First impresssions of remastered Trek (on HD DVD)

[Ovation]

I recently picked up the HD DVD set of the first season of TOS (at 49.99$ at Amazon.ca, I felt it was reasonably priced--certainly more than the 222$ Canadian MSRP).

Last night, I decided to watch "Where No Man..." (figured the pilot is an appropriate place to start).

Things I liked:

The clarity of the image--TOS has NEVER looked this good. It is evident that much care was taken to restore the prints.

The colour balance--for the first time ever (to my recollection), I could see the difference in colour between Kirk and Mitchell's jerseys (Kirk and Spock were a light olive green while Mitchell, Kelso and Scotty were beige--jerseys, that is ).

The fact that many effects shots that might have seemed ripe for "upgrading" were left intact--example: the "glow" around Mitchell and Dehner, the "tiny lightning" effect.


Things I liked less (or will need to get used to):

A number of the Enterprise shots in motion. These seemed a lot more removed from the original than many other "upgrades" (the energy barrier upgrade was nice, for example, as well as the shot of Delta Vega from orbit). I know the manoeuvres are meant well and I may come to appreciate them more but, for now, they tend to startle me (unlike the other effects updates I mentioned above).

Only one of many episodes to go, so perhaps I'll be more, or less, impressed by the end--but, as a first impression, an overall (if not an unqualified endorsement).

 

[Cyrus]

The colour balance--for the first time ever (to my recollection), I could see the difference in colour between Kirk and Mitchell's jerseys (Kirk and Spock were a light olive green while Mitchell, Kelso and Scotty were beige--jerseys, that is ).

A lot of people mentioned that when the remastered episode aired. It was the first time I noticed it too.

 

[Cicero]

^ I think I first noticed it on a calendar which featured Gary Mitchell one month (I had no idea who he was at the time, as my local station had never included Where No Man Has Gone Before in its TOS airings).

 

[Ovation]

Another thing I noticed (though this could have more to do with HD resolution than the fact it was "remastered")--when Kirk and Spock emerge from the transporter room after the probe was beamed aboard, I could read "Transporter Room" on the panel above the door. I will check the SD side of the disc to see if it is as clear (one of the best ways to see the difference between SD and HD resolution is the clarity of written material in backgrounds).

 

[Outpost4]

On Tomorrow Is Yesterday you can read the dedication plaque. I've posted that before and I'm posting it again, just to drive some folks crazy.

I agree with you. It's the colors and the black level that are the most striking, not the detail. Obviously, that's good, too, but it's the vividness of the picture that is the most pleasurable. After watching the excellent regular DVDs, I wasn't expecting this difference, and it is very enjoyable.

 

[Ovation]

I watched the opening scene in SD (to the credits--just remembered, didn't the original credits lack a voiceover?) and looked for the "transporter" sign. It was visible but not nearly as clearly evident as the HD version. Still, the SD version looks quite good and on a smaller screen (say under 40 inches), it may not be worth getting the blu-ray sets that will inevitably come along. I have a projector with a wallmounted screen, so at that size (64 inch diagonal for now, 72 inches next year), the difference is more pronounced--I'll wait for the blu-ray (since there won't be any more HD DVDs).

 

[Ovation]

Watched The Man Trap last night. Again, much better looking (in HD) than ever before. The only obvious "altered shots" were orbital views, for which I was grateful (I thought perhaps they'd mucked around with the creature's looks and/or transformations--they did clean up the optical effects to make it look more seamless, but otherwise left it alone).

I'm still "getting used" to seeing the ship from different angles and in different paths of motion, but I do like the updated planets.

So far, so good.

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

I think there are some long-shots of the Crater's site that weren't in the original

 

[Outpost4]

There was a new matte scenery shot created for this episode that tied the planet together.

 

[gastrof]

^ I think I first noticed it on a calendar which featured Gary Mitchell one month (I had no idea who he was at the time, as my local station had never included Where No Man Has Gone Before in its TOS airings).

They'd have had to since it was part of the series. Wasn't even counted as "episode 2" for YEARS because they were counting the episodes based on their original air date.

WNMHGB didn't air first. It was at least three episodes into the series, so it would have to have been included.

 

[Therin of Andor]

They'd have had to since it was part of the series.

Maybe where he lived the episode had been damaged or misfiled?

In UK, four episodes weren't aired until the 90s, due to censors taking umbrage at content.

