Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu-ray DVD comparison

[Kleavers]

Why did season 1 look like there's a red filter over everything in the originals?

[LocksAndChains]

Holy crap... It's almost like they reshot the whole thing... How does it look so good now?!

[davegreenwood1993]

Do you think you could upload a HD video of the transporter??

It looks a lot shinier! and prettier.

[quitaskingmyname]

Any one else notice that not only does the blu-ray look good, but that for DVD the quality was particularly bad?

[Ferocinator]

I'm completely blown away by the Blu-ray quality of this iconic series.

[spacecowboy5000]

The ham that Worf is cutting looks wayyyy better on Blu-Ray.

[fighter4luv]

whoa! the colours and the new effects look great! Can't wait for the actual release of each season :D

[LifterOn]

OH, IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I'VE HAD GAGH. I LOOK FORWARD TO IT!

[suryalinaten10]

WOW.

This is just beautiful, the blu-ray versions are just gorgeous.

Thank you so much for compiling this.

[Chris4400]

At 1:08 you can really see how different it makes people look.. Beverly kinda has a blank boring stare in the old version, and her beauty just comes out in her eyes in the Bluray version.

[evanguy]

Shut up and take my money!

[makeWatcher]

0:42 - Benjamin Button

[BjoernarEricSven]

Finally, the BluRay has arrived. The picture quality is spectacular. I would have hoped, though, for them to create a more realistic planets for the main title sequence just as they did with Q’onos. And an expanded (certainly not cropped) 16:9 version would have been nice.

[TheHYPO]

@BjoernarEricSven re: opening title - I found the planets in both the season 1-2 and 3+ credits to be reasonable looking. The first season planets represent our real solar system. Can't get much more realistic than that. The season 3 ringed planet looks great to me.

[BjoernarEricSven]

@TheHYPO

If you look closely at the 1st season opening titles you'll notice that as the sun changes its position relative to the earth, the terminator of both earth and moon shifts from left to right, yet the planets don't turn the slightest bit. Without an actual parallax-shift, the sun seems to be running circles around them, and earth an moon look like cut-outs. Plus, the transition from that ringed planet (on the 3rd season opening titles) to the Enterprise looks as jarring as ever.

[TheHYPO]

@BjoernarEricSven I respect the fact that they elected not to tweak the show unless they didn't have the footage. It's small step from one little tweak to redoing every FX shot . If the creators wanted to "improve" the credits, they could have replaced the season 1 Credits with the season 3 credits at syndication or on the DVDs. they elected to keep the show as it first aired, and I think that makes more fans happy than upset. But in the end it's a choice.

[BjoernarEricSven]

@TheHYPO

Oh, I wasn't suggesting for them to replace the 1st season credits with the 3rd season credits, just for some added photorealism.

[TheHYPO]

@BjoernarEricSven I also agree btw that the most logical fix in the credits (if any were going to be made) would have been the ringed planet transition. We all know that it's because they cut from the new footage to the existing s1 credits. The only thing I can say on that point is that they would have had to be pretty creative to get a seemless starfield given the difference in the relative motion of the two shots. Also, I don't mind the s1 credits; I just interpret that shot as artistic :)

[TheHYPO]

@BjoernarEricSven There is no way to easy make the show 16:9 and NOT crop at least some of it. The film may be widescreen, but it was shot with intent to only use the 4:3 box. Therefore there was no care given to making anything over the edges look good. Some 16:9 stock might include film equipment or unfinished sets etc. The VFX, more importantly, were likely never created for anything past the 4:3 box. Seinfeld was cut 16:9 for HD TV and it is mostly cropped (often badly).

[BjoernarEricSven]

@TheHYPO

Pity! That's what I feared.

[TheHYPO]

@BjoernarEricSven search youtube for "George's Answering Machine" for seinfeld. There are HD and SD clips of it. You will note that the HD is cropped in every shot. I'm sure you'll see similar cropping in most shots if you find other HD/SD Seinfeld clips to compare.

I'm not sure exactly why it is cropped not expanded, but I suspect it is because a) the wings of the frame have something bad in them or b) expanding the wings would just create badlooking empty space in the wnigs.

[garthfrank12]

@BjoernarEricSven Quotes from those doing the restoration: "It is true that in some shots – not all – but in some shots there is additional information on the film. But then again you are changing the original intention… and in a LOT of cases there are things that aren’t intended to be seen – sandbags, light stands, whatever – on the sides."

