Apologies to Keckler if this is redundant, but it seems to be a need.

To start, from the media thread: Trek Remastered Station List.

And, from the same site: CBS to HD Affiliates: No HD Trek For You. It seems to be a distribution thing. Until then:
My god, there'll be more edits and versions then there are of Star Wars.

I love being able to watch House in full, 16:9 glory. But Trek was not shot in 16:9, it was shot full frame, and if you make it 16:9, it's one of two things - you've stretched the frame horizontally, which makes everything look flatter, or you've lopped off the top and the bottom of the image. The latter is probably the case, and 90% percent of the time, it probably won't matter too much, since the show wasn't big on headshot close-ups, but there are undoubtedly going to be times when some information will be lost that will be missed.

I'd rather watch it the way I used to watch letterboxed movies on my old TV - original aspect ratio, and if that doesn't match the dimensions of the screen, put some black bars in - in this case, on the sides, rather the tops and bottoms.

I agree. I want to watch television and movies in the aspect they were originally shot in, whether that be full screen or wide screen. I don't want reverse Cinemascope stretching or reverse pan and scan.

I somehow doubt they'll crop it. Many classic movies are about 4:3 (widescreen movies were made popular to compete with TV in the 50's), and they clean them up and all, but don't stretch them. The same goes for DVD releases of old shows and the occasional current show that's still 4:3.

Interestingly, the Godfather movies were shot in 4:3 and then cropped (as was planned) for the original widescreen movie releases. So the 4:3 are simply all of the original footage, not Pan & Scan, and have more than the widescreen videos and DVDs.

By DVD release, do you think they mean HD/Blu-ray, or just a cleaned up regular release?

I would hope they'd mean HD/Blu-Ray.

As for classic movies, I think one reason they haven't stretched them to date is that the vast majority of TVs are still 4:3.

I'm hoping that as people transition over to 16:9 in larger numbers they will be more informed about aspect ratios and will understand why black bars can be good or evil, and when to tell which is which.

There is something to be said for movies shot in 4:3 having more information in their standard video releases, but at the same time, it's not just about more picture for me, it's about director's intent balanced with original presentation. Back to the Future and its sequels were the same way, but I prefer to watch them letterboxed. It just feels right.

Just a heads up that I created a discussion thread for the remastered TOS episodes in the TOS subforum, since this thread seems to be more for when to watch instead of what was shown. If I'm mistaken about this thread topic, I apologize for the redundant thread elsewhere.

Question...please don't photon torpedo me if this is the wrong thread. It was the best fit for my query.

I am converting my library of VHS Trek (Original/TNG/DS9) to DVD. Most of my original Trek VHS tapes are the purchased Paramount single episode tapes which, thank ye Paramount, are not copy protected. The tapes have actually lasted well and the transfer successful. Somehow, I just realized I don't own #64 original....Tholian Web. Are single episodes still for sale? I'm happy with the quality of my dubbed DVDs and don't want to buy a whole year for one ep. I guess I could wait for it to cycle on TV. Short of that, any suggestions?

Luckily for you, TOS was released in 2 episode DVDs. You may be able to find a copy of the VHS on eBay, but for not much more you can probably find a used copy of the DVD that had that episode and 1 other also. I don't know that you could walk into a store and buy it new, anymore, though, now that season sets are out.

TOS scheduling is ridiculous. TV Land just changed their showing of it from 11pm to midnight...and don't get me started on trying to find TOS: Remastered on my local channel. They've bounced the time and day around so many times that I'm about to give up trying to watch it.

They are also running TOS early mornings on TVL. 6am, I think (I'm trying to get ready for work, so my focus is elsewhere when I notice these things).

Was I seeing things or is G4 or Spike going to run Voyager? I thought I saw a quick shot of Jeri Ryan as Seven between episodes on one of the networks, but I didn't get the whole message.

Apparently, SpikeTV will start with Voyager from the beginning next week in 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, something like 9 AM - 6 PM.

Sweet. I don't know if my tivo can hold all of that, but I'm definitely going to cherry pick my favorites. Thanks!

Bummer that those marathon schedules aren't going to be swapped. I'll be on vacation during Bond week, and I would have loved to have Trek (yes, even Voyager) on during my lounging.

And it's just long enough to frustrate those with VCR's.

I just thought I'd let everyone know how they are doing the HD releases of the new remastered episodes. I purchased an HD episode on Xbox Live (they are now available in HD on the Live service). I bought the "City on the edge of Forever" ep. The "remastered" exterior shots during the intro and all the shots of the Enterprise circling the planet in all its HD glory are in widescreen. The actual stock footage (which has been cleaned up gloriously) is still shown in 4x3, not widescreen. It is a little jarring, but after a while you don't notice the switch between the two formats within the same episode.

