TNG DVD Transfers

[Amaris]

Hey folks,

Today I was in a local Walmart and saw that they had Seasons One and Two of Star Trek: TNG on DVD. I was ecstatic and purchased Season One (I could only afford one season). The boxes look great, and you could tell they put a lot of work into the presentation of the set. So I brought them home and popped Disc One into the DVD player. Menus good, extras good, but the video quality was less than good. It's mediocre at best. Better than VHS but not as good as DVD. I mean, it just doesn't look like the video transferred very well at all. I can live with it, but it's the sound too. There are times when it's fuzzy, and I wonder if it's just me or if this is common.

Aside from that, I am happy to have Season One and hope to collect all 7 seasons, but this is a little troubling. If this is common for Season One, is it common for all seven seasons?

J.

 

[Geckothan]

I haven't watched my TNG discs in a while but I remember season 1 and 2 being particularily bad. If I remember correctly, there's a minor improvement from season 3 onwards, but it's still pretty bad and particularily fuzzy as DVDs go. As for the sound, I haven't noticed any fuzziness, it's not the best sound quality I've heard on a DVD but it's not noticably bad (though my hearing isn't exactly the best).

I'm not sure if the R1 and R2 discs use the same transfers, but I assume they do.

 

[Amaris]

I wonder why it looks like that. If I sit about 5 feet away from my 22" TV it looks good. Any closer and I can see the pixelation and fuzziness. It's not my TV because other DVDs I play look great. It's not my player for the same reason. And to think these were selling for $120 not too long ago. Hm.


J.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

TNG seasons 1&2 were mastered to 1" analog videotape. It degrades over time like 15 year old VHS tapes.
see this thread for more details on TNG and DVD / remastering to HD details.
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=91561

 

[Geckothan]

TNG just never looked particularily good. I guess they didn't have DVD in mind when they were making it, seeing as they did all of the post-production on NTSC video. When you watch it on VHS, you don't really notice how bad the picture is, but DVD really brings it out.

Edit: Beaten to it

 

[Captrek]

I’ve also heard terrible things about the packaging of the full series box set. It sounds like Paramount just doesn’t care very much about these DVDs.

Which is a shame. I own all of TOS-R on DVD. The video, of course, is excellent, and the packaging is amazing.

 

[Geckothan]

Region 2 TNG packaging used to be great (the new slimline packaging is so cheap and lazy), at least the attention to detail was, it was annoying unfolding the long Digipak book thing to get to the disc you wanted and the hubs would eat up discs though.

Also, there's the borg cube!

 

[Amaris]

TNG seasons 1&2 were mastered to 1" analog videotape. It degrades over time like 15 year old VHS tapes.
see this thread for more details on TNG and DVD / remastering to HD details.
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=91561

Wow. That's a shame. I can watch TOS episodes in crystal clear high definition, the colors are sharp and bold, the lines crisp and detailed, yet TNG which was some 21 years later, looks old and outdated in quality. I guess they didn't think too far ahead on that one.

TNG just never looked particularily good. I guess they didn't have DVD in mind when they were making it, seeing as they did all of the post-production on NTSC video. When you watch it on VHS, you don't really notice how bad the picture is, but DVD really brings it out.

Edit: Beaten to it

It's alright. I still care.

J.

 

[Captrek]

Who cares about Region 2 packaging? Real people live in Region 1.

 

[Amaris]

^ Actually, that packaging looks awesome! All Region One has is cardboard.


J.

 

[CaptainStoner]

TNG just never looked particularily good. I guess they didn't have DVD in mind when they were making it, seeing as they did all of the post-production on NTSC video. When you watch it on VHS, you don't really notice how bad the picture is, but DVD really brings it out.

Edit: Beaten to it

Yeah. Its sub-DVD resolution to begin with.

As for the audio, I find I'm tweaking it a lot, trying to get the 5.1 track to sound decent though I'm using (4) 3-way speakers, so no center and no subwoofer hooked up.
It's great for music, but for tng it sometimes sounds better in 2.0

 

[Hober Mallow]

It sounds like Paramount just doesn’t care very much about these DVDs.

There's nothing Paramount can do about it. That's what TNG looks like. The only thing they can do is find all the original film and put all seven years of the series through post-production all over again, reediting every scene, redoing all the visual FX. They can keep the music and sound FX, though. It's still going to take time and cost a pretty penny. Paramount "caring more" isn't going to improve TNG's resolution.

 

[Geckothan]

Who cares about Region 2 packaging? Real people live in Region 1.

Paramount clearly disagrees seeing as they cheap out on your packaging!

 

[Amaris]

Here's an example of the resolution on my television:

I did not modify this in any way other than to reduce image size:

This is from 3 feet away.
It's what you'd expect from a VHS tape if you had recorded it off of the TV on EP mode.

J.

 

[LitmusDragon]

Yes it really looks bad doesn't it? I don't know if you saw it but there's a thread already started about what it would take to remaster TNG here.

 

[Amaris]

Nope, I did not see that.


J.

 

[B.C.]

Let me start of by saying, I totally agree with the mediocre image quality. While Seasons 1 and 2 seem to look the worst, 3-7 don't look particularly "great" either.

The packaging, while sort of cool at first, just seems clunky over time. The interior digi-pack doesn't slide out of the exterior cardboard book all that easily. You have to unfold the digi-pack to get to the disc you want to watch. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I'd much rather have slim cases. Similar to those used in the fan collectives and most other TV shows on DVD.

I've been kicking around the idea of buying slim cases and my own artwork for the discs. Maybe that's a project better left to when I have an usual amount of free time on my hands.

 

[Falcor5]

Here's an example of the resolution on my television:

I did not modify this in any way other than to reduce image size:

This is from 3 feet away.
It's what you'd expect from a VHS tape if you had recorded it off of the TV on EP mode.

J.

Wow I dont remember it looking that bad! I will have to get my DVDs out. I have not watched Season 1 in awhile.

 

[Captrek]

The packaging, while sort of cool at first, just seems clunky over time.

What I have read (check out the reviews at Amazon) is that the packaging is very cheap and literally falls apart over time. And stunningly, there is no insert indicating which episodes are on which discs, and that’s a basic necessity in a 49-disc package, so you have to create one yourself, or else deal with a major pain in the ass whenever you want to watch a particular episode and have to find the disc that it’s on. I realize that remastering the video may be impractical, but there are certain minimum standards for packaging of a set like this, and Paramount has failed to meet even those minimal standards. Selling it in this kind of a package is completely disrespectful to the material.

 

[Amaris]

I just hope the quality gets better later on. Even so, I love TNG and am thrilled to have the first season on DVD. It's not my favorite by a long shot, but I am a completist, and I will be purchasing these over time, in order, until I have all seven seasons.

J.