Rumor: TNG-HD is a-coming

[BillJ]

Wanted to watch some Star Trek so I sat down and popped in the season three blu-ray disc with The Cloud Minders on it. As an experiment I clicked on the zoom function on my TV.

What a cinematic experience. I only noticed three time where any actual work would need to be done to make the cropping work. Once was a real close-up of McCoy. The other two were on Stratos and they totaled about four total minutes of screen time.

So count me in the camp that would like to see widescreen versions of TOS and TNG.

 

[Yoda]

Really? You want cropped versions? Some people shouldn't be allowed to own TVs.

 

[BillJ]

Really? You want cropped versions? Some people shouldn't be allowed to own TVs.

Why? Promoting different ways to watch older programming can only extend viability.

Were you also against the CGI effects added to TOS?

 

[Yoda]

There's a difference between redoing effects and cropping/stretching images. You're pretty much always better off just watching something in the original aspect ratio.

Cropping and stretching is just bad. It was bad in the era of pan and scan for widescreen movies. It's bad when a TV station just stretches a 4:3 image to fit in widescreen, it's bad when someone sets their TV set to stretch and/or crop it for them.

Fuck, they might as well convert 'em to 3D while they're at it

 

[BillJ]

Fuck, they might as well convert 'em to 3D while they're at it

Why not? As long as the originals are available, what's wrong with a little experimentation?

Hell, I'd probably own all three versions and I hate 3-D.

 

[scotthm]

You're pretty much always better off just watching something in the original aspect ratio.

This, of course, is a determination best left up to the person doing the watching.

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[Yoda]

Not really.

 

[RAMA]

Awaiting official STNG-R word...day 1256....and counting.

RAMA

 

[Hober Mallow]

TNG-R won't be in 16:9. It was never staged or framed to be filmed in that ratio. Putting TNG-R out in 16:9 would be just as egregious as releasing a movie filmed in 2.35:1 in pan & scan.

This.

If we're doing widescreen cropped versions of TNG, why not further manipulate the image to do it in Walmart tall screen in-store TV format?

 

[scotthm]

Not really.

I think they should release TNG-R in 16:9 widescreen only, just for you.

(After all, think of the money you'll save.)

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[Dac]

I know I was advocating a 16:9 conversion, but after actually watching the show on my TV....stretching it to 16:9 is by no means terrible. It's perfectly watchable that way if you ask me. So do it at the original aspect ratio I say and I'll watch it stretched. I realized that's how I've seen most of TNG anyhow recently as my main TV automatically fills in the black bars and I honestly haven't noticed until now.

 

[Oso Blanco]

Let's not ask CBS to abandon the OAR and rape the image on upcoming high-def releases, forcing all customers to go along with said curious need. Please.

Marketability is necessary, but must never take precedence over what film is about.

I also hope they won't rape the image with new fx.

 

[Oso Blanco]

Just curious... exactly how was TOS messed up? HD is much closer to what the film actually looks like. The new FX have nothing to do with the remaster. Not only that, but you can watch the original episodes in HD with the original FX on the blu-rays. So I'm not really sure what the problem is as you se it.

So, when I'm watching the HD episodes with original FX, I will see the episodes just like they were on the DVD box sets, only in HD? Nothing else has been changed?

Um... you do know that old black and white movies were never shown in TV "standard definition." They couldn't be. The quality on the big screen would be so horrible that you wouldn't even know what you were looking at.

I thought we were talking about TV presentations, not about theatrical ones. And my point wasn't about HD in this case, but about the movies still being in black and white. People accept this fact and don't mind, so why cant they accept the fact that old tv series' contain fx made in SD? Or the whole series in SD? Personally, I'd prefer the series as it was meant to be in SD over something raped solely for the mighty cause of HD!

HD is, by and large, about preserving the original, not changing anything.

That's how it should be. But adding new FX is changing EVERYTHING!

In what way was TOS sacrificed? A less-detailed transfer is better? Please explain. It's like someone who gets the actual original Mona Lisa complaining, "This is terrible! My postcard with a bad copy of the Mona Lisa on it was just fine! Why did they have to ruin it for me by sending me the real thing?" Again, pelase explain this position. I'm at a complete loss to understand it.

I'd rather have the original Mona Lisa than one that has been updated with "new and fresh" colours just to get some more visitors to the Louvre.

 

[RAMA]

Just curious... exactly how was TOS messed up? HD is much closer to what the film actually looks like. The new FX have nothing to do with the remaster. Not only that, but you can watch the original episodes in HD with the original FX on the blu-rays. So I'm not really sure what the problem is as you se it.

So, when I'm watching the HD episodes with original FX, I will see the episodes just like they were on the DVD box sets, only in HD? Nothing else has been changed?

