It’s going to take a long time before all your favourite TV shows are converted to Blu-ray, especially if they all undergo as much improvement as Star Trek: The Next Generation has.
This clip is our first glimpse into the Trekkies journey into high definition, and the difference is remarkable. Especially when you consider what happened to get there:
Transferring STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION to high-definition presented numerous challenges – The series was originally shot on film and then transferred to videotape, which was used to edit episodes together. In order to create true HD masters, CBS is going back to the original uncut film negative – all 25,000 plus film reels of it – and cutting the episodes together exactly the way they originally aired. The visual effects were all shot on film and will be painstakingly recompositioned, not upconverted from videotape. The newly cut film will then be transferred to true high-definition with 7.1 DTS Master Audio.
A three episode sampler will arrive at the end of this month, before the first season is released later this year. I’m guessing the end result will make a lot of Star Trek fans very, very happy.
[Trek Movie via i09]