TNG DVDs being "discontinued by the manufacturer"

[LOKAI of CHERON]

In short: UP CONVERTING DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!

Oh yes, it does!

If you have a top end machine, your scaling chipset should do a better job at reducing jaggies, mosquito noise etc. - and should also auto detect the various film and/or video cadences. But, even the best of best would have an uphill battle to improve the cruddy TNG DVD's.

 

[Dream]

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-The-Next-Generation/dp/B00005Y1NF/ref=pd_cp_mov_0

Only 6 left in stock for the dvd set of TNG S1 on Amazon. amazingwildcat is selling the dvd boxset for as much as the BD S1 set is currently going for!

The only real problem I have with dvds going out of print is that sellers can overchage for them and get away with it.

 

[Squiggy]

I mostly started this topic so fans would stock up if they haven't already on TNG seasons since the dvds are likely going out of print. Already have seasons 2-7 of TNG, all the seasons I needed.

Not sure if this is eventually going to happen with DS9 and VOY, especially if they never do a remaster for those shows.

I'm sure it will.

You'd be surprised how few people buy DVDs for a moderately viewed, 20 year old science fiction show.

 

[Oso Blanco]

But, even the best of best would have an uphill battle to improve the cruddy TNG DVD's.

True. But it makes a huge difference if you are watching your DVDs from an old DVD Player, connected to the TV by SCART or from an upconverting BD Player via HDMI!

 

[Dream]

For the record, this topic is sort of a sequel to this one from TOS forum

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=77948

Paramount did the same with the TOS original dvd releases, which ended up being completely replaced by the remastered dvd versions. However, TNG will not be getting the remastered versions released on dvd.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The truth is that there is a difference between upsizing and upconverting!

No, actually, there isn't.

Upsizing IS upconverting. There is no magic being done to the image to make it HD or anything like that. All upconverting ever does is make a standard image able to be viewed at full SIZE. That's the only function it has. The concept of "upconverting" as a way to better quality is pure-BS marketing, and nothing more.

 

[BillJ]

The truth is that there is a difference between upsizing and upconverting!

No, actually, there isn't.

Upsizing IS upconverting. There is no magic being done to the image to make it HD or anything like that. All upconverting ever does is make a standard image able to be viewed at full SIZE. That's the only function it has. The concept of "upconverting" as a way to better quality is pure-BS marketing, and nothing more.

But some players do a better job of blowing that picture up than others. DVD's look fine when running through my PS3 but look like absolute ass through my Magnavox BD player.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

The truth is that there is a difference between upsizing and upconverting!

No, actually, there isn't.

Upsizing IS upconverting. There is no magic being done to the image to make it HD or anything like that. All upconverting ever does is make a standard image able to be viewed at full SIZE. That's the only function it has. The concept of "upconverting" as a way to better quality is pure-BS marketing, and nothing more.

But some players do a better job of blowing that picture up than others. DVD's look fine when running through my PS3 but look like absolute ass through my Magnavox BD player.

Yes, I remember my first Blu-ray deck - the Panasonic BD-30 - was an excellent BD spinner, but was somewhat lacking in the upscaling department. I used a top end Denon DVD player for SD discs.

I'm now using the Oppo BDP-93, which IMHO, is one of the best optic disc players on the market. I've done extensive testing on the upscaling, both with test patterns and "real world" viewing, and it does a magnificent job.

Still, there's no replacement for a 1080 source.

 

[Trekker4747]

It doesn't matter how well your player is at "upconverting."

No matter what it does it cannot add detail! Which is what HD is all about, the detail and crispness! It's not about making it "fit your screen" and making it look "better than DVD" it's about richness and detail. The boldness of colors, seeing the fibers of uniforms and fabrics, details in the skin, etc.

Upconverting cannot add detail or information it doesn't have, which is what BluRay is.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

It doesn't matter how well your player is at "upconverting."

No matter what it does it cannot add detail! Which is what HD is all about, the detail and crispness! It's not about making it "fit your screen" and making it look "better than DVD" it's about richness and detail. The boldness of colors, seeing the fibers of uniforms and fabrics, details in the skin, etc.

Upconverting cannot add detail or information it doesn't have, which is what BluRay is.

Yes, so? All I've stated is that some players upscale much better than others - with jaggeis and orher video artifacts etc, as I mentioned upthread - this is fact.

 

[BillJ]

It doesn't matter how well your player is at "upconverting."

No matter what it does it cannot add detail! Which is what HD is all about, the detail and crispness! It's not about making it "fit your screen" and making it look "better than DVD" it's about richness and detail. The boldness of colors, seeing the fibers of uniforms and fabrics, details in the skin, etc.

