DS9 on blu ray?
- Thread starter borgboy
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The people behind these trailers are crazy talented. That CGI is amazing, I especially like the war room from "The Circle"
Now that a new Trek show is on the horizon, I wonder if there's a tiny chance it might rekindle an interest in remastering DS9. Almost certainly not, and so I'm not changing my long term pessimism about it, but....What if they just remastered the best of the multi-parters as little stand-alone Star Trek movies, like they did with TNG? The Emissary could be the first movie, while the second would be the The Homecoming, The Circle, and The Siege three-parter, etc. Just a thought.
We had a back-and-forth on that fairly recently in this thread. Some of us have had the same glimmer of hope. I do as well, but I argue that for the sake of the relaunch of the CBS streaming app, since they are using the new Trek series as the centerpiece of attraction for the streaming app, having some sort of quick and cheap (not nearly to the degree of TNG) upgrade to HD for DS9 and VOY would allow them to promote the entire Trek library in HD streaming exclusively on their app. I could see someone at CBS at least pitching an idea like that as a way to generate more excitement -- not because DS9 in HD would necessarily bring in so many viewers -- but because they'd be able to say "watch every episode of Trek ever in HD exclusively on CBS All Access."
Others have argued that we would have heard something by now if they were going to do it, there is not enough interest in either series to warrant it, it's too expensive and it wouldn't bring profit.
And others are outraged that this thread is still going and want to close the thread.
Actually it was barely completed to todays 720HD standards, there were still some upscaling issues with it too and that won't be seen too either.
We've seen as much of the old universe in HD as we're going to. Paramount/CBS need to spend that money on the 4K equipment for the 2017 series and Beyond.
We've seen as much of the old universe in HD as we're going to. Paramount/CBS need to spend that money on the 4K equipment for the 2017 series and Beyond.
And here's your answer in a nutshell guys...
Even people who would love to see it and would buy it, WON'T buy it until the prices drop significantly.
If CBS can't convince the die-hards of the die-hards to spend 70 bucks a season, what hope do they have?
Wait, wait...we need to smack this down, right? There is no demand for 4K. Nobody is watching anything in 4K. You can't tell the difference between 4K and HD with the naked eye at a normal distance from a TV unless the set is huge. CBS/Paramount doesn't NEED to do anything unless it makes money. End thread! End thread!
(I'm only kidding guys!)
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Personally, I'm waiting for the Streaming Wars™ to begin. Streaming is only going to get bigger, and not every service can be a winner. Once the infrastructure is sufficiently in place and they've expanded into enough markets (amazingly, it has only been three years, when Netflix began its international expansion in earnest), it will become a question of 'Who's got the goods?'.
Every service seems to be pushing out original content as much as they can to differentiate themselves from the competition and to lure in new subscribers (and to hold on to the existing ones), and that's not cheap. I think somewhere in this thread it was mentioned that it cost $20 million to do TNG-R, which is a lot of money to be recouped from dwindling blu-ray sales (and frankly, doesn't seem very likely to happen) but it's peanuts when compared to creating entirely new content. $20 million to 'create' a series with 176 episodes and a guaranteed fan-base? Fantastic deal!
Therefore, I'm waiting for the moment when DS9 HD will go from ' a way to make some money' to an investment - a tool to grow a subscription service with and with which to hook the existing customers - and also something to be later sold to other services if need be. Les Moonves just said that "the previous Star Trek shows that we sold to Netflix did extraordinarily well", and also mentioned that 60% of the cost of the new series had already been covered by international sales - an area that is still largely untapped by US-centric streaming services.
Of course, I think a lot is riding on the success of the new show. If it turns out to be a hit (i.e. it makes money for many different businesses around the world), DS9 HD suddenly becomes a lot more interesting prospect. If the new one fails, well... then not so much. Based on Moonves' comments, however, I'd say the former is more likely than the latter.
