Season ONE OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

[tomalak301]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

^Thanks.

Although I can't see much of a difference actually!

Same here. Extremely hard to notice.

When I watched the episode I spotted it immediately. The screenshot does not convey the huge difference in quality. My wife also picked up on it right away.

Although I can't see much of a difference actually!

Same here. Extremely hard to notice.

WTF!? I see it immediately! All the details are gone in the upconverted SD image...

I often wonder, why many people dont see the quality encrease of an HD image. I hope, it's just my 130% eyesight sharpness...

Ok, I have to know, was I being mocked? I find it odd that two people in this thread mentioned their wives being able to spot it and I couldn't. I know, I'm not the smartest when it comes to screen resolution. Hell, I don't even know what the hell SD Up-conversion means. Still, I went back to the scene last night and rewound it, watched it many times, and I still couldn't see it. So with that being said, congratulations, your wives have better eye-sites than I do.

Oh, and to use this has a teaching thing maybe, how do you guys know. I see the screencap, and other than the turning of the head, they look exactly the same.

However, to show I am not completely dumb when it comes to this stuff, I am noticing a much clearer image, and while it's a subtle scene, I thought the final shot in Conspiracy (With the Nebula and the stars and the beeping showing that the message was sent) was one of the more beautiful shots of the season, probably over those of "Where No One Has Gone Before". Just the clarity of that scene added to the overall mood of the episode, and made me wish (As I always have) that it was the Season Finale instead of Neutral Zone.

Speaking of "The Neutral Zone", the more I watch this episode, the more I don't like it. Yeah so they reintroduced the romulans, joy. The only problem with that was it was overshadowed by the 20th century humans and how much they were bashed in. Like Trekker said, the stuff with Sonny and Data were great, but everything made me somewhat believe people who rip on the series (As was the case a lot when I first got to the board in 2003) saying the crew has a freaking holier than thou attitude and it was a big turnoff. I'm glad they calmed down in the later seasons but that whole thing made me probably like Shades of Gray more than The Neutral Zone in terms of Season finales and that's saying something.

 

[Maxwell Everett]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

I don't even know what the hell SD Up-conversion means.

It means the standard definition image was enlarged digitally to high definition. Previously, season one existed on 1-inch analog videotape with an equivalent digital resolution of 704 by 480 pixels. Essentially, every original pixel of the digitized tape became four pixels through a process known as bicubic interpolation. It is now 1440 by 1080. They adjusted the color and contrast levels to match the new film scan as best they could and then they added fake film grain over it.

Oh, and to use this has a teaching thing maybe, how do you guys know. I see the screencap, and other than the turning of the head, they look exactly the same.

Well, other that the fact that it doesn't at all look like it came from a modern 4K/2K film scan, it's also missing 17% of the image the preceding shot of Riker has. So it's obviously the 2 second shot mentioned on the back cover.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

I think you're reading way too deeply into it. By "eliminating want" Picard means that humans no longer always want more and more and more at the cost of their own financial security or at the cost of other's financial security.

So... why not just say that instead of stating that eliminating "want" in it's most absolute form? Picard seems to have little to no interest in telling this guy that anything he wants he could probably get without the use of money or lawyers. But no, he just tells them that possessions are a thing of the past and he needs to grow up.

He tells him no such thing. Possessions are obviously not a thing of past given that every single person we've ever encountered in all of Trek has had possessions they are attached to and obviously want. We SEE people in Trek encounter things they want. But we do not see them drive to get those wants at all costs, including the cost of other's lives and safety.

It's pretty clear to see what Picard meant when he made his speech without seeing it as "people no longer have possessions."

It means the standard definition image was enlarged digitally to high definition. Previously, season one existed on 1-inch analog videotape with an equivalent digital resolution of 704 by 480 pixels. Essentially, every original pixel of the digitized tape became four pixels through a process known as bicubic interpolation. It is now 1440 by 1080. They adjusted the color and contrast levels to match the new film scan as best they could and then they added fake film grain over it.

Actually "up-conversion" means "we added bullshit between pixels so that the picture will fit your screen." An HD TV is 1080 pixels wide, a DVD is only 480 pixels wide, meaning a DVD image would only take up less than half of your screen. When something is "up-converted" a computer algorithm extrapolates what should exist between pixels in order to make a 480 picture fit a 1080 screen. Resulting in a picture that "fills the screen" but can look blurry or fuzzy since what exactly those pixels are supposed to be is different than what the up-converting process makes them.