It is almost embarrassing how much eye shadow Sulu was wearing when he pulls that cheesy grin at the beginning. And Spock looks like a frog (way too green), you can see where the makeup ends around his eyes. The closeups of his face made me hope there weren't any flies flying around the set. And Joan Collins still looked every bit as fabulous as she did in SD.

I don't get Spike. What did they do to the episodes?

As far as I can tell, Spike has just syndication-edited them, or used the previously created syndication edit. I haven't noticed them doing anything else to the episodes, unless I'm missing something. They do play some slightly out of order when they're doing two-parters so that they can show both parts of the two-parters on one day (which once led to Ro-joins-the-Maquis airing right before Tasha-and-Data-have-sex), but I can deal with that because I like seeing both halves of a two-parter on the same day.

Is Spike no longer showing Trek on Fridays? The past two Fridays, I've tuned in during the afternoon only to see that Japanese show which looks like a cross between American Gladiators and Double Dare. Are they just doing special marathons these past two Fridays, or is this here to stay, does anyone know?

I watched the 5pm CST episode of Voyager tonight like normal. I have no idea about anything prior to that though.

Yeah, Voyager was on at 6:00 PST, but it wasn't on at 5:00 like it normally is. And TNG wasn't on at 3:00.

I've missed my regular Trek viewings, on Friday afternoon, for the last three weeks, so I'm not sure what Spike is doing. Considering how they eliminated an hour of DS9, from the schedule, a few months back it wouldn't surprise me if they removed a whole day of Trek and replaced it with nonsense like MXC. If this is a permanent schedule change, I hate it, but then I hate most television scheduling.

Is this the right thread to SCREAM IN? Or, can I cry? Spike has been messing with it's Star Trek programming and I'm about to go where no one has gone before! A couple of times this week Spike has replaced the Star Trek stuff with MXC or some such airtime filler. My science fiction fanjoy continuity is being toyed with. Their "lets test the market with other stuff during the star trek time slots" is losing them viewers. I'm finding other channels to have on my tv while I'm working. I'm not happy about it but what is there to do? They are gonna lose their ST fans and they're gonna feel it.

Not only has Spike been playing russian roulette with the Trek fans... G4 is all fucked up, too! G4 used to have 2 hours of TNG starting at 7pm central. Then they decided that 1 hour would do and they'd move it to 8pm only. THEN they 2.0-ized it! NOW it's not on the evening schedule at ALL! Furthermore, during bouts of insomnia I'd flip on TNG on G4 at 1am, they moved it to 2am, seen it moved to 3am... now POOF. It's gone. I want to grab some program scheduler by the test****s and tell him how unpleased I am!

Someone go find Troi and ask her if she can sense any TNG or Star Trek in this known universe! A friend told me that they've seen Star Trek TOS listed on TVLand. Has it really come to that? It's not like I don't have SOME episodes on tape but what the hell! When I can't find TNG available on tap I feel like time isn't standing still anymore... I know that sounded weird. I think I'm just upset. I'm not ready to let TNG go.

Is there another thread someplace called "Mega-Pissed: ST Void in the Universe"?

I might actually see if I can find Spike and G4 on the internet and see if I can complain. I'm just so tired of having to sign-up, log-in, join, be-a-member, and crap, then remember all those names and passwords just to tell them "you stink" which they won't read anyway. Sorry, my SunShine is a bit cynical right now.

When was Spike putting MXC in the Trek slots other than Friday? The Friday thing was going on again yesterday, like it has for the past two weeks, where it's on from at least 3:00-6:00, but Voyager was on at 6:00. I only watch from 3:00 onwards and didn't notice MXC earlier in the week, but maybe it was on sometime between 1:00 and 3:00.

Gilmel, before the twop data loss we had discussed program schedules a little. Your area might be different than some of ours. YMMV on some of this information.

I live in the central time zone. Twice recently, Spike replaced their monday star trek scheduling with other stuff. Now, fridays are trek-less also.

For a month or so it HAD been Monday-Friday:
1 hour of DS9
2 hours of TNG
2 hours of Voyager.

Before THAT it had been:
2 hours of DS9
3 hours of TNG

During the holidays they aired Bond movies and crap in place of Star Trek for at least a week. Could have been two.

It was one week of Bond and one week of Voyager, but not in that order, if I recall correctly.