Every service seems to be pushing out original content as much as they can to differentiate themselves from the competition and to lure in new subscribers (and to hold on to the existing ones), and that's not cheap. I think somewhere in this thread it was mentioned that it cost $20 million to do TNG-R, which is a lot of money to be recouped from dwindling blu-ray sales (and frankly, doesn't seem very likely to happen) but it's peanuts when compared to creating entirely new content. $20 million to 'create' a series with 176 episodes and a guaranteed fan-base? Fantastic deal!
Therefore, I'm waiting for the moment when DS9 HD will go from ' a way to make some money' to an investment - a tool to grow a subscription service with and with which to hook the existing customers - and also something to be later sold to other services if need be. Les Moonves just said that "the previous Star Trek shows that we sold to Netflix did extraordinarily well", and also mentioned that 60% of the cost of the new series had already been covered by international sales - an area that is still largely untapped by US-centric streaming services.
Of course, I think a lot is riding on the success of the new show. If it turns out to be a hit (i.e. it makes money for many different businesses around the world), DS9 HD suddenly becomes a lot more interesting prospect. If the new one fails, well... then not so much. Based on Moonves' comments, however, I'd say the former is more likely than the latter.
It's okay, I'll buy two copies on day one to make up for him.
Then isn't the answer instead of selling it say at £55 per season sell it at £30 per season. Surely part of the reason why people might not buy it because they believe it is over priced. Price it at an attractive price to begin with and you might sell more. As you correctly point out if they can't convince the fans to buy the show at that price what hope do they have.
If you want to charge a higher price do something with the packaging. ie. release it as a Steelbook appeal to the collectors. You could still release a standard packaging at a lower price.
Not if £55 is the amount of money required to turn a profit.
I'm sure that's the case, but we're talking about CBSD's target market. It's like selling crack to a crack head.
You might, but if you lower the price to £30, for instance, you now half to sell almost twice the units to make as much money as you would at £55.
Is that £30-£55 range too much for some Trekkies? I'm sure it is, but will you get double the sales by dropping it that much? Probably not.
I don't think price is that much of a factor. It could be £10 and you wouldn't sell enough because you'd have to sell 6x units. There isn't that much demand. If you price it at £100 then you wouldn't sell enough because that's too damned expensive and people would rather get it for "free" via Netflix or some other streaming service.
Those streaming services apparently aren't willing to pay enough for the rights to cover the costs of the remastering, or CBS isn't willing to offer it to them because of All Access.
That would only increase the already high costs. That £55 season just went to £75 to appeal to an even smaller number of buyers.
Having two options would also increase the costs. That £30 "standard" release just went to £40 to cover the costs of having two different production lines.
CBS is good at making money. They know what they're doing. I'm sure they tried to squeeze as much money as they could from DS9 and Voyager - much like they did for TNG.
They ran as many scenarios as they could to try and make it work - again, not for "the fans", but "for the investors". It just doesn't make sense. You can only lower the price so much and maybe (I have no way of knowing) but maybe £55 per season is as cheap as they can go given the demand that's out there.
I'm certainly part of the problem - I'll buy but only at a discounted price, and preferably the complete boxes rather than season by season.
I've recently picked up Blurays of the 10 film set for £20, TNG for £56 and Enterprise for £40, plus DVD's of DS9 for £46, Voyager for £48, Babylon 5 for £46, all the Heroes and Stargates for under £50 each...I'll probably pick up the complete Angel for £23 soon. Many of these have been direct from Paramounts online outet or Amazon.
I know I'm not funding further releases, but I'm not about to pay more than I have to. I'm not rich...
I've recently picked up Blurays of the 10 film set for £20, TNG for £56 and Enterprise for £40, plus DVD's of DS9 for £46, Voyager for £48, Babylon 5 for £46, all the Heroes and Stargates for under £50 each...I'll probably pick up the complete Angel for £23 soon. Many of these have been direct from Paramounts online outet or Amazon.
I know I'm not funding further releases, but I'm not about to pay more than I have to. I'm not rich...
Well said!++
$70 for an entire season in high definition on blu ray disc is a steal.
I remember back when a single laserdisc with only two episodes cost around $40. Adjusted for inflation, that's more than $60 in today's money!
Kor
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