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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Any Plans For a Remaster? (1 Viewer)

Barry_B_B

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I stopped collecting my favorite series because the quality of the discs just don't work for me. I've been wondering if this is gonna happen?
 

Nelson Au

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I don't know of any plans but my guess it that it won't happen immediately, if at all.
My guess, as has been mentioned before, Star Trek TOS and Enterprise are both HD ready. TOS is well on the way to blu-ray after it was remastered in 2006 and 07. Enterprise was filmed in HD as I understand it, so it should be easy. Though the DVD's look pretty good.
And just to go over it once more, The Next Generation was done on film with effect post production on video at 480 resolution. That series will be very difficult to remaster for a TOS style effort, should they want to CGI the effects. The only times TNG had really poor effects was in the first year or 2. Still, from what others have already written here, TNG remastered, the existing effect may not hold up to even SD resolution. I'm sure the more learned will chime in to better explain it.
DS9 and Voyager are newer, but I don't know how the effects were done in post production, traditionally on film or digitally. I suspect DS9 did benefit from some CGI (Odo transformations too) as Voyager did. So these shows could be remastered as they are without any tinkering of the effects. The effects were all very well done and stands up today. But of course, some of the work could look dated.
So my guess based on popularity and interest is that DS9 and Voyager are at the bottom of the list at CBS for a re-issue with remastered elements. TOS is hot now. So the focus has been there.
I suppose there could be someone at CBS with the right kind of thinking that Star Trek is wonderful goose and they should be thinking long term. Once TOS work is done, they could move onto the other series. Perhaps if TOS does well on BD, the next logical step is re-issuing each series on BD rather then SD, but that's a guess!
 

Barry_B_B

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Roger_R said:
No idea, but the picture quality does improve with season 4.
Thanks for the info, this is encouraging! Back to the hunt...
I would hope the studios would take a cue from the Star Wars series, and recognize there is demand and market for improved versions. Not a big fan of double-dipping but for the right franchise its not a problem (as in the TOS remaster). Enterprise does look great in HD; haven't started that collection but I do have intent and would hope the current DVD's are high-quality. I guess a BD only release is the inevitable, but I can't imagine it would be anytime soon - but then I haven't been keeping track of BD sales either.
 

Dave Mack

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DS9 like many pre HD era TV shows was shot on film but edited on video. Not just the effects. Meaning The masters are on video. The best resolution you will get is 480i. They would have to go back and found ALL the original film footage, rescanned it in HD and redid ALL the FX. What would they do if they can't find all the footage? Just upscale the missing bits? Would look awful and mismatched.
Star Trek TOS was shot and edited on film so the original masters for that show (unlike all the later Treks save Enterprise) are on film which has a higher resolution than even HD. That's why TOS has been remastered in HD. They didn't have to re-edit the shows save for inserting the new FX. It is possible to redo DS9, TNG, Voyager but will cost alot of $ and take alot of time. It still took 2 years to redo TOS and that was just for 3 seasons. Ds9 ran for 7.
 

Zack Gibbs

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From what I hear TNG remastered is going to happen/is already happening, and is getting the full treatment; going back to the original footage and incorporating newly created CGI VFX.

I would imagine TNG could have gone either way though, I just can't see the same kind of money being spent on DS9. But even if it never gets a true HD release, it's only a matter of time before all the studios look at how they can translate all that SD material from the 80's and 90's to an HD format. Whatever happens I'm sure we'll get something better down the line.
 

Dave Mack

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Zack Gibbs said:
From what I hear TNG remastered is going to happen/is already happening, and is getting the full treatment; going back to the original footage and incorporating newly created CGI VFX.
Zack, I think what was reported was that they were "testing" the show for HD.
My Two Cents - Archived Posts (8/7/07 - 7/26/07)
"...They further revealed that tests had been done for a possible future Star Trek: The Next Generation - Remastered effort..."
Not a done deal yet.
 

Bryan^H

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Dave Mack said:
DS9 like many pre HD era TV shows was shot on film but edited on video. Not just the effects. Meaning The masters are on video. The best resolution you will get is 480i.
My LCD HD telveision is off limits when it comes to Trek. My old 27" Sony Vega television still makes those shows look beautiful. On my LCD.....not so much. Some shows were just meant for the world of standard television.
 

Dave Mack

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I think it's just cost cutting and short sightedness.

Isn't it odd that a show like The Twilight Zone from the early-mid 60's can look utterly gorgeous and easily be HD ready but almost every show from the 90's is Screwed right now? Unless they undertake a massive project.

