Season TWO OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

[StewMc]

FrontierTrek wrote:

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The cropping was just a result of the steep learning curve the team had to traverse at the start of the project. I've been told that apart from the 13 seconds of missing footage found that will be reinserted, the episode won't be changed for Season 3.

Bit disappointing, I can only assume that the reason for that is that they don't have an uncropped version saved, and would have to rescan the negatives again? I suppose its not the end of the world, the only reason I noticed originally is because the production credits after the opening titles were so close to the bottom of the image.

[BillJ]

StewMc wrote:

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Bit disappointing, I can only assume that the reason for that is that they don't have an uncropped version saved, and would have to rescan the negatives again? I suppose its not the end of the world, the only reason I noticed originally is because the production credits after the opening titles were so close to the bottom of the image.

Which is weird. Did they crop the image after adding the new opening titles?

[StewMc]

BillJ wrote:

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Which is weird. Did they crop the image after adding the new opening titles?

Good question. If they had added them after the crop, presumably they wouldn't be as far down, unless they were using the original tape version of the episode as a kind of trace so that they appear in the same position and at the same time as the originals. But if that were the case you'd think someone would clock at that point that something major was wrong with the cropping of the new transfer. And, IIRC, not every shot is cropped is it, I think footage that has FX is uncropped?

Don't suppose we know if CBS are keeping the scanned raw footage files after they have finished each episode?

[Maxwell Everett]

StewMc wrote:

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Good question. If they had added them after the crop, presumably they wouldn't be as far down, unless they were using the original tape version of the episode as a kind of trace so that they appear in the same position and at the same time as the originals. But if that were the case you'd think someone would clock at that point that something major was wrong with the cropping of the new transfer. And, IIRC, not every shot is cropped is it, I think footage that has FX is uncropped?

Don't suppose we know if CBS are keeping the scanned raw footage files after they have finished each episode?

We know they're keeping them, or we wouldn't have seen images like this:



What's commonly done is that the ENTIRE Full Camera Aperture is scanned at 2K (2048 x 1556) and then they make their 1440 x 1080 cropped version from that. So, in the case of "Sins of the Father" CBS is just being stubborn about it -- refusing to re-adjust the framing for the episode. They consider it done... probably because most of the episode doesn't get any tighter than "action safe", so they feel justified in leaving it alone -- even though it's inconsistent with the VFX shots in the episode and every other episode they're doing.

[NewHorizon]

Extremely disappointed that they're not fixing it. Sure they have a schedule to keep, but come on.

[dg1379]

I never even noticed the cropping. I'll have to watch it again and pay closer attention.

[Mr_Homn]

FrontierTrek wrote:

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The cropping was just a result of the steep learning curve the team had to traverse at the start of the project. I've been told that apart from the 13 seconds of missing footage found that will be reinserted, the episode won't be changed for Season 3.

Not doubting what you are saying at all, but "steep learning curve" seems like a silly excuse. It's just a simple matter of cropping the image correctly from the raw footage. I don't see how that is difficult to understand/implement.

[FrontierTrek]

Whilst I understand your views, it's important to remember that the budget is incredibly tight for this project. If CBS went back to re-scan the whole episode (which may be the case if their original scanning was cropped for non-FX scenes), the time and expense would be HUGE. What's more, it would divert funds and man-hours away from other episodes which wouldn't benefit as much as they would have done otherwise.

In perspective, "Sins" is still perfectly watchable, and as someone pointed out - it was only really noticed through looking at the credits text.

[Mott the barber]

FrontierTrek wrote:

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Whilst I understand your views, it's important to remember that the budget is incredibly tight for this project. If CBS went back to re-scan the whole episode (which may be the case if their original scanning was cropped for non-FX scenes), the time and expense would be HUGE. What's more, it would divert funds and man-hours away from other episodes which wouldn't benefit as much as they would have done otherwise.

In perspective, "Sins" is still perfectly watchable, and as someone pointed out - it was only really noticed through looking at the credits text.

Agreed. Id rather they keep moving forward at this point.

[NewHorizon]

Doesn't make sense to me that they wouldn't keep a pristine copy of the new scans backed up somewhere. All of that work scanning them only to hit 'delete' afterward? It would only make sense to keep the full scans for potential future projects.

[SNogueira]

FrontierTrek wrote:

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Whilst I understand your views, it's important to remember that the budget is incredibly tight for this project. If CBS went back to re-scan the whole episode (which may be the case if their original scanning was cropped for non-FX scenes), the time and expense would be HUGE. What's more, it would divert funds and man-hours away from other episodes which wouldn't benefit as much as they would have done otherwise.

In perspective, "Sins" is still perfectly watchable, and as someone pointed out - it was only really noticed through looking at the credits text.

OK, let's hope it is part of their learning curve to first compose the episodes with full aperture and then leaving the cropping for after they ended -- and properly saved -- a full aperture version. If that was done in the first place, it would be piece of cake to create multiple cropped versions, without spending so many man-hours.

Interviewer, since you're talking so much with them, do you know if they are making 16x9 versions (cropped, as the docs suggest) for syndication purposes?

[asp7485]

Whoah! Check out this tweet from Roger Meyer Burnett:

"This dude in this STAR TREK PHASE II footage is totally wearing a LOGAN'S RUN costume. #TNGS2"

So, we are getting some Phase II footage on the Season 2 bluray??

https://twitter.com/BurnettRM/status/250778609638322176

[davejames]

FrontierTrek wrote:

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In perspective, "Sins" is still perfectly watchable, and as someone pointed out - it was only really noticed through looking at the credits text.

Agreed. It's not like there's anything terribly important we're missing around the edges, and the picture still looks as sharp as ever.

That's more than good enough for me.

[Dream]

davejames wrote:

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Agreed. It's not like there's anything terribly important we're missing around the edges, and the picture still looks as sharp as ever.

That's more than good enough for me.

Be glad they didn't screw up on the Best of Both Worlds episodes or something.

[Brikar99]

Dream wrote:

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Be glad they didn't screw up on the Best of Both Worlds episodes or something.

The nerdrage around the world on that one would be hideous.