TMP-DE fully restored in 4K…it’s about time!
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
The best option is to wait for the Blu-ray/4K releases - if Paramount see people signing up to P+ just to watch the remaster six months earlier then to them it justifies this money-grabbing approach. I'll 'punish' them by not watching it on P+ and instead buy it on Blu-ray in September. That way I also get a physical copy which I OWN and which is of a far superior quality to their highly compressed and relatively low quality stream. I just can't bring myself to watch an inferior quality stream of a remaster of a much anticipated director's edition.
Exactly my thought on the matter. And I do hope we get a Blu-Ray with the 4k (I mean we should). But yeah, I'm not about to help them "prove" to themselves that physical media is dead.
I'll be damned if I miss it in theaters though.
It used to be studios screened movies that looked like 1080i through Fathom. However they've done right by the Star Trek movies, as well as Close Encounters, ALIEN, etc. If you give them a proper theater-formatted digital copy, it will meet the quality standards of any movie currently in theaters.
That said, I had one bad experience with The Voyage Home. But also one very good experience. I blame the theater.
Please explain how it is different from going to the movies and paying an admission fee to see one movie.
I don't understand the "money-grabbing" comment. Paramount is not a charity. They've been releasing movies that people pay to see in theaters for over 100 years. Were those money grabs as well, because you could just wait to watch on video months later? How much is one month of Paramount+ compared to a movie theater ticket? Paramount+ also has a 7-day free trial.
Studios would rather everything was streaming, streaming, streaming, "Everything's going to be streaming." Paramount would love it if enough people streamed this movie that they didn't see a profit in giving physical media releases to the remaining ST 4k remastered films.
The quality couldn't be further removed from catching it in theaters.
There's making a reasonable profit and then there's greed. There was nothing preventing Paramount from releasing the Blu-ray/4K discs at the same time as streaming the DE on April 5th. Instead they chose to go the 'streaming exclusive' route to sucker more people into trying out P+
I honestly wouldn't even sign up for free to watch the movie on P+, simply because the video and audio quality will be markedly inferior to the Blu-ray. When I watch this remaster for the first time I want it to be in the best possible quality, not some compressed to hell abomination.
You make some good points, Paramount (and other studios) would rather everyone switched to streaming and that physical media vanished, because that gives them more control. I wish that people wouldn't fall for that obvious ploy because every person who chooses streaming over physical media just plays into the hands of the money grabbers because the the buyers seemingly don't realise (or don't care) that not only do they ultimately lose out, but everyone else loses too (choice is taken away, quality is lowered, prices are raised, etc). And remember that not everyone even has decent Internet access.
I saw TMP in the theatre in 1979 and two more times in 1980. So Paramount got me three times. After that I saw TMP a couple of times over the years on cable television.
Next time I saw TMP was the release of the DE version on DVD which I purchased—Paramount got me there. I’ve watched it a number of times since, but it was only one purchase.
Paramount will get me one more time when I pick up the video release of the 4K remaster of the TMP-DE in September.
All told I will have paid Paramount five times to see this film. I feel so exploited.
Next time I saw TMP was the release of the DE version on DVD which I purchased—Paramount got me there. I’ve watched it a number of times since, but it was only one purchase.
Paramount will get me one more time when I pick up the video release of the 4K remaster of the TMP-DE in September.
All told I will have paid Paramount five times to see this film. I feel so exploited.
Setting aside issues of greed, streaming vs. owning, etc. — and speaking as someone who doesn’t subscribe — a silver lining is that getting this on to streaming well ahead of a disc gives fans an opportunity they’ve wanted for ages: to be able to spot check a release before purchasing. I don’t just mean to decide whether it’s worth purchasing, I mean to let those who can make fixes know. Fein & Dochterman are both active on Twitter, and Matessino is here. They’ll know the crowd-sourced reception and they want this to be perfect as possible. With such a huge project, little things are bound to get past them. This time there’s a chance for them to make a physical release better because of a wide “preview” audience.
Myself, I won’t subscribe for this but I do intend on seeing it on the big screen in May. I got to see the DE screened about six years ago at the AFI Silver, when they were doing a Robert Wise retrospective. The box office had a printed sheet in the window warning us what to expect from a 480 DVD projected. Oh yeah, it was rough… but it was worth it. I wouldn’t have guessed I’d be able to see it again but in high quality.
Myself, I won’t subscribe for this but I do intend on seeing it on the big screen in May. I got to see the DE screened about six years ago at the AFI Silver, when they were doing a Robert Wise retrospective. The box office had a printed sheet in the window warning us what to expect from a 480 DVD projected. Oh yeah, it was rough… but it was worth it. I wouldn’t have guessed I’d be able to see it again but in high quality.
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I don't know that people necessarily lose out if that happens to just be their personal preference. It's not mine, and I bought all the TNG Blu-Ray sets (and feature-length eps) because I knew the people involved wanted to remaster more Trek. I can't say everyone else should have, if I already know four more people are likely to pipe in insisting that it wasn't worth their while to buy TNG over again as opposed to waiting for the streaming. But it is frustrating to read comments expressing enthusiasm for DS9 in HD from people not seaming to realize that bird has flown.
I don't need remasters of all the TNG movies (the current Blu-Rays are fine), however I want a properly restored version of The Undiscovered Country (I'd even like it in both aspect ratios, unrealistic as I'm sure that is) and even an HD version of The Final Frontier that isn't blown out. And would still buy the TNG films if 4k-remastered. I like Bill Hunt's rants regarding the last two Kelvin Trek movies, and find it illuminating that Paramount repeated its retail-exclusive mistake with Beyond after finally fixing Into Darkness. It shows that the golden age of home media effectively died with DVD, as studios really don't understand what kind of material collectors and film enthusiasts actually want.
I think I've caught The Wrath of Khan director's cut nine times in theaters between Cinemark's, Fathom's and Flashback Cinema's Sunday/Wednesday treatment of the movie over the past six years. I'm OK with that kind of exploitation.All told I will have paid Paramount five times to see this film. I feel so exploited.
You've made a good counter-point I hadn't even considered. I could probably lose at least some of the cynicism, having already resolved to wait on the sidelines as you are doing.
That's not how movie release schedules work.
So a studio that is giving you a choice between streaming it, seeing it in theaters a month later, and a physical media release four months after that... you want to punish? At least we're getting those options! I'm still waiting for all the Disney + Marvel and Star Wars shows to be released but I doubt that will ever happen. TMP
E 4K is getting three types of releases within five months is just astounding. Even its soundtrack got a physical re-release recently.
So they're giving us a choice? Great. Punish might be too strong a word for it, but I choose physical media. I don't want to encourage them to eliminate that choice in the future. I find it asinine that a lot of these streaming shows already don't get Blu-Ray releases. The Marvel/SW stuff you mentioned, Foundation on Apple Plus, Wheel of Time on Amazon, etc. Plus TMP is something that's been around for decades, choosing to give it an "exclusive!" streaming window of five months feels rather ridiculous. What's the average streaming-only window for most movies at this point before the Blu-Ray streets? A couple days? That seems "a little" more fair (by which I mean to say not that little at all).So a studio that is giving you a choice between streaming it, seeing it in theaters a month later, and a physical media release four months after that... you want to punish? At least we're getting those options! I'm still waiting for all the Disney + Marvel and Star Wars shows to be released but I doubt that will ever happen. TMP
