DS9 on blu ray?

[USS KG5]

I'm sure there are people who frequent this board who could easily investigate the veracity of this...I saw someone post this in the comments section of a status on the Deep Space Nine in HD facebook group:

I just did some research and called a few of my friends that worked in high places. Here's the true rundown:

DS9 was apparently filmed in 70mm (Very high Def) and the DVD's were not ported from those copies. The original 70mm film was supposedly left in the vault under lock and key at Paramount/Viacom. The DVD version of DS9 was copied from the very good quality (but not quite film quality) BetaMax tapes that were used for original TV broadcast.

When it came time to pull the original prints from the vault... To their surprise, some jackass 5-finger-discounted many of the original prints back in the 90's (probably for collectors sake). So much of the original footage from DS9 is apparently missing that it would do no good to make a BluRay set out of the originals without taking the best quality BetaMax prints and hiring an entire crew of people to touch it up to make it appear High Def.

In other words... We all owe a big middle finger to the floor staff of Paramount for letting priceless original footage walk out their doors.

I got really pissed for a moment after reading this, then I thought "oh wait, how the heck would they manage to film all of a seven-season TV show in 70mm?"

Lol, very dumb rumour whoever came up with it. They should have put at least some effort into it

We at least know if it had all been filmed in 70mm we would have had a Tarantino supervised remaster by now.

Also Sisko would have been played by Sam L Jackson.

 

[Shalashaska]

I'm sure there are people who frequent this board who could easily investigate the veracity of this...I saw someone post this in the comments section of a status on the Deep Space Nine in HD facebook group:

I got really pissed for a moment after reading this, then I thought "oh wait, how the heck would they manage to film all of a seven-season TV show in 70mm?"

Lol, very dumb rumour whoever came up with it. They should have put at least some effort into it

We at least know if it had all been filmed in 70mm we would have had a Tarantino supervised remaster by now.

Also Sisko would have been played by Sam L Jackson.

Let's have a Deep Space Nine 70MM Roadshow to compete with The Hateful Eight!

 

[Kemaiku]

Also Sisko would have been played by Sam L Jackson.

Oh come on, you have to give the Dominion some kind of sporting chance of winning.

 

[Turbo]

Well, one thing seems likely. Different documentaries (from ENT and TNG) would be on any DS9 sets. With his temper tantrum on Twitter about Axanar today, there's very little chance Burnett is going to get any work from CBS any time soon, particularly anything Trek-related. Which is a shame, as his TNG documentaries were excellent.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Not completely DS9 related, but I've been planning to do a 2016 year-long Trekathon for the anniversary. Last night I started getting my ducks in a row (so I'd be ready to go on Friday). I wanted to see how DS9/VOY looked on 1080 (since the last time I watched either, I still had a tube TV), so I pulled my DVDs out of closet storage. I went with VOY S1 just because it was on top.

I put the DVD in, loaded "Caretaker," and it looked freaking terrible. My BR player does supposedly upscale (Not that it ever seems to do much), and I have watched older shows that looked fairly okay. But this was almost unwatchable. The opening crawl was really hard to read because it was so grainy/fuzzy.

And the interior cabin shots were just so grainy. And whenever the lights flickered behind B"Elanna/Chuckles, you could visibly see all the pixels--almost to the point that it looked like artificial scanlines. I got as far as the credits and had to give up. There was visible tearing with all the effects--especially of the ship flying through the nebula.

So then I fired up the Roku to try a stream. Both Netflix and Amazon looked worse than the DVDs.

I was really disappointed--and kind of afraid to see what DS9 looks like.

Obviously, full remasters aren't practical, but I would think there is something that could be done cheaply and efficiently that could at least make them look better on modern TVs.

I don't even want to imagine what they look like on a 4K.

 

[kkt]

Because it's a good "excuse" as to why they wouldn't do it.

"They" don't need to make excuses or give explanations, it's their property to either make or not make. But if there's one thing "they" are good at, I bet it's holding on to the contents of their film vaults.

 

[USS KG5]

Also Sisko would have been played by Sam L Jackson.

Oh come on, you have to give the Dominion some kind of sporting chance of winning.

As a future guest star in one of the movies, Sam L Jackson would make an epic Admiral, a good one for once.

Would be able to believably smack Pine's Kirk down.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Not completely DS9 related, but I've been planning to do a 2016 year-long Trekathon for the anniversary.

I just last week finished my DS9 run-through with my sister (who had never seen the show before and I needed to correct that) after we went through the TNG blurays.

And it looked fine, I played them on my xbox one on my 70 inch, and we never had any problems at all. Sure, it wasn't as crisp as TNG was, and the darker cave stuff would give artifacting, but otherwise it looked pretty good!

I think expectations are just waaay too high these days where most have become spoiled. The story and enjoyment was the exact same and I even turned my sister into a fan.

