News Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director's Cut is being restored in 4K, launching first on Paramount+
- Thread starter KlingonCereal
- Start date
I just came back from a small conversation with Bill Hunt from the Digital Bits and he says that the shot of Enterprise leaving Drydock is actually from the genuine 'theatrical version' rather than being a modern fix. For one, the shot itself is softer compared to the BD release because in order to fix that support arm, they had to do another optical pass. Unfortunately the effect didn't pan out well and it was decided to have a sharper image with the support arm goof than a softer one with a bad matte.
The 'blue screen view screen' is pretty much the only modern fix that was done thanks to modern color correcting. There's still some blue on the walls surrounding the view screen, but it's a lot better now.
The 'blue screen view screen' is pretty much the only modern fix that was done thanks to modern color correcting. There's still some blue on the walls surrounding the view screen, but it's a lot better now.
OH WOW! I just gave the iTunes version a peek.
GRAIN!!! IT HAS GRAIN!!!
EDIT: I don't have time to do more screencap comparisons, but here's how Kirk will look in the new transfer vs the old blu-ray.
New iTunes transfer
2009 Blu-ray
GRAIN!!! IT HAS GRAIN!!!
EDIT: I don't have time to do more screencap comparisons, but here's how Kirk will look in the new transfer vs the old blu-ray.
New iTunes transfer
2009 Blu-ray
Last edited:
If the picture is brighter I'm all for it!
Yep, I watched TMP yesterday and thought it looked really nice. I originally intended to just have a quick look at a few scenes but ended up watching the whole film! It's years since I've seen the theatrical version.
I was only watching on my iPad but was really impressed with the transfer. It looked very natural with none of the excessive noise reduction and edge sharpening. Really bodes well for the 4K/HDR experience.
I noticed iTunes give you the Director's Cut (in SD) as a bonus which is really nice. Again, I was only watching on an iPad but the step down in quality was dramatic.
Fingers crossed it gets a free upgrade to 4K. It's down to £19.99 for the 10-film bundle, and assume similar for other territories, so might be worth a punt.
I was only watching on my iPad but was really impressed with the transfer. It looked very natural with none of the excessive noise reduction and edge sharpening. Really bodes well for the 4K/HDR experience.
I noticed iTunes give you the Director's Cut (in SD) as a bonus which is really nice. Again, I was only watching on an iPad but the step down in quality was dramatic.
Fingers crossed it gets a free upgrade to 4K. It's down to £19.99 for the 10-film bundle, and assume similar for other territories, so might be worth a punt.
That's *beautiful*! Oh, I'm going to have to buy this. ::happytears::
I watched the new iTunes master last night on my TV. Gorgeous. You can really see how colorful TMP actually is despite its reputation as the film with the dullest color palette.
I can't wait for the 4K where it really POPS.
I can't wait for the 4K where it really POPS.
Paramount is pretty good about free upgrades from HD to 4K. I had STID and STB in my iTunes library when they were only in HD, and once 4K/HDR/Dolby Vision was made available both copies upgraded to that.
The most recent upgrade for me was the Indiana Jones films. So I should expect by the time the first four films are made available in 4K blu-ray that the iTunes digital copies will upgrade right then.
Brief update from Bill Hunt which basically summarises what we've discussed.
https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/080221-1500
https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/080221-1500
Apple does that with all their movies. Only exceptions are ones that you may have redeemed from UV etc. They stay the format you redeemed them in
Well it appears a lot of fans have seen the iTunes version of the movie and as eagle-eyed is most of them would be it appears there are only two so-called fixes. The rest of what they're talking about is the color grading. And apparently at least they've gotten rid of the DNR and it appears to have natural grain. So not perfect but not a complete failure if the movie appears to be more natural in its appearance
I was delighted to hear iTunes have put up the new transfer. I always assumed I’d have to purchase any upgrades separately. In all honesty, I wasn’t expecting to notice much difference, but I’m blown away by the improvement. It’s never looked better! Excellent remaster. The people complaining about a couple of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it FX fixes need to get out more.
Ah. Then that explains why my WB titles never upgraded.
A few that haven’t upgraded at all to 4K were some like ST09, which I redeemed from the “Digital Copy Disc” that earlier blu-ray copies had. It’s still in SD in my library, as I don’t think HD was available to purchase on iTunes in 2009 (I could be wrong). Funnily though, it plays in HDR/Dolby Vision on my Apple TV anyway.
I hope Jeff Bonds book gets a second printing with this latest effort mentioned
That bird has flown.
I have a cynical feeling not enough people buy the other 4k movies, and TMP director's cut remains a streaming-only release.
For the BD market perhaps but it would be perfect for their streaming service.
I’d rather have that than the majority of their new shows TBH.
I'm not going back to their streaming service just to watch Berman Trek in HD. It would have to be both BD and streaming if they hope to get everybody even remotely interested in helping them make a return on their investment.
But that bird has flown. People at the time knew full well what needed to happen when they were getting it, if they wanted more of it, and it still didn't happen.