Remastering Thread: The X-Files, Buffy, The Wire, The Sopranos, B5 etc

[Werthead]

Remastering old TV shows for Blu-Ray and HD broadcast is The New Thing. After studios seemed reluctant to do it for the cost, the immense success of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Friends (that well-known powerhouse of visual splendour) on the format has seen other shows following suit. The current state of play for showings being remastered seems to be as follows:

Angel

Probably on the cards once Buffy is done (see below). Angel benefits from starting a few years later than Buffy and apparently will be a lot easier to remaster.

Babylon 5

Warner Brothers have looked at it, but it seems a long shot and J. Michael Straczynski is at least convinced it will never happen. The pilot appears to be beyond saving - the film was apparently damaged by flooding in the storage facility and then nibbled on by rats - but the rest of the series film stock appears to be okay. The big headache is the CGI and composite shots. B5 got its CGI for an insanely low price by modern standards, allowing some episodes to have 110+ CG shots. Remastering an episode like Severed Dreams by itself in HD would be very, very expensive. It's not impossible, but I think reasonably unlikely.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Warner Brothers are currently carrying out a remastering effort for the Pivot channel in the USA. Unfortunately, it's not going well. The new HD images are superior, but the noist/dust removal system they've used has gone beserk and removed details that are actually supposed to be on the screen (the Master's make-up and the vampire 'dusting' effects are particularly noticeably effected). They're also cropping the images rather badly and in some cases nonsensically (cutting Xander's head off during a skateboarding scene, for example), and they've screwed up the colour correction. So yeah, this isn't going well. Hopefully they'll all be fixed for the ultimate media release.

Doctor Who

The classic series was shot on a mixture of film and video and mastered on video. It's not tremendously likely that a lot of the original film stock will have survived (the BBC happily burning and recycling film stock until around 1981) either. So for classic Who, it's highly improbable that anything more will be released on BR. The one classic story 100% shot and mastered on film, Spearhead from Space, has already been released. The question mark is over the 1996 movie, which is certainly up-scalable, but likely it'd be too expensive to make it worthwhile.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Seasons 1-6 out now, Season 7 out in December.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Unconfirmed by Paramount and CBS, although it's regarded as likely to happen. Seasons 1-5 would be pretty straightforward to remaster, whilst Seasons 6-7 would require extensive amounts of new CGI to be shot, which would likely be very expensive. However, the show's popularity, its serialised storyline (more suited to the Netflix era than other ST shows) and the restricting of the more elaborate effects work to the last two seasons make is possible.

Star Trek: Voyager

Voyager used very extensive CGI sequences starting as early as the third season, which makes remastering the entire show a much more doubtful proposition. This would likely depend on how well DS9 does.

Star Trek: Enterprise

Done. All four seasons are available now in HD.

The Sopranos

Done. The complete series will be released in HD next week.

The Wire

After years of speculation, HBO have confirmed that The Wire has indeed been remastered in high definition and will air on HBO Signature starting either at the end of this year or in early 2015. It was supposed to be this month but was delayed at the last minute. A BR release will likely follow later in 2015.

The X-Files

The remastering job is currently underway. Oddly, Fox have been test-screening the series, first in Germany and now on the El Rey Network in the USA. The initial German screenings featured some awful cropping and some dodgy upscaled effects and stock footage. Some of these problems seem to be missing from the El Rey release, suggesting that Fox is finessing the presentation for the final, definitive release (probably on BR and maybe a higher-profile re-run on a bigger channel). At least Seasons 1-4 seem to have been completed, suggesting that Fox are waiting for one massive release rather than a season-by-season approach.

[Mark Antony]

Got the Sopranos Blu Ray pre ordered :drool:

Hope The Wire follows suit with a BR release.

[Lord Flashheart]

Didn't David Simon say he didn't want the wire to be remastered into blu ray? Something about the gritty way it was filmed? I'll look for the article.

[Werthead]

He did. This appears to have not outweighed HBO's desire for more money. However, the SD widescreen release via Amazon seems to have gone down very well with the fans (the composition suggests that directors often used that extra space in their shots, even if it would't appear on TV) so that may have helped persuade Simon otherwise.

It may also be they've found a way around it. So far they haven't actually shown any of the HD footage from the show, and there are ways (if difficult) of preserving some noise and grain on a HD image to preserve atmosphere. WB may have to do this for Buffy if they can't find a better DNR system than they're using now, which is clearly useless.

[felice]

Babylon 5

Warner Brothers have looked at it, but it seems a long shot and J. Michael Straczynski is at least convinced it will never happen. The pilot appears to be beyond saving - the film was apparently damaged by flooding in the storage facility and then nibbled on by rats - but the rest of the series film stock appears to be okay. The big headache is the CGI and composite shots. B5 got its CGI for an insanely low price by modern standards, allowing some episodes to have 110+ CG shots. Remastering an episode like Severed Dreams by itself in HD would be very, very expensive. It's not impossible, but I think reasonably unlikely.

Surely 20 years of increasing computer power would make a big difference there? If they hadn't lost all the original files, rerendering the same graphics at HD resolution should have been incredibly cheap by now. Having to rebuild all the models and scenes from scratch certainly adds substantially to the cost, but remastering in HD would still cost only a tiny fraction as much as making an entirely new series.

[Werthead]

The original CG models have in many cases been lost (appallingly). In some cases where they did survive, they found re-rendering them at HD didn't give very good results. The Centauri light cruisers looked so bad they had to scrap them and redo them from scratch for The Lost Tales, for example. In fact, for Lost Tales they ended up using fan-made HD CG models because they didn't have the time or money to do it themselves.

