Far be it from me to call BS on a pro reviewer, so I'll just say it seems like he's mistaken, especially considering there was an earlier 1999 remastering, which probably wasn't great, but still exists. Plus, that would mean, if they were never remastered, that the Blu-Ray compares full HD remastered versions, with the updated effects, to unremastered SD DVD quality episodes, and somehow that just seems wrong. I believe that kind of commentary is just in reference to broadcast and/or streaming quality as compared to physical media. I don't know offhand if any episodes were edited for TV runtime when the TOS-R project was aired in the late 2000s, but the Blu-rays do have the full episodes with no edits that I'm aware of. Even if it's true, which I doubt for reasons listed above, there's no other option for TOS, really. You have VHS, a Japanese laserdisc which was remastered, the two-episode-per-disc DVDs which were also remastered, DVD full season sets which may or may not be remastered, and the Blu-ray. So even if Zyber is correct, you still get unremastered original episodes on Blu-ray as well as the remastered versions with new VFX. But I don't think that's the case, and after some quick googling, I found this video: TrekkieChannel - Star Trek - I Mudd - visual effects comparison This and other videos like it would seem to prove that the two versions on the Blu-ray were both given the same film remaster treatment, particularly the live-action-to-effects crossfade around the 3:12 mark. I don't have my Blus handy to check myself which is why I'm going to all this runaround. While I'm beating this dead horse, I will say that per some users on TrekBBS, the "original mono" track on the Blu-rays seems to be only one of those things (mono, to be clear), and that the soundtrack modifications are as old as the DVDs. Most of the changes involve some of the sound effects mixing; i.e, ship rumble under scenes where it was not originally placed. So it may well be impossible, unless one obtains VHS or laserdisc and does a lot of legwork, to 100% accurately replicate the original effects AND original mono soundtrack experience. Unfortunately that's par for the course with a lot of media out there. I will say that, for me, over a decade after their release, unless one is really, really devoted to original versions of Star Trek: The Original Series, the Blu-rays are the way to go.
Here were his statements to me, verbatim; take from it what you will: Unfortunately, CBS/Paramount did not perform any restoration on the original effects shots. They are provided in as-is condition as an alternative viewing option, but the studio considers the "remastered" effects to be the default. The effects shots are seamlessly branched in. The rest of the footage is identical no matter which version you watch. If you thought there was a difference, that was placebo effect. I reviewed the Trek discs for High-Def Digest. Paramount wasn't going to author two completely separate versions of each episode on every disc. That would be a huge waste of disc space, not to mention that it would very likely increase the disc count in each set and thus the MSRP. Only the effects footage differs. Those shots are seamlessly branched into the episode depending on which version you select from the menu.
Maybe it's an American-only expression, but having an "itchy trigger finger" means someone who is quick or eager or both to pull the proverbial trigger. So having an itchy click finger at Amazon means - or I meant it to mean - I'm dangerously close to buying the set (with the "click" referring to the "place order" button).
I thought I understood what you were saying until the last paragraph, which suggests the non-effects portions of the shows were not remastered. Is that correct? Only the effects scenes were upgraded?
I'm in America, as well (born and raised), but where I think the confusion came into play is when I thought you were going to pull the trigger based on something NEGATIVE I said; never mind, most likely my fault.
I believe you're correct -- sorry for all the confusion over this. I believe what happened was (and I just didn't recall during this exchange in this forum) I had assumed that the episodes WITH the new special effects were also remastered from scratch (because they look like they are to my eyes, especially compared to the original episodes on Blu-ray), but apparently what Josh was telling me was that ONLY the new effects SHOTS received remastering...not the whole episodes. So whatever I was seeing was "placebo" in his estimation... Does that make more sense?