[gaozhi2007]

i am speechless. this is totally amazing. I can't believe my eyes!! For them to go and recomposite these special effects is going so far above what any other studio would do...it brings me to tears. Now we can enjoy this wonderful show they way it was intended...forever.

[masterfistlord]

aww crap. 4:3. I know i know...shot on 16mm but really...it totally sucks on modern screens.

[garthfrank12]

@masterfistlord Shot on full frame 35mm actually, not 16mm, which is why there's the new level of detail.

Not widescreen though because it was framed for 4:3 - to get it 16:9 they would have to crop out footage. If you really want it 16:9 just use the zoom function on your TV or BD player.

[masterfistlord]

@garthfrank12 yep you are right. my bad.

[ChristopherJacques]

Even if they re-released it in Standard Definition it'd look a thousand times better. Just getting rid of that horrible pink cast and the oddly low-res composite shots makes all the difference.

Thanks for the comparison.

[BjoernarEricSven]

Comparing those shots of the Enterprise opposite the Bird of Prey, you can see that the window configuration is slightly off on the Enterprise's new cg model. But the 4 foot model differed from the 6 foot model too, so they are merely consistently inconsistent. Anyway, it's something that usually wouldn't get noticed, so I don't really mind that much.

[MegamanXGold]

That energy beam at 1:16, why was it edited to look like it's coming out of a Phaser bank? The tractor beam always originates from the middle bottom of the saucer like the screen shot before 1:16, or the bottom of the battle section.  Phaser banks shoot phaser beams... I don't like that it's shooting purply-blue sparkles. This isn't Twilight.

[TheHYPO]

@MegamanXGold Have there ever been tractor beams coming out of the centre of the saucer? The center of the saucer is the captain's yacht. I don't think that's where any of the ships emitters should be located. the phaser banks (beams of weaponized energy is a logical place for the energy beam to emit from)

[MagicAlDF]

@MegamanXGold the energy beam originally came from a mysterious source on the bottom of the saucer (reminiscent of effects shots from the original Star Trek), but Picard does say in the episode, "rig main phaser banks to deliver an energy beam," and designer Andrew Probert had specified where the phaser banks are. The new shot is technically correct about the location of the beam. The sparkles are debatable but apparently they wanted a special look to indicate that it's nurturing the creature.

[WKRPwpig]

This has gotten me more interested in the HD release than anything else. The medium-distance shots are awesome. I am not sure if I can wait until the opening price comes down.

[TheHYPO]

@gmon78 not just on the DVDs but seemingly in the actual prints of the episodes. This is one of the reasons I personally think the colour-correction of the episodes is one of the best parts - frankly just the shots of the cast in proper sharp looking uniforms makes even the pilot look like it could have been a 5th season episode.

[inselvideo]

Wow the Blu Ray Looks so amazing!Fantastic!

[Maindrian]

Christ, I'd always shied away from watching TNG again because it looked like such an ugly, blurry mess of a show (and I'm saying this as somebody who worships TOS and could quite easily watch the creaky old non-HD editions any day...), but this looks gorgeous.

The ship shots are movie quality. I never even liked the D that much, but it looks absolutely beautiful now.

[Tuskin38]

@Maindrian I don't know, the DVD release was pretty good, and looks nice upscaled on my HD TV, looks better then Non-HD TOS.

[Maindrian]

@Tuskin38 Oh no, I've sampled some of the DVDs a mate lent me, it looks passable, but alas, the blurry look of the video it was filmed on bugs me something chronic. Even after years of just subsisting on gradually decaying video tapes, I couldn't get over how it had seemingly aged worse than a show made in the 60's.

But yeah, I'm certainly not knocking the DVD releases, there have been far worse. They tried.

[ThrashTillDeath73]

@Tuskin38 Need to check your eyes then. The DVDs look horrid. I checked a Season 3 episode recently, and it was unwatchable. These BDs can't come soon enough.

[AdrianCoyote]

@masonTganes going to have to disagree with you completely there, the pictures don't show the true nature and power of what blu-ray can do. The detail and sharpness are 100% better than the DVD version. The colors are more natural and I guarantee if you saw it on your HDTV in blu-ray you'd notice a HUGE difference.

[GB452]

For those who say there's no real difference, and are unimpressed... why not google up trekcore, and see the screencaps yourselves. I honestly cannot believe anyone who says they don't see much point in the HD remaster. Unless of course, you're using CRT monitors.

