Star Trek: The Next Generation in HD

Some (many) could say the same about Star Trek The Motion Picture.

 

That's a logical assumption. It may be right. In reality, I'm not so sure. While I've never seen someone flip past a show because of aspect ratio, I've seen a lot of sets on AutoStretchTM and people who just do not care. It's the program they go by. Like over-compressed sound, my hunch is that, by and large, folks who don't care won't be swayed enough to affect their choice. Many can be subconsciously influenced by quality presentation though. That may be where the more crucial factor lay: whether it is better to air fullscreen knowing most are going to AutoStretchTM or crop losing some in-frame content but preserving the dimensions.

 

So we're back to where we were before widescreen televisions: filling the screen trumps all.

 

The mentality of the "Joe Six-Pack" segment of the audience can never be underestimated...

 

For people too stupid to care and/or know better, I don't think that's ever actually changed.

 

For some people it isn't that big a deal. They just want to watch TV and don't care about anything else.

 

Unless they stretch the picture, I don't see how they could zoom in enough to get a 16:9 without cutting off a lot of heads, etc. A lot of shots in the series are tightly composed.

 

No. The budget for TNG was $1.3 million per episode - even in the first season (source: http://articles.latimes.com/print/1988-05-03/entertainment/ca-2130_1_star-trek).

That would have made the budget for just the first season: $33.8 million. And that was back when a million dollars was worth a lot more than it is now...

That made it one of the most expensive shows on television. The show was extremely successful (unlike the original Trek) at times even finishing in the Top 10 shows of the week, so the cost could be just justified.

 

I actually had the film for three entirely different scenes up and we looked at it both ways. Trust me: it can be done. And again, we cut off the bottom of the screen, not the top. No heads cut off, ever; feet, yes. This is an issue of zooming out as far as we can go in the initial scan, and then cropping. This is not zooming in and cutting off on all four sides. It's only cut off on the bottom. You would see slightly more image area on the extreme left and right than has ever been seen in past broadcasts.

Here's an approximation of what could be done with the existing footage in 16:9. You have to imagine slightly more image area on the extreme left and right, and the black line represents the 1.78 (16x9) HD frame. Trust me, the image area is there on the original camera negative (OCN).

 

Can we have near as possible to full OCN all 'round? I know... no. Chop chop. Looks like a lot more loss than gained, from that example of course.

 

I agree about Stretchyvision. People deal with 4X3 images by stretching them, and I'd guess that a lot of folks set up their TVs so that they wouldn't know native 16X9 from stretchy.

My best friend and his partner have had real arguments about it. My friend's no videophile, but he hates Stretchyvision, whereas the partner refuses to watch TV any other way - and gets really aggressive if you argue it's not the best way to watch TV...

(No, I'm not a fan of the partner! )

 

Unbelievable. I just don't get it, and never will.

 

Yeah, I don't get why my friend's with his partner. They've been together 10 years, and I've never figured out the slightest clue what my friend sees in the guy.

Oh, you mean you don't get Stretchyvision - nevermind!

 

It's not long shots like this that concern me, but close-ups like the ones below:

 

Im normally a purist about aspect ratio, and almost always prefer the original, but after seeing several episodes of Seinfeld, ive softened a bit as far as realizing, doing the way Vidiot describes, by using the extreme sides and mildly cropping the bottom, a very watchable picture will be seen.

I think in "comparisions" sure we well see a slight change especially in close-ups, but seeing Seinfeld on TV recently WITHOUT a comparison to judge against, i was shocked at how I was able to stand it in 4x3 all those years. It simply looked fantastic in HD and 16x9.

I think we are worrying too much over something that in "theory" is an issue, and yes as a purist its an issue, but in practice, it seems to add to the enjoyment of seinfeld, something that I thought was not possilble.

We can be wrong about totally NEEDING the original composition. Some things will still work, and sometimes even better.

 

Obviously you are the expert on this, and your contributions are quite welcome!!

