Looks like DS9 will not get Blu Ray
- Thread starter IronMaiden
- Start date
Yes, I have. (My TV is a plasma.)
As for the new series: Since this 'All Access' is a CBS thing, I wonder if you have to have a cable subscription to get it (i.e. they would make you authenticate that you already receive CBS programming). That leaves me out, so I guess I should hope that iTunes gets the show at some point...
CBS is an over-the-air network. Everyone gets it.
CBS All Access is a subscription service. It's like Netflix, but only has CBS content. It costs $5.99 a month.
I own a plasma and you definatly have to take care of it - you just cant let it run for hours in the background. After 1h or so you have to zoom the image in or out to move the station logo so it doesn burn in or switch the panel off (and just let the sound run), if you dont look at it and after three or four hours give the panel a pause for a while. But since I mostly use my TV for watching films, series or documentaries, its not much of an issue. Fun fact: If TV stations remove the logo during commercial breaks, it prevents the burning in of the logo. 
After two years my plasma shows the first signs of beeing worn-out in the middle of the panel (where the most action is).
My next panel will be OLED. LCD just doesnt match the blacks and still has too much blurriness during movement.
On topic: I wonder if the new Star Trek series does increase the chance for an HD transfer of DS9 (and/or VOY) or decreases it (because CBS spends the money for Trek somewhere else now).
After two years my plasma shows the first signs of beeing worn-out in the middle of the panel (where the most action is).My next panel will be OLED. LCD just doesnt match the blacks and still has too much blurriness during movement.
On topic: I wonder if the new Star Trek series does increase the chance for an HD transfer of DS9 (and/or VOY) or decreases it (because CBS spends the money for Trek somewhere else now).
Hmm. Well, as much as I would love to see this new series, I don't think I can spend that kind of money just to see one show. Better to wait until it makes the iTunes Store, then I can pay a one-time fee (for a season pass) and keep every episode, in HD no less.
Besides, CBS All Access requires Adobe Flash (on the computer, anyway) and I refuse to use Flash under any circumstances.
I hate to sound like a debbie-downer, but them's the breaks.
I own a plasma and you definatly have to take care of it - you just cant let it run for hours in the background. After 1h or so you have to zoom the image in or out to move the station logo so it doesn burn in or switch the panel off (and just let the sound run), if you dont look at it and after three or four hours give the panel a pause for a while. But since I mostly use my TV for watching films, series or documentaries, its not much of an issue. Fun fact: If TV stations remove the logo during commercial breaks, it prevents the burning in of the logo.
My next panel will be OLED. LCD just doesnt match the blacks and still has too much blurriness during movement.
On topic: I wonder if the new Star Trek series does increase the chance for an HD transfer of DS9 (and/or VOY) or decreases it (because CBS spends the money for Trek somewhere else now).
I remember when TV channels here in Australia first started showing station logos on all shows, there were complaints from viewers who were pissed off about the logos getting burned into their TV screens.
Although I've been one of those in this thread who've been saying it's unlikely for DS9 and VOY to get a TNG-R style revamp, I'd definitely qualify that by saying that a new, successful Trek series wouldn't hurt the odds of it happening. Especially if it bases itself in the Prime 'verse and includes call-backs to the past shows. Movie companies are always up for 'cross promotion' between merchandise and what people see on their screens, so if a new Trek show had lots of references to Cardassians and Ferengi and Bajor and Section 31, I can only imagine that DS9-R's chances of being revived would become alot better.
I would happily sign up for CBS all access if, in addition to the new show, if we also got DS9 remastered and Voyager Remastered.
In 1999/2000 I bought DS9 season 7, it cost about $250 (so about $350 now after inflation), and while I could keep it, it's on VHS so wasn't exactly "keep" quality.
For people complaning about $72 for a year, or $3 an episode to get a season of a new show, it's really sad. Not worth chasing those people. The going rate for a 3 minute song is $1, so $3 for a 45 minute TV episode is amazing value.
An episode in the 90s cost about $1.25m to make, or $2m in todays figures, with 5 million viewers, so needed to pull in $8 for a series per person to break even. But those viewership figures were falling, http://www.trektoday.com/articles/ratings_history.shtml, and viewing figures of TV shows are down across the industry, and it's been a decline across the west for the last 20 years. People have other entertainment avenues now.
With a $3m episode budget (budget across the Marvel Defenders shows), and 22 episodes, you'll need to pull in $66 million, or 900k new viewers to CBS action streaming mega vampire dot com.
Advertising yields on normal TV are down on the 90s, especially as more and more timeshift. Enterprise had dropped down to 3 million viewers 10 years ago, and there's no evidence that there would be more now. People watch boxsets, and that's great, but it needs cool hard cash, not fighting over ever thinning advertising pots.
For decades people have been shouting "shut up and take my money" when it comes to niche TV shows like Firefly and Star Trek. Now that's happening, it's "actually take my money, but not that much, I think your new $3 million episode is only worth the price of a 3 minute pop song".
