Should the remastered episodes be released on DVD?

[Dream]

BillJ wrote:

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They were crap when they first came out. Especially when compared to other things being released on DVD.

Review that says the video was good

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/4979/...tion-season-5/

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Dream wrote:

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Review that says the video was good

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/4979/...tion-season-5/

A review written in November 2002...

I reviewed the sets back then as well, and you know why fans were raving about the image quality? It's because we were comparing them to the videos that we had just thrown out...

Let me quote what I wrote back then

Season 1

In terms of the DVD, I was not really expecting much improvement in the video quality on the disc compared to VHS if simply because of the lower resolution of the US television system, 525 as opposed to 625 lines in the UK. And as expected, the image is not all that sharp. In common with the X-Files discs the picture has a small degree of granularity, which I assume is due to the differing resolutions, but the picture is still a significant improvement on the VHS. The picture is noticeably sharper and the colours crisper. I noticed the grain in the leather of the chairs that was never apparent before. The effects again are clearer and in a rare few cases, ropier. The film stock has aged though, and a few scratches were apparent. It's hard to remember that 15 years ago, CGI was a glint in a programmer's eye and all the TNG shots were done optically. That meant copious usage of stock footage and low budget effects whenever possible. The kinds of expansive mass starship battles we expect from our sci-fi would be beyond most movie budgets back in 1987, let alone a weekly television show.

Season 3

US television blah blah blah. Lower resolution yadda yadda yadda. Tell me if you've heard this record before. Paramount do a sterling job with the transfer, and it's immediately apparent that Season 3 is a visible improvement over the previous releases. Paramount must have used different source material to master these discs. The image is stronger and the colours are more vibrant. Seasons 1 and 2 look softer and washed out in comparison. Once again the effects are significantly improved over the previous season, with the episodes looking more and more lavish. You can also see a trend beginning to prefer location shooting opposed to sets and matte paintings.

Season 5

The picture is your standard 4:3 regular ratio familiar from countless American television series. The transfer is perfectly adequate, matching the programme as I remember it first broadcast. In other words, low resolution and quite grainy from time to time. American television of the period was hardly pin-sharp, and as the years pass, I begin to wonder what The Next Generation would have looked like were it produced in hi-definition widescreen. I guess we'll never know.

Season 7

Once final time, I can whinge about how horrible US television from a bygone age looks like on DVD. A 4:3 transfer reflects the shows origins with a soft, grainy and low-resolution picture. Of course, if you have seen The Next Generation before, then this will come as no surprise by now. Stylistically, the shows final years saw the use of CGI to an increasing degree, and finally someone decided to have more realistic looking planets as opposed to those balls of pastel from the earlier seasons.

My initial squee at DVD quality, and compressing 13 tapes into 7 discs faded pretty quickly I guess...

[BillJ]

Dream wrote:

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Review that says the video was good

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/4979/...tion-season-5/

And not a single review site mentioned the glaring audio issues with the TNG-R set. So excuse me if I see them as nothing more than shills for the studios when it comes to high-profile releases.

[Dream]

I'll just say I've had my TNG and DS9 season dvds for years, and the video quality has never bothered me. But I have had my tv for years and it didn't cost thousands of dollars to buy.

[BillJ]

Dream wrote:

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I'll just say I've had my TNG and DS9 season dvds for years, and the video quality has never bothered me. But I have had my tv for years and it didn't cost thousands of dollars to buy.

My 1080p 40" LCD, bought back in 2009, cost me $569 before tax. My 1080p 3D 32" LCD, bought earlier this year, cost $369. I'm not sure where you're getting that people are paying thousands of dollars for HDTV's.

[The Laughing Vulcan]

I watched my TNG sets on a Sony 28 inch widescreen CRT, and found the quality to be better than VHS, but not as good as DVDs from film source.

Last year I got a 37 inch HD LCD TV and a Blu-ray home cinema (It cost me under a £1000 for the TV and Blu-ray BTW), and a few months later I started a rewatch of TNG (I'm up to S7 now) and I watched a couple of eps on the HD TV upscaled. I can't watch them that way. The quality is horrendous on a larger screen. I'm still watching them on the CRT, 5.1 audio be damned.

EDIT: I should add that I watch most of my DVDs upscaled onto the HD set now, just to see how many films I'm going to double dip on to upgrade to Blu-ray. It's been 18 months since I went HD, and so far I've only felt the need to upgrade around 20 DVDs to Blu, usually DVDs upscaled are good enough to watch.

[Nacluv]

Dream wrote:

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I'll just say I've had my TNG and DS9 season dvds for years, and the video quality has never bothered me. But I have had my tv for years and it didn't cost thousands of dollars to buy.