Been watching my Box set of the restored TZ's and they look damned impressive.
 

Nick Martin

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Bryan^H said:
My LCD HD telveision is off limits when it comes to Trek. My old 27" Sony Vega television still makes those shows look beautiful. On my LCD.....not so much. Some shows were just meant for the world of standard television.
Yeah, I've chimed in on that issue a few times as well.
I did a bit of experimental viewing with upconversion. Watching DS9 on my PS3 upscaled on my LCD television makes the image look much closer to the quality of a CRT television. Grain makes it more film-like, and the aliasing isn't nearly as distracting. On a plasma, even closer than that. Of course screen shape is another issue, but watching Trek on an upconverting player of some kind could potentially be a quick-fix answer for viewing on HDTVs.
 

Mark Talmadge

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I think everyone is missing the point ... The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, High Definition was unheard of during the production of these shows. I have to say that while I do enjoy TOS and TNG, they're not exactly on my list of shows to own. These costs are just too prohibitive.

If I were Paramount, I would lower the prices on the sets of the original releases for TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager and have a promotional sale of $20 a pop and clear out their inventory. Not many are buying these sets now because stores have refused to keep them in stock, even long before this recession became a problem.

I purchased all seven seasons of DS9 and Voyager through Columbia House and it was the best purchase I ever made.

While Star Trek is Paramount's Goose Egg, re-releasing the sets are just going to cause Paramount to raise the retail on the sets once more. What's even more disturbing is that Paramount still refuses to release any of the Star Trek shows in the thinpack format ...
 

The Obsolete Man

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Dave Mack said:
I think it's just cost cutting and short sightedness.
Isn't it odd that a show like The Twilight Zone from the early-mid 60's can look utterly gorgeous and easily be HD ready but almost every show from the 90's is Screwed right now? Unless they undertake a massive project.
Been watching my Box set of the restored TZ's and they look damned impressive.
Before the HD wave, Video was the wave of the future, especially in cutting down production costs. Most 80s and 90s shows will wind up never being HD because of the shoot on film, edit on video practices of the time.
And don't give TZ a 100% grade yet... when you make it to season 2 of TZ, you'll see about half a dozen episodes that look kind of crappy (in comparison) because CBS experimented with shooting TZ on videotape. They're easy to spot.
 

Brian D H

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Mark Talmadge said:
....What's even more disturbing is that Paramount still refuses to release any of the Star Trek shows in the thinpack format ...
Well, you lost me here. There are many problems with the release of these shows, but the type of packaging is REALLY low on my list of issues (YMMV). I can always buy thinpacks and print out any covers I want - it's the discs I need at a reasonable price.
____
Hey, I think I just thought of a solution - :D While I think that the time and expense of remastering STTNG and DS9 in HD is prohibitive and may never happen, we could always perpetuate a rumour that it IS happening. That way everyone sells their SD discs cheap on ebay and I can pick them all up for a song! Who's with me! ;) ............. so, I heard that remastered STTNG will be on BluRay by April 2009 with DS9 by September. Really. I have a very reliable source. You may want to sell your discs while you still can....
 

TravisR

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The Obsolete Man said:
And don't give TZ a 100% grade yet... when you make it to season 2 of TZ, you'll see about half a dozen episodes that look kind of crappy (in comparison) because CBS experimented with shooting TZ on videotape. They're easy to spot.
Yeah, they shot six episodes on video but the other 150 episodes were shot and edited on film so they can go to Blu-ray far more easy than most shows that are 30 year younger (which I think is Dave's point). The 6 episodes shot on video are never going to look much better since the source is video.
 

Ockeghem

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Paramount does distribute several of the series mentioned in Slimline editions. However, I don't know if these are synonymous with thinpack editions. Personally I don't like the slimmer editions for a variety of reasons. In any event, these are available from Amazon.co.uk. Region 2 may come into play, of course. ;)
Amazon.co.uk: star trek slimline
 

Ockeghem

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Nicholas Martin said:
Forget Region 2, the PAL speedup is bad enough.
I appreciate Region 2 a lot, and I have absolute pitch. For my own part, the annoying aspect has more to do with definite rather than indefinite pitch, so speech is (for me) less of an issue than other aspects that may be altered by speedup.
 

Mark Talmadge

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You have to remember that most of us are in the U.S. and we want our thinpack releases ... no Region 2 crap. :lol:
 

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