Star Treck TNG HD

[firebirdV]

I'm not usually into anything related with re-releases of classics, but apparently they are doing an HD release of TNG and apparently will be recutting the original film instead of just upconverting. Pretty geeky, but if you liked TNG, then this is pretty cool.

Here's a trailer that you can watch in 720p.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npEYTlo_JrY

[Aceman]

no need

pure profit grab

[TheLivingDead]

My dad will probably be picking this up.

I'll download it.

[Gamera]

I read about that. The crazy thing is all the original film of the actors is good enough to make into HD. But all of the effects shots were created at TV resolution. So the only way to get HD of that is to redo each and every single effects shot from the series.

[newking70]

only if they could find a way to digitally remove wesley crusher.

[Jessie's ghost]

I used to watch and enjoy that show when it was originally on the air, but I gotta say…





















Nerd alert!

[exnihilo]

only if they could find a way to digitally remove wesley crusher.

Just be careful of what you name your bowling team!

cg

[KoreanGuitarMan]

I read about that. The crazy thing is all the original film of the actors is good enough to make into HD. But all of the effects shots were created at TV resolution. So the only way to get HD of that is to redo each and every single effects shot from the series.

The deal is, the series was shot on 35mm except for the miniature work (exterior ship shots). I imagine it would be difficult to maneuver a big Panavision camera in a small art studio, not to mention the number of takes it probably requires to get everything just so. Would be difficult and $$$ to do the miniatures on 35mm. They didn't have a budget like Peter Jackson did on the Lord of The Rings trilogy.

Here's the hitch though. Everything was transfered to and edited on video tape, so essentially everything has to be scrapped. They probably had to go back to the original camera negatives or an interpositive and scan at 4k. All the editing and color timing would then have to be re-done. Big job.

I imagine the ship exterior stuff is going to be done in CGI for the Blu-ray release, like they did on the original Star Trek.

I hope they don't end up chopping the top and bottom of the frame off to make it widescreen.

no need

pure profit grab

Not really. TNG was a hit TV series and a lot of people want to see it in HD. They have full frame 35mm negatives to work with so why not a Blu-ray release? 35mm negative film has about six thousands lines of horizontal resolution, which means three times more resolution than Blu-ray which is 1920 lines horizontal. If they do a good job on this transfer they'll have it ready for the next generation video format too.

[Scott_F]

I definitely love me some Star Trek, original and NG.

[Powdered Toast Man]

I hope they don't end up chopping the top and bottom of the frame off to make it widescreen.

What's more likely is that they originally chopped of the sides to make it 4:3.

[uOpt]

Well I'm currently on a run through the DVDs and even I don't do all episodes every year.

I'll wait and see how the new effects and other changes are being received.

Wash is cool.

[KoreanGuitarMan]

What's more likely is that they originally chopped off the sides to make it 4:3.

Highly doubtful, at least in the way you're thinking.

You're thinking that the show was shot in a widescreen ratio and cropped down to 4:3 from there. That might have been true if TNG were shot for theatrical release, but it was intended from the beginning for television and possible home video release so it was always meant to be 4:3. From '87 to '94 having anything widescreen in your living room was exceedingly rare. Remember that shooting television in widescreen wasn't really done until the early 2000s.

Star Trek: TNG was shot on 35mm film. The standard frame size for 35mm film is four perforations high which produces an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 (The Academy Ratio). This frame is then cropped down slightly on all sides to produce the broadcast television ratio of 1.33:1 or 4:3. So you get to use almost all of the frame for TV.

Now, when you shoot with a 1.85:1 (bit wider than 16:9) or 2.35:1 widescreen projection ration in mind, you're cutting off the top and bottom of the 35mm frame already. To plan to crop a 4:3 image from an already cropped image would be absurd. That's throwing tons of resolution straight into the garbage.

[MetalManiac]

Bring back VHS through a Tube TV! Nothing beats the warm color saturation of a shot on film VHS tape payed through a great quality VHS tape machine with the High Blk/White Contrast of a Tube TV. Also, thre soundtrack is sweet - pure analog. I know most of the production VHS tmovie apes wrere junk..bit still.

[ItsaBass]

Funny this should come up. I am trying to get rid of all my Star Trek VHS tapes. I taped TOS, TNG, DS9, and a good deal of Voyager (which I eventually gave up on) off of TV in the '80', '90's, and early '00's. I have every episode of every one of them except Voyager, maybe minus a few. I don't care about the episodes any more, since I can get them all on DVD. But I don't want to trash all those GREAT COMMERCIALS! I am hoping someone has some artistic use for them. I have to get these seven boxes of tapes out of my house.

[GuitarStv]

I dunno if the crappy props and bad makeup would look right in hi-def.

[Reload in 5]

Its your first taste of the next generation of the next generation

...

[Powdered Toast Man]

Bring back VHS through a Tube TV! Nothing beats the warm color saturation of a shot on film VHS tape payed through a great quality VHS tape machine with the High Blk/White Contrast of a Tube TV. Also, thre soundtrack is sweet - pure analog. I know most of the production VHS tmovie apes wrere junk..bit still.

VHS was a junk format from the start. Betamax was a superior format, but lost out because of poor decisions by Sony. Sony wanted to keep Beta as a proprietary format but JVC shared the VHS tech with the industry. Back in the early 80's, they all got together for a meeting to discuss which format was going to be finally adopted as the industry standard. Sony walked out of that meeting, JVC did not. Beta was dead within a couple years later because every other manufacturer had adopted VHS. (Sony did remember this lesson when it came to Bluray vs. HDDVD)

VHS has a maximum of 240 scan lines of resolution. A standard NTSC tv has 525 scan lines. So you immediately lose 50% of the resolution of a TV signal when you record on VHS.

I used to be a broadcaster. Guess what the industry standard format is? Betacam. They've now moved to Betacam SX (digital tape).

[GuitarStv]

I thought Beta lost the format wars because Sony refused to allow sale of porn on their tapes.

[Powdered Toast Man]

I thought Beta lost the format wars because Sony refused to allow sale of porn on their tapes.

lol no. They didn't want to give up the proprietary rights to the technology.

[ratherdashing]

Wow, this is a big undertaking. It would require re-editing all the original camera negatives AND making CGI models of the Enterprise D and every other miniature. That said, I think they used CGI for the Generations movie which takes care of the Enterprise itself, and I'm sure lots of models of other ships were made for DS9 and Voyager.

It would be great to see the end product. Not sure I'd be willing to fork over the cash for it, but I'm all for them doing it.