VOY getting a remaster to HD possibility within 5 years?

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Voyager' started by jefferiestubes8, Sep 28, 2011.

  1. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    With the official announcement on September 28, 2011 of the TNG series being remastered to HD from 25,000 reels of film what are the chances of VOY being remastered to HD in a similar way (from the original camera negative) say in the next 5 years?
    There are much more CGI Visual FX in VOY and would be more costly.

    Personally I feel fine with the standard definition DVDs since it was always mastered to digital videotape the quality has been pretty good for the 7 seasons. I don't know how much this series would really benefit from HD mastering.
    I don't think it would be a great investment for CBS Television for their R.O.I. from a business standpoint. I think it holds up rather well even when upconverted to HD.

    For your info the 2007 thread on this topic:
    Remaster the entire Voyager Series...........
     
  2. Jetfire

    Jetfire Guest

    It should be. :bolian:
     
  3. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    The viewing audience of VOY was miniscule when compared to TNG. Don't hold your breath. :devil:
     
  4. You_Will_Fail

    You_Will_Fail Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    But the fans of Voyager are the types who would buy DVDs....also, the CGI effects of Voyager look pretty bad at higher definitions, much worse than the models.
     
  5. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    The fans of TNG are just as likely to buy DVDs - or why not? - and there are many, many more of them than VOY fans...

    After TNG and DS9 get the HD treatment, CBS may get around to VOY.
     
  6. Destructor

    Destructor Commodore Commodore

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    This, basically. However, the TV ratings don't mean much. The DVD sales are all that matters, and VOY sells a comparable fraction of DVD sets to TNG. It's a pretty simple equation for CBS really. Presumably after TOS and TNG Blu-rays are released they will have an equation for how many people re-buy the Blu-ray sets after they already own the DVD. It's probably like a third or something. If the cost of producing the sets is less than the calculated profit, they'll produce them. If it's greater, they won't.

    I'd say, given Trek's longevity, that it wouldn't be totally surprising if they went ahead with DS9 and VOY blu-rays.
     
  7. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I wouldn't mind a Lucas doing over of adding extra scenes, but to actually upLucas Lucas, wouldn't it be grand to add c and d plots as well as a new recurring character and they could Forest Gump into a lot of the regular scenes doing whacky and cool crap in the background.
     
  8. Deks

    Deks Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Voyager as far as I know doesn't need redone FX shots (at least not for about 90% of them).
    Merely cleaned up/sharper image to eliminate the blurriness and raise it's quality.
    They could make some minor animations to eliminate the 'stock footage' that was used on a frequent basis... but even that would entail minimal effort.

    TNG would require more work since it contains planetary bodies that weren't really that great looking and as such would have a bit more work cut out for the FX department (but nothing that cannot be handled in a relatively short period of time).

    DS9 is quite similar to Voyager in a sense that it requires little to no new FX but could use a retouch in higher quality and sharper image and maybe eliminate some stock footage that was used too much.

    Voyager and DS9 would probably require the least amount of work compared to TNG.
     
  9. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm so reminded of threads where everyone said that NO WAY there's EVER going to be TNG-R. It's just way too expensive and too complicated to do it.
     
  10. Tomalak

    Tomalak Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Not the case, sadly. Voyager and the later seasons of DS9 used extensive CGI which won't hold up in high definition. DS9 used mostly motion-control until the sixth season, so that can be remastered similarly to TNG. Later DS9 and all but the first couple of seasons of Voyager would need completely remade space sequences, unless they just upres it, which would look pretty crap.

    With Voyager, the stock shots and most of the model work used in the first couple of seasons would look fine, but all those iconic scenes in Scorpion, Timeless, Equinox and Endgame would suffer unless remade.

    I think they'll get around to it eventually, as it makes sense for CBS to have a full Star Trek HD catalogue to offer for syndication. But it's a bigger job than TNG-R.
     
  11. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    I never said never. I said, "Don't hold your breath".

    'Cos it's gonna be a loooooooong time. They'll do the fourteen seasons of TNG and DS9 before getting to VOY. The OP asked "within five years".
     
  12. Squiggy

    Squiggy FrozenToad Admiral

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    No.

    1. Voyager wasn't as iconic as either TOS or TNG. It's been criticized by people both inside and outside the fandom.
    2. It's currently not even aired at all in the United States, and when it last was...it was in the middle of the day on Spike TV so it hardly got any viewers.
    3. The aforementioned ratings issue. In first run it got a fraction of TNG's viewers. If a fraction of those fan bought the set, it might not be enough to cover the costs, especially when you consider the added CGI expenses. .
    4. By the time they would get around to this (10 years), it will have been about 20 years since it's finale.
    5. Chances are by that time, DVDs will be an outmoded form of media, with most paid entertainment being streamed...therefore the "Voyager fans are the type to buy DVDs" would be moot.

    Etc.
     
  13. tighr

    tighr Commodore Commodore

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    As far as the CGI in Voyager, there was a quote by the graphics designers for the episode Relativity, which featured the first ever on-screen portrayal of the Utopia Planitia Shipyards (Other than the drafting lab that we saw in TNG). The designers said that it was a shame that viewing audiences wouldn't be able to see the beautiful high definition images they created for that episode on their puny TVs (in 1999).

    So if that's true, it stands to reason that the CGI done for Voyager still exists somewhere in a higher definition format.
     
  14. Tomalak

    Tomalak Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Would be nice to think they did future-proof the CGI, but I'd be surprised if they took the time and expense to design and render every scene in 1080p in the late nineties.
     
  15. RAMA

    RAMA Admiral Admiral

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    I only foresee STNG and Enterprise being released on Bluray.

    RAMA
     
  16. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    I didnt want to start a new thread.
    I remember hearing that before they shot Enterprise season 1 they put an HD camera on the set of VOY im season 7 for a side-by-side comparison.
    I think i was on a special feature of ENT dvd season 1.
    I'd like to see that footage in HD.

    It would be at least 5 years though as they still have 4 seasons of TNG to do and DS9.
     
  17. Jeri

    Jeri Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I know what that previous commenter was meaning. VOY fans have money, apparently; that's what I remember about the sets. The VOY 7-season set was a top seller in the Star Trek category for a while.
     
  18. Angel4576

    Angel4576 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Seeing as there have been encouraging comments from CBS about a DS9-R in the past few days then it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility that Voyager will get the same treatment.

    The likely problem for VOY-R though is the performance of DS9-R. DS9-R will undoubtedly come first, and it WILL likely come based on the strength of the TNG BD sales alone. VOY and DS9 are fairly similar in terms of popularity, hence if the DS9-R BDs tank, will VOY-R ever see the light of day?
     
  19. Akiraprise

    Akiraprise To Ꝏ & BEYOND! Moderator

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    I would definitely buy up a BR release of VOY, although I was watching some of the later CGI shots recently and they are starting to show their age. Still look decent though.
     
  20. Quinton O'Connor

    Quinton O'Connor Commodore Commodore

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    I think the last two or three seasons of Voyager still have fairly good CG. BSG is still probably the high water mark for these things, in part due to the disappearance of space opera from television in the last few years, heh. But Voyager looks good later on. Same with DS9. (Enterprise looks pretty fantastic, still. Its pilot isn't even eleven years old, though, but when we consider how far the gaming industry has come with regard to CG in that time, this is truly a testament to Trek's triple-A special effects crew.)

    It is starting to show its age to some extent, though, I agree. Later DS9 and most of Voyager is really going to be a tough job if the HD releases do make it that far: low-resolution CGI shots will need to be completely replaced, and there's more emphasis on lots of cool space explosions and whatnot, so there's more work to be done.