TNG-R failed because people wouldn't put their money where there mouth is. Buying it 5 years later in clearence for 1/10th the price does not mean you get any more, and this attitude means DS9 doesn't get a DS9-R.
As I've said, I disagree that TNG-R failed; although it may have underperformed on BD (perhaps understandably, but unsubstantiated by any objective measure), CBS will sell these HD masters via broadcast and streaming for many years to come.
I do agree about consumers -- particularly fans -- not putting their money where their mouths are. Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits had a piece about this a little over a year ago:
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/091014_1215
In other words, the "Shut up and take my money" crowd often does not pony up at the cash register. "It's too expensive!", "I can't afford it!", or (my favorite) "You're releasing them too fast!"
Now there's "I don't like Flash!" -- there will always be an excuse. 
In my earlier posts about the prospects for DS9-R, I completely forgot about CBS All Access (to be fair, I think most readers of the press release had not even heard of it). Clearly CBS is banking big-time on streaming -- via their own service and sales to other services -- and Star Trek is going to be a huge part of that. It seems likely that if you want to see Trek 2017 on it's first run, you'll have to subscribe to CBS All Access. I highly doubt network-centric services (like All Access) are the wave of the future, but CBS' plans for Trek are clear, and at some point the horrid (even by SD standards) DS9 and VOY masters are not going to cut it. Stream baby, stream!
@Joe_Atari, apologies for the format of this quotation, but for some reason the quotation/reply buttons don't work for me when I press them on your post in particular.
CBS is flipping the bird to Trek fans by trying to force them to subscribe to a service they don't want just to see one show. That's another token example of corporate greed. Many consumers are inevitably going to flip the bird back at CBS.
That's because Paramount prices its home video products at extortionate prices. The DS9 DVDs are a great example of that, especially for the first 5 or so years after they came out. That is to say, the problem is corporate greed, not consumers being unwilling to pay.
That might be likely in an alternate universe in which VPNs and pirate sources don't exist. However, what you said will not happen in this universe.
CBS is flipping the bird to Trek fans by trying to force them to subscribe to a service they don't want just to see one show. That's another token example of corporate greed. Many consumers are inevitably going to flip the bird back at CBS.
CBS isn't a charity.
It's more like CBS is trying to get into the streaming game, not flip anybody the bird. Broadcast is on the way out, streaming is on the rise. I think all of the networks have been keeping an eye on streaming to see whether it was just a fad or if it's becoming the preferred way for consumers to get their day-to-day entertainment on TV.
CBS is going about this in a very smart way. They have a franchise which is beloved, it's been rebooted in film to great success, we're in the golden age of reboots, and serial dramas have been and continue to be wildly successful. They've apparently milked the TNG era as dry as they feel they can up to this point without risking huge losses, and now they have this TV franchise they own that's just sitting on the shelf aging. Meanwhile, they need to figure out how to eventually transition to streaming as a major money-maker given the decline of broadcast. How can they get people to pay for a CBS streaming service when other streaming services are already out there and CBS already offers shows on broadcast for free? How about take a popular franchise that's been shelved for just the right amount of time and bring it back on broadcast for the pilot, then push people to their streaming service for more episodes? I don't think they could have a smarter strategy. It could totally bomb, but if it's successful it could be the key to the future for CBS television.
I have dreamed of the day when TV stations are available a la carte so I can stop blowing so much money on cable when I don't even watch 90% or more of the stations. If every station I love does this, there is no doubt I will save money by canceling my cable subscription and subscribing to the few stations I actually watch.
CBS is going about this in a very smart way. They have a franchise which is beloved, it's been rebooted in film to great success, we're in the golden age of reboots, and serial dramas have been and continue to be wildly successful. They've apparently milked the TNG era as dry as they feel they can up to this point without risking huge losses, and now they have this TV franchise they own that's just sitting on the shelf aging. Meanwhile, they need to figure out how to eventually transition to streaming as a major money-maker given the decline of broadcast. How can they get people to pay for a CBS streaming service when other streaming services are already out there and CBS already offers shows on broadcast for free? How about take a popular franchise that's been shelved for just the right amount of time and bring it back on broadcast for the pilot, then push people to their streaming service for more episodes? I don't think they could have a smarter strategy. It could totally bomb, but if it's successful it could be the key to the future for CBS television.
I have dreamed of the day when TV stations are available a la carte so I can stop blowing so much money on cable when I don't even watch 90% or more of the stations. If every station I love does this, there is no doubt I will save money by canceling my cable subscription and subscribing to the few stations I actually watch.
Sure, but there is a huge difference between making a fair profit, and making an obscenely unfair profit via ripping off customers. Viacom has a history of doing the latter with Trek products, and IMO this new streaming service ploy is merely the latest example of that.
The thing is, they aren't ripping you off. Because you're a grownup and can make the choice not to pay what they want for their product.
You probably don't want to know.
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