Star Trek Voyager - A Thread for Fans (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

Voyager seems to be one of the more popular Star Trek series that is streamed.

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I’m sure Voyager and DS9 will be remastered. I’m guessing the money spent to remaster TNG has been a good investment too. They can stream it in high quality now.

 

[Museum Pieces]

Voyager seems to be one of the more popular Star Trek series that is streamed.

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I’m sure Voyager and DS9 will be remastered. I’m guessing the money spent to remaster TNG has been a good investment too. They can stream it in high quality now.

They're still way in the red over TNG-R. They recouped hardly a fraction of the cost. Each episode of TNG cost anywhere from $50,000 on the low end to more than $100,000 on the high end to remaster. A cost analysis of DS9 was done at the time--and redone two years ago with cheaper capabilities. It's still way cost prohibitive, especially since it's already streaming and being watched. There's simply not enough profit involved--either financially or in terms of prestige to justify the sheer man hours it would take. My brother-in-law said for TNG they thought four departments could do it. By the end, every department at the studio, and multiple vendors, had to be tapped in some way. Something would have to radically change in what it cost, and even then, what's the upside? It would still cost millions for programming that's already out there being consumed.

I hope I'm wrong. Believe me, nothing would make me happier. Especially for DS9

 

[bmasters9]

My brother-in-law said for TNG they thought four departments could do it.

I didn't know your brother-in-law worked on the remastering of TNG (as I understand it here).

 

[Sam Favate]

They can remaster a 7-season show for the cost of 3-4 episodes of modern Trek and then have 175 episodes to stream exclusively on P+. That’s a good investment.

 

[Museum Pieces]

They can remaster a 7-season show for the cost of 3-4 episodes of modern Trek and then have 175 episodes to stream exclusively on P+. That’s a good investment.

It's not just the costs. It's not just the man hours. It's the logistics. It's the resources. The organization. Everything is not always where it should be. Essentially two entire television series would have to be rebuilt from post production up, from scratch--decades after they were shot. My brother in law said if they asked him back, he would not go, because TNG-R was ten times more work than anyone thought or that he got paid for, for years and years, that it was so stressful many developed health problems--and he loves Star Trek more than anything. It's not just the money. It's gearing up to "remake" the shows all over again--and that assumes all the original sound and negative elements can be found. Just finding them and assembling them, to say nothing of scanning them and restoring them, and recreating all the visual effects--is a momentous feat.

 

[benbess]

Sounds like a remaster isn't likely to ever happen for Voyager or DS9. Bummer.


PS And yet, if the sheer volume of hours to reassemble and remaster is the biggest hurdle for this, I wonder if they could just remaster the 2-part "movies" that are found on Voyager. After all, they did individual "movie" releases for Star Trek: The Next Generation. I realize I'm just dreaming, but....

 

[Jason_V]

Sounds like a remaster isn't likely to ever happen for Voyager or DS9. Bummer.


PS And yet, if the sheer volume of hours to reassemble and remaster is the biggest hurtle for this, I wonder if they could just remaster the 2-part "movies" that are found on Voyager. After all, they did individual "movie" releases for Star Trek: The Next Generation. I realize I'm just dreaming, but....

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Just like Nelson and Sam, I am 100% sure DS9 and Voyager will get a remaster. It likely won't be the project that was TNG, but they will manage to figure out something.

Here's why...and this has already been alluded to. There are roughly 350 episodes between the two series which have yet to be exploited to their full potential. Whether that full potential is streaming, physical, both...doesn't matter. Paramount/CBS can't do a dang thing with two decade old SD masters of all these episodes. Repacks of the existing DVD's can't be bringing in the money anymore.

It also makes no sense to have two series out of 12 in anything less than HD quality for posterity.

I don't know the logistics of getting this done, but I have always stood by the idea these two shows would get a remaster or upconvert or something. I still stand by that, even now in late 2022 when we've had zero rumor or news about something happening. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong...but my hope will always live on that this gets done.

 

[smithbrad]

Just like Nelson and Sam, I am 100% sure DS9 and Voyager will get a remaster. It likely won't be the project that was TNG, but they will manage to figure out something.

I agree. To do nothing means to eventually let the two series die away to no longer be part of the Star Trek universe, because at some point SD quality won't cut it anymore, even on streaming.

 

[Sam Favate]

Yup. As I have said in the past, the day is soon coming - if it is not already here - that modern audiences simply will not look at SD content anymore. Not to have HD masters is equivalent to abandoning the shows.

And at a time when rumors are red hot that some kind of continuation will happen for both DS9 and Voyager, Paramount is simply not going to abandon them.

 

[benbess]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think "upconverting" the video is really going to work to get true HD.

 

[Jason_V]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think "upconverting" the video is really going to work to get true HD.

If we have the choice over never getting anything but SD or an upconvert, I know which one I'll choose.

A guy has been doing 4k (I think) scenes of DS9 and VOY and putting them on YouTube. I won't pretend to know all the in's and out's of the process--or any of the in's and out's, really-but his product looks worlds better than any of the SD material for either series.

 

[smithbrad]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think "upconverting" the video is really going to work to get true HD.

Just a guess on my part, but I think if they were going to go the cost effective upconvert/AI route, like Stargate SG-1, they would have done so already. Then there is the Babylon 5 approach of transferring the purely live segments into HD and leave any SFX segments as upconverts. However, this requires all the effort of going back to the film elements and working through the notes to re-assemble it together again. That's a lot of effort, as previously described, for only going halfway.

The fact that they haven't gone either of these two lesser approaches and that I honestly believe they won't let either property wither away, is why I think ultimately, they will do it the right way. However, everything will need to align budget, effort, and team wise first. Whether that ever works into another physical media release, I kind of doubt it, but definitely streaming on their own service. It may take several years still, since as mentioned they are still being streamed in SD, but eventually I can see it happening.

 

[Nelson Au]

Regarding upconverting, Star Trek Enterprise was released on blu ray with live action in HD and the CGI effects were upscaled from what I’ve read. I can see it has some aliasing artifacts on the saucer section of the Enterprise in some shots. I recall reading that the series was easy to remaster as live action was already in HD, but my memory recalls stories that the first season was film and the later seasons was made with digital cameras. At any rate, the series looks good and I hope Enterprise also gets an update with re-rendered effects. I know it’s not everyone favorite.

But first, yes, I still feel Voyager and DS9 will get it’s due. Paramount+ will perhaps work out the logistics and budgets. Plus technology and software has improved to make the effort more cost effective.