Rumor: TNG-HD is a-coming

[Admiral Bear]

I just paid $115 for all 5 seasons of Stargate: Atlantis on Blu-ray from Amazon - that's about $23/season. So... maybe a nice $200 ($29/season) boxed set for the entire series of TNG?

(Farscape will cost me more per season later this year, but... well, they don't have nearly the number of duff episodes that TNG has. )

Atlantis wouldn't have needed any in depth and expensive remastering of effects though? Straight copy to Bluray with minimal cost, I'm assuming.

I wouldn't pay much more than £45 per season on Blu-ray for TNG. I think I paid £60 per season on DVD when they first came out. I'd like to think maybe there might be some financial incentive from Paramount for those of us who buy the test disc to at least encourage us to dip out toes in to season one on Blu.

All that said, I've a bad feeling the fans will once again be fleeced for all they're worth. Paramount will just cite the cost of remastering for ripping off the fans. TOS-R is still £45 on Blu-ray in the UK.

Just looked at the first season TOS-R season 1 Blu-ray set, and it's 29 episodes on 7 discs, which means that at least one disc has 5 episodes on it, and TOS eps are about 50 mins long from memory. It's possible that each TNG season with it's shorter run time per episode, could be easily be put across 6 discs, something which could have a positive impact on price.

 

[Harvey]

I see no reason why TNG wouldn't be priced similarly to other Blu-Ray TV sets. I paid $50 or so for each of the TOS sets, and I expect the TNG sets to cost about the same.

I purchased Star Trek on Blu-Ray for the same price, but that was only after the series had been on sale for some time, no? I expect Star Trek: The Next Generation to have an astronomical SRP and to be actually sold (initially) somewhere in the ballpark of 80-100 bucks. When it sales for $50, then I'll pick it up.

 

[ATimson]

Atlantis wouldn't have needed any in depth and expensive remastering of effects though? Straight copy to Bluray with minimal cost, I'm assuming.

That's true, though TNG also has the syndication revenue route to help recoup the costs - BBC America is showing TNG reruns a lot more frequently than SyFy is SGA.

Just looked at the first season TOS-R season 1 Blu-ray set, and it's 29 episodes on 7 discs, which means that at least one disc has 5 episodes on it, and TOS eps are about 50 mins long from memory. It's possible that each TNG season with it's shorter run time per episode, could be easily be put across 6 discs, something which could have a positive impact on price.

Well, check the price for the 6-disc season 3. I doubt you'll see a difference.

 

[Admiral Bear]

I expect Star Trek: The Next Generation to have an astronomical SRP and to be actually sold (initially) somewhere in the ballpark of 80-100 bucks.

This is what I fear. I think most fans would be able to tell Paramount right now that sort of pricing would kill the TNG-R project stone dead, especially in the current economic climate. Not that the suits will care one iota.

 

[Admiral Bear]

Well, check the price for the 6-disc season 3. I doubt you'll see a difference.

You got me! In the UK, one of the TOS-R sets is a bit cheaper than the other two so that it becomes maginally more economic to buy the complete box set. Strangely enough, I think the cheaper set is season 1 (7 discs) while season 2 (6 discs) is £5 more expensive.

Also, season 2 of TNG on DVD was never any cheaper than the other seasons for being one less disc.

 

[Scotty]

^^ I can remember paying over 100 euros for a season of TNG on DVD back when it was first released. That's 140-150 dollars. I"ll bet a new BD release won't come cheap either.

 

[Takeru]

My point has been all along that they should re-use the original footage, as they shot the models on film, just composited them on video. So they need to scan the film and re-composit the effects in HD.http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/generationshd/generationshd1421.jpg

And limit themselves to the same 10 shots of the Enterprise again? That's really boring, I realize there are only so many ways the ship can fly across the screen, but if they have to re-do all effects anyway, they really should get rid of the most obvious stock footage. Even as a kid I noticed that they used the same shots again and again and again.

 

[doubleohfive]

Ugh Paramount and their ridiculously high pricing scheme for the Trek DVDs. Between when those DVDs came out in 2002 and now, I've managed to only acquire six seasons of TNG mainly because I simply refuse to pay more than $50 for a season of television on DVD. I recognize that's my own little quibble, but with the decline for ownership demand plus the near neverending rebroadcast of the series coupled with my own nostalgic photomemory of the series, I just haven't felt a pressing need to own any of the modern day Trek series, despite still trying to collect them.

I have no doubt the Blu-Rays will be similarly expensive, which of course is Paramount's right to charge, but man sometimes I wish Trekkies weren't so instant-gratification-heavy that they'd drop down so much money upfront.

