Hi folks, a new project released for you all - a version of the Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot with lots of little fixes to CBS Digital's HD restoration from 2012 (lord, how time flies). To summarise:

1. Resynced video to the 2.0 Dolby surround track from the original DVD release. The 2.0 track on the remaster was compressed and with a duller EQ (far less high end than the DVD). Even more disastrously, on the Season 1 Blu-ray re-issue, it's a mono downmix!
Corrected the sync of the original 2.0 Stereo track, which was 1-2 frames off in various places on the Next Level Blu-ray teaser disc.
2. Shot-by-shot colour correction. Mostly minor, to improve consistency in the mid-tones (some shots were too green/yellow), restore the exposure levels of the original broadcast in some scenes and bring back a tiny amount of detail in the blacks and highlights (loads of clipping/crushing in CBS's grade). Some significant changes include:

• Restored the vignette around Q's close-ups in the court scene (the remaster was simply underexposed here, which neutralised the effect)
  
• Removed the bizarre pink and green gradients that were added to the Farpoint matte paintings in the remaster.
  
• Improved the consistency of the grading on Q's flashback scenes that Riker watches on the monitor (some shots looked almost raw in the remaster).
  
• Probably the biggest fix: the holodeck grading has been drastically improved. CBS inexplicably gave this scene a dark, icy blue grade, when it's clearly meant to be a bright, warm sunny day, as it appeared in the original broadcast.
  
• Zorn's office and many of the Bandi model shots have been darkened as they appeared in the original broadcast.
  
• Toned down the blown-out highlights on the jellyfish aliens.
  

3. Fixed the framing on several shots which were opened up too much in the remaster (notably the shot where Torres is frozen by Q).
4. Improved Riker's first beam-up effect. In the original broadcast, the sparkles initially form a tall rectangle shape, then an outline around him as he dissolves. In CBS's remaster, the shape stays rectangular throughout. Restored the shape to his outline as he fades out. Also, in the original broadcast, the background plate continues moving after the dissolve effect, whereas in the remaster, it fades into a simple freeze-frame of the background. Not much I could do about that, except added a touch of film grain over the freeze-frame to make it less noticeable.
5. Removed several duplicated frames in the end credits.
6. And most importantly, restored the original Paramount Gulf & Western jingle and logo. When I was a kid, I thought this was the actual end of the Next Generation theme.




Tech Details:

FILE NAME:  Star Trek The Next Generation - Encounter at Farpoint.m2ts
FILE SIZE:  21.5GB
DURATION:  01:31:24
VIDEO:  1920x1080p - 23.976FPS - MPEG-4 AVC - 1.33:1 AR
AUDIO:  2.0 Stereo LPCM - English - 48KHz - 24 Bit


Sources:

Video/Audio
Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Next Level (Blu-ray - USA - 2012 - Cat: 14471)


Drop me a PM for a link

I've not watched Next Generation in along time. On tv was the last time and i never saw the blu-rays. This looks good though, might have to check it out. Thanks Loon

Good work! @TheLoon

Do you plan on improving the remaster of any other episodes?

(2022-02-25, 08:04 PM)The Aluminum Falcon Wrote: Good work! @TheLoon

Do you plan on improving the remaster of any other episodes?

Not at present, but Season 2 certainly could do with a regrade. More projects coming up though, Trek and non-Trek alike

link received, sorry for my late reply, but many grateful thanks and please stay healthy ?

Awesome! Now bring on a 16/9 widescreen version!

I spoke too soon regarding the audio! I was curious as to why the 2.0 Stereo track on the Blu-rays should be so much duller than the 2.0 tracks on the original DVDs. Surely it couldn't be purely down to bad mastering? So I picked up the first Encounter at Farpoint laserdisc release and, lo and behold, the audio was identical to the 2.0 track on the Blu-ray. As it turns out, the 2.0 on the DVD is a downmix of the 5.1 remix and the original DVDs didn't have the original audio featured at all!

So there's now a V1.1 of this project available (with much muddier but 100% original audio ) if anyone would like a replacement.

(2022-03-23, 07:58 PM)Stamper Wrote: Awesome! Now bring on a 16/9 widescreen version!

That wouldn't be OAR.