Season FIVE OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

[tomswift2002]

The SD footage in Power Play is OK. Not quite blink-and-you-miss-it, but it's not very obtrusive.

I credit the nature of that scene more than anything. It's in a pretty dark area (Ten Forward) and doesn't have many close-ups. The other SD footage this season, of Wesley in the well lit ready room in The First Duty, is a bit more obvious.
But in general I do think CBS-D did a bit better job handling the SD upconversion and color correction this time around.

I think this season's SD footage is handled better than the SD footage from BOBW II in S4.

I think it's also due to the fact that by Season 5 the show had switched from the 1" NTSC composite tape used for Seasons 1-3 to, from what I can tell in the 25th anniversary special (where a ship shot from Redemption is up), the component video Betacam SP (it couldn't have been Digital Betacam, as that system wasn't out til 93 and the decks in the special didn't look anything like any D1 decks I've seen) was in use.

Otherwise, I found the wide shots in the SD material are the worst looking, while close-ups were pretty good.

 

[jimbotron]

OK, so it's not just CBS-D's magic, then. The SD footage in season 5 has much more detail. Early seasons of TNG always looked terrible. The later seasons of TNG, DS9 and Voyager looked much better in SD.

Even though the biggest chunk is in season 5, only about 3 minutes of total footage is missing out of 5,670 minutes of show. That's 0.05%. Hopefully the missing season 5 footage was just a blip, and not a bad omen.

Devil's advocate - on HTV's watch, they did not have to upscale any missing footage. Just sayin'.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

One of the things that annoyed me about the later seasons in SD was the cross color distortion, which looked worse than it ever did in earlier seasons for some reason. DS9 and VOY would suffer from that too, but it looked like they solved that problem by the 1995-1996 season (DS9 S4, VOY S2).

 

[tomswift2002]

One of the things that annoyed me about the later seasons in SD was the cross color distortion, which looked worse than it ever did in earlier seasons for some reason. DS9 and VOY would suffer from that too, but it looked like they solved that problem by the 1995-1996 season (DS9 S4, VOY S2).

That could've also been a color timing issue between the original film and the telecine process. But Voyager, most likely because it was edited on Digital Betacam, seemed to have had the best color of all the SD tape edited series. But then again SD NTSC has always been known as Never The Same Color.

 

[TV's Frank]

Checking out the commentary on "Cause & Effect" and I already love Seth MacFarlane on this, he keeps cracking me up... especially his Stewie voice from "Family Guy" shows up.

 

[Maxwell Everett]

I think it's also due to the fact that by Season 5 the show had switched from the 1" NTSC composite tape used for Seasons 1-3 to, from what I can tell in the 25th anniversary special (where a ship shot from Redemption is up), the component video Betacam SP (it couldn't have been Digital Betacam, as that system wasn't out til 93 and the decks in the special didn't look anything like any D1 decks I've seen) was in use.

TNG switched to D1 in Season Four.

One of the things that annoyed me about the later seasons in SD was the cross color distortion, which looked worse than it ever did in earlier seasons for some reason. DS9 and VOY would suffer from that too, but it looked like they solved that problem by the 1995-1996 season (DS9 S4, VOY S2).

That could've also been a color timing issue between the original film and the telecine process.

I think he's referring to the color crosstalk or "rainbow effects" where high luma frequencies sometimes end up in the chroma signal. You could always see it on Worf's sash, for instance:

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s7/7x11/parallels001.jpg

 

[dg1379]

Anyone ever notice the alien womans pupils in The Game being a different shape? Until now, I sure haven't. The game itself is pretty cool looking.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

I think it's also due to the fact that by Season 5 the show had switched from the 1" NTSC composite tape used for Seasons 1-3 to, from what I can tell in the 25th anniversary special (where a ship shot from Redemption is up), the component video Betacam SP (it couldn't have been Digital Betacam, as that system wasn't out til 93 and the decks in the special didn't look anything like any D1 decks I've seen) was in use.

TNG switched to D1 in Season Four.

One of the things that annoyed me about the later seasons in SD was the cross color distortion, which looked worse than it ever did in earlier seasons for some reason. DS9 and VOY would suffer from that too, but it looked like they solved that problem by the 1995-1996 season (DS9 S4, VOY S2).

That could've also been a color timing issue between the original film and the telecine process.

I think he's referring to the color crosstalk or "rainbow effects" where high luma frequencies sometimes end up in the chroma signal. You could always see it on Worf's sash, for instance:

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s7/7x11/parallels001.jpg

That's correct. Other than that issue, Season 7 was probably TNG's best looking season color wise, so the only real improvement we'll probably end up seeing is the chroma signal being cleaned out and of course more detailed picture.

 

[FrontierTrek]

That's correct. Other than that issue, Season 7 was probably TNG's best looking season color wise, so the only real improvement we'll probably end up seeing is the chroma signal being cleaned out and of course more detailed picture.

Agreed, Season 7 had the most faithful color reproduction in SD. Season 6 in SD, on the other hand, was pretty washed out and still looks softer than S5 to my eyes. The HD gives it a real boost - I had chance to see some of the raw film from "A Fistful of Datas" and was gobsmacked at how much detail is in there.

 

[Borjis]

I think he's referring to the color crosstalk or "rainbow effects" where high luma frequencies sometimes end up in the chroma signal. You could always see it on Worf's sash, for instance:

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s7/7x11/parallels001.jpg

yep and the Enterprise sensor dish fuzzyness.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

That's correct. Other than that issue, Season 7 was probably TNG's best looking season color wise, so the only real improvement we'll probably end up seeing is the chroma signal being cleaned out and of course more detailed picture.

