Rumor: TNG-HD is a-coming

[Flake]

I won't be totally 'at ease' with this project until I can see the first footage and see whether or not it is upscaled from SD or totally re-scanned from the 35mm film. Until then I will not be holding my breath in anticipation!

[Dac]

It'll be upscaled from the masters. Yes, that'll suck, but at the same time digitally cleaned up footage from the original reels should look MUCH better than the copies of copies we've had on TV and DVD for the past god knows how long.

[jefferiestubes8]

I think with the encounter at farpoint mention that would indicate cbs wants to start with season one if they are doing all seasons. It would take care of a double episode. It would have the ilm effects of the ent-D shots. It would introduce the show to people who have not seen it in the same way it was introduced in 1987.
4 episodes is an investment and not a full season of investment just yet. Maybe they want feedback. Maybe cbs wants to find out if in-house is the best way (err most cost effective) to go?

[RAMA]

How long has THIS been up?

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Next.../dp/B0019NG7SQ

[CaptainJack]

I have never bought any TNG dvd's even tho its my Favorite Series. But I CANT WAIT for this. Please do it right. Im all for expanding on and adding in different ship classes that they didnt do the first time. Heck. If all the FX ended up looking like Generations FX I'd be soooo happy.

[Hober Mallow]

Dac wrote:

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It'll be upscaled from the masters. Yes, that'll suck, but at the same time digitally cleaned up footage from the original reels should look MUCH better than the copies of copies we've had on TV and DVD for the past god knows how long.

There are no "reels" to remaster. Upscaling videotape will never look any better than "Trials and Tribble-ations" did on the TOS blu-ray. They have to reedit the original raw footage again or it won't be even close to HD. Apparently they think they've found a way to make this feasible, so we'll see what happens.

[Dac]

Hober Mallow wrote:

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There are no "reels" to remaster. Upscaling videotape will never look any better than "Trials and Tribble-ations" did on the TOS blu-ray. They have to reedit the original raw footage again or it won't be even close to HD. Apparently they think they've found a way to make this feasible, so we'll see what happens.

Ok, reels was a bad choice of words, but I mean they're working from the VHS tape (or equivalent of) master, as opposed to the original film negative because most of the negatives don't exist anymore.

Of course they've found a way to make it feasible, as I don't think Trials and Tribble-ations had any up-scaling/cleanup/enhancement work done short of just bumping up the resolution.

[bullethead]

Dac wrote:

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Ok, reels was a bad choice of words, but I mean they're working from the VHS tape (or equivalent of) master, as opposed to the original film negative because most of the negatives don't exist anymore.

Of course they've found a way to make it feasible, as I don't think Trials and Tribble-ations had any up-scaling/cleanup/enhancement work done short of just bumping up the resolution.

IIRC the TNG footage in TATV seemed to be taken from the original negatives.

[Dac]

And that footage was taken from an episode at the back end of Season 7, I'd be amazed if the early series' negatives even existed, let alone in a usable condition.

[bullethead]

Dac wrote:

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And that footage was taken from an episode at the back end of Season 7, I'd be amazed if the early series' negatives even existed, let alone in a usable condition.

Why? They had the negatives for TOS and that was from the 60s. I would imagine they would keep all the TNG stuff as well once Trek got big again.

And really, the only thing about early TNG that looks terrible are the VHS transfers, which aren't going to be used here.

[Dac]

bullethead wrote:

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Why? They had the negatives for TOS and that was from the 60s. I would imagine they would keep all the TNG stuff as well once Trek got big again.

And really, the only thing about early TNG that looks terrible are the VHS transfers, which aren't going to be used here.

They didn't have the negatives from TOS, they had the masters which were mastered on 35mm film, which is why they could just go back and rescan those masters at HD resolution. TNG was never mastered on film, which is why were having this discussion in the first place.


I'll bet you a million billion cookies that TNG-R is in fact upscaled SD masters.

[RAMA]

Dac wrote:

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They didn't have the negatives from TOS, they had the masters which were mastered on 35mm film, which is why they could just go back and rescan those masters at HD resolution. TNG was never mastered on film, which is why were having this discussion in the first place.


I'll bet you a million billion cookies that TNG-R is in fact upscaled SD masters.

Digital Bits goes into further detail as to why a high-definition remaster of The Next Generation is much more problematic than of the older Star Trek: The Original Series. TNG was shot on film, but all post-production and visual effects were done on standard-definition analog video. As Bits editor Bill Hunt states, "if they just simply digitally upconverted from 480i to 1080p, there's NOBODY who would want to buy that on Blu-ray". Therefore, the only solution left is to scan all the original camera negatives, edit it again in HD, and redo all FX using computer graphics, like CBS did with the remastered versions of The Original Series.

There were no "masters" but because the film negatives exist they could do the post-production from scratch, which in this case is expensive and time-consuming but also, ultimately the best way to go...with modern sound, music, FX etc. I recall Okuda said the FX don't exist (and couldn't be used anyway) but they probably have sound and music saved somewhere that can be used. I'm wondering if Levar had to show up to do some looping too.

Another current convo on blu-ray.com: http://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-mov...lu-ray-16.html

RAMA

[Maxwell Everett]

Dac wrote:

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And that footage was taken from an episode at the back end of Season 7, I'd be amazed if the early series' negatives even existed, let alone in a usable condition.

It was from "Ménage à Troi" in Season 3 and Okuda stated in 2009 that all the negatives still exist.

As far as we know, virtually all of the original camera negative from ST:TNG is still in storage. (We asked, several years ago.)

http://trekweb.com/stories.php?aid=4a08e9d0eaa47

Until recently, the negatives were probably stored in the Hutchinson Salt Mine in Kansas:

http://youtu.be/aDM_HrdRrio?t=2m35s

[TheSeeker]

I haven't purchased any TNG since I cancelled my subscription to the TNG Collector's Edition on VHS from Columbia House back in the 90s.

If this HD conversion looks as good as I hope it will my wife will have a hard time stopping me from buying it!

[gaghyogi49]

According to this site (careful! German!):

http://www.bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-ne...next-generatio

a four episode set of TNG episodes on Blu-ray will be released in Germany on December 15th. The episodes episodes will be "Encounter at Farpoint", "Sins of the father" and "The inner light".