Blu-ray Review Star Trek: The Next Generation Season One Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Moe*A]

Very disappointed with the audio issue it is immediately obvious on Encounter at Farpoint. There are six other episodes where this occurs according to another forum I visited earlier
"Encounter at Farpoint"
"Hide and Q"
"The Big Goodbye
"Datalore"
"11001001"
"Too Short a Season"
It is not always the same some have the centre and right channel mixed together, while others have the centre and left and there is one that has the left, right and centre mixed. This is a UK copy which could be different from the US one.
Having said that the sound is still very impressive.
However the picture is outstanding and n words I can type can do it justice.

 

[Dave Vaughn]

Very disappointed with the audio issue it is immediately obvious on Encounter at Farpoint. There are six other episodes where this occurs according to another forum I visited earlier
"Encounter at Farpoint"
"Hide and Q"
"The Big Goodbye
"Datalore"
"11001001"
"Too Short a Season"
It is not always the same some have the centre and right channel mixed together, while others have the centre and left and there is one that has the left, right and centre mixed. This is a UK copy which could be different from the US one.
Having said that the sound is still very impressive.
However the picture is outstanding and n words I can type can do it justice.

As I've watched more and more episodes, this has become apparent to me as well. Switching to the Stereo track fixes the "weird" audio issues though.
This is one of those examples that kills anyone who reviews a TV set. There just isn't enough time to watch every episode in its entirety before writing a review and issues such as these slip through and are discovered later when watching the show for enjoyment rather than to meet a deadline. I personally tested every disc and played portions of each episode and didn't catch the audio issue until watching "The Big Goodbye" with my kids. I thought I had heard something in "Hide and Q," but didn't think anything of it until I'd heard the same thing in "The Big Goodbye." That's as far as I've gotten in the set thus far because I have other discs to review as well as some equipment for an upcoming issue. All told though, this isn't a major deal to me...more of an annoyance.

 

[Garysb]

Both CBS and Paramount are owned by Viacom.  Even though they have the same parent company they do their own releases.  For example Paramount brought us Breakfast At Tiffany's, Wings, White Christmas, African Queen and more (all great looking BDs).  CBS brought us My Fair Lady (cough).  I think Star Trek and NG are both CBS (who can do good work).

Actually the old Viacom was split into two companies, Viacom and CBS Inc, While Paramount Pictures remained a part of Viacom, the TV shows produced by Paramount TV including Star Trek went with and are now owned by CBS. CBS still has a distribution agreement to release its product through Paramount Home Video but they are separate companies now. This is why for example My Fair Lady was not worked on by Paramount as a blu ray release as it is owned by CBS. The film was however released by Paramount Home Video.

 

[Jason_V]

This is all disappointing to hear, no pun intended.

I did pop in a few of the discs and watched the trailers with the beginning of the episodes. I was just about to declare my undying love for the set and the work done on the episodes...and this audio problem pops up.

 

[Mark-P]

Neil,
As the official HTF reviewer of the set, have you checked out the audio anomalies being reported? Do you think this is recall worthy?

 

[Nelson Au]

Oh well, all my local Best Buys are sold out of this set! Amazing, either they didn't get much stock, or there's a huge demand. Looks like its Amazon.
I wonder if this audio problem exists on the sampler disc from back in January on Encounter at Farpoint? I'll check for it since I can't seem to buy this set right away!

 

[Jason_V]

Nelson, my closest BB didn't have any. I went to the next closest one and there were at least 2 copies on the shelf. I tend to think they didn't get a lot or haven't restocked all day. Why? Because BB, at least in this area, is notorious for selling out of stock on release day on things I'm interested in.

 

[Moe*A]

Others have reported the audio on the sampler disc is fine and does not suffer from the problem season 1 has.

 

[Dave Vaughn]

The sampler disc didn't have any audio problems. If anyone has a link to direct time stamps of the audio issues, I'll confirm them and contact Paramount personally with their VP of publicity.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Originally Posted by Dave Vaughn /t/322473/star-trek-the-next-generation-season-one-blu-ray-review/30#post_3953388
As I've watched more and more episodes, this has become apparent to me as well. Switching to the Stereo track fixes the "weird" audio issues though.
This is one of those examples that kills anyone who reviews a TV set. There just isn't enough time to watch every episode in its entirety before writing a review and issues such as these slip through and are discovered later when watching the show for enjoyment rather than to meet a deadline. I personally tested every disc and played portions of each episode and didn't catch the audio issue until watching "The Big Goodbye" with my kids. I thought I had heard something in "Hide and Q," but didn't think anything of it until I'd heard the same thing in "The Big Goodbye." That's as far as I've gotten in the set thus far because I have other discs to review as well as some equipment for an upcoming issue. All told though, this isn't a major deal to me...more of an annoyance.

