Since remastered versions of DS9 and VOY aren’t happening any time soon, I think the next best thing should be a SD-BD release, kinda like how Discotek Media are doing with some old anime titles

The advantages :

  • Better video quality, since higher bitrate
  • Better audio quality compared to DVDs
  • More episodes per disc

What would you think about such a release?

  • dropframe@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    Higher bitrate isn’t going to magically get you higher video/audio quality. There’s a point of diminishing returns. You just get a larger file size. For SD, anything more than about 2.5 Mbits is visually indistinguishable.

    • VindictiveJudge@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, DVD can handle better than what’s on the existing discs. If better quality were viable and noticeable with the copies they’re working with it probably would have been in the previous releases.

      The ‘more episodes per disc’ thing is definitely true, though. A dual layer BD is 50GB. A dual layer DVD is 8.5GB. If the existing DS9 release fits a season and special features on seven DVDs, then if the discs are dual layer and completely full we’re looking at two dual layer BDs for that entire season. Potentially one BD, depending on how much free space is on the existing DVDs.

  • startrekexplained@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    I’d be in favor of it. I really hate the fact that VOY and DS9 are missing from my Blu-Ray collection (I prefer physical media btw over digital streaming)

  • fitz@linkopath.com
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    1 year ago

    Here is a summary on why it probably won’t happen…

    https://heavy.com/entertainment/star-trek/when-delay-release-ds9-voyager-bluray/

    TL;DR TNG was filmed with actual film and converted to tape for vfx and broadcasting in SD. The conversation to blu-ray cost $10 million dollars as they had to redue all the special effects. Both DS9 and VOY were filmed the same way and no one at Paramount is interested in creating a physical remaster on blu-ray for limited sales it seems.

    • Getting6409@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Op is taking about a standard definition release on blue ray, not the full upscale job the article is talking about. An SD re-release onto a larger medium is probably the best we can expect to get, but I’m doubtful even that will happen when looking at studios behavior

      • fitz@linkopath.com
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        1 year ago

        Good point, but two of his suggestions for the reason why talked about the quality. 🤷🏻‍♂️

        • Getting6409@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, not sure on audio quality. To my ears DVD audio is already in the realm of diminishing returns unless the mastering was done very poorly. No clue if they were doing 5.1 or any sort of multi channel on the DVD releases either.

          The better quality because of more room for higher bitrate makes sense assuming they still have the final cuts pre-dvd-compression laying around. This could get you some crisper, less artifacty output.

          But this is also just speculation on my part. I’ve never checked out one of these sd-bluray-re-releases myself.

    • VindictiveJudge@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      They might be more interested if the TNG remastered sales were better. The pricing scheme on them was absurd and drove off potential customers, though. IIRC, waiting for the complete series set was actually more expensive than buying the seasons one by one as they came out.