This was worse with TNG since it was never even upgraded to the higher resolution of DVD but came straight from videotape. Which while the resolution of tape the show was edited on is higher than what was seen in broadcast or on VHS it's still on DVD quality.

"Up-converting" =/= Making something HD.

The only way to make something HD is to go to the original source (film) and get the information there since film the only place with enough information to get the details to produce a true HD picture.

 

[davejames]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

I will say this episode goes a bit far when it comes to "20th Century Human Bashing." There's times when Riker almost seems amused by these people but he resorts to bad-mouthing us when they're out of the room, wondering aloud how humans made it out of the 21st century.

Yeah maybe they were all a little too harsh in their judgment, but I still thought most of their criticisms were pretty fair.

I don't think you can just chalk up humanity's problems today to us not being evolved enough, or simply "not knowing any better." There's clearly a LOT of greed and selfishness and stupidity at the heart of it as well-- and I think the show was right to comment on that.

 

[tomalak301]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

I will say this episode goes a bit far when it comes to "20th Century Human Bashing." There's times when Riker almost seems amused by these people but he resorts to bad-mouthing us when they're out of the room, wondering aloud how humans made it out of the 21st century.

Yeah maybe they were all a little too harsh in their judgment, but I still thought most of their criticisms were pretty fair.

I don't think you can just chalk up humanity's problems today to us not being evolved enough, or simply "not knowing any better." There's clearly a LOT of greed and selfishness and stupidity at the heart of it as well-- and I think the show was right to comment on that.

Maybe it's just human nature to "talk down to the little guy"? What I mean is look at how people treated the Native Americans. They were called Savages and had their land invaded.

Still, it doesn't negate the fact that these are 20th century humans who don't know any better. If there was one thing the episode did kind of well (And again, I don't like this episode very much) is that it showed the human reaction side to being tossed into a different time and being "out of time and place". However, my problem is Picard seemed to not understand that bit. It's the same as what he said to Q about the uniforms in Encounter at Farpoint. People have different mentalities to them, kind of the overall make up of who they are. To criticize that is to almost criticize human nature and I don't think that's fair at all.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

Well, yeah, there is. But that's like saying, "Gee. Turn of the first millennium humans were pretty full of savagery with little regard to the care and well being of their fellow man."

Well, yes, they were. But only because of where they were at that time. We can't look down on cavemen, or Mongolian warriors because they weren't as advanced as us or had as much knowledge as we do on the world and science.

So judging humans of the 20th century for not being as advanced as 24th century humans is dumb. Of course they're petty and filled with greed. It's a product of the world they're living in. They just haven't advanced enough yet or reach that point of "time to stop this kiddie act and grow up!" (Which seemed to be a cross between WWIII and First Contact. One being the breaking point of humans finally having the one, last, big bender before waking up the next day and trying to figure out how to become sober and the other being us finding a sponsor in AA to help us get back on our feet.)

If I met my 17th century counterpart I wouldn't look down on him for not wanting to walk nicely down the street and greeting people pleasantly, not wanting to wear pants and not wanting to shower every other day or so. It's what he is it's what we all were back then maybe with some very limited exception but it's just where we were out.

I don't look at them and say, "Man! How did we ever not utterly destroy ourselves back then? Ignorance of simple biology so wild spread of disease, poor food-safety practices, unforgivable human rights practices. And just utter rule of lesser people. How'd we ever get out of the 17th century?"

And, come-on, Riker. I don't believe for one second that Commander William T. Riker doesn't know what, "Let's find us some low-mileage pit wolfies and help them make a memory!" means.

And for dissing on us 20th century humans so much Riker and Picard do seem to enjoyu our popular culture and music a lot. (Riker being fond of Jazz and Picard of 1940s pulp crime fiction stories.)

 

[Maxwell Everett]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

An HD TV is 1080 pixels wide, a DVD is only 480 pixels wide, meaning a DVD image would only take up less than half of your screen.

You mean "tall", not "wide". Full HD is 1920 pixels wide, 1440 for 4:3 content. SD is 720 wide... so the 4:3 TNG DVD image is approximately 1/4 the size of TNG on Blu-ray.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

Yeah, fatigue is getting to me. It's not quite (or even near) a third either.

 

[mswood]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

Just watched Too Short a Season, and while it's watchable enough, I'm having a hard time understanding what the point of it all was. As far as I can tell, it was only to watch a guy de-age over the course of an episode.

