Star Trek movies on HD DVD.

[Cheapjack]

Does anyone know whether the movies have been released high definition, yet?

I think First Contact has.

What about the rest? I would love to see them on HD, without pixellated eyes, shimmering star fields and moiring grilles!

If that's possible with HD. I've seen Blu-ray going and it's good, but not that good. It's just got more pixels. Not as good as film.

 

[cardinal biggles]

The only Trek that's been released on HD-DVD is the first season of TOS Remastered. The second season of TOS-R was canceled following Toshiba's announcement that they were abandoning the format. I haven't heard anything about the movies coming out on HD-DVD, but if there were any plans, they've been scrapped now as well.

 

[Cheapjack]

I thought TOS was released in Dual format?

I hope that that isn't the end of it.

I would like to buy it eventually.

 

[guardian]

The movies will not likely come out on Blu ray until 2009.

Paramount will likely want to tie those releases with the dvd & Blu ray release of the new movie in late 2009.
Also they have some catch up to do with recent releases due to switching formats.
Also, newer movies usually need less cleaning up.
The trek movies are from 29 to 6 years old, so they'll need a lot of clean up. Trek fans will be up in arms if they are released in anything less than pristine shape.

 

[Cheapjack]

I noticed that TMP DVD is very colourful, hardly any fading.

I have a photo op with De Kelley that has gone green. I recoloured it in Phto shop in ten minutes. I just made it more blue.

Is it really that more expensive to do it to a whole film?

 

[guardian]

Well let's see..............
24 frames per second times 60 seconds in a minute, times 136 minutes of movie for TMP alone. Couple hundred thousands frames to be checked, cleaned etc. Times 10 movies.

Every frame has to be checked for dirt, scratches, warping, rips, etc and then digitally fixed if any problem is found. Also color/contrast correction and assembling new extras that will hopefully intice people to buy the movie for the 8th time.

 

[Outpost4]

Trek fans will be up in arms if they are released in anything less than pristine shape.

You can release TFF as is.

 

[guardian]

^ That's really funny because TFF is bad, right?

They don't need to do a proper restoration because it's bad. Funny.

 

[Outpost4]

Thank you for laughing at my joke. It's always nice to know you are appreciated.

And FWIW, I happen to like TFF. It reminds me a lot of a TOS episode. I would want a restored version myself.

 

[cardinal biggles]

I thought TOS was released in Dual format?

They're double-sided discs; one side has episodes in HD-DVD, and the flipside has them in regular DVD. That doesn't change the fact that HD-DVD is still a dead format.

 

[guardian]

Thank you for laughing at my joke. It's always nice to know you are appreciated.

And FWIW, I happen to like TFF. It reminds me a lot of a TOS episode. I would want a restored version myself.

I thought you said TFF could be released as it is?

They will not release the Trek movies without a proper clean-up unless they are morons. The guys who rate and review these new hi def releases watch them with a very critical eye. If they released any of the movies without properly cleaning them and restoring them, they would get terrible marks from the reviewers and it would hurt sales a lot. A couple of early blu ray titles got ripped so bad by the reviewers that they pulled the copies and rereleased them at a later date with a proper restoration.

So they will very likely do a proper clean-up and we won't see them for many months, likely not even this year. They may do what they did with the C.E. versions---release them in reverse order (since the newer the movie, the less clean-up needed) and then release a box set at the time of the New movie Blu ray release.

Oh and for what it's worth, I like TFF too. But I hope they redo the fx which are going to look even more dreadful in HD.

 

[Johnny Rico]

Well, looks like we all may get our wish..

The latest Rumor Mill stuff at Digital Bits mentions just this.

So... interested in a little Star Trek news? We have it today from a couple of angles that Paramount is currently working on another release of the Star Trek feature films, presumably to take advantage of next year's debut (in theaters and eventually on DVD and Blu-ray) of the new J.J. Abrams big screen reboot of the franchise. Our own industry sources have recently hinted that several of the previous feature films are currently receiving brand new high-def transfers and a good digital scrubbing to prepare them for future Blu-ray release. Meanwhile, long-time Trek scribe David Gerrold (also writer of the excellent Martian Child had this to say yesterday (scroll down to the "And Finally..." part):

"Tim King Productions invited me down to the Paramount lot to be interviewed for a documentary. Paramount is planning to rerelease all ten Star Trek movies on DVD with a bonus disc of extra material, including an interview with folks who were in the crowd scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Most of those folks were Star Trek fans especially recruited for the privilege, so they gathered a few of us together and let us reminisce for awhile in front of a couple cameras. Among the attendees were Bjo Trimble (she and her husband John created the letter campaign that got the original series renewed in 68) and Chris Doohan, Jimmy Doohan's son. It was a fun couple of hours."

