An official announcement of Star Trek: TOS will soon be upon us.... (1 Viewer)

[Mark_TB]

The folks behind the remastered project stated from the beginning that both versions would be available on any new formats. (In other words, the remastered editions weren't going to permanently supplant the originals, ala Lucas and STAR WARS.)

Since they start the remastering process by cleaning up the originals, I'd hope both versions are included on the HD-DVD. There's no reason they shouldn't look better than ever, being from a film source.

I just hope the price stays reasonable.

Mark

 

[ReggieW]

I agree Dave Mack.

The CG effects do appear to have gotten progressively better over the course of the project. They have a new shot up at StarTrek.com of the Antares next to the Enterprise from the S1 episode "Charlie X." If you remember, the Anatares was never shown in Charlie X due to budget constraints, but now we have the actual shot of the Enterprise coming up beside it (I should note that Kirk did specifically mention in his log that the Enterprise was coming up beside the Antares, but we never saw the actual ship). I also really like how good the planets now look. I always thought the pre-Nasa imagery of the planets in TOS looked pretty bad. There are now cases when the CBS Digital crew actually utilizes actual footage of the Earth from the Space Shuttle and incorporates it into the scene.

I have become more and more pleased with the results.

 

[RickER]

The Antares is an animated series design seen in The Pirates of Orion. I like to see TAS get in on the action.

 

[ReggieW]

Thanks Ricker!

Didn't know that. I don't think I've seen TAS since I was a boy. I believe I saw an interview with Mike Okuda where he stated that they would be drawing on TAS for some inspiration. I believe they also borrowed the panoramic Vulcan city landscape seen in the remastered "Amok Time" from a TAS episode as well.

 

[Nelson Au]

$5 says they will not include the unaltered TOS in HD on the new HD DVD hybrid discs. I really hope that I am wrong, but I don't think they'll do it.:frowning:

 

[Douglas Monce]

I saw an episode projected from a 35mm print once. The effects shots don't hold up well on the big screen.

Doug

 

[Douglas Monce]

I had heard that they actually put a team on the early episodes and re rendered most of the effects.

Doug

 

[Nelson Au]

I don't believe this has been confirmed by any official statements. They did hire 2 additional staff to help with the massive workload. Do you have confirmation of this?

 

[Dave Mack]

Would be great if they have, Doug.
and Reggie! THAT's The SHOT! The "E" looks glorious now.
In the beginning? eesh

 

[Douglas Monce]

No I don't. I remembered reading about it a few months back on Trektoday, but I can't now find the link.

Doug

 

[Jim_K]

Well I wouldn't be happy. There's no reason not to include both versions in HD. Nothing against the new fx (in fact I'm very interesting in seeing it) but it's just not the same Trek I grew up with and to have it relegated to just the SD side would be a slap in the face. If anything I'm starting to think the originals won't be included at all. If this is going to be marketed towards both HD and SD owners I don't see that they'd have room on the SD side for both versions and to not include the new fx episodes on the SD side would eliminate the appeal of this to the SD crowd. They're not releasing this to encourage HD player sales but to sell the series again.

 

[Mike_G]

Weren't the effects shots done on 16mm? They'd look beyond bad on HD.

 

[Jim_K]

If they were then they would probably look bad. I'd never heard this before though.

 

[RickER]

No the effects were done on 35mm just like the series. But, they have been processed, and reused SO many times they became scratched to hell in the process. You can tell as the seasons go on some of the shots they had stopped using just because the film elements were wearing out, and a few had film slipping in the gate causing it to shudder. Sometimes you could see through the Enterprise cause the blue screen was reflecting to much off the hull of the ship. Many of these shots were used cause it would still work, and look fine on 1960s TV, but now not all look so good. Many times i am glad to see them change a shot. I hated mixing first pilot footage in with the "lighted" ship. However, i still love many of the old shots, and i miss them when i watch remastered Trek.

 

[Jim_K]

okay it's 35mm, Now I still don't see how the original fx shots can look any worse then they do on my SD set.

For instance I was going through and watching some of my Trek set upconverted back in Feb and yes the effects shots are dicey looking but apart from that I don't see how it would look worse in HD other than make the print damage more apparent, but on the flip side we'd get a clearer HD image.

I can live with that.

 

[Nelson Au]

As RickER has said, the effects were filmed and processed over and over to the point that the generations of dupes added scratches and dirt. This is what the producers of the HD Remastered Star Trek project has said was the reason for the project. After remastering the film elements, the live action looked gorgeous, but the effects shots didn't look as pristine. They probably do look great, but they have scratches, lots of grain and the problems RickER mentioned above. So they had to do something to make the entire show stand up to HD.

And the original intent of the CGI effects was to literally recreate the exact same shots, even recreate the starfields exactly. But over the course of a few shows and fan feedback, they started to get creative and evolve away from slavish recreation to creating new POV shots and fly-by angles of the Enterprise.

 

[ppltd]

If the Star Trek HD episode are the same as being used by XBox live, the quality is very good on the live action segments. The reimaged CGI effects are a little unsettling as they are formatted in 16x9, where as the live segments are 4x3.

 

[Nelson Au]

The most recent statements from the remastering team is that the HD DVD will be OAR, the CGI will be 4x3.

 

[Paul Arnette]

It had better be that's all I have to say.

Edited to add:

Does anyone know if we're talking about a complete or partial season's worth of material here? There's absolutely no way I'm going back to buying ST:TOS two episodes at a time again. In fact, anything other than a complete season set is out of the question for me.

 

[Jaxon's Dad]

Or else what...? Seriously Paramount Home Video is really scared...