[masonTganes]

As a graphic artist and trek nerd for the last 38yrs... id have to say i am completely UNIMPRESSED by any single photo ive seen of the HD facelift.

Sure there is a less fuzzy feel to it. But there isnt any special detail that is popping out that was never there.

Also- I prefer the vibrant colors of the original version. The HD colors are all muted and depressing.

When TOS got a major HD overhall- at least they gave us enhanced special effects...Why didnt they do that here? LAME.

[Tuskin38]

@masonTganes Probably because to make the CG effects would haave cost more the TOS-R, plus there are a lot more episodes.

[CJCA915]

@masonTganes The special effects are redone, since they were too low quality for HD transfer... so the phasers, torpedoes, etc. are all new effects, and in fact the shot @1:31 is a CG shot... as is the shot @ 2:03... the model is Tobias Richter's model... members of a scifi forum, got to see him model it, including me... he started modeling the CG model back in May 2011... though he said it didn't have to do with TNG at the time...

[ThrashTillDeath73]

@masonTganes Again, you seriously need your eyes checked. With regards to color levels, does the word color timing mean anything to you? Yes, some shots from the SD versions might have brighter color saturation, but do you want overblown color saturatuion or more natural color? I'll take the more natural look anyday.

[masonTganes]

@ThrashTillDeath73 I am a 20yr graphic designer..... i know all about color correction.

YES it is corected.. doesnt mean it looks appealing. The could have tweaked the colors a bit on the special effects and enhanced the overall color pallete.

[ChristopherJacques]

@masonTganes I see this a lot with DSLR camera users. They think balanced to 50% Gray is the ONLY way a picture's color should be. Color affects mood, you don't ALWAYS want to be perfectly white balanced.

But in this case, as far as the overall pink cast, I think it's MUCH better.

[TheHYPO]

@masonTganes The reason they suggest they aren't revamping the SFX for TNG (other than going back to the original FX plates and recompositing them) is that the SFX for TOS were very archaic and not very believable, Whereas they were satisfied that TNG's SFX did not require an update. I assume this means that we won't have the dual-angle ability to switch between remastered and unremastered episodes.

[TheHYPO]

@masonTganes PS: If these stills are to be believed, it does look like they touched up the SFX in at least some places (unless they did such bad job of compositing 25 years ago that these look "enhanced") - the energy beam shot at 1:16 of the video looks totally enhanced. The next shot of the alien rising also looks enhanced. It also looks like the bird of prey at about 2:00 has been replaced - but it's possible they couldnt locate the film reel that had the original Bird of Prey shot on it.

[awilliams1701]

awww I was hoping for a new trailer that included the transporter effects. This is just a horribly compressed slideshow (and the fact that you can still tell the difference shows just how bad the dvds are).

[oldfrend]

so it wasn't just me thinking the first couple seasons were too... red!

[garthfrank12]

@gmon78 The first two seasons, especially the first, had an overly red tinge on the DVDs. The colours now look normal and match the latter seasons.

[Foggen]

Not a lot of TV shows get enough of a following to justify a fresh film transfer 20+ years later, but it sure seems to be worth it when they make the effort.

[mintydog06]

OMG they have done an amazing job. I can't wait to see this next week. I always hated how red the first series looked, now its looking brilliant!

[Minyobi083]

Oh wow. This is how you do it, folks.

[gmon78]

What's with the weird red tinge on the DVD versions?

[LOLMAN22]

@gmon78 its there in season 1 only, the rest of the seasons have normal lighting

[creejay]

@gmon78 to me it looks like some of the dvd version has a red cast and some of the bluray has a green cast.

[TalllPaul2011]

Massive difference.

[masonTganes]

@TalllPaul2011 completely un noticiable difference. The colors ( while corrected hin HD) actually look more appealing in the original version.

there is like next to ZERO detail that is popping out that makes me want to pick up the HD set. looks cleaner but nothing special.

[ThrashTillDeath73]

@masonTganes Colors more appealing in the SD version? Maybe because they are a blurry mess and you're just used to them that way. Anybody that says that they'd still prefer the SD version over a brand new fully remastered HD transfer with new effects (where necessary) are either one of two types of people. Those that need their eyes checked, or two, those that hate the thought of having to upgrade to BD. Which one are you?

[BlanK501]

To boldly go where no TV re-mastering has gone before.