Here in Sydney, Australia, "The Man Trap" never aired on TV until the entire series was rerun (in colour for the first time) in the 1980s. The Salt Vampire had been deemed too scary for an early prime time slot.

As it was, when the Aussie repeats moved to daytime weekend timeslots, only 40 episodes of 79 were suitable. They had been rated "G" way back in the 60s and the others the equivalent of "NRC" (not recommended for children) - and the network refused to pay the required fee to have them reevaluated by the Australian Censorship Board for the 80s, even though the previously offensive scenes had probably been trimmed out since the 60s for extra commercials..

 

[Ovation]

There was a new matte scenery shot created for this episode that tied the planet together.

I guess that one wasn't "obvious" enough to me. Which suggests the people doing the "touch-ups" generally know what they're doing (though I'm perhaps a touch more tolerant of the changes than some might be --based on comments read elsewhere, not in this thread).

 

[Doug Otte]

I found a tip in another forum that amazon.ca is selling the 1st HD-DVD set for $49.99Cdn. I quickly snatched a set (waiting for the delivery). If anyone's interested, check it out.

I was unwilling to pay more than $100, but at $50, I bit.

Doug

 

[Garibaldi O'brien]

Ah this thread got me to put on my HD copy of WNMHGB, and lo and behold I saw something I never noticed before. A Starfleet watch on Kelso's wrist.

 

[Ovation]

I found a tip in another forum that amazon.ca is selling the 1st HD-DVD set for $49.99Cdn. I quickly snatched a set (waiting for the delivery). If anyone's interested, check it out.

I was unwilling to pay more than $100, but at $50, I bit.

Doug

That's where I got my set. I was going to wait for the Blu-ray release (it will happen) but at that price (cheaper than the SD only set), I decided to grab one.

 

[Captain Pike]

The big question on my mind at the moment is when will the blu-ray sets be released.. Do you think they'll wait until sometime after STXI is due for a home release ?

Like many others, I have a blu-ray player and have no intention of getting the, now redundant, HD-DVD versions, but at the same time I am anxious to get the remastered versions.

The only full episodes I have seen of TOSR are the 2 episodes of The Menagerie shown last year at one of our local theatres here (the cinema was suprisingly full of people too really.. not a bad night out).

 

[Doug Otte]

The big question on my mind at the moment is when will the blu-ray sets be released.. Do you think they'll wait until sometime after STXI is due for a home release ?

Like many others, I have a blu-ray player and have no intention of getting the, now redundant, HD-DVD versions, but at the same time I am anxious to get the remastered versions.

The only full episodes I have seen of TOSR are the 2 episodes of The Menagerie shown last year at one of our local theatres here (the cinema was suprisingly full of people too really.. not a bad night out).

I'm guessing they'll wait until STXI is released in theatres. Other things that led me to buy the HD-DVD set now are the knowledge that Paramount will no doubt charge an outrageous amount for the sets, while possibly not providing anything more than the HD-DVD set already has, and I have a dual player that can handle HD-DVD.

Doug

 

[Ovation]

Ditto. I have two HD DVD players and with the "death" of the format, I've been grabbing up deals on all sorts of titles (some as low as 3.99$). When I saw the deal for 49.99$, I decided it was worth having a collection in two formats.

The blu-ray versions will likely come out in Nov./Dec. 2008 and Mar./April 2009 to tie into the movie. The blu-ray should look as good as the HD DVD (and, in fact, have all the same features) but it won't look any better and it will be more expensive. Anyone who has an HD DVD player and is a fan should get the set. But having seen the difference between the HD DVD and the SD DVD, I recommend anyone who has an HD display go for either HD DVD or Blu-ray.

 

[Doug Otte]

I received the box Saturday (the lazy postal carrier ignored the box in the post office for about 4 days, so I went there and picked it up). My HD player is on the way back from Samsung for service, but I couldn't wait, and popped the first disc into the regular DVD player.

The new remastering is quite good. It looks much better than the previous DVD set. I'm eager to check out the HD versions.

I've been one of those curmudgeons complaining about replacing the original effects. I'd seen a couple of episodes on TV, and thought the new shots looked too cartoonish. However, I found that the shots I saw on DVD (Where No Man and Man Trap) look stunning, both from a technical and creative standpoint. The only thing I haven't liked so far is Shatner's voiceover on the opening credits. They added too much reverb.

Doug

 

[Phoenicianknight]

"Lazy Postal Carrier"

I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that term....