Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

I'm trying something, and I need help!

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    I'm trying something, and I need help!

    I revisited SG1 during lockdown, but all I had was the DVDs and having been spoiled with everything being HD for so long I was kind of disappointed by the less than epic video quality -- it was fine on a 21" CRT back in the day, but on a big ol' HDTV it gives me the sad -- so I've decided to put all my learning to good use and try and spiff it up a bit. I've been making reasonable process using the DVD content, but I'm wondering whether there's a better source out there to work from? I know it's available on the MGM channel on Amazon, so can anyone confirm whether it's any better looking than the DVDs -- I'm presuming they have their original digital transfers somewhere that they could have re-encoded for streaming which would likely required less pre-processing my end, but on the other hand maybe they just cheaped out and re-encoded the DVDs? (Apparently it's also supposed to be on Netflix in the UK as of today, but I just checked and no sign of it.)

    (Also, hello. I'm new here!)
    --
    Visit The SG-1 Restoration Project!

    #2
    Hey newbie!

    First of all, it's only available on Netflix USA.
    It's also available on Amazon Prime, but again I think US only.

    Internationally, it's not available for streaming and only a handful of countries have it re-running on some channel somewhere.

    Belgium (my hellhole on this planet) hasn't had any Stargate, streaming or otherwise, since SGU went off the air. Oh right, that webfilm-thingie, Stargate Origins, was available for download at some point (don't know if that's still the case).

    Second, there are no upgrades or re-encoded versions available as far as I'm aware. They didn't even bother with an upgrade when MGM launched that failed project Stargate Command -- what 3 years ago now.

    And as far as digital recordings go, I think early seasons of SG-1 were filmed on film. Digital didn't happen until later.
    Heightmeyer's Lemming -- still the coolest Lemming of the forum

    Proper Stargate Rewatch -- season 10 of SG-1

    Comment


      #3
      From what I can remember, seasons 1, 2, and maybe 3 were shot on 16mm film, then up to season 7 it was 35mm, but presumably when they did the DVD release they would have done an uncompressed digital capture of the video broadcast masters first (or possibly telecine, although that seems unlikely) and encoded that for DVD, and those uncompressed files may still be lurking somewhere, and if they ever surfaced they'd almost certainly be a lot easier to work with!

      From what I can gather, the Amazon streaming version has been "upscaled" to some extent, but I've not seen any footage or screengrabs from it so I have no idea what they've done; if history is any guide it's probably not been done very well (look at the terrible quality of DS9 on Netflix, for example -- it's somehow worse than the DVDs) but I'm curious to see.

      (I've just completed a test pass with my prototype upscaler, upscaled to 720P and uploaded some screenshots here, so if anyone's seen the streaming offerings let me know how they compare.)
      --
      Visit The SG-1 Restoration Project!

      Comment


        #4
        Ah, I did not know that...

        BUT I do something about the upgraded versions of Star Trek Voyager, I think, for a special release... or some such. I do think it was Star Trek, but not entirely a 100 percent sure it was VOY.

        In any case, the cleaning up was so expensive that it wasn't worth it in the long run.

        Anywho... I know that watching DVD's of the early seasons on a large HD TV is ... well... fascinating at best.
        Heightmeyer's Lemming -- still the coolest Lemming of the forum

        Proper Stargate Rewatch -- season 10 of SG-1

        Comment


          #5
          The remaster of ST:TNG cost in the region of $20 million -- they went back and rescanned the negatives and re-edited every episode scene by scene, redid pretty much all the CGI, and did about the best possible job to get it looking as good as it could, and it was a commercial disaster; Blu-Ray never really achieved the market penetration that DVD did because streaming kind of took over, so they didn't come anywhere near covering the costs. Unfortunately this has pretty much killed the hopes of any sci-fi series getting such an extensive makeover in the foreseeable future -- Friends got a decent effort, as did Columbo, but those are much simpler shows (no VFX!) and have a much broader market appeal making them cheaper to do and easier to justify the expense.

          All this means is that the best we can hope for is that somewhere there's a half decent broadcast master (and not just of SG-1, but of any analogue-era show) that can be brought up to scratch, but there was a lot of short-sightedness about preserving entertainment media in the past so it's entirely possible that tapes have been erased and hard drives been destroyed, or that stuff is in an obsolete format and all the equipment to work with it is defunct, and what we have now is the best it's ever going to be.
          --
          Visit The SG-1 Restoration Project!

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by ElBiggus View Post
            ...streaming kind of took over...
            From what I've seen of Star Trek: TNG on Netflix though, I don't think they're streaming the HD-version.
            Heightmeyer's Lemming -- still the coolest Lemming of the forum

            Proper Stargate Rewatch -- season 10 of SG-1

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Falcon Horus View Post
              From what I've seen of Star Trek: TNG on Netflix though, I don't think they're streaming the HD-version.
              Well at least we hope not or the question would be what really happened to those millions.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by oifoeffml View Post
                Well at least we hope not or the question would be what really happened to those millions.
                Disappeared into a black hole.
                Heightmeyer's Lemming -- still the coolest Lemming of the forum

                Proper Stargate Rewatch -- season 10 of SG-1

                Comment

                Working...
                X