Um... you do know that old black and white movies were never shown in TV "standard definition." They couldn't be. The quality on the big screen would be so horrible that you wouldn't even know what you were looking at.

I thought we were talking about TV presentations, not about theatrical ones. And my point wasn't about HD in this case, but about the movies still being in black and white. People accept this fact and don't mind, so why cant they accept the fact that old tv series' contain fx made in SD? Or the whole series in SD? Personally, I'd prefer the series as it was meant to be in SD over something raped solely for the mighty cause of HD!

HD is, by and large, about preserving the original, not changing anything.

That's how it should be. But adding new FX is changing EVERYTHING!

In what way was TOS sacrificed? A less-detailed transfer is better? Please explain. It's like someone who gets the actual original Mona Lisa complaining, "This is terrible! My postcard with a bad copy of the Mona Lisa on it was just fine! Why did they have to ruin it for me by sending me the real thing?" Again, pelase explain this position. I'm at a complete loss to understand it.

I'd rather have the original Mona Lisa than one that has been updated with "new and fresh" colours just to get some more visitors to the Louvre.

 

[scotthm]

People accept this fact and don't mind, so why cant they accept the fact that old tv series' contain fx made in SD? Or the whole series in SD?

What does "SD" mean to you? Many old television programs were filmed at much higher resolution than DVD (i.e. "SD") is capable of.

adding new FX is changing EVERYTHING!

Not on Star Trek it doesn't. If it changed "everything" the entire series would have to be remade, which obviously isn't going to happen.

I'd rather have the original Mona Lisa than one that has been updated with "new and fresh" colours

Isn't the world a big enough place for both? Is there only one "true artist" whose vision is worthy of your consideration?

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[Oso Blanco]

What does "SD" mean to you? Many old television programs were filmed at much higher resolution than DVD (i.e. "SD") is capable of.

I know that! And if a transfer to HD can be done without changing anything but the resolution, than I'm all for it. But if it means ruining a movie or a series with new fx only to serve the fetish of HD, it shouldn't.

Does it reall hurt to watch something in SD instead of HD? Most tv programmes here in Germany are SD anyway and I don't have the slightest problem with that, even though I have an HDTV set.

 

[Zaku]

So, when I'm watching the HD episodes with original FX, I will see the episodes just like they were on the DVD box sets, only in HD? Nothing else has been changed?

There is a cleaning of the film (scratchs etc).

And you can use the ORIGINAL mono audio track.

 

[Harvey]

Does it reall hurt to watch something in SD instead of HD? Most tv programmes here in Germany are SD anyway and I don't have the slightest problem with that, even though I have an HDTV set.

Then what is there to complain about? The originals are out there on television and home video, and have been for years. They'll probably be available for years to come.

I hope both will be available on Blu-Ray when it comes to TNG, like TOS, but of course this project isn't even official yet, so we'll see.

 

[Butters]

What does "SD" mean to you? Many old television programs were filmed at much higher resolution than DVD (i.e. "SD") is capable of.

I know that! And if a transfer to HD can be done without changing anything but the resolution, than I'm all for it. But if it means ruining a movie or a series with new fx only to serve the fetish of HD, it shouldn't.

Does it reall hurt to watch something in SD instead of HD? Most tv programmes here in Germany are SD anyway and I don't have the slightest problem with that, even though I have an HDTV set.

How is it ruined? For anyone spending a small fortune on HD equipment and subscription, TNG in its current form is just fuzzy eighties crap. HD is the new standard, new content is all HD now, and the vintage reruns will be the ones that look good. TOS-R falls into this category, TNG doesn't. Remember that TNG stopped production nearly 20 years, much of the target audience we're not even born then. The one thing that has ruined TNG is the advances in technology and viewer expectation that have brought the series faults to prominence, this is the chance to fix it.

Since all the xf shots have to be redone anyway, it is a waste to do a shot for upgrade just to please the tiny number of purists that will both hate and most likely buy whatever is done anyway. Forget TNG-R, we want TNG+.

 

[MrPointy]

CBS desperately need to redo the effects in TNG for HD. Some of the shots nowadays look god awful, even in SD. For example, Q's stupid energy net in his S1 eps, some of the energy effects in Q Who, Code Of Honor in general, Wesley Crusher.

I can watch TOS and TOS-R and get used to the camera work and composition because it's a 60's show and there's a certain amount of context a viewer can apply. Also, TOS's brighter colour palette pops nicely in HD.

But TNG's overall 80's look can be incredibly bland with its muted colours and at times appear incredibly cheap. Especially when you have such good motion controlled model work mixed with shitty rotoscoped everything else.

I really hope they don't go for a shot-for-shot remake of the effects like TOS-R.