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Remastered Star Trek films anytime soon? (1 Viewer)

Nelson Au

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Thought I'd post an update to this thread of sorts.

It's December 7, 2007, 28 years to the day Star Trek The Motion Picture premiered. I am watching my DVD of the DC for the first time on my new Toshiba A35, so it's the first time I've seen this disc on an upconvert player on my plasma.

As I have been often to say recently, Holy Cow! Prior to this player, I had an Elite Pioneer DVD/LD player. This new machine really surprises. While Star Trek The Motion Picture needs a remaster and HD-DVD release, this old disc actually looks really good!

Inspite of the specks and dust that shows up, it's a pleasure to watch. The image actually looks pretty silky and film like. And there's film grain. As with the new HD-DVD release of Star Trek TOS Season One, the image is pretty sharp, with good detail. Blacks are blacker too. The lines in Shatner's face are very clear and such a contrast to the way he looked on TOS.

Though now I can actually see the new CGI effects lower resolution. Sure hope they give Daren Dochterman the greenlight for his part of the remaster!

I suppose this may not be new news to some here, I am continually impressed with the upconvert portion of this player. The audio is also an improvement, another surprise! Both sight and sound improvements makes watching this film almost like a new experience!

Hope that JJ Abrams has seen this film and finds some inspiration for his new film.
 

Lou Sytsma

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Glad to hear you are enjoying your player Nelson! Time certainly does fly! I remember the time between the end of the series and the release of TMP. It seemed interminable with constant hints of Star Trek being revived.

Now even TNG has years behind it.

Amazing.

Tempus fugit.
 

Nelson Au

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Hey Lou, thanks!

The new player certainly extends life on a lot of DVD's!

The article at trekmovie reminded me of the anniversary. Thoughts go to the new movie too now that they are filming.

Hard to believe that the day the film opened in 1979, I was in my second year at college. And I also remember the days before the net where all the news about Trek's revival came from articles in Starlog magazine and even TV Guide!
 

JediFonger

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it was before i was born :laugh:. i know, not to worry, i get laughed @as well.

my cellphone's ring-tone is the TOS communicator chirp and voicemail notification is the Botswain whistle... so when kidz younger than 30 hear that, they ask if it's a dog whistle or a bird of somekind... perhaps TNG's chirp? i just shake my head in digust ;).
 

JediFonger

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for visual fx reels. if u listen to the TMP DVD commentaries, they inked 70mm for fx so as to not lose any definition when they apply optical fx (same as Blade Runner optical fx).
 

JediFonger

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i promised that i would screencap HD shots of the trek movies. well, i FINALLY GOT AROUND TO IT~!

i only have the theatrical cut of motion picture, but that's pretty much worthless even in HD since the director's cut SD DVD blows it away. the DC hasn't aired in HD broadcast as far as i know.

i'll be doing it movie by movie over time unless the quality is as poor as upscaled DVD like TMP above.

here is Wrath of Khan:
[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/2/20/htf_imgcache_24475.jpeg] [/url][url=http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8218/http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8218/snapshot20080129011834ev2.th.jpg] [/url][url=http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/1166/http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/1166/snapshot20080129011858hl3.th.jpg] [/url]
[url=http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/../imgcache/24483.imgcache] [/url][url=http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/../imgcache/24495.imgcache] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/5/57/htf_imgcache_24476.jpeg] [/url][url=http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/../imgcache/24492.imgcache] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/8/85/htf_imgcache_24477.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/1/18/htf_imgcache_24478.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/d/d1/htf_imgcache_24479.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/0/02/htf_imgcache_24480.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/1/18/htf_imgcache_24481.jpeg] [/url][url=http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/../imgcache/24489.imgcache] [/url][url=http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/../imgcache/24490.imgcache] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/0/0b/htf_imgcache_24482.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/d/de/htf_imgcache_24484.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/d/dc/htf_imgcache_24485.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/8/8f/htf_imgcache_24486.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/f/f1/htf_imgcache_24487.jpeg] [/url][url=http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/../imgcache/24488.imgcache] [/url][url=http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/../imgcache/24491.imgcache] [/url][url=http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/../imgcache/24493.imgcache] [/url]
[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/0/01/htf_imgcache_24494.jpeg] [/url][url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/e/ef/htf_imgcache_24496.jpeg] [/url]
 

Lord Dalek

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From a couple of 70mm prints they struck later in the run in early 1980. Just because the film didn't "premiere" in 70mm doesn't mean assets were not made eventually.
 

