They’re definitely the new masters but as you guys have already said, Paramount+ is only 1080p here in the UK for some reason. Hopefully they’ll let us upgrade to 4K HDR at some point.
TNG Movies to 4K Disc in April
- Thread starter Paul755
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The usual excellent review from Bill Hunt can be found for Generations. I think he's a bit generous awarding the flick a 'B' rating, it'd be a C from me.
https://thedigitalbits.com/item/star-trek-generations-4k-uhd-2023
https://thedigitalbits.com/item/star-trek-generations-4k-uhd-2023
Bill's now done FC, INS, and NEM. All have good marks for PQ, although there are no new extras.
GEN, FC, and INS suffered from digital noise reduction and edge enhancement on the 2009 release. Glad to hear each made it through without someone going freelance at the disc mastering stage to make it look "better".
He notes:
GEN, FC, and INS suffered from digital noise reduction and edge enhancement on the 2009 release. Glad to hear each made it through without someone going freelance at the disc mastering stage to make it look "better".
He notes:
HDR does not require 4K, though it is rare to it on physical media without 4K. I have seen it on occasion via streaming.
UPS just delivered my Amazon package of the new discs. I guess I will watch Generations first and see Kirk die all over again.
I got my disks this afternoon, and decided to spot check them a bit.
My initial take:
GEN wasn’t as stunning as I thought it would be. I can’t really put my finger in it, but the picture looks murkier than I remember. Colors are definitely true, but nothing pops as well as I thought it would. At least the color grading is fixed and looks more natural.
FC looks pretty good. I’d say the visual fx benefit greatly from this upgrade. The model of the E-E is gorgeous, and the color grading is much better than the BR release. Skin tones look real and blacks are deep.
INS looks amazing. Easily the best of the bunch. Everything looks vibrant and sharp, especially with the location shooting and the more brightly lit interiors of the Enterprise. Colors pop, details are amazing, blacks are deep. I wish every Trek movie looked this good. This may be the best one overall aside from TMPDE.
NEM also looks amazing. The space sequences look like they have 3x the amount of stars. Colors look great. Details are also clear. The darker lit scenes aboard the Scimitar look much better here as well.
As I said, I didn’t watch them as much as I just flopped through some chapters to admire some key scenes…but the sound on all 4 disks seemed good. Not sure if it’s any different than the previous disks, but it sounded great to me on the 7.2 system I use.
Overall, I’m happy I upgraded and I’m looking forward to watching them over the next few weeks.
My initial take:
GEN wasn’t as stunning as I thought it would be. I can’t really put my finger in it, but the picture looks murkier than I remember. Colors are definitely true, but nothing pops as well as I thought it would. At least the color grading is fixed and looks more natural.
FC looks pretty good. I’d say the visual fx benefit greatly from this upgrade. The model of the E-E is gorgeous, and the color grading is much better than the BR release. Skin tones look real and blacks are deep.
INS looks amazing. Easily the best of the bunch. Everything looks vibrant and sharp, especially with the location shooting and the more brightly lit interiors of the Enterprise. Colors pop, details are amazing, blacks are deep. I wish every Trek movie looked this good. This may be the best one overall aside from TMPDE.
NEM also looks amazing. The space sequences look like they have 3x the amount of stars. Colors look great. Details are also clear. The darker lit scenes aboard the Scimitar look much better here as well.
As I said, I didn’t watch them as much as I just flopped through some chapters to admire some key scenes…but the sound on all 4 disks seemed good. Not sure if it’s any different than the previous disks, but it sounded great to me on the 7.2 system I use.
Overall, I’m happy I upgraded and I’m looking forward to watching them over the next few weeks.
I won't lie, I'm mildly bummed that the shots in INS still have "variable geometry" (shot to shot, some shots are stretched horizontally. Or squashed vertically, if you prefer. 
) but I'm very glad to be soon discarding the putrid old transfers, as I did with the TOS movies last year.
) but I'm very glad to be soon discarding the putrid old transfers, as I did with the TOS movies last year.
They used to call that the "CinemaScope mumps" in the early days of widescreen because of the issues with the early Bausch & Lomb anamorphic lenses.I won't lie, I'm mildly bummed that the shots in INS still have "variable geometry" (shot to shot, some shots are stretched horizontally. Or squashed vertically, if you prefer.
Was the original, classic version of "Magic Carpet Ride" ever in ST:FC, or has it always been the edited, live(?) version heard on this new disc?
It was always a different version from the original. The original is on the soundtrack album, though.
I got my 4K FC, the picture quality is good and sound is smashing! The Starship battle with the cube looks so much better than DVD. So glad I got it! Now my Star Trek movie 4K collection is complete: DE, II, III, IV, VI and FC! Woohoo!
No arguments here; the new transfers from the interpositives are fantastic. The sound is truly top notch. Then combined with HDR and the newer encoding technologies and it's a very respectable quality that will blow the streaming version out of the stars. For now, within a decade streaming bandwidth will be viable for the datarate needed to handle so much picture information... I recall the early days of DVD and INS definitely looked like (bleep). Blu-ray was overall better, but the excessive DNR, edge enhancement ("AI" of the time), and noise reduction made everyone look more waxy and stripping out details (TUC is a great example of this.)