Agreed, Season 7 had the most faithful color reproduction in SD. Season 6 in SD, on the other hand, was pretty washed out and still looks softer than S5 to my eyes. The HD gives it a real boost - I had chance to see some of the raw film from "A Fistful of Datas" and was gobsmacked at how much detail is in there.

Yeah, after seeing a lot of TNG remastered, it's hard to just pop in a favorites like "Relics" and "Ship in a Bottle" without being distracted by how off the colors look, especially on the red uniforms. Not as bad as how Season 1 looked in SD, but creeping.

I don't have any intention of buying the Unification disc, but I found it curious that Nimoy turned down the interviews for the special features. Does anyone know why he turned them down? He's been so active with Trek lately, it kinda surprised me that he'd not want to participate.

 

[jimbotron]

What's the deal with the impulse engines? They were orange in season 1, but have been red ever since. They're still orange in the opening credits, but even the ILM stock shots are red, whether it's from HTV, Modern Video or CBS-D.

 

[NewHorizon]

Devil's advocate - on HTV's watch, they did not have to upscale any missing footage. Just sayin'.

True, although they did use alternate takes instead...which I would be fine with if they existed and the performances were close enough. Anything to keep it all HD.

 

[MickJo1701]

What's the deal with the impulse engines? They were orange in season 1, but have been red ever since. They're still orange in the opening credits, but even the ILM stock shots are red, whether it's from HTV, Modern Video or CBS-D.

They we're orange in Season 1, then all over the place in Season 2 (orange, red, pink) and orange again in Season 3. That is up to the introduction of the 4 foot miniature in The Defector, at which point the ILM stock footage had the engine recoloured red to match the newer model and has been that way ever since.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

UGHHHHH!!!!

There was one little detail that always kinda bugged me. Nothing too important, just the title of an episode. "I Borg" should have actually been "I, Borg". I thought they would fix that in the remaster, but nope, it's still incorrect. Oh well, some things will remain.

One thing I thought would also be fixed was Crusher's uniform. In "Skin of Evil", the HD did an error where her uniform appeared green instead of blue during the funeral, even though it's the same shot and lighting. For whatever reason, I thought that meant her uniform was always supposed to be blue, and that it only appeared green in later seasons because of the limitations of SD mastering, so the HD remaster would correct it. Watching S5 now, guess it really did appear green in scenes. I assume that all had to do with the way those scenes were lit, because it does appear blue at times yet in scenes with less lighting it appeared green. Truer colors or not, I still hate the green uniform. At least DS9 seemed to be more consistent with blue uniforms, until they did the switch to FC uniforms.

 

[trekker670]

UGHHHHH!!!!
One thing I thought would also be fixed was Crusher's uniform. In "Skin of Evil", the HD did an error where her uniform appeared green instead of blue during the funeral, even though it's the same shot and lighting. For whatever reason, I thought that meant her uniform was always supposed to be blue, and that it only appeared green in later seasons because of the limitations of SD mastering, so the HD remaster would correct it. Watching S5 now, guess it really did appear green in scenes. I assume that all had to do with the way those scenes were lit, because it does appear blue at times yet in scenes with less lighting it appeared green. Truer colors or not, I still hate the green uniform. At least DS9 seemed to be more consistent with blue uniforms, until they did the switch to FC uniforms.

That's very much a product of the material and the way the scenes were lit. IRL the blue uniforms are more of a turquoise than a solid blue that's reflected on-screen. This color shifting happened to all of the uniforms, but most noticably with the red, which was actually almost a purple color.

 

[tomswift2002]

TNG switched to D1 in Season Four.

You sure about that? Last time I saw a D1 deck it looked like it could've come out of an old UNIVAC computer, and it certainly wasn't small enough to fit on a table (unlike what we see in Star Trek's 25th anniversary special where there are two VTR's on a desk). Not too mention they were notoriously expensive to use.

I think he's referring to the color crosstalk or "rainbow effects" where high luma frequencies sometimes end up in the chroma signal. You could always see it on Worf's sash, for instance:

I've always chalked that up to the nature of the NTSC signal at SD levels, even for component video. Since even in "All Good Things" on the DVD when the camera is pulling up from the lit floor grates in the courtroom there is rainbowing from there not being enough information to seperating the slats. The old newscaster striped-tie affair.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

TNG switched to D1 in Season Four.

You sure about that? Last time I saw a D1 deck it looked like it could've come out of an old UNIVAC computer, and it certainly wasn't small enough to fit on a table (unlike what we see in Star Trek's 25th anniversary special where there are two VTR's on a desk). Not too mention they were notoriously expensive to use.

Not sure if it's related to it, but if you ever notice, there's a certain distortion to shots that involved the transporter effect during the first three seasons. Example: The opening of "The Best of Both Worlds" has that distortion when the away team arrives in the transporter room talking to O'Brien. Starting with S4, it no longer appeared during shots that involved a transporter effect. I'm no tech guy, but I always assumed they had upgraded their post work in some fashion that resulted in that distortion no longer being present in shots. Reading that they did some kind of switch in S4 involving composite tapes, I assume that played a factor.

 

[jimbotron]

After watching Cause and Effect which has pretty much uses every stock shot of the Enterprise moving, I notice this shot of the 4-footer.

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s5/5x18/causeandeffect324.jpg

Typically the camera buzzes the model, but in this one, it passes through it. It passes between the neck and the nacelle, and out the other side. How did they achieve that?

 

[Borjis]

but in this one, it passes through it. It passes between the neck and the nacelle, and out the other side. How did they achieve that?

They could have possibly used a zoom lens, or more likely a snorkel attachment to achieve that.