Season FOUR OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

[Maxwell Everett]

Here's the next observations article, "Identity crisis". I'm glad they fixed that infamous blooper on the main engineering viewscreen... ;-)

"Identity crisis" observations article at EAS

Great stuff!

Second to last screenshot, though - why (and, indeed, how) does a new CGI shot of the Enterprise have a massive matte line around the top of the saucer?!

I'm thinking it's probably not a matte line. I don't have the opportunity at the moment to look at the shot in motion, but it looks to me like the dorsal phaser array. Notice how the thick line stops just about where the phaser array would end at such an angle? I think the ship is simply aligned to camera in just the right way to make it look like a matte line. As you correctly point out, why would a CGI shot have that problem?

 

[MFB]

I don't think that's a matte line. Sure that it can't be the phaser array on which we look up in this frame? If you look at the first scene with the CG model you can see the upper decks with the bridge dome above the dark line. So I think the angle in this frame is somewhat strange.

 

[jimbotron]

Yeah, that's the phaser strip. Notice it goes away along the outer edge as the phaser strip should. CGI wouldn't have a matte line since there's no matte.

 

[gaghyogi49]

Here's the next article, "The nth degree". Definitely no matte lines here, but a nice anime reference on Einstein's blackboard! :-)

"The nth degree" observations at EAS

 

[asp7485]

So much CG Enterprise! Where could that footage of the 4 foot model have wound up? Thank goodness they found most of the stuff with the 6 foot model. The overall project might be less impressive if they didn't have those glorious shots of the original model from the pilot onward.

 

[jimbotron]

So much CG Enterprise! Where could that footage of the 4 foot model have wound up? Thank goodness they found most of the stuff with the 6 foot model. The overall project might be less impressive if they didn't have those glorious shots of the original model from the pilot onward.

I'm glad it's missing, as I hate that particular shot. It's the ugliest shot of the 4-footer on the show, I think. The CGI model that was perfected in season 5 is so much better. Too bad season 4 and even early season 5 keeps switching between the blurry alternate model shot and the less refined CGI shot. CBS-D didn't use the new CGI model exclusively until Conundrum. Also really lame is that the CGI shot in The Inner Light from the sampler was never updated.

As for the 6-footer shots, we really lucked out on that one. As it is, only one shot from the pilot is missing, which is the saucer separation shot, which was last seen in Generations - perhaps when making the movie, one of the passes was misplaced. And since the shot is only seen 3 times in all of TNG, it's not a big deal.

The shots from the pilot are used so often throughout the show, but they look so good, I don't care. It's a good thing ILM used higher resolution VistaVision instead of standard 35mm for the model shots. Add to that the lack of generation loss due to the digital recompositing, it looks way better than ever possible back in 1987.

 

[Hober Mallow]

The shots from the pilot are used so often throughout the show, but they look so good, I don't care. It's a good thing ILM used higher resolution VistaVision instead of standard 35mm for the model shots. Add to that the lack of generation loss due to the digital recompositing, it looks way better than ever possible back in 1987.

They look amazing. I can't believe there are still people who want all those pristine high-definition model shots replaced with crappy CGI.

 

[gaghyogi49]

Here are the latest two observations articles, "The drumhead" and "Half a life":

"The drumhead" at EAS

"Half a life" at EAS

 

[gaghyogi49]

And another one, "The host":

"The host" observations article at EAS

 

[Start Wreck]

And another one, "The host":

"The host" observations article at EAS

Great stuff.

I noticed... seventh thing down in that list, the shot of the Enterprise "approaching Peliar Zel II and its two moons", the HD shot looks like it has completely different lighting to the SD shot. Look at the position of the shadow cast on the nacelle struts. In SD, there is a shadow covering the whole top surface of the left strut. In HD, it only casts over half of it. And the shadow is more uniform over the whole ship, but it's very contrasted between the two sides in HD.

It looks incredible, frankly, but how have they done that if it's the same footage? Is that possible just in compositing? A different light pass, perhaps? A CG replacement?

EDIT: it could just be that the original shot was VERY washed out, and maybe the shadow on the strut moves. I'd have to see it in motion.

 

[MickJo1701]

I noticed... seventh thing down in that list, the shot of the Enterprise "approaching Peliar Zel II and its two moons", the HD shot looks like it has completely different lighting to the SD shot. Look at the position of the shadow cast on the nacelle struts. In SD, there is a shadow covering the whole top surface of the left strut. In HD, it only casts over half of it. And the shadow is more uniform over the whole ship, but it's very contrasted between the two sides in HD.

It looks incredible, frankly, but how have they done that if it's the same footage? Is that possible just in compositing? A different light pass, perhaps? A CG replacement?

Yeah you're spot on, either a different lighting pass was used for this shot or its an entirely different pass that looks virtually the same, its difficult to tell. Both passes were located and used.

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/season-4/4x19/the-nth-degree-hd-459.jpg
http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/season-4/4x19/the-nth-degree-hd-428.jpg

 

[gaghyogi49]

Hey guys! Thanks! You're right. They used the second flyby from "The nth degree" (the ship approaches the Cytherian homeworld) instead of the first one, which should have been re-used here, so they got the shots wrong. We will update this in the article and give you credit for the observation.

 

[gaghyogi49]

The article has been updated accordingly. Thanks again guys!

 

[Tosk]

The observations for Redemption part 1 are up...but I still maintain that (contrary to what it says there) that the Klingon viewscreen was a re-creation. When you compare it directly, it doesn't match the original footage in several key areas.

The dirt is in different places, some of the proportions are slightly off, the label is in a different spot, and two of the circular patterns at the bottom are flopped.

 

[Salinga]

I am dissappointed with this red tint the remastering has (even the top lights looks orange now):

This is pretty much this concentration of red that the first season of TNG in SD had... :-/

 

[MakeshiftPython]

Looks fine to me. Looks more visually appealing. I just watched "Reunion" and marveled at how great that whole episode looked, which I've never done for the SD versions.

 

[Salinga]

This is how I would have done the coloring (on the right):

 

[trekker670]

In the words of MakeshiftPython:

Looks fine to me. Looks more visually appealing.

Other than the blue carpet, the differences are minor. You subtle differences are a matter of artistic opinion. I'd say either looks fine.

 

[Salinga]

Giving every a red tint is an artistic opinion. Show every color correctly is not.

 

[SpHeRe31459]

Giving every a red tint is an artistic opinion. Show every color correctly is not.

How do you know what the correct color is?

I don't think any of us know, since all we see is what's been on TV.

Unlike the SD version, the fleshtones look right, so it can't be too far off.

CBS-D has the original color grading info and is generally trying to follow it.

Also we tend to be used to seeing things in a rather cold tint these days, because of inaccurate TV settings, and the annoying inclination to add a steely and/or teal tone in our modern films. So all I see is a rather warm image, not anything that could be definitively called inaccurate.