ENTERPRISE on Blu-Ray OFFICIAL Discussion Thread

[trekker670]

I have only watched it on my laptop 17'' display...

There's your problem.

You're not going to notice much of a difference on a small screen. This is similar to the issue with 4K, is that, while it has a much higher resolution than standard 1080P HD, it's not noticeable until you get into the larger TV sizes (IIRC 60+ inches)

 

[Reeborg]

I have only watched it on my laptop 17'' display...

There's your problem.

You're not going to notice much of a difference on a small screen. This is similar to the issue with 4K, is that, while it has a much higher resolution than standard 1080P HD, it's not noticeable until you get into the larger TV sizes (IIRC 60+ inches)

For a 60'' screen I would need at first a new bigger appartment.

I have a 32'' screen now, and I find the difference between DVD and BD (rather) minor. I have only a viewing distance of 2.5-3 m available, so I am wondering what big a screen would be reasonable, also considering watching (presently) mostly SD-TV ???

 

[trekker670]

This is admittedly off-topic, but since it came up, here's a few links related to screen size, resolution, and viewing distance. A viewing distance of 2.5-3 m (almost 10 feet) is pretty respectable and could fit a decently large screen.

http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimum_HDTV_viewing_distance#Manufacturers.27_recommendations

 

[Reeborg]

This is admittedly off-topic, but since it came up, here's a few links related to screen size, resolution, and viewing distance. A viewing distance of 2.5-3 m (almost 10 feet) is pretty respectable and could fit a decently large screen.

http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimum_HDTV_viewing_distance#Manufacturers.27_recommendations

Thanks for the info, that help a lot.
My conclusion: for smaller screens than 50'' 1080p is practically "useless". I wonder if watching 480p will suffer at those big screens (at 2.5m viewing distance)?

 

[Scotty]

We have a nice comparison showing the difference between DVD and Blu-ray quality for "In a Mirror, Darkly" up on Youtube. Watch it at 1080p resolution full screen to get a better idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLspL9_6liA

Sharpness and color reproduction are slightly better, but there really is hardly any difference.

 

[BillJ]

We have a nice comparison showing the difference between DVD and Blu-ray quality for "In a Mirror, Darkly" up on Youtube. Watch it at 1080p resolution full screen to get a better idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLspL9_6liA

Sharpness and color reproduction are slightly better, but there really is hardly any difference.

I have a 32" TV and can easily tell the difference between DVD and Blu-ray from 8-10 feet.

 

[Dane_Whitman]

We have a nice comparison showing the difference between DVD and Blu-ray quality for "In a Mirror, Darkly" up on Youtube. Watch it at 1080p resolution full screen to get a better idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLspL9_6liA

Sharpness and color reproduction are slightly better, but there really is hardly any difference.

I have a 32" TV and can easily tell the difference between DVD and Blu-ray from 8-10 feet.

And on my 65" the difference is quite substantial. It looks much more impressive than that youtube video.

 

[GNDN]

So today is the US release date for season 4. I had pre-ordered with Amazon, but they had a problem with my card which delayed shipment and I'm glad it did since they never dropped their price below $74.96. I saw Bestbuy had it for $59.99 so headed over to pick it up, but no copies at my local store, and not a single copy at any Target near me either.

This has never been my favorite series, and I'm not sure how the sales have been for seasons 1-3 but I'm pretty sure they were at least all available locally. Sad to see a new Trek release not available anywhere near me. I went ahead and ordered from Bestbuy online so should have a copy by the end of the week.

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

I got my copy from Amazon yesterday, but I did not get a chance to watch it because of the predicted bad weather (which never happened, thank goodness). I am very much looking forward to watching this set.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I have 3 Best Buys within 5 miles from where I live and I had to go to the farthest one away just to find it. They only had three sets. Each season has been harder to find than the previous one. I'd guess that lower sales made them make less for each season. Anyways the picture quality of season 4 is very very good. The colors are a lot stronger.

 

[trekker670]

I'm finally starting S4, this is the only season I never owned on DVD so I'm looking forward to seeing a few episodes that I probably missed.

As others have said, it is impressive the increase in quality this season compared to the previous three. In some regards it's almost too good. I just finished watching "Home" and some of the greenscreen scenes of Archer on the mountain were painful to watch (very blurry, harsh matte-lines, etc.).

I also got a kick out of the last scene when T'Pol kisses Trip, you can clearly see that they had to repeat the scene a few, as there are at least 3 distinct sets of lipstick smears.