David goes on to talk about the group's visit to the set of the new film as well, and he sounds pretty enthusiastic about what he saw. So no word yet on in high-def, but it looks as if the films might be finding their way to DVD (again) and Blu-ray soon enough.

Note the bolded sentence. The films are indeed going to be cleaned up.

 

[Oso Blanco]

I'm curious which version of TMP will make it onto BluRay. It most certainly won't be the DE, because all the new effect shots have been done in standard NTSC resolution. Maybe we'll finally get the Special Longer Version in widescreen?

 

[Cheapjack]

I tell you what I noticed:

The maroon jackets first seen in ST2 are all different shades of maroon in ST3,4,5,6 and 7. They're certainly not the shade of maroon that I remember, too!

I was disappointed when I saw ST4 in DVD. It's my favourite film, and I don't want it to age at all.

I don't know when I'll be able to afford HDTV. But therre is a lot of pixellation in those films, which seems to vary. You can't see grill work or starfields properly. I hope HD corrects this, if only a little.

As to the colour, I change my TV settings from 'cool' to 'warm'.This makes it a bit better.

I bet all those Star Wars films don't have the same problem.

 

[Outpost4]

I'm curious which version of TMP will make it onto BluRay. It most certainly won't be the DE, because all the new effect shots have been done in standard NTSC resolution. Maybe we'll finally get the Special Longer Version in widescreen?

While I wouldn't mind seeing that version released, too, how do you know the new effects were done in NTSC?

Also, wasn't there a limited theatrical run of ST-TMP Director's Edition after it was created? I remember a premier night with Robert Wise in attendance and the theatrical model of the Enterprise-A set up in the lobby. I'd be shocked if they threw a regular NTSC picture up on the screen that night.

 

[22 Stars]

^ I worked at Paramount at this time, and there was no DE film print ever made, and the effects were not rendered at a higher resolution than standard DVD res. The DE creators are trying to get Paramount to let them render the effects at a HD res, but so far no word. Perhaps the BluRay move will make it so.

I asked TPTB at the time to do some sort of theatrical run for the DE and no dice. The premiere was certainly digitally projected from the same DVD source that we all have who purchased the DE DVD.

 

[Cyrus]

The guy in charge of TMP DE FX posted at trekmovie.com and confirmed that the new visual effects were not rendered at HD or film level resolution. That was really short sighted by Paramount.

Hopefully they will spend the money to upgrade that. I like to see TMP DE in HD. I like the theatrical version too, but I am not a big fan of the longer version. They probably end up releasing only the theatrical version in HD, since that would be the cheapest way for them.

 

[Falcor5]

The guy in charge of TMP DE FX posted at trekmovie.com and confirmed that the new visual effects were not rendered at HD or film level resolution. That was really short sighted by Paramount.

Hopefully they will spend the money to upgrade that. I like to see TMP DE in HD. I like the theatrical version too, but I am not a big fan of the longer version. They probably end up releasing only the theatrical version in HD, since that would be the cheapest way for them.

Wow that really was short sighted. So that means they will have to redo it all yet again? Someone wasnt thinking (or was to cheap)!

 

[Outpost4]

Wow. I stand corrected. How incredibly short sighted of Paramount. I went back and checked. The Director's Cut was released in November, 2001. HDTV existed and was even being broadcast in major markets like Los Angeles at that point. HD DVDs were being discussed as the next big thing by 2001. That this eventuality wasn't considered by the suits at Paramount is amazing.

 

[Cyrus]

Here is what Daren Dochterman posted at trekmovie.com:

http://trekmovie.com/2008/03/05/new...-works-description-of-new-movie-set/#comments

I’m flattered that people are giving me credit for the effects in the Director’s Edition of TMP… but I had a team of wonderful artists working on that project from Foundation Imaging. When Foundation had to close it’s doors, the crew was scattered to the winds, some winding up at Zoic, EdenFX, and Battlestar Galactica. All of them continue to do great work… and I learned a lot from them. I’m hoping that someday we can call them back to bring TMP: The Director’s Edition to Film/HD res. I still find it sad that the studio was so short sighted that they wouldn’t have us render in HD back in the day.

We kept as much of the original project materials as possible for the DE, including model files, sequences, scenes, and elements… we always planned to do HD at some point. We were hoping it would have been closer to the production time, I hope that software advancements don’t make the original scenes so out of date and incompatible that we have to start from scratch on any of them… but that is always a possibility. These are the realities of the situation. I’m sure if enough people are courteously vocal about it to the right entities, the DE will see the Hi Def light of day, somehow.