like the movies? The screenshots you posted do look quite grainy, but better that than waxy looking overzealous DNR.
Agreed, they look pretty grainy, but that indicates a good restoration. Have you seen some of the idiot comments on Amazon already about “older things not being improved by blu ray”?
Even the ‘experts’ can’t agree on what constitutes a good blu ray transfer. Its something the studious really seem to struggle with when it comes to catalogue transfers.
What about extras like scenes that were shot but cut for time– like Picard fencing in Measure of A Man– or Wesley’s birthday party from Coming of Age?
I know that a lot of control panels presented on the show contained inside jokes that the crew put in knowing that they would appear blurry on the TV screens of the time. Well, the joke might be on them after everything becomes clear in HD.
I added some screencaps from the DVD set to compare. There really is no comparison of course
Question for the Okudas;
Will there be any consideration made to fixing mistakes made in the original shows? I don’t expect the team to be scouring http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies.htm looking for things to do (although it would be AWESOME), but there may be some things that were obviously wrong the first time around that would be easy fixes with the re-compositing process.
Liked Troi much better in what Marina called the “Space Cheerleader Outfit” ;-)
Glad they put this in a normal blu ray case rather than one of their wacky packaging inventions (think the ds9, Voyager and Ent packaging). Hopefully the season sets will be packaged the same way the TOS blu ray sets were.
I have said it before, and I say it again. Paramount should be offering an “upgrade” option to folks who have in the past purchased the official DVD releases. Take the original DVD packages to authorized dealers of the bluray release and get a hefty discount on the new release. Otherwise the next release in 5 years will be the one with new CGI FX in 7D … Paramount has got milking Star Trek fans down to a fine art!
#41: In fairness, this’ll probably be the final physical media release for TNG.
“Please post your burning questions.”
Are you correcting the continuity mistake at the end of Yesterday’s Enterprise, where Geordi is erroneously wearing the high-collared shirt from the alternate timeline?
#1 I am also very interested in that! It is a big difference to me if “only” the quality changed or the effects, too. Does anyone know more about that?
#8 Oh, I have not seen, there was indeed an answer. Maybe the new Blueray will be a good basis to add effects in a again newly published Blueray-Edition after this edition here was published?
Why is the before image 10x worse than they actually are?
@Craiger- I have to believe that the series was fimed in anamorphic widescreen and the negatives exist in that state. For heaven’s sake, even TJ Hooker is on HDNet or somewhere in widescreen format. The 1990 episodes of Law and Order are now Hi-Def widescreen after being broadcast 4:3 then.There is not one style of camera and filmstock for TV and another for movies.
I believe widescreen will eventually be used as a tool to try to get us to purchase the series again in whatever the next format happens to be. My guess is that the series has already been RAW transferred in that format while they had the negatives available and they opted not to give it to us on this go- round, which is why I am taking a pass on it. 5 years down the line, that will be the Next Big Thing- if I am still kickin’.
#9 – A fully CGI 1701D can be seen in the Enterprise finale “These are the Voyages.” I have to say the model used on the series is far superior, but that’s just my opinion.
I don’t see why they can’t convert to widescreen recropping from the original negative & giving us the option of widescrees (if a little cropped) or the original full screen.
I’m sure they can creatively crop out the odd boom or things on the edge sometimes being visible etc etc
can we have some pictures of the ship?
12 and 27 you are absolutely correct, and its really goads me when i read comments like number 13 or 47 where they just dont get the importance of preservingOAR, the shots were composed and filmed with a 4×3 aspect ratio in mind, changing the aspect ratio to 1.77:1 or 1.85:1 can drasticly change the mood and subtlties of a scene.
when you watch shows like hooker and married with children that are shown stretched and cropped for cable broadcast it shows you the bad effects of changing OAR.