 

[Squiggy]

Because it's a good "excuse" as to why they wouldn't do it.

"They" don't need to make excuses or give explanations, it's their property to either make or not make. But if there's one thing "they" are good at, I bet it's holding on to the contents of their film vaults.

I didn't say it was an excuse from CBS.

 

[DS9forever]

I'm glad I didn't buy the X-Files Blu-ray right away; there seems to be an issue in season eight with the sizing or contrast of the picture. Fox are giving out replacements to buyers.

 

[tomswift2002]

I put the DVD in, loaded "Caretaker," and it looked freaking terrible. My BR player does supposedly upscale (Not that it ever seems to do much), and I have watched older shows that looked fairly okay. But this was almost unwatchable. The opening crawl was really hard to read because it was so grainy/fuzzy.

And the interior cabin shots were just so grainy. And whenever the lights flickered behind B"Elanna/Chuckles, you could visibly see all the pixels--almost to the point that it looked like artificial scanlines. I got as far as the credits and had to give up. There was visible tearing with all the effects--especially of the ship flying through the nebula.

So then I fired up the Roku to try a stream. Both Netflix and Amazon looked worse than the DVDs.

DS9 and Voyager were mastered on D2 Digital Composite videotape. (the only time D1 Component videotape entered the equation was when the sfx were being composited together, and then everything was transferred to D2 and edited on to D2 Composite.) So in terms of DS9 and Voyager there is no true component video master, and as a result the upscaled suffer, because you are upscaling 480i composite video to 720p/1080i/p component video.

As for Netflix and Amazon, from what I've seen on iTunes, CBS used a method the threw out one field of video an just doubled the remaining field in order to get a 480p version (the original D2 masters are at 480i) that's acceptable for Internet streaming.

Also, in case anyone's interested, "Quantum Leap", the Scott Bakula early-90's sci-Fi series is hitting Blu-Ray in Australia this year.

 

[Michael]

So, SeaQuest, The X-Files, Farscape and now Quantum Leap have found their way to blu-ray. I think that's at least an indication that CBS might entertain the idea of bringing DS9 to blu-ray, even if it's just with upscaled effects shots.

So while I don't think DS9 in high definition would necessarily be done in a way most of us are hoping for, I think it's not too out of the realm of possibility to assume the series will be release on blu-ray eventually.

One can still hope, at least.

 

[dub]

I don't know...does Australia have any interest in DS9? Sounds like that's where all the bluray action is happening these days for older scifi shows.

 

[IronMaiden]

I don't know...does Australia have any interest in DS9? Sounds like that's where all the bluray action is happening these days for older scifi shows.

I do and someone else.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Australia has comparatively crappy Internet for HD streaming, which I guess explains all the Blu-ray love...

 

[IronMaiden]

Australia has comparatively crappy Internet for HD streaming, which I guess explains all the Blu-ray love...

True, can't even watch a fucking live stream without it fucking stopping and loading.

And we got the best internet speed option.

 

[Relayer1]

Australia has comparatively crappy Internet for HD streaming, which I guess explains all the Blu-ray love...

True, can't even watch a fucking live stream without it fucking stopping and loading.

And we got the best internet speed option.

Ah, God Bless Australia - we may be very grateful to them in the furtutre...

 

[Reeborg]

So, SeaQuest, The X-Files, Farscape and now Quantum Leap have found their way to blu-ray.

I find it rather disappointing that the audio language options are now often very limited on blu-ray. X-files comes with ENG/FRE/SPA only. I have the series on DVD (tri-audio) already. No improvement here, so no relacement purchase from me. A version with ENG/FRE/SPA-CAS/SPA-LAT/POR-BR/ITA/GER/JAP would have been awesome and a 100% instant buy for me.

 

[Harvey]

English, French, and Spanish covers the vast majority of potential home video buyers in Region 1/A territories (the US and Canada).

I can understand why most companies don't want to make the investment in adding other language tracks for releases in these territories -- it just doesn't make sense, financially.

 

[Michael]

I find it rather disappointing that the audio language options are now often very limited on blu-ray. X-files comes with ENG/FRE/SPA only. I have the series on DVD (tri-audio) already. No improvement here, so no relacement purchase from me. A version with ENG/FRE/SPA-CAS/SPA-LAT/POR-BR/ITA/GER/JAP would have been awesome and a 100% instant buy for me.

I don't know, I consume most of my favorite entertainment in its original version, which is more often than not English. I understand how many people prefer to watch a series in their own language, but I feel that it's much more rewarding to watch/read/hear something in its original language; even if it's with subtitles.

In the case of The X-Files I do actually consider getting the blu-rays, as the picture quality is vastly superior to the DVD versions. But like DS9forever upthread I'm glad I waited out on those, as there are serious issues with season 8. Also, they totally fucked up everything that has to do with text cards, including the iconic X-Files logo itself, because they – and I'm not joking – “didn't know what the font was”.