DS9 on blu ray?

[dub]

Oh, and there's the oh-so-hilarious (almost) meme. Yay.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Some interesting comments from the team that handled the X-Files HD remaster project:

With revenue from physical media falling, but partially offset by streaming revenue and syndication rights, how is that affecting large scale remastering projects such as The X-Files?

It has a big effect. The studios are very cautious. The studios have to balance the creative, archive, and financial aspects of projects like these. There's so many series' that are being ignored. That's to their detriment because now there's many avenues to get these shows back into the marketplace. There's a broader range of distribution than before. You aren't necessarily going to make all your money back on one deal but over a number of years.

There are so many shows that need this process that are just sitting in the vaults, and it's a real shame. The overall quality is so, so significantly better than the old NTSC versions and they'll be able to license this product many times over, there'll also be new audiences for these programs. With classic shows like MASH, back in the day, they had cut negative. It wasn't until non-linear editing came about in the mid 80's that they were still cutting film.

There's a lot of great episodic series and lower budget features that needs this attention, but it ultimately becomes a directive from the accounting side. But what are you going to do? I hope the studios and distributors have a change of heart and focus more on their legacy assets. If they don't focus their attention to the legacy archival assets, there's going to be no value or revenue to be generated.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/7468/remastering-the-files-hd-jim-hardy-ceo-illuminate/index3.html

The vibe I'm getting is that these companies that do this kind of thing are fans of this that or the other. They're aware the demand is there. However, the cashflow just isn't, and as others in this thread have stated, yes it's very likely these major million dollar studios are just as likely to let this material sit and rot rather than spend money on it.

Is it lack of foresight keeping shows on the shelf?
Is it good judgment avoiding gambling with millions?
As always, YMMV.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXE_n2q08Yw[/yt]

 

[Gepard]

Not to say that it will ever happen (so please save the oh-so-hilarious memes), but if they were to ever reconsider moving forward with DS9 on bluray, why wouldn't they go to some of the folks who worked at the FX houses that did the original work to have them work and re-render some of the original files or using some of the original assets instead of starting from scratch? Since much of it apparently still exists, it seems like that would save a ton on time and money, even if it's just for a portion of the work instead of having a new team try to work with it or recreate it.

From a 2013 trekcore interview with former Senior CG Supervisor Robert Bonchune:

If they ask one of us – and if they use a team that uses LightWave – it’ll be much easier for them to redo… because the guys who worked on it, like me, have the assets. We have the original ships; we have most of everything that was used [in the making of the series]. That would eliminate a ton of the cost of rebuilding.

So, how would I approach it? The same way I did at the time – I’d figure out what was done in CG, and we’d just start from there. And today, it would be easier! Literally, you could just load the scene files and hit ‘render’ – it would be done! I mean, not everything… but a lot more than you’d think.

...If it was built by my team, it was overbuilt. It’ll hold up. I would be more surprised to see something that doesn’t hold up. I would be shocked if it doesn’t hold up to high definition.

I seriously doubt they would outsource it from one of their own companies, unless a time crunch existed.

Both TOS and TNG turned out rather well with CBS Digital working on them.

Since the DS9-R project is probably dead, it's probably safe to say this now, but about a year and change ago, CBS was in contact with the company I work for -- which is not CBS Digital -- about redoing the CGI for seasons 5 through 7. It never got past the initial bid phase and I have no idea what became of the project after that, but they were definitely considering it.

 

[Relayer1]

It never got past the initial bid phase and I have no idea what became of the project after that, but they were definitely considering it.

I should hope it's cancelled - I've recently given up and purchased DS9 and Voyager on DVD...

 

[DonIago]

^That was just the push we needed!

 

[dub]

Since the DS9-R project is probably dead, it's probably safe to say this now, but about a year and change ago, CBS was in contact with the company I work for -- which is not CBS Digital -- about redoing the CGI for seasons 5 through 7. It never got past the initial bid phase and I have no idea what became of the project after that, but they were definitely considering it.

Thanks for the inside info! It's nice to know they took it that far at least.

 

[USS KG5]

Since the DS9-R project is probably dead, it's probably safe to say this now, but about a year and change ago, CBS was in contact with the company I work for -- which is not CBS Digital -- about redoing the CGI for seasons 5 through 7. It never got past the initial bid phase and I have no idea what became of the project after that, but they were definitely considering it.

Thanks for posting some actual information, its been scarce in this thread for a while

I think we are all missing, and my belief in this is strengthened by factoids like the above, that very obviously a lot of people very much wanted to do DS9-R.

A lot of the team who worked on DS9 are likely now in senior positions at CBS, will remember it fondly, remember it's quality and see an existing audience who are more disposed than the average bear to buy physical media.

So with all that being true, why do we exist here? Unfortunately, it financially must have looked really,really bad. So bad that green-lighting it might have cost those in charge their jobs.

So, a bit of hope, in that likely given half a chance they would love to do it. Also however, I suspect the only real reason they would have stopped the remaster program is they saw very little opportunity to make money out of it.

I'd love to think it will happen, but I can only conclude it won't!

 

[Salinga]

There are so many shows that need this process that are just sitting in the vaults, and it's a real shame. The overall quality is so, so significantly better than the old NTSC versions and they'll be able to license this product many times over, there'll also be new audiences for these programs.

"Frasier" is one of them.

 

[Michael]

“Frasier” on DVD does look fine, though. Especially the later seasons are of really good quality. I'm not saying it couldn't be better, but for a sitcom it's certainly sufficient.

 

[timtonruben359]

Forgive me I haven't been on this thread for a while, but I thought it was basically common knowledge now that the DS9 upgrade had basically been scrapped.

