Season TWO OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

My bad. I honestly thought Heart of Glory was a Season 2 episode.

 

No worries. I just wanted to let you know in case you were expecting a discussion about Season 1. Thanks.

 

Gotta throw something out there. Now that I am re-watching the series through these blu-rays, I wonder if Season 2 was Picards strongest season? Anyone agree with me? I think Stewart (as in the actor) was wonderful every season and is the heart of the show, but I think by Season 4-5 he was "Lightening up" or something, that I guess a lot of people like, but I never really did. But season 7, he was a smiling idiot in many episodes. I feel he "became" Stewart and less Picard.

Obviously, he was light years ahead of A-hole Picard from season 1, but when I think of his best speeches, they are invarialbly from Season 2. He seemed somewhat mean, but shouldn't a starship captian be a little mean to maintain discipline on a starship? I really love Season 2 Picard!!!

 

It would be a bit backwards after showing how Kirk commanded. I think it was Shatner that made the decision to have Kirk have a friendly demeanor after the reception Christopher Pike got. His idea is that in the future a commander could easily be friendly and maintain discipline on a starship. However, he would become harsh only when it was necessary such as his treatment of Stiles in "Balance of Terror". I feel A-Hole Picard was simply done just to make him different enough from Kirk, but they obviously backed away from that decision over time and I think for the better. There are a few touches I liked on Picard during the early season, such as in "Encounter at Farpoint" the red alert klaxon is going on and Picard shouts "shut off that damn noise!".

 

For anyone in Europe, or even in the States, who hasn't got season 2 yet and wants a copy, Amazon.co.uk have a few Italian copies (identical packaging but with Italian on the front and reverse) for £18. All the usual audio languages present on the episodes.

 

Slowly wading my way through season 2. God, some of the footage is appalling quality. Mainly dark scenes, but certainly not confined to them.

Regards the extended Measure of a Man, I have a question. If the extended footage really was gained from an old VHS tape (let's be kind and assume it was super duper quality studio master grade), why can't the same HD quality that was obtained from the SD tape through restoration, be obtained from the CBS video tapes for all the missing scenes from various other episodes in future seasons.

I can't believe that when the original filmed episodes were transferred to video for post production, editing etc that it gave a lower quality than what was on Snodgrass' Measure of a Man VHS.

There's two minutes of SD footage across season 5. OK, it's only two minutes, but if that's two minutes of the same upscaled quality I saw in BOBW, then I'd like to see some HD restoration from the video used to make the DVDs. Or will CBS do this in the future just to milk the fans for even more cash?

 

^ The extended cut wasn't transferred from an SD tape. What the SD tape gave them is a cut they could reassemble in HD from the film negatives, just like they reassemble the final cuts.

 

Obviously HTV has done quite a good (better) job on the x-files than on TNG.

Some of the remastered HD episodes had been shown on german pay-tv already yesterday, some examples of the pilot:

http://abload.de/img/vlcsnap-2014-01-20-210bkfk.png

http://abload.de/img/vlcsnap-2014-01-20-21fyjl2.png

http://abload.de/img/vlcsnap-2014-01-20-21nhj1d.png

http://abload.de/img/vlcsnap-2014-01-20-21e4jb9.png

http://i1.someimage.com/qTWfstz.png

http://i1.someimage.com/ZBTgP1c.png


Good job so far, seems they've learned.
Please keep in mind that's cable-TV with quite extensive compression level!

 

That looks pretty great! I was eagerly anticipating images of this debut broadcast. I assume it was aired with a German dub, correct? No original English audio? And what was the frame rate, 60i with 2:3 pulldown or 50i?

 

Dubbed, yes. No english audio.
It was shown at PAL speed, similar to the RC2 DVD.
So, a little bit faster than US-speed.
But that's the normal thingy with TV here in Europe, I guess.

But anyway, this was only the pilot and that's already a GREAT recommendation to get the Xfiles BD-sets imho. I will.

 

Thanks for the info! I guess I'll have to speed up the audio from my R1 DVDs if I ever run across these and attempt to remux.