 

[RAMA]

I also hated a few of the episodes they did. Should they change them for the remastered?

Sure, why not?!


...Is your question supposed to imply that any new effects work should mirror the old ones so pefectly that they use two distinctly different CG models? Or is this just a "No new effects work at all!" thing?

My point has been all along that they should re-use the original footage, as they shot the models on film, just composited them on video. So they need to scan the film and re-composit the effects in HD. That way they use as little CG as possible, and keep the show with the original effects intact. Planets, suns, nebulas, shield effects, phasers, torpedoes, explosions, etc... would have to be done with CGI of course (unless they have been filmed, too). But the model work is perfectly fine on HD.

This:
http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s1/1x03/nakednow001.jpg
http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s1/1x01/farpoint1_113.jpg

would turn into this:
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/generationshd/generationshd0978.jpg
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/generationshd/generationshd1421.jpg

I believe I covered the problem right here:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=5129036&postcount=415

On top of that, the Image G FX are not always up to par with the ILM FX.

RAMA

 

[Flake]

Does anyone have HD Screencaps of the ten-forward scene from 'These are the Voyages' ? They would be our best indicator so far as to how TNG-HD might look as the Ten-forward scene with Riker and Troi was taken from Season 3's 'Menage a Troi'

 

[Mark 2000]

I believe I covered the problem right here:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=5129036&postcount=415

On top of that, the Image G FX are not always up to par with the ILM FX.

RAMA

The imageG fx would be much more tolerable than bad, rushed CGI on par with TOS-R. The differences between the 6' and the 4' model are not enough to justify the risk of the above either. Give me the original, well shot elements any day over poor quality consistency.

 

[AviTrek]

Do we know what happened to the CGI model of the ENT-D from TATV? I seem to remember reading something happened to it, but I forget the details.

 

[Admiral Bear]

Do we know what happened to the CGI model of the ENT-D from TATV? I seem to remember reading something happened to it, but I forget the details.

The recycle bin?

 

[RAMA]

http://trekmovie.com/2011/08/06/streaming-deals-star-trek-help-boost-cbs-profits/

More good news for STNG-R...

RAMA

 

[AviTrek]

http://trekmovie.com/2011/08/06/streaming-deals-star-trek-help-boost-cbs-profits/

More good news for STNG-R...

RAMA

Or bad news, depending on how you look at it. CBS is making money off their archive content while spending $0. That doesn't mean CBS is interested in spending money on improving that old content. Now if Netflix/Amazon/Apple comes out and says it will pay more money for HD content, that would be unambiguous good news.

 

[BillJ]

http://trekmovie.com/2011/08/06/streaming-deals-star-trek-help-boost-cbs-profits/

More good news for STNG-R...

RAMA

Or bad news, depending on how you look at it. CBS is making money off their archive content while spending $0. That doesn't mean CBS is interested in spending money on improving that old content. Now if Netflix/Amazon/Apple comes out and says it will pay more money for HD content, that would be unambiguous good news.

This.

One of the things that made Star Trek Remastered possible was the fact that Toshiba helped foot the bill.

 

[RAMA]

http://trekmovie.com/2011/08/06/streaming-deals-star-trek-help-boost-cbs-profits/

More good news for STNG-R...

RAMA

Or bad news, depending on how you look at it. CBS is making money off their archive content while spending $0. That doesn't mean CBS is interested in spending money on improving that old content. Now if Netflix/Amazon/Apple comes out and says it will pay more money for HD content, that would be unambiguous good news.

Nah its definitely GOOD news....firstly STNG-R would be "archive" material, but new so that would not be covered under the current deal, hence more dollars...secondly, the fact the old stuff is making so much money is good enough reason to invest dollars to make more $$$. Two other reasons: TOS-R's huge DVD-Bluray success before Netflix, and think of it as CBS making an investment in their future, keeping STNG going as long as possible with fresh interest.
RAMA

 

[Flake]

Certainly its in CBS interest to do TNG HD. No one is interested in crappy old SD video on the interwebs these days. They want HD whenever possible. Same with TV, in less than a decade most TV will be in HD and the crappy old SD stuff saved for late night reruns on third rate channels.

 

[ATimson]

Same with TV, in less than a decade most TV will be in HD and the crappy old SD stuff saved for late night reruns on third rate channels.

I'd argue that that's a pretty good summation of now, much less a decade from now.

 

[Tosk]

The differences between the 6' and the 4' model are not enough to justify the risk of the above either.

Not enough for you maybe.