Season FOUR OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

[Hober Mallow]

I enjoy Netflix and use it just as you do, but as a supplement only. Right now (since you bring it up) it's kind of bizarre that Netflix is only letting us watch the first two seasons of the classic Twilight Zone. What happened to Seasons 3-5? You got me!

Yeah, I noticed that a couple nights ago. Even before, they weren't streaming the hour-long episodes. But I've also got Hulu Plus, and they have the entire series. And even if they didn't, I could just order the discs and still watch the whole series.

Let's say it's just a momentary thing and they'll be back... but say I really wanted to watch the episode "To Serve Man" right now. That's incredibly annoying that I can't do that.

It's true that I may not be able to watch exactly what I want exactly when I want. In the case of "To Serve Man" I'd have to order the disc and then wait for it to get shipped. I'd still get to watch it, even though the instant gratification isn't always there for me. I can wait.

But, see, if I own the whole series on Blu-ray, I never have to worry about that happening. With streaming only, you're giving up total control to a company who's more interested in the bottom line and key demographics then any particular viewer's idiosyncratic interests. It's not uncommon for them to shed thousands of titles at a time. Poof! Gone!

That's true, but the way I look at it, for the price of the Blu-ray set I could take one of my kids to a movie, or do something like that that I'd rather do.

If you can find the sampler for cheap, you should pick it up. TNG in HD is great to see.

Oh, I did pick up the sampler. And yes, it is amazing, especially "Farpoint." I think the lighting to the early seasons is much better than that of the later seasons, and as a result I think the first season probably has benefitted the most from the HD treatment. Certainly, "Farpoint" looked fantastic.

 

[tomalak301]

I finally started Season 4 last night and watched Best of Both Worlds, Family and Brothers. There was a poster who said a week or so ago that the outside shots are really bringing out the beauty of these sets and I could not agree more. I was watching Family and when they pulled back and showed us the Vineyard, that shot was just simply amazing. As for the episode, I forgot how awesome this episode was, and how it served as a welcome and necessary epilogue to Best of Both Worlds.

 

[BillJ]

Oh, I did pick up the sampler. And yes, it is amazing, especially "Farpoint." I think the lighting to the early seasons is much better than that of the later seasons, and as a result I think the first season probably has benefitted the most from the HD treatment. Certainly, "Farpoint" looked fantastic.

I'm of the opinion that seasons one and two look far better than season three in HD (haven't picked up four yet). It just seems light the lighting is way too bright in three.

 

[davejames]

I'm of the opinion that seasons one and two look far better than season three in HD (haven't picked up four yet). It just seems light the lighting is way too bright in three.

Yeah it's definitely a lot brighter in these last two seasons (especially on the Bridge, where there's not a shadow to be found anymore), but I think the way the colors really pop off the screen now makes up for that quite a bit.

 

[dg1379]

Just watched In Theory, in the scene where the ensign falls through the floor and is killed, there is a trickle of blood coming of of her nose. Never saw that before. Los of great exterior shots in this episode.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Does the starship graveyard scene in BOBW II look any better? Are the CGI versions of the ships any different than the originals?

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Oh, I did pick up the sampler. And yes, it is amazing, especially "Farpoint." I think the lighting to the early seasons is much better than that of the later seasons, and as a result I think the first season probably has benefitted the most from the HD treatment. Certainly, "Farpoint" looked fantastic.

I'm of the opinion that seasons one and two look far better than season three in HD (haven't picked up four yet). It just seems light the lighting is way too bright in three.

For me, season 5 marks the beginning of a new, somewhat "wishy-washy" style on TNG from so many perspectives. The insipid "muzak", the overly bright set lighting, washed out colour pallette, and, IMHO, a more "by the numbers" approach to the photography. It all added an unnecessary veneer of blandness.

 

[Indysolo]

Of course, TNG in HD available yet for streaming, but sure enough, it will be one of these days.

Seasons 1 and 2 of TNG can be streamed from Amazon Prime in HD and they are available for purchase from Amazon, Vudu and iTunes.

