DS9 on blu ray?

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' started by borgboy, Nov 28, 2013.

  1. benjaminh

    benjaminh Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Agreed.

    One thing that strikes me is that both Emissary and Caretaker were big budget Star Trek movies, with money and care spent on them that matches or even exceeds something like, say, The Search for Spock.

    These almost "lost" Trek movies deserve to be seen in HD.

    There's a apparently quite a bit of deleted footage for both of these that ended up not on the cutting room floor, but in that salt mine in PA. Dreaming even more, it would be interesting to see some of that.
     
  2. Praetorian

    Praetorian Captain Captain

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    Blu-ray is secondary. Whether pressed on a disc, or available for streaming, what matters is the availability of the show in HD.

    Also, only releasing a "best of" set is a bad idea, who's going to choose those "best" episodes? You risk alienating a lot of people and selling even less.
     
  3. benjaminh

    benjaminh Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I don't think we have evidence that blu-ray is secondary. Because Trek fans are so avid, and are willing to pay cold hard cash for a top-quality product, I think the revues from blu-ray are quite significant at this point. In the long run, streaming might become more important, even much more important, but it's not clear that we are there yet.

    Yes, we all want it in HD. That's not the question. It's how we get there. It seems that CBS is getting cold feet when looking at the massive cost of redoing all seven seasons of DS9.

    Most fans want all of it in HD. But what if that's not possible?

    As Grant says, some people who say all or nothing are not really expecting nothing. But what if, in fact, that's the most likely scenario at this point?

    And I actually think most fans of DS9 would be pretty much in agreement when it came to the best 70 or so episodes.

    Looking over the list by "Bolty" on blu-ray.com (who might be Grant here?) I agreed with everything on the list. I only thought of one more to add so far, but otherwise it seemed spot on.

    Grant, if you are Bolty, would you be willing to post the list?
     
  4. LOKAI of CHERON

    LOKAI of CHERON Commodore Commodore

    Yes, I understand that.

    I didn't say there's no possibility of an HD version becoming available via an alternate format. The title of this thread is "DS9 on blu ray?" - thus, my response was reference DS9 on Blu-ray.:shrug: I thought the wording of my post was quite explicit.

    Personally, I want to own DS9 on disc in HD - presented at optimal quality. Streaming/downloading isn't an option I'd choose as they are currently offered.
     
  5. Robert Comsol

    Robert Comsol Commodore Commodore

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    Better something than nothing, you made your point clear, and essentially I sympathize because it could also have the character of an apetizer for others, create additional DVD or digital streaming revenue.

    BUT

    the biggest obstacle, as fas as I understand, are the logistics behind it. For TNG-R they moved literal truckloads with film cans and it was a nightmare just to get it sorted out. The cans need to be cataloged, filed and sometimes double-checked to see if an element missing (remember the originally missing "Sins of the Father" footage?) had been stored somewhere else.

    So just to get the footage for the 78 best episodes or something like that would probably require a complete and costly inventory check. By the time they'd be done, it would probably make more economical sense just to release all seasons of DS9-R on Blu-ray.

    Bob
     
  6. benjaminh

    benjaminh Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I think the biggest costs are not finding the film, although those are significant, but in the actual rebuilding of the episodes piece by piece, including re-compositing and recreating the FX.

    If we can get all of it rebuilt: great. I'm all for it. That's just not quite looking like what the tea leaves are telling us at this point....
     
  7. Salinga

    Salinga Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I think VOY and DS9 are going to be converted to HD, but its going to be the cheaper/quicker treatment like XFiles got, with the special effect shots upscaled - maybe a compromise of green screen footage in HD but the green screen parts replaced by upscaled SD parts.

    So DS9 and VOY get a compromise treatment: Partly HD, but not fully.
     
  8. Salinga

    Salinga Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    lol, we have a wiki war over 1080 or 480:
    http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/TOS_Season_2_Blu-ray?action=history

     
  9. Maxwell Everett

    Maxwell Everett Commodore Commodore

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    Meaning they are likely to lay off the extra people they hired to work on TNG, I get that, and honestly, that blows! I feel for those people. Look at what's happening with Sony ImageWorks -- they're closing shop in California and moving to Vancouver to take advantage of tax credits! A good portion of their 300 or so employees are going to be let go!

    Hopefully the key players at CBS Digital will still remain there. In any case, it would be a very shortsighted move by the executives at CBS (considering the money they generate as a corporation) and will cost them more in the long run. I sincerely hope they don't do that, of course.

    Thanks for keeping us apprised. :)
     
  10. benjaminh

    benjaminh Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Is it possible an email campaign would help? Does anyone have the address for CBS home video's Star Trek Dept.?
     