The stereo track has issues with dialog synchronization that are not shared with the 7.1 track. I don't know if these were present on the original releases. If I get a chance this evening, I will try to give an example with timecode. Probably the most egregious one I noticed was on "Encounter at Farpoint". There is a scene in Zorn's office with Riker and the away team where in one shot, actor Michael Bell's lip synch seems to be off by 2-3 frames or more.

Disclaimer: I have only watched "Encounter at Farpoint" and "The Naked Now", so I do not know if it is prevalent throughout all of the episodes.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

Originally Posted by Mark-P /t/322473/star-trek-the-next-generation-season-one-blu-ray-review/30#post_3953492
Neil,
As the official HTF reviewer of the set, have you checked out the audio anomalies being reported? Do you think this is recall worthy?

I checked out episodes last night and there does appear to be an issue on a couple of episodes (mid-season). I am going to check again tonight the later episodes and see if it is isolated to just a couple.

 

[Gary Seven]

I went at lunchtime yesterday because I had a suspicion there would not be a huge stock. I only saw three when I got there. I was fortunate to have $15 worth of coupons to use so the set was under 50 for me.

I popped in the DVD of Encounter at Fairpoint to remind myself of the picture. After a few minutes I popped in the Blu-Ray. Immediately it was a revalation. Picture and sound were outstanding. I did not notice any sound anomalies while watching. It may be that I was so enraptured but nonetheless, it was fine for me. In any event, now that I have read some issues, I guess now I'll be listening for it. I kind of wish that I had remained blissfully ingnorant.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Thanks for the great review, I look forward to picking this up as soon as I am able to afford it.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

Haven't seen the restoration featurette yet, but was anyone actually wanting the show to be reframed to 16x9?

Amazingly enough, yes. There were people on several different forums (including a few posts on another thread on this forum) discussing the issue, and some really believed that a 16x9 image could be carved out of the original film frame without any issues. And they kept using one - only one - example of a frame of film from one scene compared to the extracted image on the DVD. As if that much room to do such re-framing would always be the case throughout the run of the series.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Originally Posted by Joel Fontenot /t/322473/star-trek-the-next-generation-season-one-blu-ray-review/30#post_3953739
Amazingly enough, yes. There were people on several different forums (including a few posts on another thread on this forum) discussing the issue, and some really believed that a 16x9 image could be carved out of the original film frame without any issues. And they kept using one - only one - example of a frame of film from one scene compared to the extracted image on the DVD. As if that much room to do such re-framing would always be the case throughout the run of the series.

To be fair, there are a lot of vintage 4:3 television series where, because of large protection areas in the original cinematography, they can maximize the horizontal frame width, minimize the vertical cropping, and create a passable 16:9 representation. TNG was not one of those for the reasons illuminated in the featurette (revealing details like lights and matte edges in the dead space, composite effects shots that do not extend into the dead space, etc.). I am thankful for this because, IMHO, even when it works pretty well, it is an unnecessary revisionist practice that undermines the compositional considerations of the original directors and cinematographers.

 

[Mark-P]

The Digital Bits has now confirmed the audio problems and Paramount is looking into it:
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviewshd/bdreviews072312.html

 

[Dave Vaughn]

To be fair, there are a lot of vintage 4:3 television series where, because of large protection areas in the original cinematography, they can maximize the horizontal frame width, minimize the vertical cropping, and create a passable 16:9 representation.  TNG was not one of those for the reasons illuminated in the featurette (revealing details like lights and matte edges in the dead space, composite effects shots that do not extend into the dead space, etc.).  I am  thankful for this because,  IMHO, even when it works pretty well, it is an unnecessary revisionist practice that undermines the compositional considerations of the original directors and cinematographers.

Totally agree Ken.

 

[Gary Seven]

Now that we have, and going to have, TNG on Blu-Ray, it wil be interesting to see if various labels can be read on the bridge and elsewhere on the ship. I remember seeing somewhere (TV, DVD?) that these labels were often jokes and such knowing that the NTSC resolution would never reveal the true nature of these labels. But since now that has changed, let's see in this, and upcoming sets, whether these can now be spotted.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

"Some monsters on your bridge monitor may appear larger and more ridiculous in 1080p"

 

[Dave Vaughn]

Now that we have, and going to have, TNG on Blu-Ray, it wil be interesting to see if various labels can be read on the bridge and elsewhere on the ship.  I remember seeing somewhere (TV, DVD?) that these labels were often jokes and such knowing that the NTSC resolution would never reveal the true nature of these labels.  But since now that has changed, let's see in this, and upcoming sets, whether these can now be spotted.

Gary, I remember reading that somewhere as well. I'll keep a look out to see if I see anything amusing. Then again, if they redid all of the effects, maybe these were redone too???