I'm in Pacific Time, so the difference in airing times from Central is an hour. But belsum said six posts up that she's in Central and they aired Voyager at 5:00 her time last week, which corresponds with 6:00 my time. So Fridays aren't completely Trek-less, at least not in all of Central time. I don't recall if I tried to watch Trek this past Monday, so I can't comment on that.

I was home sick Monday and the Trek airings were on as listed by SunShine Gal. Seventh season DS9, 2 eps of random TNG, then 2 eps of second season Voyager. I was home sick again Friday and it was only the final Voyager. So that makes 3 Fridays in a row. I have no idea why Spike has decided we don't need more Trek on Friday.

Gilmel, Pacific time is 2 hours behind Central. It's 3:33 pm here, it's 1:33 pm where you are. Central's 5:00pm would be your 3:00pm.

I checked the direct tv online program guide for Spike today (Monday) and they aren't showing Star Trek listed today. Hmpff.

Yes, I am well aware that Pacific Time is two hours behind Central Time.

I'm talking about airing times, not actual time. Pre-recorded tv shows, not live programs, shown in Pacific Time are aired correspondingly to Eastern Time. For example, things aired at 8:00 pm Eastern Time are also aired at 8:00 pm Pacific Time (unless you have a particular cable channel with Eastern Feed, but that's not the norm). And those things are aired at 7:00 pm Central Time because Central Time is weird and shows everything an hour early. (For example, we do not get My Name Is Earl at 5:00 pm Pacific; we get it at 8:00 just like Eastern, whereas Central gets it at 7:00.) Therefore, my point that what is airing at 5:00 Central on Spike is what is airing at 6:00 Pacific holds.

Just to clarify, currently, this is what I'm normally getting on Spike in the afternoons:
2:00 pm - DS9
3:00 pm - TNG
4:00 pm - TNG
5:00 pm - VOY
6:00 pm - VOY
Fridays have been the only ordinary (non-holiday) days lately that this schedule hasn't been the case for me.


Probably because it's Presidents' Day and Spike takes whatever holiday excuse it can to show other stuff.

Maybe Spike has an East Coast and West Coast feed?

Actually, Central isn't weird. What regular big network TV is showing on the east coast is being shown concurrently in central time... it's first broadcast, so we see it first. In pacific time, there is a separate feed 2 hours later, so you can see My Name is Earl still in primetime.


I thought Spike might do a separate feed like cutecouple suggested. Yesterday, I looked up the Pacific air times on TVGuide.com for Spike's Star Trek shows and their times are different than what were stated a couple posts above. That's where there was some confusion. Weird.
11am DS9
12pm TNG
1pm TNG
2pm Voy
3pm Voy

However, next Monday DS9 (1 episode) will be moved to the morning. Spike used to be a pleasure to watch but now it's becoming a joke. I have to do a Trek-Check before setting the timer.

Yes, and I'm getting West Coast feed, which means I'm getting things aired at the corresponding Eastern time: 8:00 Eastern and Pacific. Central is the "off" time zone. (Well, actually, I think Mountain is the screwy one because each time I go to a Mountain Time Zone city, it's airing things differently that the last Mountain city I was in. And then there's poor Alaska and Hawaii that no one seems to remember.)

A quick search of Spike's tv listings for random zip codes in different cities on MSN TV Listings shows this:

Pacific Time
Seattle
Portland
San Francisco
Los Angeles
All of these cities list Spike's line up for tomorrow (2/20) as 2:00-3:00 - DS9; 3:00-5:00 - TNG; 5:00-7:00 - VOY. Those are all Pacific Standard times.

Eastern Time
Boston
New York
Baltimore
Miami
All of these cities list Spike's line up for tomorrow (2/20) as 2:00-3:00 - DS9; 3:00-5:00 - TNG; 5:00-7:00 - VOY. Those are all Eastern Standard times.

Central Time
Minneapolis
Chicago
St. Louis
Houston
All of these cities list Spike's line up for tomorrow (2/20) as 1:00-2:00 - DS9; 2:00-4:00 - TNG; 4:00-6:00 - VOY. Those are all Central Standard times.

TNG and VOY appear to be moving one hour earlier next week, too, so there will be afternoon Trek from 2:00-6:00 from now on (adjust as necessary for non-Eastern/Pacific Time Zones).

Looks like it was showing the listings according to your time zone instead of the airing time zone. I've found TV Guide's online listings to be very unreliable.

Nope, I typed in the Pasadena zip code where one of my friend's lives. That's how I got that Pacific time zone schedule. Meevee.com also lists pacific time airings as this:
11-12 DS9
12-2 TNG
2-4 Voy
Maybe it depends on service provider or something because I've checked several sites now and they've listed the above.


