Looks like DS9 will not get Blu Ray

It is really starting to look like that DS9 will not get blu ray and it is sad.

 

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=231961

 

Do you have anything to base that on, or just pessimism?

.

 

The DS9 on Blu thread is back, let us debate the fall of physical media, the business case for Blu Rays of DS9, the whole thing...again and again forever...

Wait a minute, this isn't the real DS9 on Blu thread... IT'S A FAAKKE!!

 

Next year is the 50th Anniversary of Trek and they're going to need merchandise to sell. TNG on Blu-Ray is still too fresh, so putting out a repackaging of it wouldn't be profitable. Paramount might finally give the existing films the proper HD restoration they deserve, but CBS (which owns the rights to the television series) doesn't have anything else to pony up. TOS, TNG, and ENT have already been restored. Therefore I am cautiously optimistic that we'll see some movement for the remaining Blu-Rays next year.

 

I think we'll see The Animated Series on Blu-ray before we see either Deep Space Nine or Voyager. The cost outlay for such a project would be far less.

 

Don't be. It's been said by so many, that the costs don't outweigh the sales. Never will. There is NO reason to be even 1% of cautiously optimistic. Hell, actual remasters of the movies are not in the cards, simply because they will never sell enough to justify the costs.
TNG Remaster has NOT sold well enough, and to remaster DS9 would be a lot more costly then TNG ever was, with DS9 having a more limited market.

CBS isn't about pleasing fans. They're not sitting there thinking 'you know, those Niners are so cool, let's do them a favour even though it's gonna costs us shitloads of dollars'.

I know I'm sounding harsh and like a d***. But the thing is, this has been made clear so often, and still people are saying 'it might happen'.

No. Simply, clearly........ no.

 

I'd settle for the bargain basement upgrades - go back to the filmed live action stuff, upscale and digitally sharpen the lo res FX shots, tweak where necessary.

There probably wouldn't even be enough sales to justify that...

 

You know, when you have a thread title like this:

And then all you say is this:

That tends to be really annoying. Because the title implies that you have some kind of legitimate source for this information, which you clearly don't. Yeah, the chances of DS9 or VOY getting the HD treatment are almost nonexistent, but we all already knew that. You could have just aired your discontent in the thread topic about remastering DS9 if all you wanted to do was say how sad you felt about it.

 

P.S. this is actually the third thread regarding DS9 in HD. I created the first one. The link above is to the second one.

 

I was disappointed that "Trials and Tribble-ations" included as a bonus feature in the TOS Season 2 blu-ray was just DVD-quality standard definition video.

Kor

 

I actually made one as well asking if they were doing a repackage or blue ray, as it seems the complete ds9 dvd series set has been discontinued.

 

Common sense?

 

Someone on blu-ray.com wrote to CBS. They said they had no plans to do DS9. The title of this thread seems on target:

I sent an e-mail to one of the addresses at this site. Got a response two days later. Here's what it said:

"I appreciate your comments and unfortunately, a Blu-Ray release for ‘Deep Space Nine’ is not slated at this time. Thank you!"

By the way, I received that e-mail on April 8, 2015. Total bummer, but still hoping they don't completely rule it out sometime in the future.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=241978&page=22

 

This.

The OP is correct that it is sad. But his/her sadness isn't gonna make a sasquatch of difference to the end result that, put simply, TNG's sales failed to meet expectations, so it'll be a cold day in hell before DS9 or VOY ever get the same treatment.

As for the 50th anniversary, the most we can hope for IMHO is a true remaster of the movies. But, again, given Paramount has taken the low road of re-releasing the six year old masters numerous times since, I don't expect ever that to happen. It'll probably just be another repackaging job.

 

I'm surprised the Animated Series hasn't hit Blu-Ray already as it was Remastered in High Definition back in 2006 for the DVD release, and we got a taste of the Remaster with the TOS Season 2 Blu Ray where the Tribble episode was in 1080p.

But with DS9 and Voyager they probably will get a HD remaster in the future, since besides Blu-Ray, HD versions are going to be of more interest to TV stations around the globe. Right now it's like back in the 60's when color TV was coming out: if they were going to run an old show during the summer, or as a mid-season replacement, the show's or season's shot in color (I.E. Adventures Of Superman Seasons 3-6) would be more in demand and command higher re-run fees than a show or season in black & white (Superman Seasons 1 & 2).

 

Problem being, we simply don't know how in demand DS9 and Voyager have been over the last decade. If there's been no real demand, CBS may not think that demand is going to grow going forward.

 

I just checked Space's listings here in Canada and Space is currently airing TNG and Voyager. And the last time that I had Space on my cable package (which was before the TNG Remaster) they were upconverting both TNG and Voyager to HD. At that time they were also airing TOS in it's 16:9 HD version. So I would assume that now that all of TNG is in HD, SPACE is probably paying a higher price per episode (unless CBS is still handling the sale of ad time, just like Paramount did back in the 80's and 90's, in which case both CBS & SPACE are able to charge more for the ad time), and they have most likely ditched the SD versions and are airing the HD versions. And out of all the shows that SPACE is currently airing, Voyager is probably the only show that I can see that is still Standard-Definition (Unless SPACE reruns old episodes of Doctor Who every now and then). (http://www.space.ca/Shows) Plus it's interesting how currently, Voyager currently holds the 5p.m. Eastern timeslot on the schedule (TNG currently holds the 4p.m. slot) every Monday to Friday; if I'm not mistaken that is when "Prime Time" is considered to start.

But there definitely is a market for CBS to remaster Voyager, and with DS9, it could be that they have interest, but because of it's status as a Standard-Definition show, that might be giving stations and advertisers "cold feet", especially if the cost to air the episodes is as high as they were when they were still in production (plus I remember that SPACE was still airing DS9 up til 2012, but then it was removed---I'm wondering if their contract on the series was up, and when they went to renew it, SPACE was hoping to get it for a little less than they had been paying, due to it being Standard-Definition---and that may be why DS9 is not airing anymore, the contracts for the stations to air it have expired, CBS wants a certain level of money, but stations and advertisers are refusing to pay it for a Standard Definition show).

 

In the U.S., Deep Space Nine hasn't aired since the Spike TV agreement expired in 2007 or 2008. Even then, it was rarely aired after Spike's first run through even though they had the exclusive rights to it and paid Paramount nearly a billion dollars for the rights to the 24th century series.

The stark reality may simply be that Deep Space Nine never gained any traction outside of a small, loyal fandom and the lackluster sales of TNG in HD likely was the nail in its already slim chances coffin.

Then the simple question for anyone broadcasting Star Trek is: how much Star Trek can be supported by OTA/cable audiences? Between TOS and TNG, there are already 250 episode ready for HD broadcast.