Upconverting cannot add detail or information it doesn't have, which is what BluRay is.

Yes, so? All I've stated is that some players upscale much better than others - with jaggeis and orher video artifacts etc, as I mentioned upthread - this is fact.

This. I never said there was a player that could make DVD's look as good as Blu-ray. Just that some players do a better job than others of playing SD source material on an HD display.

 

[Trekker4747]

So, still no matter how could they can do it they can only do so much! That's the whole point of BluRay and HD.

I don't care how well your equipment upconverts the BD is going to vastly superior in every, single, way.

 

[BillJ]

So, still no matter how could they can do it they can only do so much! That's the whole point of BluRay and HD.

I don't care how well your equipment upconverts the BD is going to vastly superior in every, single, way.

I'm not sure anyone has said otherwise.

 

[Oso Blanco]

Upsizing IS upconverting.

And this is where you are wrong.

Upszing is something that the TV does to a dvd picture, so that the picture matches the size of the hd screen.

Upconverting is something that the DVD/BD player does, and there is lots of processing involved. The point is that the HDTV receives a 1080p picture from the player, which is much better than the upsized picture the TV would produce.

Of course there are no details that magically appear out of nowhere, but the picture is not nearly as bad as people want it to be. And to be honest, I don't need to see every pimple on everybody's noses.

 

[CoveTom]

In short: UP CONVERTING DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!

Oh yes, it does!

If you have a top end machine, your scaling chipset should do a better job at reducing jaggies, mosquito noise etc. - and should also auto detect the various film and/or video cadences. But, even the best of best would have an uphill battle to improve the cruddy TNG DVD's.

I am not a DVD expert or a videophile. And most of my TNG watching has been done on Netflix anyway, rather than on DVD. So I'm curious... I keep hearing about the cruddy quality of the TNG DVD's. Are you saying that's due to the low quality of the original episodes from which the DVD's are made, or are you saying that Paramount did a low-quality job in creating the DVD's? IOW, is the quality low just because this was a show released in standard definition with editing and compositing done on video tape, or is it low-quality even for SD?

 

[CoveTom]

It doesn't matter how well your player is at "upconverting."

No matter what it does it cannot add detail! Which is what HD is all about, the detail and crispness! It's not about making it "fit your screen" and making it look "better than DVD" it's about richness and detail. The boldness of colors, seeing the fibers of uniforms and fabrics, details in the skin, etc.

Upconverting cannot add detail or information it doesn't have, which is what BluRay is.

I guess I'm just going to have to accept that fact that I'm an unsophisticated luddite, because I couldn't care less about "seeing the fibers of uniforms and fabrics, details in the skin, etc." and when I have watched things in HD, it does nothing for me. Nothing wrong with it, but it does nothing to improve my enjoyment of the experience than watching the same show in SD.

 

[BillJ]

Oh yes, it does!

If you have a top end machine, your scaling chipset should do a better job at reducing jaggies, mosquito noise etc. - and should also auto detect the various film and/or video cadences. But, even the best of best would have an uphill battle to improve the cruddy TNG DVD's.

I am not a DVD expert or a videophile. And most of my TNG watching has been done on Netflix anyway, rather than on DVD. So I'm curious... I keep hearing about the cruddy quality of the TNG DVD's. Are you saying that's due to the low quality of the original episodes from which the DVD's are made, or are you saying that Paramount did a low-quality job in creating the DVD's? IOW, is the quality low just because this was a show released in standard definition with editing and compositing done on video tape, or is it low-quality even for SD?

Low quality even for SD. Editing the show on videotape really hurt the quality.

 

[Brikar99]

Things to out of print. Books, CDs, DVDs. It's not because of some kind of malicious intent on the part of the producers, it's just the way things are and have always been. In a few years, the same thing will happen with the Blu-ray editions. Let's not all go insane over the natural course of events.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Things to out of print. Books, CDs, DVDs. It's not because of some kind of malicious intent on the part of the producers, it's just the way things are and have always been. In a few years, the same thing will happen with the Blu-ray editions. Let's not all go insane over the natural course of events.

I don't accept this, I will continue to press CBS for a release of TNG-R on Betamax.

 

[Brikar99]

Things to out of print. Books, CDs, DVDs. It's not because of some kind of malicious intent on the part of the producers, it's just the way things are and have always been. In a few years, the same thing will happen with the Blu-ray editions. Let's not all go insane over the natural course of events.

I don't accept this, I will continue to press CBS for a release of TNG-R on Betamax.

Betamax? Screw it, I'm in. NERDRAAAAAAAAGE