• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

4K Remastered Films 1-10 set

For the 60th, I hope they do a TWOK extended tv version remastering, a la TMP's SLV edition. Or was that effectively the director's cut?

I'm amazed people are saying it's remastered with AI. The original 4K releases went back to the original negatives; I vaguely recall a different release of TWOK where a wrong reaction clip of Sulu was reused during remastering but later fixed.

AI is technically used in these remasterings to begin with, especially for color correction - those 4Ks look IMMACULATE, true to the originals that I can tell, with none of the horrid color cast issues in the blu-ray releases from over a decade earlier, or - compared to other movies - aren't artificially treated with the dank teal/orange routine under the claim that modern audiences will like it more (or won't, depending if the pacing is too slow or not, so it's hard to believe that's the reason for the color timing regrading.)

Though to be fair, with a 4K film scan, there's far more data in each frame for a remastering system to make use of for more discrete and effective enhancements, as opposed to 480i (especially if deinterlaced!) to have to extrapolate information out of. 480i->1080P is already noticeable from 5ft away, especially for cloth/clothing detail - never mind 480i to 4K's 2160P where it's just a bunch of wax mannequins wearing PVC outfits at best. But I'm starting to digress...
 
For the 60th, I hope they do a TWOK extended tv version remastering, a la TMP's SLV edition. Or was that effectively the director's cut?
Yeah, the only things missing from the TV version are the alternate close-ups on the Kirk and Saavik turbolift scene, and Spock's muttered "Fascinating" after Kirk tells him David is his son, which was cut out when the director's cut first went to blu-ray. Maybe the alternate turbolift scene could be a special feature or deleted scene, but it hardly seems worth an entire release.
 
AI is technically used in these remasterings to begin with, especially for color correction
You have a source for this? I don't think film restoration in the case of the Trek films is like the Get Back documentary, where Peter Jackson's team used AI to clean up the grainy 16mm footage. Paramount was using the original 35mm OCNs, not dupes or reduction prints.
 
You have a source for this? I don't think film restoration in the case of the Trek films is like the Get Back documentary, where Peter Jackson's team used AI to clean up the grainy 16mm footage. Paramount was using the original 35mm OCNs, not dupes or reduction prints.

My bad, my brain turned to a more generalized approach and not necessarily the Trek films - but anything going through a digital process will have algorithms applied, which is all "AI" is in this regard. It's just an array of pattern-matching algorithms, which can include color fidelity restoration along with scratch removal, edge enhancement/unsharp mask, and other neat techniques... but for years and decades, any film mastering would be digitized and color-corrected because of faded film negatives. AI is just the latest whiz-bang term for stuff I was doing on a film neg scanner in 1999 for old 35mm negs. It's not much different for motion video, just size.

Some examples, including but not limited to:

(the laser drum scanners circa 1999 were a lot more expensive than some of the CMOS sensor half-baked junk that came out a few years later. Is it "more accessible" if the end result is murky? Depends, but I wouldn't buy a telephoto lens to do macro work either. It might be possible, but not optimal. "The right tool for the right job", as Scotty might say.)

Scanning = digitizing = "AI" or whatever its more primitive designation two decades ago.


etc

More on upscaling/AI, where the results would differ due to quality of the scan based on the equipment used at the time of its scan - even commercial-grade equipment will have differences, including D1 vs D3 archival tape...)



For a partial list of 4K releases, as to what's remastered from scratch versus taking an existing scan and applying AI upscaling to it, check this out:


AI/upscaling isn't junk, just because. But using it on 480i (deinterlaced or not) to upscale that far isn't going to look good at all.

Never mind the other fun topic: When most movies that use CGI extensively to be added to the live-action film, or anything shot digitally to begin with, were done at 1080P, due to cost and technological limitations of the time, where - as a result - upscaling is the only way to improve on any of it at all.
 
Also missing from the TV version is the line by the Ent computer -- "...registry Amber Tau Ceti..." just before Saavik says, "Damn."
But there is about 15 minutes of deleted footage never released that I'd like to see on a future release -- but I think the days of expecting any new content are over. It's just going to be endless repackaging of the existing discs.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Last edited:
I don't know why, but I just realized that the Enterprise computer voice there is Harve Bennett. I knew he did the flight recorder computer voice in TSFS, but it never clicked that it was him in TWOK as well.
 
I wonder why they decided to release it as a blu-ray set, but not a 4k set. It seems like a step backwards.
4K Discs are on the verge of extinction. There aren't many companies making the players - LG recently quit making them. Don't get me wrong, I love a 4K disc, but I'm an older gent that still likes physical media.
 
4K Discs are on the verge of extinction. There aren't many companies making the players - LG recently quit making them. Don't get me wrong, I love a 4K disc, but I'm an older gent that still likes physical media.
Unfortunately, you're right. I used to buy a lot of blu-rays, but by the time 4k came around, I had stopped obsessively rewatching things. So, although the picture and audio quality of blu-ray (and moreso 4k) is superior to streaming, I have stopped buying blu-rays and only bought a few 4k discs of my favorite movies.