The point to me was to highlight Kirk versus Picard. Remember the 60s episode where Kirk gives equal arms to both waring parties? Here we see one possible result. Decades of endless war. Oh Joy!

I kid to some degree.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

I think you're reading way too deeply into it. By "eliminating want" Picard means that humans no longer always want more and more and more at the cost of their own financial security or at the cost of other's financial security.

So... why not just say that instead of stating that eliminating "want" in it's most absolute form? Picard seems to have little to no interest in telling this guy that anything he wants he could probably get without the use of money or lawyers. But no, he just tells them that possessions are a thing of the past and he needs to grow up.

I love Picard, but he could be quite the pompous ass at times. In DS9's "Emissary," when Sisko complains that an abandoned nearly disabled space station on the edge of nowhere isn't the ideal place to raise a son, Picard lectures to him that Starfleet officers don't always get to serve in ideal environments... while sipping earl gray in his comfortable lounge chair.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

Picard, however, commanded the Stargazer an "over-worked, underpowered" vessel for 22 years. Picard has had "done his time" in "less than ideal" assignments.

 

[davejames]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

I know it can easily be interpreted that way, but to me Picard never came across as a pompous ass. He was just a very disciplined officer who could put his foot down really hard when he needed to, and who felt very passionately about justice and human progress and the like.

And even if Starfleet regulations often prevented him from interfering in a situation, that doesn't mean he couldn't vent about it and become righteously indignant, as anyone would. I never saw that as him being "preachy" or anything.

 

[TheSeeker]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

I envy all you guys watching TNG-R right now. I bought the set the day it came out but I packed up to move a few days later and I still don't have my belongings.

I'll finally get all my stuff this Friday but I still have to get replacements for the defective discs and I probably won't watch until I get the replacements. How fast has the replacement been for those of you in the US?

 

[Salinga]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

I love Picard, but he could be quite the pompous ass at times. In DS9's "Emissary," when Sisko complains that an abandoned nearly disabled space station on the edge of nowhere isn't the ideal place to raise a son, Picard lectures to him that Starfleet officers don't always get to serve in ideal environments... while sipping earl gray in his comfortable lounge chair.

Picard didnt sipp earl gray in the lounge of Starfleet's flagship his whole career. He accomplished something in rougher environments to get there.

 

[Pindar]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

I envy all you guys watching TNG-R right now. I bought the set the day it came out but I packed up to move a few days later and I still don't have my belongings.

I'll finally get all my stuff this Friday but I still have to get replacements for the defective discs and I probably won't watch until I get the replacements. How fast has the replacement been for those of you in the US?

No one has had any replacements yet.

 

[Falcor5]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

I envy all you guys watching TNG-R right now. I bought the set the day it came out but I packed up to move a few days later and I still don't have my belongings.

I'll finally get all my stuff this Friday but I still have to get replacements for the defective discs and I probably won't watch until I get the replacements. How fast has the replacement been for those of you in the US?

They have not even started to send out the replacements yet. There is really no need to hold off watching your set until the replacements arrive. So once your all settled if I were you I would start watching rather than wait! But if you have not you should call or email to get your name on the replacement disc list.

 

[Patrick O'Brien]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

^Agreed, don't wait to enjoy TNG in Bluray. The show looks great and for the most part sounds good too. I just watched Datalore and the new CGI for the Entity was awesome.

 

[TheSeeker]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

Well I have seen two of the episodes. I went to the screening of "Datalore" and "Where No One Has Gone Before" when they had the special event at my local theater.

And I guess I will start watching this weekend if you guys think the sound isn't too distracting.

I'm still going to have to call the hotline. I sent an email when they first announced there would be a replacement program but I never got a reply.

 

[NewHorizon]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

Well I have seen two of the episodes. I went to the screening of "Datalore" and "Where No One Has Gone Before" when they had the special event at my local theater.

And I guess I will start watching this weekend if you guys think the sound isn't too distracting.

I'm still going to have to call the hotline. I sent an email when they first announced there would be a replacement program but I never got a reply.

I have just finished watching the entire first season, and it was really great. I set my sound to 2 channel to avoid any distractions and it was just fine. Looking forward to whatever fixes come in the revised set, but for now this is great. Watch it.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

I set my sound to 2 channel to avoid any distractions and it was just fine.

You only need do that on:

Encounter At Farpoint
Hide And Q
Haven
The Big Goodbye
Datalore
1001001
Too Short A Season