Bwah! It's not "off" because it's not yours. Your clock may say 8:00 but that doesn't mean you are viewing it when the east coast is.

Anyhow, the only time zone I really care about is mine and Spike messing with the schedule which is the gist of my original post. I wish Spike would leave their Star Trek programming in place. They've got tons of other miscellaneous crud that they can move around to their hearts content. Jerking around their mainstay audience isn't smart.

That's weird. I certainly can't explain it.


I am well aware of that. And I think I'm now going to have to refrain from making snarky comments on this snarky website that lightly poke fun at Central Time tv scheduling since such comments are being taken as evidence that I recently got the basic-time-zone-and-tv-scheduling-knowledge portion of my brain lobotomized.

I blame blue monkeys.

I blame Spike TV. If they'd just stick to a consistent schedule and not take any possible excuse to show a Three Stooges marathon (because when I think President's Day, I think of Moe, Larry, and Curly), we wouldn't be all confused by this.

Suffice to say, I've lived the vast majority of my life in Eastern and Pacific time zones, and the TV schedule is generally the same, going by the clock on the wall. It's only when I'm watching TV in Central Time that I get confused and dizzy.

I checked the DirecTV listings in Pasadena, and they seem to be getting east coast feed, with Star Trek running from 11-4 today. Cable customers in the same area get the west coast feed.

Hee!

I'm going to blame FOX. It seems like all the evils of tv scheduling and cancellation can be laid at their door. :)

Oh, criminy, it figures... wish my friend lived in Santa Barbara. Pasadena shmasadena. Thanks for the info, Cleo256.


BWAH! Isn't the Chinese Moon festival near? Maybe Spike will show a Banzai marathon. If they do, I'm tuned-in all day to QVC.

Is this the wrong time to mention that I got an email about new dates for daylight savings time for 2007?

Before that happens... Margaritas for everyone!

Spike TV has dropped Deep Space Nine from its daytime schedule. The two hours of The Next Generation and Voyager have been moved up one hour on the schedule. I love seeing some of the Voyager episodes that I missed on UPN, but I still enjoyed seeing Deep Space Nine, too. I have no idea why Spike chose to do this and it really annoys me.
This weeks schedule has been:
1pm - TNG
2pm - TNG
3pm - VOY
4pm - VOY
All times are Central.

jake, no it hasn't. If you check SunShine Gal's post at the very top of the page, she mentions that it's been moved. DS9 is now on at 10:00 am (which would be 9:00 Central). I watched it today. It's just one hour a day, but it's still there.

SunShine Gal:

Thanks, Gilmel. I don't know how I missed that.
Sadly, I'm not near a television at 9:00am.

Is Spike airing DS9 out of order? This morning's episode was "Homecoming" (first episode of the opening S2 trilogy), but I could have sworn I caught a glimpse of the episode where Verad steals Dax last week. What's going on here?

Elenita, I noticed that too.
I'm not sure why they'd show the episode with the MB out of order.

Spike may not have wanted to have a weekend interrupt a multi-part episode. Verad's ep comes right after the three-parter.

Ah, that makes a certain kind of sense. I don't know if I appreciate Spike's thoughtfulness (?) or just be irritated that it's out of order. Continuity matters on DS9, damn it!

I did notice something similar back when Spike was doing 3-hour blocks of DS9 (before they got Voyager). One day, the first 2 hours of the block were the series finale and the 3rd episode was "Past Prologue", the first episode after the 2 hour premire. The next day, both parts of Emissary aired.

It simply looks like Spike doesn't like to split multi-part stories in general, and would rather move one episode to fill a time block instead.

Why did Spike skip "Parallax" from season 1 of Voyager after "Caretaker"?

Parallax aired a few days before it. Spike doesn't like to break up 2 part episodes (and it would have broken up Endgame) so they aired it after Renaissance Man of season 7. Even though I hate seeing episodes out of order, I hate waiting to see a 2 hour episode split up so I'm glad Spike does that.


It seems SVNBob has already figured this out. Oops.

Does anyone know what's going on with Spike's airings of DS9? I was expecting the usual 10 a.m. timeslot this morning, but my DVR says that there aren't any episodes scheduled to air in the immediate future. Could it be that Spike has stopped running them altogether? If so, I'm really going to be disappointed, as I was hoping to catch the rest of season 2, and seasons 3, 4, and 5. I had a feeling the move to one ep per day was a bad sign. :(

How long is the "immediate future"? Just this week and next? Because it's entirely possible that Spike is doing a Memorial Day week long marathon of some sort this week and next. They always do stuff other than their normal programming for holidays. However, if it's still not listed after next week, I'd be concerned.