I couldn't care less about the picture quality in general. But I guess as a lifelong cineast who constantly quests for the rare and unappreciated masterpieces it has a lot do with habits.

Of course, I prefer quality prints on DVD rather than an old VHS tape where the color is out of the place and the sound is distorted. The point is that the discordances between DVD and Bluray is nugatory to me. I think that sometimes some people tend to embellish the superior "experience" of Blu-ray to exorbitances. There are differences, of course, but it's not SOO big as some people seems to make it.

I'm abhorred by comments such as "What? It's not on Bluray? Well I don't want to watch this with crappy picture!" and I can't help comparing it to the classic "What? It's older than 2002? I don't want to watch an old boring movie!"

I have to admit though that my biggest concern regarding the accretive popularity of Blu-ray is a personal one as a lifelong movie buff. If this fixation of Blu-ray also would start to infect the smaller distribution companies, that could distract them from distributing movies who have never been released on DVD (or VHS) before. And they might get too preoccupied with replacing their former releases with higher resolution rather than replacing something much more important, such as dubbing. There are unfortunately a great deal of foreign movies that only exists in dubbing form, which is pretty sad IMO.

I have nothing against Blu-ray really, I just don't want the small difference between Blu-ray and DVD to become a distraction from elements that are actually much more important. That they are so consumed by the superior resolution of Blu-ray that they forget about adding more language options and bonus material.

[Nacluv]

Dream wrote:

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They weren't crap. TNG dvds were first released in 2002. They were fine for when they first came out, but not now obviously now that televisions have gotten so much better.

It is really outrangous that Paramount is still selling all Trek season dvd sets for $50 each after ten years though!

The 2011 box was actually the cheapest alternative for me, though I'd really prefer the 2002 editions.

[BillJ]

The Laughing Vulcan wrote:

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EDIT: I should add that I watch most of my DVDs upscaled onto the HD set now, just to see how many films I'm going to double dip on to upgrade to Blu-ray. It's been 18 months since I went HD, and so far I've only felt the need to upgrade around 20 DVDs to Blu, usually DVDs upscaled are good enough to watch.

The only things that got replaced in my collection is Star Trek (which I own on DVD and I have all of the Blu-ray releases), Star Wars and Stargate (the movie). My wife replaced her Scream DVD's (which were eyesores) and she would grab Buffy the Vapire Slayer if it ever is reissued.

There are certain things I want the absolute best picture and sound quality.

[Mott the barber]

For those that are saying they wouldn't just mind TNG-R on DVD... how many of you have seen TNG-R on Blu-Ray through HDMI connected to a 1080p HDTV?

If you haven't yet...you should.

If you have... I'm dumbfounded.

[RandyS]

Oso Blanco wrote:

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I'd be all for it, if they left the original fx intact.

They more or less did. Check out TrekCore's screencap section and you'll see. The new effects are both obvious, but at the same time look so close to the original versions that there is no problem.

That said, I wouldn't mind having the bonus stuff on DVD. I'm referring now to the audio commentaries and the extended version of the second season Data on trial episode (I'm actually drawing a blank on the title, of a TNG episode no less, can you believe THAT.), because I will never upgrade to Blue Ray. It came out WAAAAAY too soon.

DVD is just fine, thank you.

[Dream]

Nacluv wrote:

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The 2011 box was actually the cheapest alternative for me, though I'd really prefer the 2002 editions.

Are you talking about the US versions?

The 2007 box set has terrible packaging. The green plastic dvd cases fall apart after using it a few times according to many reviews on Amazon.

I'd rather have the original 2002 silver season boxes. They might be bulky, but they are really durable and look really nice on a shelf!

[Dream]

RandyS wrote:

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That said, I wouldn't mind having the bonus stuff on DVD. I'm referring now to the audio commentaries and the extended version of the second season Data on trial episode (I'm actually drawing a blank on the title, of a TNG episode no less, can you believe THAT.), because I will never upgrade to Blue Ray. It came out WAAAAAY too soon.

The Measure of a Man.

[Start Wreck]

BillJ wrote:

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It was only a matter of time before we started seeing Blu-ray exclusives... I'm just surprised it took this long.

It's not really exclusive. It's the same content as the DVDs (minus some special features); it's just been remastered. Aren't there lots of films that get remastered for Blu-ray that don't get a DVD re-issue?

(Granted, most remasters aren't quite so exhaustive and complicated as this!)

[Jaro Stun]

Depends on the market. The more money this thingy makes the better, so I would say yes. Bluray is still kinda geeky thing, while DVD is absolute mainstream.