Rumor: TNG-HD is a-coming

[Harvey]

I don't see the benefit of just re-mastering some of the episodes -- that might be enough to put on home video, but it wouldn't be enough to widely syndicate. If CBS is going to make the investment of getting a team together to re-scan the negatives and build CGI assets, that's an awfully big investment to make on such a limited prospect as a "Best of" DVD or Blu-Ray.

[RAMA]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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It's been done before with polls from the official startrek.com website asking which episodes fans liked the most for the Fan Collective DVD sets:
Star Trek - Fan Collective: Borg
Star Trek Fan Collective - Time Travel
Star Trek Fan Collective - Captain's Log
Star Trek - Fan Collective: Q
Star Trek: Fan Collective - Klingon

now on that website's forum there are polls asking:
Best Season of TNG

Best TNG two-parter

Poll: Remastered TNG
Is it time to remaster TNG with improved special effects and space scenes yet?

It's possible from these polls some best of TNG Blu-ray would come out first instead of season 1's 25 episodes totalling 60 hours.

Its possible because some fan favorites were done for the TOS-R episdoes first.

OMG...2nd season is coming out on top of the poll so far??? Thats crazy, it was by FAR the worst!

RAMA

[RAMA]

RAMA wrote:

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OMG...2nd season is coming out on top of the poll so far??? Thats crazy, it was by FAR the worst!

RAMA

Oh there are only 5 respondents so far.

[evilnate]

The scale of this project, if the rumors are true, is absolutely mind-boggling to me. TOS-R was a multi-year project, involving less than half the number of episodes, and far fewer effects per-episode. TOS-R didn't have to redo every effect, nor did they have to essentially put each episode back into post-production to complete it. Makes me think that if this project does happen and that we're going to see HD remasters that there are going to be serious corners being cut. I recall a story from a year or two ago which suggested that CBS Digital was looking at some new upscaling technology for this project, and I'm worried that that's what we'll get: something that looks slightly better than that awful looking upscaled DS9 episode that was on the TOS blu-rays.

[Skywalker]

I think that, if CBS are indeed remastering TNG, they will take every precaution not to screw it up. It's in their best long-term interests to make sure they do it right.

[evilnate]

Skywalker wrote:

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I think that, if CBS are indeed remastering TNG, they will take every precaution not to screw it up. It's in their best long-term interests to make sure they do it right.

On that point, I agree. However, I don't think that CBS-D has the talent to do it in-house like they did with TOS-R. TOS-R was a fun way to revisit the series and I'm happy to own the blu-rays. However, the CGI was lacking in many areas, most notably in the the lighting, and made many of the shots poor to downright bad. However, it's difficult to argue that they're not an improvement on a technical level (but not an artistic one) over the effects that were being replaced. 40 years of special effects advancements will have that effect!

However, that's why I don't have high hopes for this project if it's done in the same manner as TOS-R. CBS-D didn't show the artistic ability to come close to matching the lighting and detail of the original shots that are present in TNG. I've been rewatching TNG and for the most part, there is nothing really wrong with most of the effects, except they're stuck at a low resolution. CBS-D, from what we saw from TOS-R is going to have a hard time even coming close to replicating the effects in CGI. Preferably they'll farm it out to a better f/x house, but more than likely they'll just do it on the cheap, and people will complain about it for years.

[billcosby]

I can't see how they could screw it up. Are there any "Greedo shoots first" moments in TNG?

[evilnate]

billcosby wrote:

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I can't see how they could screw it up. Are there any "Greedo shoots first" moments in TNG?

Not yet!

[Skywalker]

evilnate wrote:

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Not yet!

"Mr. Worf..."

*The Borg cube opens fire first*

"Fire!"

[evilnate]

Skywalker wrote:

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"Mr. Worf..."

*The Borg cube opens fire first*

"Fire!"

What will be worse than that will be the scene that they'll add back in to BOBW. After Picard has his talk with Guinan in Ten-Forward, we see him walking the passageways of the Enterprise. Riker finds him and then they repeat the scene with Guinan only in a slightly different way. Then Ensign Ro will walk into the scene and look into the camera for no apparent reason.

[RAMA]

evilnate wrote:

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The scale of this project, if the rumors are true, is absolutely mind-boggling to me. TOS-R was a multi-year project, involving less than half the number of episodes, and far fewer effects per-episode. TOS-R didn't have to redo every effect, nor did they have to essentially put each episode back into post-production to complete it. Makes me think that if this project does happen and that we're going to see HD remasters that there are going to be serious corners being cut. I recall a story from a year or two ago which suggested that CBS Digital was looking at some new upscaling technology for this project, and I'm worried that that's what we'll get: something that looks slightly better than that awful looking upscaled DS9 episode that was on the TOS blu-rays.

Well there are NO ST series on the air right now, so if you simply consider this as a replacement project for any new ST series, then it really isn't that big of a deal for CBS. Its just like having another series.

RAMA

[Start Wreck]

Harvey wrote:

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I don't see the benefit of just re-mastering some of the episodes -- that might be enough to put on home video, but it wouldn't be enough to widely syndicate. If CBS is going to make the investment of getting a team together to re-scan the negatives and build CGI assets, that's an awfully big investment to make on such a limited prospect as a "Best of" DVD or Blu-Ray.

Exactly! Economics of scale.

I'm excited by the prospect of seeing the original film elements in their full glory! It's going to look utterly fantastic! And as an added bonus, there's bound to be loads of deleted scenes and goofs that we've never seen before. There must be hours and hours of footage that's never been seen anywhere else.

In terms of adding new elements, I would love it if we could see some different shots of the Enterprise, rather than recreating all the same stock shots again. I suppose if they do use CGI for this project, then creating new shots is inevitable. I look forward to it!

Also, I want them replace the Angel One matte paintings with brand new cityscapes. Please!! It's vitally important!

[RAMA]

Start Wreck wrote:

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Exactly! Economics of scale.

I'm excited by the prospect of seeing the original film elements in their full glory! It's going to look utterly fantastic! And as an added bonus, there's bound to be loads of deleted scenes and goofs that we've never seen before. There must be hours and hours of footage that's never been seen anywhere else.

In terms of adding new elements, I would love it if we could see some different shots of the Enterprise, rather than recreating all the same stock shots again. I suppose if they do use CGI for this project, then creating new shots is inevitable. I look forward to it!

Also, I want them replace the Angel One matte paintings with brand new cityscapes. Please!! It's vitally important!

I don't mind the Angel One matte, but they did re-use it a few times.

RAMA

[SoM]

Harvey wrote:

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I don't see the benefit of just re-mastering some of the episodes -- that might be enough to put on home video, but it wouldn't be enough to widely syndicate. If CBS is going to make the investment of getting a team together to re-scan the negatives and build CGI assets, that's an awfully big investment to make on such a limited prospect as a "Best of" DVD or Blu-Ray.

But as an advance? i.e., they put out DVD/Blu-Ray of, say, BotW/Family and Unification (5 episodes, one - Family - practically a "bottle show" for effects). They then plough that money back into the major remastering effort, with several major assets - the Ent-D model, Borg Cube model, Warbird and some others - now effectively paid for, and some major stock shots fully rendered.

[Butters]

RAMA wrote:

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I don't mind the Angel One matte, but they did re-use it a few times.

RAMA

Wasn't there a second matte of this particular cityscape used in another episode, the same style buildings, only from an other angle?

It was the cityscapes in TNG that fueled my young imagination, and its this area that a redo could most excel.