I've only barely skimmed the surface of the preservation world, but the irreverent attitude taken by the industry towards audiovisual media releases frustrates me greatly. That more accurate older releases are made unobtainable in favor of newer botched versions just adds insult to injury.
I'm grateful that diminishing returns were hit earlier with audio, though, which limits the blast radius for music releases. Most classic albums have a range of different masterings available on audio CD, many of which are available cheaply secondhand, which makes getting ahold of a good/accurate release considerably less daunting.
Movies and especially TV shows on the other hand are a mess. It shouldn't be a miracle to get a high-quality, faithful official remaster like the one Star Trek: TNG got.
>It shouldn't be a miracle to get a high-quality, faithful official remaster like the one Star Trek: TNG got.
The miracle was supposedly $1.2 million per season. On a back catalog item where they apparently never made their money back (maybe we shouldn't believe them on that, dunno).
But in other cases, it's not about the money at all, but about everyone cockblocking it at every step of the way long enough that the assets themselves wither and die. Babylon 5 comes to mind.
> The miracle was supposedly $1.2 million per season. On a back catalog item where they apparently never made their money back (maybe we shouldn't believe them on that, dunno).
I think it would be more accurate to say that they might not have made the money back as quickly as they had hoped. Since the blu-rays are still being sold and the remasters are also being licensed to streaming services they will make that money bad and most likely have by now.
> But in other cases, it's not about the money at all, but about everyone cockblocking it at every step of the way long enough that the assets themselves wither and die. Babylon 5 comes to mind.
Even that is ultimately only a question of money as faithful re-creations of the 3D models can be created - and have been by fans for small parts.
Bablyon 5 is a really speacial case though as the unbutchered SD versions never made it to even DVD as those already got half-assed remasters with all the CGI parts simply cropped to be widescreen and then upscaled.
cosmic_cheese · · focus · HN ↗
I'm grateful that diminishing returns were hit earlier with audio, though, which limits the blast radius for music releases. Most classic albums have a range of different masterings available on audio CD, many of which are available cheaply secondhand, which makes getting ahold of a good/accurate release considerably less daunting.
Movies and especially TV shows on the other hand are a mess. It shouldn't be a miracle to get a high-quality, faithful official remaster like the one Star Trek: TNG got.
NoMoreNicksLeft · · focus · HN ↗
The miracle was supposedly $1.2 million per season. On a back catalog item where they apparently never made their money back (maybe we shouldn't believe them on that, dunno).
But in other cases, it's not about the money at all, but about everyone cockblocking it at every step of the way long enough that the assets themselves wither and die. Babylon 5 comes to mind.
account42 · · focus · HN ↗
I think it would be more accurate to say that they might not have made the money back as quickly as they had hoped. Since the blu-rays are still being sold and the remasters are also being licensed to streaming services they will make that money bad and most likely have by now.
> But in other cases, it's not about the money at all, but about everyone cockblocking it at every step of the way long enough that the assets themselves wither and die. Babylon 5 comes to mind.
Even that is ultimately only a question of money as faithful re-creations of the 3D models can be created - and have been by fans for small parts.
Bablyon 5 is a really speacial case though as the unbutchered SD versions never made it to even DVD as those already got half-assed remasters with all the CGI parts simply cropped to be widescreen and then upscaled.