Star Trek II on Blu-ray: Nice!

[Smokey]

For the trilogy as a whole, this is a mixed bag.

I find it funny that original Star Trek TV series (that is 20 years older than ST movies) on Blu-ray got much more positive reviews in terms of picture quality than the ST movies on Blu-ray did.

[3LB]

I find it funny that original Star Trek TV series (that is 20 years older than ST movies) on Blu-ray got much more positive reviews in terms of picture quality than the ST movies on Blu-ray did.

I have no idea how a TV Show is shot but I would guess in the 60's the master wouldn't be nearly as good as a feature film years in the future. I'll have to check out the reviews of the ST TV Shows, if they are 7.1 that would be pretty wild.

It has been my observation that NBC does a better job of archiving old shows, and comparitively speaking, older NBC shows always seemed to look better than the other two networks...maybe they had a bigger budget when they originally shot them and used higher quality film, but look at shows like Columbo, Star Trek, Bonanza, and newer shows like the Law & Order franchises... they have always looked superb compared to their syndicated counterparts of the other networks (a lot of old ABC shows look like the doodoo). Maybe NBC didn't do that with their sitcoms, but I saw an episode of Columbo the other day that looked as crisp as any modern TV show.

[Smokey]

Good point 3LB

It might also be worth mentioning that most TV shows were shot of video with native NTSC resolution of 480 scan lines. So these shows will not benefit from HD remastering no matter what

But Star Trek and some other TV shows you mentioned (also Honeymooners) were shot on film which mean they can benefit from HD remastering.

Mr. P, check out this review of Star Trek Tv series on Blu-ray...

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/37039...ries-season-1/

[Woochifer]

Good point 3LB

It might also be worth mentioning that most TV shows were shot of video with native NTSC resolution of 480 scan lines. So these shows will not benefit from HD remastering no matter what

That would probably apply only to sitcoms, documentaries, and reality TV. Most scripted dramas and even many sitcoms from the 80s and 90s (e.g., Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, Will and Grace, etc.) were shot on film, so they would most definitely benefit from HD remastering.

The upcoming issue for the next next generation video format (i.e., resolution beyond 1080p) will be how much post production for movies and TV shows is now done entirely in the digital domain. Studios are currently using 2k resolution (which is only slightly higher than 1080p) for a lot of post production work such as color and light level correction, and CGI effects. The general consensus is that a 2k scan does not capture all of the resolution from a 35mm negative, and that you have to go to 4k scanning before you get a full capture of the film image.

Having the resolution capped at 2k is not an issue for HDTV or Blu-ray, but for future generations it might create a situation where older movies that did not go through a round of digital post production will potentially look better than newer movies. IMO, this dumbing down is already happening as more movies are now shot using 1080p24 camcorders and more theaters are installing 2k digital projectors -- both of which are inferior to 35mm film cameras and projectors.