I think the new masters were not previously released in a blu-ray set, correct? They were only included along with the 4k sets. So, this is really their first release.

But, is the audience for blu-ray discs still strong enough? I guess it is.
 
Unfortunately, you're right. I used to buy a lot of blu-rays, but by the time 4k came around, I had stopped obsessively rewatching things. So, although the picture and audio quality of blu-ray (and moreso 4k) is superior to streaming, I have stopped buying blu-rays and only bought a few 4k discs of my favorite movies.

I think the new masters were not previously released in a blu-ray set, correct? They were only included along with the 4k sets. So, this is really their first release.

But, is the audience for blu-ray discs still strong enough? I guess it is.
I feel bad, cause streaming is so convenient that I too delay buying anything on physical media anymore. I've still to upgrade the TNG movies to 4k. Partly because I would feel obliged to sit through Insurrection and Nemesis again, LOL
 
I feel bad, cause streaming is so convenient that I too delay buying anything on physical media anymore. I've still to upgrade the TNG movies to 4k. Partly because I would feel obliged to sit through Insurrection and Nemesis again, LOL
I have the original 6 film set on 4k, but I only really like First Contact from the TNG films. I might buy just that one 4k disc, then give away the old blu-ray set.

Another reason I stopped buying discs is: my wife can't stand to rewatch films I like over and over, so I watch them (including Trek) when she's away.
 
I understand and sympathize with every argument for buying physical media. I really do. The reality, though, is that I'm really lazy. Streaming is just so easy and convenient. I virtually never buy anything on physical media. And I suspect I'm not that atypical.

(As a non-Trek example, I've grumbled for years that most of the original Law & Order series was not available to stream. Now I could have gone out and bought the whole series on disc. But I didn't. Now that it's finally come to Hulu, I've been watching it obsessively. However, I probably would have never gotten around to doing so on physical media.)
 
Growing up in the VHS era I purchased box-set after box-set whenever the latest movie came out on physical media, to be collected with the previous entries. And that carried on into the DVD era with Nemesis. Then the reboot happened... and movie collections fragmented into the JJ Abrams reboot, the Next Gen and Original cast motion pictures.

Right now we really we ought to be looking at a 14th big-screen film (fantasizing here) specifically where the Kelvin crew crossover with TNG/Picard.

Then the 60th Anniversary in 2026 could see the release of a giant set of every entry from The Motion Picture to Beyond and as its centre-piece, a hypothetical Star Trek Generations II [for want of a better title].

Anyway, time for your gramps here to take his meds and go back to daydreaming about happier days...
 
Last edited:
I don't suppose that it'll ever happen now, but I know that Shatners original cut of V was just over 2hrs. Harve Bennett and shatner were forced to trim it to 1hr 45.

Likewise, we all know that Nemesis ran to almost 3hrs! Not sure I am so fussed about a longer version of that one though!
 
Likewise, we all know that Nemesis ran to almost 3hrs! Not sure I am so fussed about a longer version of that one though!
That was the initial assembly cut which lacks the fine edits. All assembly cuts of movies run long like that. I've got the final shooting script, and there's really not that much more excised material that hasn't been released on home video already.
 
As a home theater buff I always prefer disc as the performance is always much superior to streaming, especially on audio so will always buy discs as long as it's an option. I expect it to remain a boutique option for enthusiasts with streaming for the masses. Sony just came out with a new 4k player, too.

Streaming may eventually kill the going to the movies experience since home theater has caught up and surpassed in many ways. One of these days, I'll get my project of building an attached garage and converting my attached garage on my property to a dedicated home theater with raised floor, 4k/8k laser projector, etc and avoid all the crowds, overpriced concessions and what not.

As far as the cuts, most edits are made with consideration for how many replays in a theater they can get, which doesn't apply for home viewing. Bring me the 3 hour super cuts and edit in all the deleted scenes and the unreleased footage. If they want to use AI to fix the scoring, that's fine with me.

I bought the TOS movies in 4k and they never looked better but none of the TNG since I don't like any of them just like I bought Star Wars 1-6 but none of the Disney sequels. Excellent experience especially the Hue "surround lighting" effect from the Hue synchbox as well as the surround sound.
 
I think the current HDR 4K disks are about as good as it's ever going to get. I'm not sure how much more you could improve upon them, especially since they are all decades old films now.

As for physical 4K disks going away, I'm not really a fan of most modern movies. I've bought a few that are of interest to me (Top Gun Maverick, Alien Romulus, Twisters) that I know are fun and I'll want to frequently re-watch, but most of my disk collection is 80's and 90's movies that I love to re-watch, so I'm just going to keep stocking up on those until the well dries up.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top