  11. Maxwell Everett

    Maxwell Everett Commodore Commodore

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    Unfortunately, I don't think so. The only campaign that CBS would respond to is the one that's already in place: TNG on Blu-ray. They've told us again and again, "Buy, buy, buy!" That said, if you would like to contact someone at CBS Home Entertainment you can go here.
     
  12. otomo

    otomo Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    Is there any word on how those are doing? Cuz gosh I want this show done with the TNG treatment (it's so beautiful!) more than any other....
     
  13. Maxwell Everett

    Maxwell Everett Commodore Commodore

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    Here's a partial list of how the opening weeks break down/were reported (I posted this on blu-ray.com about three months ago):

    Season One: 95,435 units / $5,730,000
    Season Two: no available data
    Season Three: 15,921 units / $955,101*
    Best of Both Worlds: 15,608 units / $233,964*
    Season Four: 10,441 units / $626,356*
    Redemption: 7,212 units / $108,108*
    Season Five: no available data
    Unification: no available data

    *These are my derived figures. No sales chart was published for the week ending May 5th, 2013, but we know that S3 sold 6.62 units for every 100 of Silver Linings Playbook. That movie sold 240,500 units. 6.62% of 240,500 is 15,921. I did the same with G.I. Joe: Retaliation which sold 538,218 units during the week S4 came out. S4 sold 1.94 units for every 100 of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, so that's 10,441.

    So if we add up just these available figures we get $7.7 million. Again that's without data for S2 & S5. If we assume those seasons did roughly what S4 did, that takes us to about $9 million. And again, these are only opening week figures in the U.S. and do not take into account worldwide figures or subsequent weeks of sales or the digital downloads sold on iTunes. :)
     
  14. Jefferies

    Jefferies Captain Captain

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    If these numbers have any reality then I don't see what the problem is. From what I have heard the whole project cost around $9 million in the first place. Here we have figures telling us they made that money back just from the opening week sales of each season.

    So there was a huge drop off in sales following season 1. Maybe that came as a disappointment to CBS that this wouldn't be the miracle cash cow they had hoped for. But hey, its still making good money if this is anything to go by and this will make money for some time to come surely? Is this a matter of unrealistic expectations on the side of CBS?
     
  15. benjaminh

    benjaminh Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Just for the heck of it I sent this off today to CBS home video exec Leslie Ryan:


    "Subject: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine—wanted on blu-ray

    Dear Leslie Ryan,

    Everyone in my family enjoys watching Star Trek. The various Star Trek shows are, in fact, our favorite TV programs. We've purchased all of the blu-rays for the original Star Trek and for The Next Generation as soon as they were released. As you know, the picture and sound quality are incredible. It's like watching these shows again for the first time. And the bonus features and documentaries are also a lot of fun. Since we have kids in our family, we appreciate that Star Trek can be enjoyed by everyone.

    We are also fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (as well as Voyager), and have been looking forward to the announcement that these shows too are going to be rebuilt and remastered for blu-ray. We are obviously voting with our wallets by buying Star Trek: The Next Generation on blu-ray the day each season is released. Is there hope for Deep Space Nine to come to blu-ray too?

    Best wishes and thanks,"
     
  16. otomo

    otomo Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

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    Those numbers are a bit concerning, but as you said they're only 1st week so who knows. Shocking that everyone rushed for season 1 and not 3-4 which I think would sell the best.
     
  17. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    There was a boost in sales for season 1 due to the novelty, I guess. These shows cater to a niche market. 10,000 units sold in the first week for subsequent seasons doesn't sound like a lot, but considering it's a $60 box set for 1/7 of a TV show, it's pretty good.

    I know for a fact there are people who plan on buying them, but won't until all 7 seasons are available and packaged together.

    Look at TOS. Priced now at $60, and it will still do decent sales, many years after release.
     
  18. LOKAI of CHERON

    LOKAI of CHERON Commodore Commodore

    Yes, I know a couple of fans waiting for a TNG bundle. Their self-restraint is laudable - I certainly wouldn't be able to resist!
     
  19. benjaminh

    benjaminh Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I'm not sure that's always restraint. It could also be:

    a) not enough money
    b) not a very intense fan

    I think the majority of fans who have the intensity, as well as enough $, have been purchasing the sets.

    It does slightly annoy me when people who are fans and have the money just don't bother to buy the sets, or wait for big sale (far below the $60 of release day). A few of these people are really glad Trek is going HD, but don't see the need for themselves to contribute, even a little bit.
     
  20. LOKAI of CHERON

    LOKAI of CHERON Commodore Commodore

    In the case of the people I know, it's probably "B" - they like TNG, but not fanatically!

    I'm only annoyed at their financial far-sightedness - saving £'ssss while "day one" muggins here shells up the big money! :lol: