New Star Trek: TNG S1 Blu-ray Trailer + UPDATE: SDCC Panel Announced

CBS has released an new version of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Season One trailer which shows a glimpse of some of the special features including a snippet of an interview with Sir Patrick Stewart. Watch that new trailer below, plus get the latest pre-order links. [UPDATE: CBS is bringing TNG Blu-ray to Comic-Con]

 

UPDATE: CBS TNG Blu-ray panel at SDCC

A panel for the Blu-rays has been scheduled for Thursday July 11 at SDCC, here are the details:

2:00-3:00 Before and After: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Journey into High Definition— Star Trek: The Next Generation fans are finally getting their wish, with all seven seasons of the beloved series being retransferred into high-definition. Star Trek: The Next Generation-The First Season will be released on July 24, and the team behind the project will give fans an insider’s look at how the original film elements were transferred into high-definition and how the visual effects were painstakingly re-created from the source material to look better than ever before. Robert Meyer Burnett moderates the panel, which includes Roger Lay, Jr. (producer/director, Blu-ray), Mike and Denise Okuda (project consultants), David S. Grant (vice president, multimedia, CBS Television Distribution), Ryan Adams (director, multimedia, CBS Television Distribution), Craig Weiss (creative director, CBS Digital), Eric Bruno (lead compositor), and Wade Felker (film transfer technician). Room 7AB

 

original article

New Star Trek TNG S1 Blu-ray trailer

REMINDER: Star Trek Season 1 Pre-order available now

The first Blu-ray season for Star Trek: The Next Generation comes out July 24th. The six-disc set includes HD remasters (in 1080p and 7.1 DTS audio) of all 26 episodes, plus brand new special features (see below for full details). The official retail price (according to CBS) is $118.00 in the US (which is actually a little less than the MSRP for Star Trek: TOS Blu-ray Season 1).

You can pre-order the set at discounted prices. Walmart is selling it for $78.86 with Amazon matching the price and Best Buy selling it for $79.99 with a $10 in-store savings rebate.

Walmart – USA BestBuy – USA Amazon – USA
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season One
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Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season One
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The set is also available for pre-order at Amazon sites around the world.

Canada UK Germany

 

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Patrick Stewart look like he just stepped of the “Encounter at Farpoint” set!

Why did they upload a 480p trailer for a HD remaster? -1 Internet points

Still 4×3, it needs to be Anamorphic 16×9 1080p.

#3 I hate this argument, so I’m just going to say you can’t do that because it
wasn’t filmed in 16×9 1080p. If they did do widescreen, it would look badly stretched. I hate saying this to every single one of you people who want this stupid widescreen treatment. You didn’t complain when TOS Blu-Ray came out.

I can’t believe with todays technology that they wouldn’t be able to remaster any old TV show and movie in 16×9 Anamorphic widescreen without it being stretched.

Old shows in 4×3 HD on a 16×9 widescreen HDTV look stupid.

SFC3 I agree. I do not understand these folks who keep complaining that it’s not in widescreen. That’s like asking CBS to remove a large portion of original footage for these DVD’s. Why would you want that?

LOL @ Craiger. Please, enlighten us how “today’s technology” can turn a 4×3 to 16×9 without stretch.

I hate this argument, too, because it just illuminates ignorance.

This article says”Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 trailer”… but all I see is Season 1 trailer.

Let’s see what’s out there

I forgot they just remastered Friends in 16×9 HD for the BluRay release.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Warner_Brothers/Disc_Announcements/Friends_The_Complete_Series_Blu-ray_Announced_and_Detailed_/9666

All 10 seasons have been completely remastered in stunning 1080p high definition video with a 16×9 widescreen format and 5.1 audio. The ‘Friends: Complete Series’ Blu-ray box set is presented in highly collectible new packaging consisting of a lenticular box cover, a hard-cover book that holds 21 Blu-ray discs, plus a 32-page episode guide.

@ 5 Craiger

The original picture is a square. You have 2 options:

1) you cut the top and bottom of the square off and make it INTO a rectangle, or

2) You stretch the square into a rectangle

Either way you do it, you ruin the quality and integrity of the square!

Holy crap, it’s not that hard to comprehend. I explained it to my mother’s classroom of third graders once and they got it.

“So, mister, you can’t make a square into a rectangle?”

Bingo, Jimmy… Bingo.

