Season TWO OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by JJ-R, Sep 5, 2012.

  1. senten

    senten Ensign Red Shirt

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  2. Maxwell Everett

    Maxwell Everett Commodore Commodore

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    The hits (and by that I mean misses, unfortunately) keep on coming. :eek:

    Notice that in the below screencap from "Up the Long Ladder" (recently uploaded by TrekCore to their Facebook page) all the light elements are misaligned to the left (windows, nacelles, bussards, deflector):

    [​IMG]

    Full Res Here:
    https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/169262_529578720388253_1269606073_o.jpg


    FrontierTrek, hopefully you can tell us if this shot, which is a mirror inverted re-use of the one in "The Schizoid Man" is also affected similarly in that episode. :confused:

    The problem is, again, that this is an ILM shot (the Enterprise element) that CBS Digital had already correctly composited for Season One. It's now looking like they should have given all of their Enterprise assets to HTV pre-comped to make them impossible to screw up.

    Seriously, I'm getting a bit tired of shaking my head at the amateur compositing in some of these shots. I suggested it months ago, but they really need to utilize us as a benevolent resource before they do the final encode and not wait for us to spot these simple and easily correctable errors in the week leading up to release and become unwilling antagonists!

    CBS, you're dealing with Star Trek fans, remember? We want this to look and be awesome. :rolleyes:
     
  3. LOKAI of CHERON

    LOKAI of CHERON Commodore Commodore

    Well, I've significantly lowered my expectations reference this release - in what's probably a forlorn and futile attempt to limit my disappointment. :(
     
  4. senten

    senten Ensign Red Shirt

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    In fairness the live action stuff looks great from the shots.

    The scene at the start of Elementary, Dear Data when Geordi walks onto the holodeck to Sherlock Holmes' room, he's looking closely at everything, amazed, and exclaims "Look at the detail!!".

    I think I'll be the same watching it on Bluray.
     
  5. NewHorizon

    NewHorizon Captain Captain

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    Not trying to be contrary but yet asking how anyone can say anything contrary to the shots looking marvelous? ;)

    It's like this, the majority of the work we've seen from Season 2 has been pretty slapped together looking. The same stock footage used in Season 1 that looked absolutely stunning, suddenly looks only a tad better than it did in SD. Seriously. Season 2 VFX have, for whatever reason, been drained of the amazing color correction of Season 1. The restored footage has been blurred for some mind boggling reason.

    How HTV, under the supervision of some of the original production crew, could take many of the same shots and make them look far worse than CBS-Digital did...and in some cases worse than the original compositions(technically speaking here...loss of shadow, contrast, detail, etc), is beyond me.

    If Season 1 had looked like Season 2, we would have probably assumed that was the best they could do with the old footage but CBS-Digital showed us just how amazing the footage could really look. HTV did the bare minimum and it really shows.

    It will never happen but I hope at the end of this project that CBS-D recalls Season 2 and re-releases it from their own studio.
     
  6. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

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    I've defended a lot about this release, but that is truly pathetic. Is there no one working there to actually check the finished shots before calling them done?
     
  7. Scotty

    Scotty Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    This isn't that remarkable. The Enterprise is after all capable of travelling faster than light.;)
     
  8. Savage Dragon

    Savage Dragon Not really all that savage Moderator

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    It seems to me a lot of the shots we have seen might be misaligned, if only slightly. None of the S2 shots of the Enterprise I have seen have lit windows that look as crisp as they do in S1.
     
  9. Mott the barber

    Mott the barber Commodore Commodore

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    100% agree. People need to relax a little and look at the bigger picture.
     
  10. Sho

    Sho Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    ^ I normally prefer a glass-half-full perspective as well, but I disagree here because this is a noteworthy regression in quality. We're just not getting the same quality product, for the same price (although the magnificent, and arguably improved extras compensate to a degree; major cheers for the extras team). You know, I'd have paid $200 for S1 if they asked for that, it's not about the amount in the absolute sense - but coming back and asking the same price again for an inferior product is not OK. I'm still going to buy, and of course I'll make the best of it while watching it, but I'm definitely frustrated.
     
  11. NewHorizon

    NewHorizon Captain Captain

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    I agree. The sloppiness we're seeing here is not cool
     
  12. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Wow, that shot is embarrassing. Incompetent, even.

    When doing the replacement program for season 1, CBS threw in a new disc 5 just to replace a missing phaser shot, so there is every reason for them to reissue the disc with the corrected effect.

    CBS is now 0 for 2 in their releases. They made it right with season 1. Will they do it again with season 2? I doubt it.
     
  13. NewHorizon

    NewHorizon Captain Captain

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    Well, HTV did the effects for Season 2. It's pretty clear CBS (parent company) made a huge mistake rushing the releases and farming out the Season to HTV.

    They need to let CBS-Digital have the time they need to work on the remaining Seasons on their own. No more hatchet jobs from HTV.
     
  14. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Weren't the audio errors caused by outsourcing the authoring of the Blu-rays? I think I heard that the sampler was authored in-house, hence why EaF was correct on the sampler, and messed up on the season disc. I don't think CBS ever officially stated what the cause was (and what they would do to prevent it in the future).

    If so, then CBS has definitely not learned their lesson trusting outside companies to take care of their products.
     
  15. LOKAI of CHERON

    LOKAI of CHERON Commodore Commodore

    Yes, just slow down. I'm more than happy to wait if it means maintaining the quality of these releases - and I'm fairly certain the majority of fans would agree. CBS, the fans - and their wallets - will still be there if you take a little longer.
     
  16. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    What I don't understand is, if time constraints were such an issue, why not reuse all the applicable work that CBS-D did? Isn't that how it was done originally? Did they really redo every effects pass on stock footage each episode? Blur it up, add Curry's touch to it, whatever. It would have saved weeks of work simply porting over all the ILM work which was the majority of shots of the Enterprise, leaving time for much-needed QC. They practically started from scratch on everything. So instead of using superior effects, they waste weeks on inferior effects. It doesn't add up.

    I'm relieved to learn (from TrekCore) that the opening credits were ported straight from season 1. Based on what I've seen, I would expected HTV to redo those too, but gladly that is not the case.
     
  17. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    Maybe CBS is afraid that sales will sufferly if they release these sets yearly?
     
  18. Scotty

    Scotty Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Unfortunately, it was the other way around. The sampler was authored by another company and the first season was authored inhouse.
     
  19. trekker670

    trekker670 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I believe it was actually the opposite in this case: CBS authored season 1, instead of outsourcing it to a company that specialized in the authoring like they did the sampler. I believe a member here and/or in the bluray.com forums worked for the company that authored the sampler and he pointed out some aspects that CBS should have done better in authoring (to improve quality and such) S1 that would have been done if an experienced company did it.
     
  20. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Well, there goes that theory...

    So season 1 was messed up because they didn't outsource it to experts, and season 2 was messed up because they outsourced it to non-experts. Sigh.