The CGI in NEM also holds up. The 1701-E-vs-WesleyCrusherShip battle is still very much amazing, though I wish the plot was set up more credibly. I don't mind a superior battleship, but what most audiences do mind is plotting that sets it up under incredulous circumstances that shatter the audience's suspension of disbelief, which - along with marketing that spells outright "this is their final voyage" and probably and inadvertently scaring away boatloads of people as a result - is exactly what led to NEM being a box office disaster. A shame, since the acting, some plot elements, and direction are really worthy. Doing the same messy plotting and using great f/x doesn't work for every movie. It worked well enough for completely superficial fluff like "Gladiator", but I'm sure people went to that to see a PG-rated various bits of body parts, and blood splattering everywhere melodramatically under semi-contrived circumstances that are just as shallow, and yet no promotional included free umbrellas for the audience. Indeed, imagine if Gladiator that had a baddie (like the Visigoths) that had a chariot made out of solid iron, rotating turret, and caterpillar wheels that could squish anything in its path, that was built from parts fetched from all over the place and yet nobody managed to notice anything being shipped or built, and they didn't have tons of sensors back then either. That's pretty much equivalent to NEM, if Gladiator had the MarySueMartyStuWesleyShip. But I digress; all that said, it's oddly easier to defend NEM or think of what would have improved it (which just streamlining some ideas without the quantity of contrivances) than some others...
My only concern is longevity. One disc from season 2 TNG Blu-ray set has developed one audio dropout and one video freeze due to what I presume is bit rot. Thankfully the issues are constrained to (bleep) episodes and not the good ones. So far. But the blus were 10 years ago... (Still, most blu-rays don't degrade that quickly. I'd expect these things to shatter in a player after 5 decades due to the effects of entropy over time combined with the RPM the disc spins at, before bit rot started. But I digress again (studio audience: "Naaaaawh, weally?"
)...
The CGI in NEM also holds up. The 1701-E-vs-WesleyCrusherShip battle is still very much amazing, though I wish the plot was set up more credibly. I don't mind a superior battleship, but what most audiences do mind is plotting that sets it up under incredulous circumstances that shatter the audience's suspension of disbelief, which - along with marketing that spells outright "this is their final voyage" and probably and inadvertently scaring away boatloads of people as a result - is exactly what led to NEM being a box office disaster. A shame, since the acting, some plot elements, and direction are really worthy. Doing the same messy plotting and using great f/x doesn't work for every movie. It worked well enough for completely superficial fluff like "Gladiator", but I'm sure people went to that to see a PG-rated various bits of body parts, and blood splattering everywhere melodramatically under semi-contrived circumstances that are just as shallow, and yet no promotional included free umbrellas for the audience. Indeed, imagine if Gladiator that had a baddie (like the Visigoths) that had a chariot made out of solid iron, rotating turret, and caterpillar wheels that could squish anything in its path, that was built from parts fetched from all over the place and yet nobody managed to notice anything being shipped or built, and they didn't have tons of sensors back then either. That's pretty much equivalent to NEM, if Gladiator had the MarySueMartyStuWesleyShip. But I digress; all that said, it's oddly easier to defend NEM or think of what would have improved it (which just streamlining some ideas without the quantity of contrivances) than some others...
My only concern is longevity. One disc from season 2 TNG Blu-ray set has developed one audio dropout and one video freeze due to what I presume is bit rot. Thankfully the issues are constrained to (bleep) episodes and not the good ones. So far. But the blus were 10 years ago... (Still, most blu-rays don't degrade that quickly. I'd expect these things to shatter in a player after 5 decades due to the effects of entropy over time combined with the RPM the disc spins at, before bit rot started. But I digress again (studio audience: "Naaaaawh, weally?"
)...
I won't lie, I'm mildly bummed that the shots in INS still have "variable geometry" (shot to shot, some shots are stretched horizontally. Or squashed vertically, if you prefer.
I've never noticed this, and I'm not sure I know what you mean. Are there any picture examples?
I think they're trying to represent all four movies - if anything, have Crusher and Troi both in the dress uniform, which might balance out the whole montage a tad more. I should try a mock-up, but the overall design looks good.
Plus, they gave Soran a proper scowl. We usually see him look more deranged than angry (great acting from Malcolm McDowell BTW), but they took too much of his character out of the finished release (as well as giving Kirk a lamer death. If Kirk had to die, make it a proper tragedy or an act of heroism that actually had some weight to it. Not plotting-by-numbers and not the (unintentional) pun of "living and dying on the bridge". )
This YouTube video has some examples, with the poster adjusting shots to correct the proportions.
There's also some discussion on the Blu-Ray.com thread reviewing the 4K release. There doesn't seem to be any consensus on whether it was a problem with the transfer, an accident/artifact from filming that's always been there, or whether it's been fixed or not. Read through that thread, and you'll probably know less than when you started about whether or not something is wrong with INS.
Thank you, I will check these out.
That's disappointing, I'm also expecting that movie to look stunning as, for me, it's the best looking TNG film, both in terms of cinematography and visual effects. What setup are you watching it on?
I have an Optoma UHD65 4k projector and a 110 inch Elite Screens projector screen. The projector is a little older, I bought and installed it in 2018, but it typically has a gorgeous picture and I’ve spent years carefully calibrating it to my preferences.
The only other Star Trek 4k movie I’m unimpressed with on my setup is, painfully, TWOK, which has never looked great for some reason, no matter what version I’ve played (I have the original BR, the DE Remastered BR, and the 4k). On the other hand, TMP looks absolutely brilliant…like a brand new movie.
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