@ 10 Craiger

Thanks for the ad for Friends.

Looks like they did do a test with TNG in 16×9. I found this.

http://tng.trekcore.com/bluray/

Apr 10, 2012: Season 1 Images Surface from Robert Meyer Burnett
Free Enterprise director Robert Meyer Burnett may be a familiar name to those of you who have been scrutinizing the internet for news on the TNG Remastered project. Burnett tweeted a number of comments last year regarding the aspect ratio debate, mentioning how he thought TNG looked fantastic in a widescreen 16:9 ratio transfer. Fast forward to 2012 and Burnett is now working on creating documentaries for the TNG Season 1 Blu Ray set and has been tweeting once more, this time from the TNG Blu-Ray edit suite. He has released two separate stills from the Season 1 set – the first showing a remastered Crystalline Entity in “Datalore” and the second a still from Ligon II in “Code of Honor”.

#12 Friends was shot in 4×3 right?

What is this “Start Rek”?

“Gone With The Wind” was converted to widescreen for its 1967 theatrical re-release. The conversion was accomplished by simply snipping off some of the top and bottom of the frame. When the pic was run on TV, starting in 1976, it was shown in its correct ratio of 4:3.
“Law & Order” started shooting in 16X9 for its fourth season in 1993. Prior to that, it was shot in standard 4:3 ratio. TNT’s HD channel runs the first three seasons in widescreen. Probably by blowing the picture up, as it doesn’t look stretched. The syndicated versions (seen weekends on local stations in the U.S.) use the original aspect ratios.

Ah, this argument reminds me of the old days of pan and scan vs. letterbox format on VHS.

“What are those black bars at the top and bottom? Is there something wrong with the movie?”

“That’s the original shape of the movie, Grandma. That’s the way it’s supposed to be watched. You get to see ALL of the movie, without it being cropped to fit the shape of our TV.”

“Oh. Okay.”

She understood.

#7 fiercy.

You are clearly the Ignorant one.
If you had any idea of what the original film looks like & how much excess image they had on the frame you would know they could easily re crop for widescreen without loosing any image, unless they had a mic in shot or something.

unlike other 4:3 shows only on video, the remastering of TNG from original negative process allows re-cropping.

I have seen some of the original negatives & it is easily done.

I asked about this widescreen issue in interview with Okuda back in January…here is a reminder…

TrekMovie: That brings up an issue that has been brought up by some fans who are wondering why this set is not being done in widescreen. Some believe the original film elements have more information on them and it could be done in widescreen without cropping. Is that possible?

Mike Okuda: First of all, it is our very strong desire is to respect the original work by the original directors and cinematographers. By cropping and letterboxing, we change the composition. You make things appear bigger and more crowded. It is true that in some shots – not all – but in some shots there is additional information on the film. But then again you are changing the original intention.

Denise Okuda: And in a lot of cases there are things that aren’t intended to be seen – sandbags, light stands, whatever – on the sides. The major thing is that we want to preserve the composition and the look of what the original filmmakers wanted to offer.

#18

And 9 times out of 10, there WILL be a mic in the shot. Or a crew member. Or other equipment. So it’s kinda moot, ya know? They can’t just recrop part of an episode. These were shot for 4×3, with 4×3 viewing in mind. I would love it if they could do these in 16:9, but it isn’t going to happen.

@ #3,5,10,13,14 Craiger:

16:9 (1.78:1) was invented specifically as a compromise between the 4:3 (1.33:1) and 2.35:1 aspect ratios. It is the geometric mean between those two ratios. So, far from looking stupid on an HDTV, 4:3 images (the first half century of cinema and TV before the mid-90s) look exactly as they’re supposed to look. A pillarboxed 4:3 image on an HDTV has the same amount of picture real estate as a letterboxed 2.35:1 image on an HDTV.

You need to understand that TNG was shot in an era before television directors of photography began protecting for 16:9 (1987-1994). They did not use a 16:9 ground glass (framing marks) in their camera’s viewfinders. Friends did. That’s why it can be put on Blu-ray in 16:9… because they protected for both 4:3 and 16:9.

TNG only used a standard 4:3 TV Transmitted Area ground glass. There is more image area on the negative, but not enough to do a 16:9 extraction without cropping the top and bottom of the frame… and not without revealing production equipment.