Looks like the pilot AND "Deep Throat" based on those last two caps (more here). The pilot was shot by Thomas Del Ruth with standard "Academy Offset" 35mm cameras and framed for TV Trans 1.33:1. However, starting with the second episode, "Deep Throat," John S. Bartley took over as DP for the next three years and they switched to Super 35mm and protected for 1.78:1 while shooting for 1.33:1. So while the widescreen is certainly a compromise, they were at least conscious of it at the time of filming.

I wonder what the Blu-rays will be aspect ratio wise? This may only be for broadcast. Robert Meyer Burnett said HTV originally mastered them for 1.33:1, then went back to the negatives and did 1.78:1.

 

I know the shots. I did some of the others. I'm "Jan Tenner" there.

I've read that on the rumormill at digitalbits as well.
Not 100% sure, but it looks like FOX is going to release seasons 1 to 4 in 16:9 on BD.
If they do a good job with the scans and take care, it could work. Fingers crossed.

 

Ah, apologies! So these are your personal caps, then. Awesome! You guys are very lucky, the El-Rey Network is going to be showing X-Files starting Feb. 14th on DirecTV, but unfortunately the channel is only SD and I'm not entirely sure they'll even air the remasters.

 

Except for the last two ... yes.

Don't be too jealous, 7Maxx shows the eps with commercials, so it's not really THAT interesting, at least not to me.
But i'm quite happy to have gotten a glimpse of what the BDs will probably look like.
Only bad thing about this is that 2014 will be very BAD for my purse ... again.
But what the heck ... it's our "fetish", isn't it?

 

What's the issue many have with HTV's work on S2, other than the less than stellar composite work of the f/x models? The main footage with the actors looked great, at least I thought.

 

Take a look at any live action shot that had a bluescreen element, and it becomes a mess. They applied heavy digital noise reduction, perhaps to avoid the issue of matching the grain structure. No need to match the grain if they just wipe it all out. Here's an example from The Measure of a Man:

DNR:
http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x09/themeasureofaman_hd_076.jpg

Next shot, No DNR:
http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x09/themeasureofaman_hd_077.jpg

Next shot, DNR:
http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x09/themeasureofaman_hd_078.jpg

Next shot, No DNR:
http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x09/themeasureofaman_hd_079.jpg

Notice how the DNRed shots lose so much detail that they can be mistaken for upscaled SD. This occurs throughout the season. Also notice Wesley in The Dauphin:

DNR:
http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x10/thedauphin_hd_401.jpg

No DNR:
http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x10/thedauphin_hd_402.jpg

 

Forgot about that part, which is thankfully few and far between. Other than that, what are other issues you'd include?

 

I don't know about you, but sub-par compositing and heavy inconsistent DNR use count as two gigantic strikes against them, not things that are to be brushed aside with, "What else?"

 

What else? I'm glad to see some optimism. Those things take up less a tiny fraction of the season as a whole. Most of the time, it looks quite nice. Good color, heavy grain (I like grain), and generally good sharpness, except when there's a bluescreen.

But when it got bad, it got really bad, and things together were dealbreakers for some. I guess if I were to nitpick, they used the wrong film element (perhaps they lost the real one) in Where Silence Has Lease, regardless of the correct angle. And they used it over:

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x02/where_silence_has_lease_hd_214.jpg

And over
http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x02/where_silence_has_lease_hd_218.jpg

And over
http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x02/where_silence_has_lease_hd_233.jpg

And over again
http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x02/where_silence_has_lease_hd_284.jpg

 

The reason I ask "what else" is because it's being implied that HTV is doing a better job at X-FILES than they did with TNG, and what we're seeing at this moment is just non-f/x shots that look as good as what we saw on TNG's non-f/x shots. Because of that, I'm wondering if all the footage was messed up on TNG aside from the f/x work.

I do think it's a shame that the f/x shots were not handled to the standard that CBS has shown with the first season, but other than that I love seeing all that footage (non-f/x) newly scanned with all the detail and color. "The Measure of a Man" may have a bad bluescreen composite shot, but that's such a small part of the whole episode that I'm able to enjoy it overall.

EDIT: And I'll be honest in saying I never noticed that they used the incorrect angle footage on that episode, guess I'm just not that observant!