 

[AstroSmurf]

^ I noticed the lipstick too.

Since my set arrived last Tuesday I have managed to reach "Observer Effect" and I am very impressed so far. Everything looks great. My only complaint is the drop in picture quality when they reuse a stock ship shot from the first two seasons. It is VERY noticeable and can be a bit jarring sometimes.

Has anyone else watched the new extras? I thought the four documentaries were nicely done (even of they did beat the well decayed corpse of the cancellation horse) but the writer's documentary was a complete mess. It was in desperate need of a moderator to keep everyone on track. It really needed about twenty minutes edited out too.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

...but the writer's documentary was a complete mess. It was in desperate need of a moderator to keep everyone on track. It really needed about twenty minutes edited out too.

Yep, you've summed that up perfectly.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

The picture quality is much better, but I don't think this was to be unexpected. Even on the DVDs you could tell the season had a completely different look to what came before. Coto's approach was to make this series feel like a true precursor to the original series and I think that's very much reflected in the way they shot on set. The first three seasons had more subdued lighting, muted colors and there's the use of soft filters. The fourth season goes for harder light, saturated colors and the soft filter is pretty much done away with (though I would have been amused if they had kept that for close up shots of women, ala TOS).

Just to give comparison, and these are from the DVDs.

Season 1:

Season 4:

 

[Cap.T]

The picture quality is much better, but I don't think this was to be unexpected. Even on the DVDs you could tell the season had a completely different look to what came before. Coto's approach was to make this series feel like a true precursor to the original series and I think that's very much reflected in the way they shot on set. The first three seasons had more subdued lighting, muted colors and there's the use of soft filters. The fourth season goes for harder light, saturated colors and the soft filter is pretty much done away with (though I would have been amused if they had kept that for close up shots of women, ala TOS).

Just to give comparison, and these are from the DVDs.

Season 1:

Season 4:

That change is primarly due to the fact that the first three season were shot on film, while the forth was shot on digital cameras. The HD masters that were used back then apparently were transfered "as is" to Blu-Ray. If the filmmaterial would have been remastered like TNG, the first three season would propably have looked even better then season 4, because those digital cameras were pretty early models. Of course they also used more color in the sets, which pop nicely with the digital fotography.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

I'm not sure that would be the case. It seems to me that the first three seasons simply have a different aesthetic that even if we did get them remastered it still wouldn't look as striking as S4's primarily because of the style of photography that they went with in those earlier seasons. It'll be interesting to see how many react to DS9 if it's ever remastered because it's not going to "pop" like TNG did given the different style Rush went with there.

 

[trekker670]

While I agree that the quality would have been better if they completely rescanned the show from the original negatives ala-TNG, but those screencaps, I think, highlight that the show itself was changed in S4 to be more vibrant. The uniforms are a brighter blue, the floor and door changed to blue, even the colors used on the computer colors is brighter and closer to the TOS jellybean colors.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

One detail I like revealed in the S4 bonus features was that Okuda was actually having the computer graphics evolve towards the kind we'd see in TOS so that by the end of ENT there would be a lot more of the TOS elements in place. Of course, for S4, they really took it a step further. I love that they even revamped the transporter pad to look like something from TOS.

 

[Mage]

That change is primarly due to the fact that the first three season were shot on film, while the forth was shot on digital cameras. The HD masters that were used back then apparently were transfered "as is" to Blu-Ray. If the filmmaterial would have been remastered like TNG, the first three season would propably have looked even better then season 4, because those digital cameras were pretty early models. Of course they also used more color in the sets, which pop nicely with the digital fotography.

More then just the medium it was filmed on. Doug Drexler once commented on how he designed things for the show, including the ship, with more color. He remembered once watching an episode on tv, and thinking his tv was broke, because it seemed to him all the color was gone. It wasn't untill someone in a blue uniform walked on screen, he realized that was the look of the show.
So there is definatly intent in the 'colorless' look in the beginning of the show.

 

[Oso Blanco]

The HD masters that were used back then apparently were transfered "as is" to Blu-Ray.

The problem is that they apparently didn't transfer the original masters to BluRay. I think they used a master that had been prepared for tv stations back then, hence the "commercial break problem" I have described earlier. The original master wouldn't have that kind of problem, at least the DVDs didn't ... and I assume that the DVDs were low resolution transfers from the original master.