I have one question that puzzles me about your 'example". You have said before that there is about 15% of more usable image on the side, is that total or does EACH side have an additional 15%???
From your example, it looks like you have not even allowed for 15%, but even less...was that on purpose or simply how your example turned out.?


Just looking at it visually, it appears to not be close to 15% even...I obviously could be wrong or not understanding exactly also.

 

Yeah, I agree here. I've watched both 'Seinfeld and 'Everybody Loves Raymond' remastered in 16x9 HD and I gotta say, they look absolutely fantastic.

From my days in TV I recall shots being composed rather loosely to compensate for overscan and other things as the signal in those days made it to air and onto tube TVs. The first several times I ran a studio camera (at a little PBS station) the director kept barking 'Headroom. Watch your headroom!' at me though the headphones.

While I never worked on anything as big time as something like TNG, I'd bet that there's a surprising amount of safety zone built into those images.

dan c

 

update on Digital Bits:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

Now then... Amazon.de has posted the official cover artwork for CBS's yet-to-be-announced Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Taste of TNG in High-Definition Blu-ray sampler disc. We expect that the cover art for the U.S. release should be similar, if not identical. The Taste of TNG title seems pretty silly. How about TNG Remastered? Wouldn't that have made more sense, given the Star Trek: Remastered title we already saw for The Original Series on Blu-ray? Anyway... ours is not to reason why. Sources tell us that the official preview trailer for the sampler disc (and possibly the official announcement of the Remastered project itself) may appear online as soon as tomorrow - the 24th anniversary of the show's first broadcast back in 1987. To recap: The U.S. street date is expected to be early December, on or about 12/6. Episodes should include: Encounter at Farpoint, Parts 1 and 2, Sins of the Father and The Inner Light. We'll post links as soon as they appear. Thanks to Bits reader Gustavo L. and TrekWeb for the heads-up. Here's the cover art...

 

Trailer.

 

That sure played sluggishly for me. But the article has some important information, including the fact that the sampler is coming out in January 31st, 2012, and a season 1 blu-ray box will follow later in the year.

 

Thanks for the link.

It's not going to be released until January 31, 2012, and judging from the trailer, it's going to be in widescreen, not 4:3

Update: looks like DeeThomaz edged me!

 

YIKES...............!!

I just watched a few episodes of Next Gen on Netflix, (( in its native SD quality )) and the picture quality was for lack of a better word...Really sucky!

It was half washed out, lacking detail, not good color and very dark.

I compared a few other shows just to make sure my tv wasnt going bad or that netflix had some technical issues. Still looked bad..Everything else looked its normal, pretty sorta good look, but Next Gen simply looked bad.

Im not sure if this is a netflix thing or what/???

 

Full app 35mm negative, compared to what usually goes out on broadcast TV, is at least 15% overscanned (total). So there is a sliver of extra image on all four sides, especially top and bottom. If you start out with a full-app image and then crop it to 16x9, you won't be losing as much image -- in fact, you'll see more area on the extreme left and right.

No question, though, it is a visual compromise.

It shouldn't look any worse than it did off-air and on VHS in the 1980s and 1990s. Wasn't the show released on home video at one point? All those standard-def versions should come from the same master tapes (1" analog).

 

It's Netflix.

TNG was not the most colorful show on earth but it was properly exposed and all.

When I was working on Voyager we used to get crazy notes from Rick Berman about things being to dark, to light, to colorful etc etc and he was basing his notes on untimed dailies. The thing that was so frustrating was that each affiliate did their own settings so you had no control over the final look as it was broadcasted. Our dailies were typically dark and dull while the broadcast in L.A.was LSD trip technicolor. After a while we all just ignored Berman and based all judgment on our naked eye.

If you think mastering is important in audio...

 

Yeah, Ron Jones tried that same strategy with Berman. Sadly, it didn't work out so well for him.

At least every beautiful note he composed is available on CD now.