Star Trek Voyager NTSC vs. PAL DVDs

[TheGenesis]

Hello everyone,

I am currently remastering my "Star Trek Voyager" Collection from PAL-DVDs.
The results are just pretty good. If you like, watch this sample:

Voyager Test Scene - Dialog

As I was ready to go, I have found many hints on the internet, that the NTSC-Version provides a much better source for this task.

If this is true, I would like to buy the Collection on RC1 again. But now I'm unsure if this is worth the money.
Escpecially because I found a DVD5-Version wich is full of compression artefacts and was probably ripped down.

Can someone help me finding a Source for an untouched Version of the first episode?

Thanks in advance
Thomas

[NJRoadfan]

Being a US show, it almost certainly was converted from NTSC to PAL. One thing that always bothered me is the amount of dot crawl in the masters used for the DVDs (look at the titles at the beginning of Caretaker). By 1994 you'd think the production workflow would involve strictly component video, thus avoiding that problem! I think later seasons avoided this as they likely went all digital by then.

As for buying the DVDs, I'm sure there are a ton of bootleg/fakes out there. The official NTSC releases have 4 episodes per disc, usually the bootleggers re-encode to minimize the number of discs used. The first season is 5 discs, while the rest appear to be on 7 discs each. The complete series package states it is 47-discs total.

[TheGenesis]

Thanks for the infos.
Did the discs come with 8,5GB (DVD9) or 4,7GB (DVD5)?

[NJRoadfan]

I don't actually own copies of Voyager, but I would lean towards DVD9, simply because there would be no way to fit 4 episodes plus bonus extras with an acceptable amount of compression.

Oh and bootlegs are VERY common: http://www.squid.org/uncategorized/5...-a-faaake.html

Region 1 releases are typically not a true "boxed" set, but all the individual season packages wrapped into one package.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/S...ager_%28DVD%29

[lordsmurf]

What is your goal here?
The PAL sample you uploaded looks very good. How are you trying to improve on it?

I have all of Star Trek: TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, and the movies. During a move, a box of retail DVDs disappeared. Thankfully, I had already started to dump ISO on HDD before then, starting with retails. My concern was disc death (affecting retails more heavily than burns!), or natural disaster, not loss/theft. The whole box was already backed up. At the time, I was also using DVD Shrink on the ISO, to save space, as HDD was still somewhat costly. I'm not sure if VOY was one of the sets lost. I do at least have the shrunk DVD5 as ISO.

[TheGenesis]

I try to restore as most as possible. The PAL-Source I use was already transfered from a NTSC-Master and the Effect-Scenes are a little bit jerky. Apart from that almost all (fast) horizontal pans are motionblurred.
I'll have a (probably shrunken) DVD5 here and if the original source is DVD9, I suspect they are much more smoothy and contain more details.

Does someone has the first episode (untouched) for me to test before I go and buy the entire collection?

[sanlyn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheGenesis

I am currently remastering my "Star Trek Voyager" Collection from PAL-DVDs.

Perhaps you mean "re-encoding", not remastering. ??

I supposed I'm stuck with daring to play devil's advocate here, but I don't see the encoded mp4 sample as being an improvement unless the original was truly horrid. Basically it is bitrate starved and, as TheGenesis correctly observed, a bitrate that never gets above 2600 kbps peak or 1600 kbps average during playback of motion and fast-action video has very anemic resolving power. When the sample first began playing I initially thought that it was one of the best VHS transfers I'd ever seen. But that impression lasted only a fleeting instant before I remembered that a digital original was being discussed. Bitrate starvation has a plastic overly filtered look that lacks all subtley of detail or texture, and cannot render motion clearly. It looks OK on a small YouTube web player or tablet or even a good laptop, but it looks badly underpowered on a 23" monitor and hazy or unfocussed on a TV. I realize that low-acutance, low-bitrate YouTube encoding is fast becoming the quality standard nowadays, which is a shame, but I don't see how bitrate-starved conversions are worth the effort. The sample also looks and sounds speeded up. As very low bitrate work it looks pretty good. But I'd find it annoying to watch for more than a few seconds. There's just too much missing visually. I expect more from digital technology, not less. And the actors are talking too fast.

[TheGenesis]

I just got a RC1 Release for birthday.

The Package looks authentic, but all Discs are DVD5. I found some hints, that this could be the "Walmart-Package".

No one out there, who could upload me the DVD9 Iso's in exchange for a copy of the final cleaned re-code?