 

[Maxwell Everett]

There is no debate, CBS digital releases a product you either buy it or not. That is where your "say" comes in. They don't need to hear from a a bunch of anal trek fans on their individual soapboxes as to what is "wrong" with the remasters. They would never get the project done.

-Chris

It's not nearly as futile as you suggest and CBS's attitude is not, "Buy it or not, we don't give a toss what you [the fans] think!" If it were, we never would have gotten discs 1, 3, 4 & 5 replaced in the S1 set... or the music corrected in BOBW, Part II. These corrections were the direct result of so-called "anal" fans (I would call them proactive) noticing something was wrong and bringing it to the proper people's attention at CBS.

On the contrary, it shows that certain fans really care about the product and that CBS cares too.

 

[Ghostface1701]

I watched "Legacy" today (for the first time in about 20 years), and noticed some bad compression artifacts in a scene in Engineering. Has anyone else picked up on that? Also, the visual effects in this episode looked a bit ropey - blurry transporter and phaser effects. It's a surprisingly visual-effects heavy episode, so I wonder if the FX artists had less time than usual to finish this one.

On the plus side, I really appreciated the increased picture quality during any scenes with Ishara Yar...

 

[NewHorizon]

Does the starship graveyard scene in BOBW II look any better? Are the CGI versions of the ships any different than the originals?

Where did you hear they used CGI versions of the ships? CBS found all of the original 'filmed' passes and used them, just like they have for all the other effects. If they find the original materials and they're hi-def, they use them.

I thought it looked just fine though.

 

[Maxwell Everett]

I watched "Legacy" today (for the first time in about 20 years), and noticed some bad compression artifacts in a scene in Engineering. Has anyone else picked up on that?

I can look if you give me the exact time code.

 

[Ghostface1701]

I watched "Legacy" today (for the first time in about 20 years), and noticed some bad compression artifacts in a scene in Engineering. Has anyone else picked up on that?

I can look if you give me the exact time code.

It's most noticable at 18:23, on the yellow uniforms in this shot:

 

[DJ Mike]

Season 4 killed my PS3!

Well, not quite.

But in all seriousness I was watching Night Terrors - I kid you not, specifically the scene with Picard hallucinating and yelling in the turbolift as he thinks it is flying out of control - when my PS3 suddenly froze and died... permanently!

Oh well, thank goodness they still make PS3s...

 

[Trekker4747]

I watched "Legacy" today (for the first time in about 20 years), and noticed some bad compression artifacts in a scene in Engineering. Has anyone else picked up on that?

I can look if you give me the exact time code.

It's most noticable at 18:23, on the yellow uniforms in this shot:

I think it'd be hard to judge compression artifacts on an image that itself is compressed.

 

[Scotty]

Season 4 killed my PS3!

Well, not quite.

But in all seriousness I was watching Night Terrors - I kid you not, specifically the scene with Picard hallucinating and yelling in the turbolift as he thinks it is flying out of control - when my PS3 suddenly froze and died... permanently!

Oh well, thank goodness they still make PS3s...

How do you know it was TNG and not the thousands of hours of playing Call of Duty that killed your PS3?

 

[Doug Otte]

I can look if you give me the exact time code.

It's most noticable at 18:23, on the yellow uniforms in this shot:

I think it'd be hard to judge compression artifacts on an image that itself is compressed.

That looks like a DVD screenshot, and I think it was used as a point of reference for the shot in question, not an example of the problem on the blu-ray. I could be wrong...

 

[jimbotron]

You are correct. Not everyone has Blu-ray image capturing ability. Most of us are helpless until TrekCore posts screencaps.

 

[TheSeeker]

That reminds me. I keep forgetting I have a Blu-Ray reader/writer now in my PC. I'll have to try out making screenshots one of these days.

 

[Ghostface1701]

You are correct. Not everyone has Blu-ray image capturing ability. Most of us are helpless until TrekCore posts screencaps.

Yes, clearly the screenshot isn't from the blu-ray. As I can't capture images from it, I used one of TrekCore's DVD screenshots of the same scene.