 

[Squiggy]

You'd think that, but no.

 

[dub]

Forgive me I haven't been on this thread for a while, but I thought it was basically common knowledge now that the DS9 upgrade had basically been scrapped.

While no one official has come out and said that, nor will they probably ever do that, yes that's the common consensus and the more time passes the more logical that conclusion becomes.

As with other threads, we tend to get off on tangents, like talking about what-ifs, or comparing to other franchises, or discussing the way things went down.

Still you can usually count on at least one comment per page from someone who feels the need to remind everyone that it's unlikely. And they're usually sarky about it. Imagine that.

 

[LocutusCrusher]

Some interesting comments from the team that handled the X-Files HD remaster project:

With revenue from physical media falling, but partially offset by streaming revenue and syndication rights, how is that affecting large scale remastering projects such as The X-Files?

It has a big effect. The studios are very cautious. The studios have to balance the creative, archive, and financial aspects of projects like these. There's so many series' that are being ignored. That's to their detriment because now there's many avenues to get these shows back into the marketplace. There's a broader range of distribution than before. You aren't necessarily going to make all your money back on one deal but over a number of years.

There are so many shows that need this process that are just sitting in the vaults, and it's a real shame. The overall quality is so, so significantly better than the old NTSC versions and they'll be able to license this product many times over, there'll also be new audiences for these programs. With classic shows like MASH, back in the day, they had cut negative. It wasn't until non-linear editing came about in the mid 80's that they were still cutting film.

There's a lot of great episodic series and lower budget features that needs this attention, but it ultimately becomes a directive from the accounting side. But what are you going to do? I hope the studios and distributors have a change of heart and focus more on their legacy assets. If they don't focus their attention to the legacy archival assets, there's going to be no value or revenue to be generated.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/7468/remastering-the-files-hd-jim-hardy-ceo-illuminate/index3.html

The vibe I'm getting is that these companies that do this kind of thing are fans of this that or the other. They're aware the demand is there. However, the cashflow just isn't, and as others in this thread have stated, yes it's very likely these major million dollar studios are just as likely to let this material sit and rot rather than spend money on it.

Is it lack of foresight keeping shows on the shelf?
Is it good judgment avoiding gambling with millions?
As always, YMMV.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXE_n2q08Yw[/yt]

The difference with X-Files is that its remaster was for Netflix, then it was later put on Blu-Ray. Take note, CBS. There's still a market for HD remasters.

 

[dahj]

^^
The X-Files didn't have that many CGI effects though.

 

[Kor]

There were definitely up-scaled effects shots in the remastered X-Files that looked like crud in comparison with the normal, non-effects shots.

As far as the market for the remastered X-Files, the brand new sequel miniseries is coming out soon. So this is a much more direct tie-in than the various shows scattered across the Trek universe.

Kor

 

[LocutusCrusher]

There were definitely up-scaled effects shots in the remastered X-Files that looked like crud in comparison with the normal, non-effects shots.

As far as the market for the remastered X-Files, the brand new sequel miniseries is coming out soon. So this is a much more direct tie-in than the various shows scattered across the Trek universe.

Kor

Oh, of course there were, but keep in mind that they also reframed the shots. The Trek remasters haven't been doing that.

 

[DS9forever]

The new DS9 novel Ascendance is out just after Christmas and Force and Motion is out in May; sales of the novels show that the fans still have an interest in DS9. *Obvious hint hint*

 

[Shalashaska]

Any chance the new show could boost chances of seeing this?

New show comes out, new show is good, new show hits the mainstream like other niche/geek shows such Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, people buy Blu-rays of new show, CBS wants to capitalize on rising popularity/interest in Star Trek, releases all-new Remasters of classic Trek shows such as Deep Space Nine and Voyager, they sell because people care about Star Trek again, everyone's happy.

As well, like someone else said, it won't be as huge of a project as TNG Remastered was. A lot of the original effects that had to be completely re-made for TNG have been saved and only have to be re-rendered in 1080p/2K/4K.

TL;DR Alex Kurtzman has a lot on his plate. Don't fuck the new show up.

 

[Lance]

Any chance the new show could boost chances of seeing this?

New show comes out, new show is good, new show hits the mainstream like other niche/geek shows such Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, people buy Blu-rays of new show, CBS wants to capitalize on rising popularity/interest in Star Trek, releases all-new Remasters of classic Trek shows such as Deep Space Nine and Voyager, they sell because people care about Star Trek again, everyone's happy.

Well yeah, of course it's possible. But nobody's saying it's certain, or even likely. It's also possible that Paramount wouldn't want to muddy the waters by cross-promoting the hell out of an old show when they're trying to sell people on watching the new one.

As well, like someone else said, it won't be as huge of a project as TNG Remastered was. A lot of the original effects that had to be completely re-made for TNG have been saved and only have to be re-rendered in 1080p/2K/4K.

I find this a very simplistic assessment. Sure, DS9 used some regurgitated footage from TNG, and the re-made versions of those shots from TNG-R are as good as anything. But a hell of a lot was shot new as well, and all of that would need to be rescanned in the same extensive way as TNG-R, or else recreated. And that's before we get to the later seasons where we start seeing CG come into its own (which becomes even more of a problem on Voyager than it does on DS9, admittedly.)

 

[Salinga]

As well, like someone else said, it won't be as huge of a project as TNG Remastered was. A lot of the original effects that had to be completely re-made for TNG have been saved and only have to be re-rendered in 1080p/2K/4K.

Source pls? Because I only heard the opposite: Many CGI effects would need to be redone by scratch, since the original files/resource/software is not available anymore (lost, scattered, deleted).