I can't see a scenario where they didn't start the remastering process by processing the entire episode, effects and all. Unlike The Next Generation, CBS didn't have the luxury of being able to recompose the live action and VFX shots together, so I would assume they remaster the whole thing, then craft the CGI VFX replacements, and use seamless branching to swap those scenes in when needed for the Blu-ray, depending on which version you choose. So the seamless branching explanation makes sense but does not preclude the original effects getting at least the bare minimum of remastering in the same way the rest of the footage did. In any case, we haven't run anybody off of buying the Blu-rays, because original versions remastered or not, they're the best presentation you're going to get of the show, with only minor nitpicks like slightly inaccurate mono soundtracks to get in the way of what really is the premium way to watch.
Well, when I look at the screenshots at DVDBeaver, the non-CGI scenes look VERY upgraded to me (at least when compared to the 2000 DVDs). More detail and color-enhanced. Here's what is said over there: "The Blu-ray image absolutely blows away my older faded, artifact-ridden, DVDs from 2000 - as evidenced by the matched screen captures below. Colors are the biggest beneficiaries and skin tones have moved to the warmer end of the spectrum (as commonplace with high-definition rendering). There has probably been some color enhancement. Contrast is a full notch up as well. The resulting episodes, taking up between 7.5 - 12 Gig each, have quality that is stunning - even bigger and better than the HD - although I don't own it anymore to compare, but it does seem even smoother."
Interesting; it may all come down to what we're all seeing individually, and how our systems are calibrated, etc. Using a very accurate Movie picture mode on my Samsung display and with my Panasonic UHD Blu-ray player set up correctly for Blu-ray and DVD upscaling to 4K resolution, I don't like what I see when I watch the episodes (in my first season Blu-ray set) without the new effects -- they're incredibly grainy (to a distracting degree), noisy and just don't look good. When I view the ones WITH the new effects, EVERYTHING just seems better-looking to me, all around (even though, as I shared above, this was called total placebo by Zyber).
One thing DVDBeaver would agree on, apparently, is that the non-CGI scenes are the same regardless of which "version" one plays. They state that the GGI "effects are 'seamlessly branched' so that the Blu-ray image quality, beyond those few 'enhanced effects', is exactly the same." DVDBeaver is only saying the Blu-ray version (with or without the CGI scenes) blows away the DVD version from 2000. So, as I understand them and what is being said above, if you watch the CGI version and then watch the "original" version, the non-CGI scenes you have watched - the vast majority of the scenes, by the way - are identical.
I think you may have misunderstood something here. The original camera negatives were scanned and used for all the live action shots in both versions of the show. The only difference between the two versions is in the effects shots: one has the original effects (scanned from 1960s composite prints) edited in between the live action shots, the other has the 2000s digital video edited in. The blu-rays only have a single video track for the live action shots, and depending on which version of the episodes you choose to watch, your player selects between the two different effects shots as they come along. But there's only a single version of the live action shots stored on the disc. It isn't possible for the version with the original effects to look "dodgy" in the way you're describing because it's literally the same video file. Here's a visual representation of what I'm talking about. I ripped all the episodes from my blu-rays myself and I dug into their structure a little (because one of my discs had a flaw in it that made it unplayable), so I know this is how things are stored on them: edit - You can also think about it this way: storing the videos like this effectively doubles the storage capacity of the discs. If you had to store two complete versions of every episode, you'd need almost twice as many discs to do it. Storing them this way (because the effects shots only amount to a couple minutes of video per episode) is dramatically more efficient.
Does the movement between "live action" and "effects" create any awkward transition issues in one or both of the versions? I think someone above (or someone somewhere else) suggested it does.
That would depend on your player. If it's a crappy one, possibly. I'm just watching the files that I ripped, so the transitions are seamless.
Star Trek TOS and Lost In Space... I have never got tired of them......The wife is asking for a Star Trek TOS watch...she is a fan as well...The Blu-rays look great!
What I find disconcerting about selecting a copy for purchase is the variety of box designs. Do these 20-disc Blu-ray sets all contain the same thing?
As far as I'm aware, yes. I bought the 20 disc complete series, but the third disc (I think?) had a defect in it, so I ended up buying just the first season so I could rip the missing episode. The contents were identical, just different packaging.
I know for me the transitions were fine, but I was never able to switch angles seamlessly like I expected to, it always restarted the episode when I tried.