Here is an image of what the TNG camera negative looks like:

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3528/sttngframewithmarksnew.jpg

Look, TNG was filmed in the 4:3 aspect ratio. That’s the only way they could shoot it back then. There were no high-def cameras available.

Altering the scope would mean cutting out information around the top, bottom and sides if they blew it up, or cutting off the top and bottom if they were recutting the film into 16:9. Either way, you’d lose a sizeable portion of the picture.

They were able to do it with “Friends” because its not a visual-effects driven show. Its all about the characters. So no one is going to miss anything substantial.

Now, the better argument would be is for the space scenes to be in widescreen. CGI could have been used to enhance the ratio of the space scenes with more starfield on the left and right sides of the screen.

But for the live-action stuff, that just wouldn’t be possible.

@22 Red Dead Ryan:

High-def cameras aren’t really the issue here. Film cameras are fully capable of shooting in any desired aspect ratio… both then and now.

They were able to do 16:9 with “Friends” because it started after TNG ended (1994-2004) when television DPs began to protect for 16:9 which was becoming more common. So, there’s no picture info missing on that show’s presentation on Blu-ray. Just want to make that clear.

TNG, on the other hand, would have to be cropped — whether they extracted the 16:9 from the Academy Aperture or Full Camera Aperture areas (see my image above). It can’t be done without cropping… and not without revealing production equipment that wasn’t supposed to be seen (see the Okudas interview above).

That’s likely why the 16:9 TNG test Craiger refers to was rejected by CBS as being impractical and too costly.

So if they did TNG in 16×9 Anamorphic Widescreen you would see things like part of the camera, or say a ladder or other shooting props on the sides of the screen? This is anything shot before protecting for 16×9?

@ 24 Craiger:

That’s right. If they use more of the film beyond where the camera operators and DPs were framing, then there’s bound to be errant production equipment that would be visible. Sometimes they would even place masks in front of the camera lens to block studio lights from causing lens flares:

http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/9796/seasonfivebonus052.jpg

You can see the mask on the camera above in this screenshot from “Coming of Age”:

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/4661/10647v.jpg

Notice the shadow along the top and upper right of the image? For this particular angle, there’s no more picture left beyond what you see here.

***

Also, FYI, the term “anamorphic” only applies to 16:9 on DVD. Blu-ray is a square pixel format. DVDs are inherently 4:3, so the best way to put widescreen video on DVDs is to fill the 4:3 area with a distorted (tall) image and let the player stretch it out to 16:9. That’s called anamorphosis.

Justin were certain shows during the 1987 to 1994 using the 16:9 ground glass (framing marks) or was Friends the only one?

I forgot to thank you Justin for the 16:9 ground glass (framing marks) lesson. Learn something new everyday. :)

Most televisions can zoom into the picture at the press of a button. I have a Panasonic plasma that can and imagine most do…

the only series that should be released in widescreen is Enterprise

So how would one properly watch this with a 60inch LCD HDTV and a Blue-ray player?

@ 26 Craiger:

“Friends” began in ’94. Most other NBC shows at the time would have adopted the 16:9 standard, like “Sienfeld” and “ER”. According to TNG and DS9 DP Jonathan West, DS9 and VOY began to protect for 16:9 during seasons 6 & 7 and 5-7 respectively.

Re 16×9 Trek—-It is a shame if the producers weren’t forward thinking enough even though they were making a TV series about a forward- thinking future…
In the 1950’s many TV series such as Superman and the Lone Ranger knew color TV was coming and shot later seasons in color.
For God’s sake, Aaron Spelling knew things were going to change, shooting Charlie’s Angels and TJ Hooker in 16×9 and they now run fullscreen hidef on Universal HD..
Just a shame Trek’s people didn’t think in those terms- it certainly would not have cost any more $ to take those damn masks off of the cameras.
t was shortsightedness that we pay a premium price today for a sub- par product.
Does that make us just as stupid if we buy it? Afraid so. But we will.
Thank you sir, may I have another?

@ 30 Jimmy

Pillarboxed (with black bars on the sides) and overscan turned off (1:1 mode on your HDTV).

Justin Seinfeild started in 1990. I guess other shows like Everybody Loves Raymond were protected for 16×9 since it started in 1996. I wonder if shows switch to protected 16×9 by 1995 if they started before 1987 but lasted past 1995?

#32

Square does not make TNG sub-par; it’s just different.

The stories are still there to enjoy… or avoid… as case may be (this is Season 1 we’re talking about here).

