DS9 on blu ray?

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' started by borgboy, Nov 28, 2013.

  1. borgboy

    borgboy Commodore Commodore

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    With TNG and ENT both set to complete their blu ray releases next year, does anybody have any news on DS9 getting a blu ray release?
     
  2. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    There have been rumors but no news or announcements yet. We don't even know if it'll be DS9 or Voyager that gets it next.
     
  3. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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  4. FrontierTrek

    FrontierTrek Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    If I had a dollar for every time I get an email with that question!

    I - like everyone else here - would love DS9 to be remastered in HD next. However, it would be a massive project, far more involved than TNG was.

    The simple fact is that there's no news at the moment. Naturally, there's talk about it - but that's all; there are no plans in place and no project has been greenlit. CBS-D are still entrenched in TNGS6, and will still be in TNG mode for a decent amount of time to come.
     
  5. borgboy

    borgboy Commodore Commodore

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    Thanks for the info. I'll just wait and see then and hope for the best.
     
  6. MikeS

    MikeS Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Hopefully someone (TPTB) will sit up and take note of all the interest and decide it's worth doing. :bolian:
     
  7. Ar-Pharazon

    Ar-Pharazon Admiral Premium Member

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    Why more involved than TNG (outside of those fleet shots)?
     
  8. borgboy

    borgboy Commodore Commodore

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    I'm in the middle of watching my new blur rays of TOS, and I notice that the DS9 episode of Trials and Tribble-ations is included, in HD, as a bonus feature on season 2. So has that episode been remastered for blu ray then? Since it's on a blu ray disc you'd think so, but I'm not 100% sure on that. It'll be neat to see at least one ep of DS9 in blu ray quality at least. I'll either be watching that ep tonight or tomorrow as a "double feature" with TOS original Tribble ep.
    It's a fun ep, I love seeing the DS9 crew in TOS era costumes, Dax in particular is a lot of fun in that one with her excited to be back in the 23rd century, and learning of her past life encounter with McCoy.
     
  9. Jefferies

    Jefferies Captain Captain

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    Sorry mate, but no it hasn't. Its merely been upscaled and it looks bloody awful.
     
  10. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    "Trials and Tribble-ations" was upscaled from SD for that set, not remastered in HD.

    EDIT: Too slow.
     
  11. borgboy

    borgboy Commodore Commodore

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    Oh. Bummer. I hoped it had been remastered. I guess that upscaled and played on a blu ray player hooked up to an HD big tv it's probably still going to look better than it did on dvd, but I thought if it had been remastered that would be promising for the rest of the series.
    I also wish that they had done a "movie edit" of the two Tribble episodes, that sounds like a fun idea. I'll just have to be satisfied with watching them back to back. It's crazy that the show from the 60s is going to look better than the show from the 90s.
     
  12. Joe_Atari

    Joe_Atari Commander Red Shirt

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    Thanks FrontierTrek for not using your proximity to the Trek Remastered projects to play the "shill game" as some others have by exhorting fandom to buy every current HD release to "support" the release of DS9 in HD. You and TrekCore are a credit to the franchise, which you promote through unique and compelling features rather than mindless hype. On a semi-related note, I for one am looking forward to the BOBW screencaps and EAS' incorporating them into its Wolf 359 ship analyses.

    Everyone should keep in mind that DS9 -- and VOY, and every Trek series regardless of popularity -- comprise an extremely valuable property for CBS and they must make it available in HD in order to continue to monetize it in the future. How that is done (rather than if it will be done) is the real question, but with the bar set quite high with the TNG-R project I personally doubt we'll get an SD upscale (ala X-Files, Farscape, et al) but it is certainly possible, at least in terms of the CGI VFX in later seasons. DS9 fans should keep their eye on the ball and let CBS know in no uncertain terms that nothing short of a complete HD remastering of the series will be acceptable. Complicating things is that by the time the DS9-R project likely materializes, the reality is that the relevance of packaged media will be significantly diminished (by exactly how much is anyone's guess); Blu-ray will certainly not disappear in that time, but its sales volume will continue to be eroded by streaming services as that technology improves. Even now Netflix is actively de-emphasizing its disc-by-mail service in favor of its streaming offerings; expect much the same thing from Amazon in the years (or even months) to come.

    CBS-D certainly has people with the passion to do DS9 in HD right; they just need the go ahead (and the $$$) from CBS corporate to do that.
     
  13. Jefferies

    Jefferies Captain Captain

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    It's first and foremost the money they need. That's where the crux lies. Right now it seems that TNG in HD isn't doing as well as we first thought it might. There was a bit of a hype with the first few seasons and 1-3 consistently ranked within the top 100 blu rays at amazon even several months after their release. Look at season 5 now, it's nowhere to be seen let alone the previous seasons.

    I think it was Frontier Trek who mentioned when season 1 was released that it cost 9 million to remaster. That's 63 million for the entire series. This is a huge amount of money they need to earn back before they even start making a profit. I'm optimistic it will happen in the long term some day. However, I'm not convinced that's a popular business model in the entertainment industry. As a result, it seems doubtful at this stage they will green light DS9 or Voyager which have far less recognition than TNG and, therefore, would take much longer to earn a return on an investment.
     
  14. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    The Star Trek franchise is one of CBS' most valuable catalog titles. It'll make back their investment, probably sooner rather than later. TNG in HD hasn't simply been made available on home video (a declining market), but is also being sold in television syndication (isn't it playing in the UK already?) and streaming/download services.
     
  15. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Commodore Commodore

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    They already kicked the first season of Enterprise out the door with many of the visual effects having been rendered in 480(p or i, can't recall which)...
     
  16. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ^ All of ENT's effects were done in full HD from the get-go. Not 480-anything.
     
  17. Jefferies

    Jefferies Captain Captain

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    Sky has shown only 2 seasons in HD and there don't seem to be plans to show any more. Haven't heard of anywhere else putting it into syndication. And blu ray and dvd sales are still strong especially for fantasy/sci-fi shows. Look at how well Star Trek into Darkness did or the Hobbit or Games of Thrones. Even if the home video market is declining the portion of that market that TNG HD is able to utilise is remaining very small. Do we have any evidence that TNG HD is selling well any where at all? I'm the only person I know who has bought any of the remastered blu rays and I have many friends who are into Trek/sci-fi.
     
  18. MikeS

    MikeS Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    That is simply down to their rushed release schedule. I haven't gotten through the whole of season three yet and I will buy season four when I have. I probably won't be buying season five until next spring.
     
  19. LOKAI of CHERON

    LOKAI of CHERON Commodore Commodore

    I guess this is definitely something to consider. I'm a "binge watcher" for want of a better term. It usually takes me about a week to get through a season!

    However, like MikeS, I do have friends who take it at a far more leisurely pace. How many potential future sales this translates to I'm not sure about though.
     
  20. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'm wondering the same thing. Considering CGI has been used for years, I would have thought it be easier than taking the original film negatives.