The big issue is that the original deal signed by Foundation Imaging to do B5 was, by modern standards, slave labour. The amount of money FI got was preposterously tiny: the deal was for money-per-season, not per-shot, which absolutely no effects company on Earth would sign today. It meant that Season 3 could have two or three times as many CGI shots as Season 1 yet FI got paid the same amount of money. Yet when FI took on other work to help survive, the B5 producers got the arse on and thought (with no evidence) they would produce sub-standard work, eventually resulting in FI's dismissal from the show.

If a company like Zoic or one of the GoT CG companies got the job of redoing the B5 effects work, I can guarantee they would charge a lot more money. The cost of equipment and render times are faster, yes, but it still requires an enormous amount of manpower to generate those shots, and that's where a lot of the expense comes from. That's on top of the already high cost of remastering the film image, re-editing every episode from scratch, redoing all the greenscreen work and so on.

To go further, it's still not clear if DS9, a show with far fewer CGI shots than B5, is going to be digitally remastered like TNG is. It's more likely than not, but it's not guaranteed simply because of the CG issue, and that's a show with a lot more name/brand value than B5.

[Nox Irradiata]

I'd love to see ST: VOY in HD! :D It was always my favorite.

[Derfel Cadarn]

I'd love to see ST: VOY in HD! :D It was always my favorite.

You suffer the same appalling taste as a friend of mine. He dismisses DS9 as nothing more than cgi battlea and ferengi crap, and prefers voyager.

*shakes head*

[Durckad]

My wallet fears the day when DS9 and Babylon 5 ever get an HD release because I know I'll buy every season.

I'm less worried about The X-Files as, like TNG, only a few of the seasons are absolutely necessary to own. There's no amount of digital restoration and HD resolutions that will make those final seasons any better and worth watching.

[Black Wolf Smith]

Babylon 5

Warner Brothers have looked at it, but it seems a long shot and J. Michael Straczynski is at least convinced it will never happen. The pilot appears to be beyond saving - the film was apparently damaged by flooding in the storage facility and then nibbled on by rats - but the rest of the series film stock appears to be okay. The big headache is the CGI and composite shots. B5 got its CGI for an insanely low price by modern standards, allowing some episodes to have 110+ CG shots. Remastering an episode like Severed Dreams by itself in HD would be very, very expensive. It's not impossible, but I think reasonably unlikely.

Things from the 60's and 70's that got lost, damaged, or destroyed I get. From the mid 90's? That is just insanely stupid. B5 started 20 years ago, well in to the video and cable ages, when they knew what the masters could be worth.

[Raja]

This might mean that I'll finally watch The Wire, early 2015 sounds ideal to me.

[Batman]

As long as they don't do the George Lucas thing.

[Nictarion]

As long as they don't do the George Lucas thing.

Omar shot first!

[Black Wolf Smith]

As long as they don't do the George Lucas thing.

I am of 2 minds about things like that. On one hand, I really do believe that the guy behind a piece of art has the right to do what ever he/she wants to it. Blade Runner is a prime example of why they should be able to do it. The version first released was not well received, but a few years later, the directors cut was released (re-edit and improved graphic's) which quickly became favorite cult classic. Many different people have tried to straighten out Dune, but never really could get it to work.

Star Wars on the other hand was loved the way it was, and IIRC is the second most seen movie ever. When Lucas first went back and adjusted some of the graphic's it was fine, but then he back in, and changed the meaning of scenes, which sucks.

[Black Wolf Smith]

Omar shot first!

Omar shot him in the back, when the guy wasn't looking but then some kid did that to him too.

[Batman]

I am of 2 minds about things like that. On one hand, I really do believe that the guy behind a piece of art has the right to do what ever he/she wants to it. Blade Runner is a prime example of why they should be able to do it. The version first released was not well received, but a few years later, the directors cut was released (re-edit and improved graphic's) which quickly became favorite cult classic. Many different people have tried to straighten out Dune, but never really could get it to work.

Star Wars on the other hand was loved the way it was, and IIRC is the second most seen movie ever. When Lucas first went back and adjusted some of the graphic's it was fine, but then he back in, and changed the meaning of scenes, which sucks.

I don't know. Once it is out there for public consumption with many people feeling a great connection to that piece of art, I will never blame anyone for being pissed off. If Vince Gilligan did a George Lucas on Breaking Bad, I would hate it. While it may be their art, they are putting it out there for the people and to take something that the people loved and connected with and change it feels wrong. I think it depends. People care about the original Star Wars being changed because it was great. I can't imagine anyone but the most hardcore fans caring if they changed Phantom Menace.

As long as they don't do the George Lucas thing.

Indeed.

[Werthead]

I can't imagine anyone but the most hardcore fans caring if they changed Phantom Menace.

Didn't they replace Muppet Yoda from TPM for the CGI version in the Blu-Ray release?

[Durckad]

As long as the original is available for those who want it, I have no issue with post-release directorial meddling. Whomever still wants to watch the theatrical release of Blade Runner still has that option, though WHY anyone would want to is beyond me.

[drawkcabi]

Didn't they replace Muppet Yoda from TPM for the CGI version in the Blu-Ray release?

And AFAIK no one but the hardcore fans really give a crap about that. For everyone else it's gone beyond noticing or just another insult slapped onto the major insult that was TPM itself.

And VHS will always be the best format, blue ray sucks.

[Durckad]

VHS is an awful, awful format. It basically has only one plus over dvd and blu-ray; its ability to easily record programming.

I'm sorry drawk, but I'm glad VHS is dead.