Season TWO OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

[Scotty]

Jaro Stun wrote:

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Nobody looking objectively at those screencaps can say they have the same level of detail as S1 did. At least not in effect shots.

*raises hand*

I can and I will. The live action footage is as good as the remastering of the first season. The look is slightly different because the lighting and cinematography were different in season 2. It looks absolutely fantastic. I love the dark look of the second season and it's faithfully reproduced here.

As for the effects shots, I don't see what most of you are complaining about. Furthermore, we have seen only a handful of effect shots, either in the trailer or the promotional photos from CBS. I hardly think it's enough to draw any conclusions about the quality of the remastering. Wait for the Blu Rays.

[TheSeeker]

I'm waiting for the Blu-ray, and agree that the live action stuff looks great, but I still think that the image from Peak Performance looks pretty bad. The detail is there but the compositing doesn't look very good at all.

[Ghostface1701]

LitmusDragon wrote:

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Wasn't season one the only season that ILM worked on? Could that account for the difference in F/x quality?

I'm not seeing anything too worrying in the released images so far. I'll reserve judgment until I'm watching it on my TV.

IIRC, ILM only worked on EaF, which included building up a library of shots for use during the entire series (they also did the lovely matte painting of Deneb IV that didn't need replacing). Otherwise the same F/X house (can't remember the name) worked on S2 as worked on S1.

[Sho]

Scotty wrote:

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As for the effects shots, I don't see what most of you are complaining about. Furthermore, we have seen only a handful of effect shots, either in the trailer or the promotional photos from CBS. I hardly think it's enough to draw any conclusions about the quality of the remastering. Wait for the Blu Rays.

Except you'd expect them to put their best feet forward in promo releases, and that Peak Performance still is really just not very good.

In the end there's no way I'm not buying this; I want TNG in HD, and that's what we're getting. Plus, the extras sound sweet. But I too am concerned about the remastering quality vs. S1 at this point.

[MickJo1701]

The live action footage looks great, there's no doubt of that. For most of the second season the actors looked like they suffered jaundice, now the skin tones and colours are better than they have ever been. The issue with the effects I feel is that CBS-D where faithful to the original, but improved and modernized them significantly at the same time. The same cannot be said from what we've seen so far from season 2. The new effects are practically carbon copies of what we had before but with clarity. The planets still look like they were produced in the 80's instead of the superior mattes produced by Max Gabl. The star fields look poor in comparison to the 'ILM stars' used in season 1.

Plain and simple, there should be somebody at CBS D who works with the people at HTV Illuminate to minimize the differences in the work they produce that affect the quality and continuity off the effects shots between the seasons. None of us really wants a repeat performance for season 4.

[BillJ]

Ghostface1701 wrote:

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IIRC, ILM only worked on EaF, which included building up a library of shots for use during the entire series (they also did the lovely matte painting of Deneb IV that didn't need replacing). Otherwise the same F/X house (can't remember the name) worked on S2 as worked on S1.

Was it "Image G"?

[Ghostface1701]

BillJ wrote:

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Was it "Image G"?

Sounds right. They did great work for the time and budget, as the S1 blu-rays prove.

[Maxwell Everett]

Ghostface1701 wrote:

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Sounds right. They did great work for the time and budget, as the S1 blu-rays prove.

It was kind of a group effort. After the pilot, Gregory Jein, Inc. made the miniatures, Image G did the motion control photography with the miniatures, Composite Image Systems (CIS Hollywood) did the bluescreen compositing and film transfer to tape, and Illusion Arts did the matte paintings. Then, all the graphics and other post-production VFX were assembled together over at The Post Group.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gregory_Jein
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Image_G
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/CIS_Hollywood
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Illusion_Arts,_Inc.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Post_Group

[Dac]

If you are writing a research project on forums I would have hoped you'd have read and understood the etiquette about posting on them. I'm sure many here would love to help you, but only if you make a separate thread in the relevant forum, not spamming up a completely unrelated thread.

Posting in Misc would probably be your best bet.

[groundhog]

I wonder if Paramount would ever do the same type of restoration of the movies?

[Harvey]

There would be no need. The motion pictures were mastered in 35mm; the only reason they're recompositing Star Trek: The Next Generation is because it was mastered on video.

It would be nice if they would give the movies a proper remaster, though.

[NewHorizon]

Harvey wrote:

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There would be no need. The motion pictures were mastered in 35mm; the only reason they're recompositing Star Trek: The Next Generation is because it was mastered on video.

It would be nice if they would give the movies a proper remaster, though.

The movies could benefit from recompositing too, especially The Motion Picture. Imagine that scene where the Big E orbits earth as the sun rises without matte lines. Gorgeous.

[TheSeeker]

Not to steel FrontierTrek's thunder, but here are some more screencaps from S2.

[Salinga]

I think, the miniature images, that take away the HD look, show, why I like the compositing of the old S2 this time better - they have more depth. The compositing of S2 in HD is just flat:



And hard shadows feel more natural in space, since there is no surface which bounces back the light at darker areas from below. So the flat lighting of the D makes no sense here.

[TheSeeker]

Yes. when you compare similar shots from S1 and S2 I think the S1 shot looks better.

S1 Shot

S2 Shot