Rumor: TNG-HD is a-coming

[AviTrek]

RAMA wrote:

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I still feel the example of the actual aired HD version of STNG from TATV is all you need to make a decision on if the 16:9 format is for you...it seems to work.

RAMA

The problem is TATV wanted a 16x9 Ten Forward shot and had 178 episodes to choose from. When redoing a given episode the producers only have the existing shot to use.

I have no doubt that in 178 episodes the producers could find one shot where the available material cropped from either side combined with the ability to crop from the top and bottom enabled the producers to create a decent looking 16x9 framing. It's possible that the majority of the shots would work. It's even possible that 95% of the filmed material is usable in 16x9.

But even at 95%, that still means 2 minutes of footage per episode will not work or will look very poor. You may be willing to accept a bad 2 minutes in order to have 16x9 for the entire episode. Personally, I'd rather have 4x3 and not have those 2 minutes where it's obvious that a poor crop occurred.

[Butters]

MrPointy wrote:

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Screw this form of canon.

I can appreciate the model work of TNG well enough, but budget limitations forced them to reuse the same models many times and it looks cheap. It makes the show look poor, and if you had to properly nerd out about the matter, it makes the Feds look poor. From a canonical perspective, the Miranda-class and Excelsior-class vessels being used in the 24th century are nearly 100 years old. Why the hell couldn't they reuse the Ambassador model more than once?

The Federation are a cheap bunch of bastards.

TBH I did enjoy the visual continuity with the movie era that the older ships brought, but it did imply a prolonged period of stagnation where very little progress was made. Replacements for the miranda and excelsior class would have to walk that fine line between cool & new, but not quite as cool as the Galaxy class, seeing as thats the brand new state of the art flagship. Excelsior is also my fav design, so it has to stay.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Dukhat wrote:

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And don't even get me started on Klingon ships

Since the Klingons apparently stole most of their early spaceflight technology (from the Hur'q), it does seem to make sense that they use a lot of old ships. It's all they know how to build.

[Dac]

Hey, I said replacing some of the Excelsior's of the week with New Orleans/Springfield and Cheyenne class ships - all designs that already exist and have already appeared in TNG (as part of the debris field in BoBW). They already exist in The Encyclopedia and behind the scenes as fleshed out designs of that era, so if you ask me it makes sense to see them sometimes where we saw Excelsior's, Miranda's and Oberth's galore.

If your going to remaster something which was crippled in the first place, why not go back and spruce it up a bit? "Canon" bitchers can go fuck themselves. The original TNG episodes still exist, but they cannot be "uprezzed" to HD, hence the re-whatever that is apparently happening. Editing is just as much a creative process as writing, and so if the creators of this remastering see an area where an alteration could be made to improve the show, then I'm all for it.

I'm not saying we make the Enterprise-D into a JJ-Verse slick backed Apple product, nor am I saying we should make the camera work shaky and handheld like in NuBSG. All I want to see is elements from that show rearranged to work better together with a visual flare that was not available in the 80s. Hell, if Mike Okuda produces this he'd be in a better position than he was in for TOS-R as he actually DID work on TNG. So all this talk of young whippersnappers coming in and ruining the visual effects of something which wasn't as good as it could have been in the first place is something that boggles my mind.

Some of you would no doubt scream heresy if they digitally removed some of the cardboard panels seen on screen covering up reflections of the camera crew in bridge shots.

[BillJ]

Dac wrote:

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The original TNG episodes still exist, but they cannot be "uprezzed" to HD...

I don't know... the episodes look pretty decent up-scaled to 1080p on my 40" LCD.

[ATimson]

JarodRussell wrote:

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Additionally, a remastered bluray will cause the original DVDs to be replaced by remastered DVDs, too. And there you have the Star Wars SE situation. Nobody can buy the original releases anymore.

It didn't happen with TOS; why would it happen with TNG?

[Dac]

BillJ wrote:

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I don't know... the episodes look pretty decent up-scaled to 1080p on my 40" LCD.

I don't know, when you see a scanned 35mm master shot, in 1080p played off a Blu ray disc, I'm positive that upscale will look downright horrible in comparison.

If a properly done restoration from the original negatives is how they do it, and it doesn't look like day and night when it comes to quality, I sir owe you a cookie.

[Skywalker]

Put them up against a fully remastered 1080p transfer on Blu-ray, and they won't look very decent anymore.

ETA: Ninja'd by Dac!

[Dac]

Dammit, should've let Skywalker do it, then I wouldn't have wagered a precious cookie!

[BillJ]

The whole argument is that Next Gen can't be shown in HD, which simply isn't true. I've watched the DVD's on my 1080p set, I've also watched the show on BBC America HD, WGN America HD and SyFy HD. While it's not as crisp as TOS on Blu-ray, it's also not unwatchable as some on here suggest.

Too get me to buy this series again on video they're going to have to do something truly special with it.

[Butters]

BillJ wrote:

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Too get me to buy this series again on video they're going to have to do something truly special with it.

Precisely the point. A shot for shot recreation just won't bring home the bacon.

Edit: Just noticed you said video. HD on Video...

[BillJ]

Butters wrote:

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Precisely the point. A shot for shot recreation just won't bring home the bacon.

Edit: Just noticed you said video. HD on Video...

Video is just the catch-all term I use for home releases.

[Dac]

BillJ wrote:

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The whole argument is that Next Gen can't be shown in HD, which simply isn't true. I've watched the DVD's on my 1080p set, I've also watched the show on BBC America HD, WGN America HD and SyFy HD. While it's not as crisp as TOS on Blu-ray, it's also not unwatchable as some on here suggest.

Too get me to buy this series again on video they're going to have to do something truly special with it.

Any SD show broadcast on a HD channel is not HD. Here in the UK any SD show on a HD channel is shown in its original format with black bars all over the place if need be. Same with a DVD played in an up-scaling player (which I assume is what you mean). It looks good, the normal DVDs look good on a normal DVD player, but a *proper* restoration should look streets ahead.

[Dac]

And TNG can't be shown in HD because it doesn't exist in HD. How many more times are we going to play this game?!

[BillJ]

Dac wrote:

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And TNG can't be shown in HD because it doesn't exist in HD. How many more times are we going to play this game?!

We all know it was finalized in 480i back in the 80's/90's. But that doesn't stop it from being broadcast by HD providers nor does it stop it from being watched on HD displays. As is.

Whether or not you can enjoy it under those limitations is up to you.