JediFonger

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if u imdb the early films, it looks like st1 through 5 all had 70mm prints struck, but #6 did not. apparently by the time the 90's rolled around 70mm film projection went out of style... replaced by imax?
 

Carter of Mars

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Replaced by 35mm prints with digital soundtracks, as opposed to 70mm prints with 6-track magnetic soundtracks.

The 70mm film frames from Star Trek - The Motion Picture that were sold a few years ago did not have soundtracks on them. The movie was never shown in 70mm.
 

Zack Gibbs

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I know VI did because that was the director's preferred version, which is why the DVD is a 2:1 AR.

P.S., Judging from those screencaps, there's not much to look forward to. I expect a lot better than that when these films are on Blu-ray, those may as well be upscaled DVD. Hell upscaled DVD might look better.
 

Sam Favate

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My rule for the Star Trek films is the same as for the James Bond films: I'll buy them one more time (and only one!) in a Blu-Ray set. Preferably one done as nicely as Warner's Superman box from 2006.
 

Nelson Au

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Is the verdict in then for Blu Ray then? I thought there was a lingering chance of a mistrial given the recent announcements that Star Trek TOS Season 2 was still likely to continue on HD-DVD. (Star Trek TOS is released via CBS, which I realize may have a different policy to Paramount who could be considering the change to Blu-Ray for it's film's) I know this is better discussed in the HDM forums, but I thought I'd ask since we're talking blu-ray here.

I agree with Sam, I'll buy them one more time too (And probably the next format) and it would be great if they were as nicely packaged as the Superman set. Some how I doubt that, just based on how past Trek films were released in box sets. But I do hope that the TOS film series gets some respect when it ventures into HDM. Of course, we might not see these till the new JJ Abrams version comes out later this year.
 

Lord Dalek

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Those snaps are off an actual 1080i broadcast of Wrath of Khan not a dvd, which is why they look like utter crap because of the compression used.
 

RickardL

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Having read this thread, I today watched the 2 disc special editions of Star Trek TMP and ST II: TWOK, upscaled to 1080p and:
- TMP is really in need of some cleanup/restoration. lots of speckles and dirt everywhere. I recall that they downgraded the new material for the directors cut to look the same as the original but why not the opposite:upgrade the original instead? Just look at the "dark" starfield surrounding the attackiing Klingon ships in the beginning....
Also, I got the feeling the aspect ratio is wrong; Shatner and everything else looked too slim, squeezed together.
- TWOK looked many times better! Night and day compared to TMP.
 

mike kaminski

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I never thought the ST special edition DVDs looked that bad. I mean they are twenty year old films in a DVD transfer from 2002 or so; they look about as you would expect, about as good as any DVD from that time. Lowry mastering technology didn't exist back then, and going back and restoring the negatives is a lot to ask considering whatever remastering they did looks acceptable as it is. It would be nice to get an upgrade but as far as priorities go for upgrading Paramounts DVD's, I'd say the remastered two-disk collectors edition sets of ST is pretty low on the list. HD will give them a better reason to go back and do something more drastic, especially with regards to grain on the image.
 

Lord Dalek

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Apparantly when Star Trek VI was shown in 70mm the aspect ratio was 2.00:1 instead of 2.35:1 in order to maximize the amount of picture on the Super 35 image while still maintaining the composition of the VistaVision. This was all intentional on Meyer's behalf and its largely why dvd transfers adhere to that ratio.
 

Zack Gibbs

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I think he was just commenting on the convoluted history of the films formats, not comments from the thread. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 

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