The only Trek series that is in widescreen is “Enterprise”. TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY were all filmed in 4:3 ratio format.

32-

It’s sub-par because it’s in 4×3? Are you serious? Does that mean that every other program ever produced in 4×3 is somehow inferior?

As #35 said, the shape of the frame is irrelevant – it’s the stories that count.

And for those who just can’t stand the aspect ratio, use the setting on your TV that allows you to fill the whole screen.

@ 34. Craiger

Yes, later seasons of Seinfeld, ER, etc. (which started pre-1994) were protected for 16:9. All you have to do is pay attention when you watch a rerun in HD next time.

there is more than enough extra information on the original negatives that wasn’t used for a proper 16×9 version. in fact it could be done so that black bars would optionally appear on the sides and there would be little to no difference on the framing vs the dvd. Personally i think dead space (area with little content or activity) is better than black bars.

@ 34 Craiger:

I believe the ground glass they used for “Seinfeld” (in later seasons, most likely) is the center-top one in the image below. TNG would be lower left:

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/6510/35mmgroundglasses.jpg

I will say that I find 4×3 as preferable as 16×9.

My true preference would be 9×16 actually. I always turn my computer monitors vertically and play games this way full-screen… also much easier to read documents this way.

I feel like I see further top-to-bottom in real life than side-to-side… and there’s nothing like walking down a character down a hallway in vertical or seeing large sections of both the ground and the sky in outdoor shots.

I compared the episodes from the sampler disc and the bluray versions.. The bluray versions do contain more information then the dvd version (apart from having more pixels off course)
Here is a dvd version:
http://6.media.hyves-static.net/1468809901/6/YnIR/0/img1468809901.jpeg

And here the bluray version of the same shot:
http://8.media.hyves-static.net/1468809887/6/KfDn/0/img1468809887.jpeg

I coloured the parts that were added on the bluray shot. You can compare them if you want. So the screen is a tiny little bit more wider then it was.

I also liked the part from the series finale in “Enterprise” where they used a part from an episode menage a troy in Ten Forward for that episode? It was in 16:9 and it looked good. They cropped a little from the top and bottum but much less then you would expect, and stretched the image a few procent, but not enough to make it noticible. You could also see more information on the sides on that frames. Here is a beautifull comparison..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QETWFk4MPo

I’m convinced Patrick Stewart is the new Sean Connery. He’s aged about as much as he’s going to age and stopped.

I have a big screen HD TV and I bought The Next Level and plugged the discs in. I didn’t change anything but the picture filled the whole screen, no problem.

I was always on the team that wanted them to use a wider crop when possible to fill the screen up. But this is fine. I tried to set my tv to show it with the black on the sides and I couldn’t get it to do it.

I’m fine with what they did. It looks great.

Folks,

Regarding the idea of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION presented in 16×9 vs. the original 4×3…well, rest assured, that will be put to rest once and for all in the ENERGIZED! Feature on disc one of the S1 Blu-Ray set.

@45 Robert Meyer Burnett

Sounds great! Can’t wait to see it and your 95 minute documentary. Can you tell us anything about deleted scenes from “The Measure of a Man”… and how they’ll be presented?

@ 42 Erjay:

Thank you for the images.

You must keep in mind, though, that a lot of the extra picture on the left and right of the DVD image was taken up by the horizontal blanking interval, thin black vertical lines that are a by-product of the old, analog raster scanning process. In the digital realm, that translates to about 704 active horizontal pixels out of a possible 720.

And nitpicking here, but your blue overlay mask is just a little bit too big on the right. But, for the most part, it’s a good example of the extra image we’re getting.

Was it just me, or was that trailer not all that significantly different from the one used to promote “The Next Level” sampler disc?

On all my 4:3 dvd’s I upscale the picture size on my media player until it’s midway between 4:3 and 16:9, then I pan the picture down a bit so the tops of the actors heads don’t get chopped off. The end result is a picture that close to widescreen yet only crops off a barely noticeable portion of the bottom of the picture. This is how I will watch my blu-ray Next Gen vids even if it sacrifices picture resolution a bit, because no matter what people here say, 4:3 ratio really really sucks.

Waitaminute!

“DS9 and VOY began to protect for 16:9 during seasons 6 & 7 and 5-7 respectively.”

Does that mean we will get DS9 season 6 and 7 in widescreen??????