A show like Lost doesn't need a remaster. It has aired in HD on ABC from the very beginning. The DVDs were transferred from the studio's existing High-Def master.

That was precisely my point Josh.

Good point.

$200 per season is crazy. I would love to have HD-DVD and Smallville S5, but even $60 a season is too high. My price limit right now is $30 for DVD, so I would be willing to spend $40 for a full 24 episode HD release. No more.

The only interest I have in TV on HD/Blu-ray is if they put all of the season on 1 or 2 discs at the same level of quality as the current DVD releases. That is incentive to buy. Seeing the show in over-priced HD is not.

It was? :hscratch:

Yes. In other words, clearly shows that have been mastered in HD, like 24, CSI, Lost, etc, would be easy. But to spend the time and expense on shows like Taxi, MTM, etc. that may not see a huge improvement or huge sales would be defeatist.

It would be nice to see "consolidated" TV on less discs with higher capacity, especially for series where HD would not make a difference. But, since HD DVD and Blu-Ray are primarily being sold on the better A/V quality, it might be a tough sell for studios to market the next-gen formats as a way to hold more SD TV material. For that reason I don't see TV being nearly as big on the next-gen formats, at least not until DVD is on the brink of extinction.

Personally, I'd be interested in owning stuff like Lost, 24, and other newer shows in HD if the price point was reasonable. But if half of S1 of Lost will truly list for $99, I'll stick with the DVD's.

I agree with you, but it certainly would be nice to get an entire season of say, Buffy on one BD50. I would rebuy SD seasons for that alone.

While I do agree that if they approached TV on HD-DVD like they have with regular DVD it would be a failure as they now throw every show they can almost find on SD DVD now. However with that being said there are absolutly some TV shows that would absolutly benfit from a HD makeover and I would without a doubt not hesitate do buy them including the Star Trek shows, The X-Files series, Smallville, and most importantly the new Battlestar Galactica on Sci-Fi. I just think the studios have to be much more selective with just which shows to bring to HD and which ones to leave on SD DVD.

PS...

Even if they were shot on film, if they were edited on 480i video with FX done in 480i video thay ain't gonna look better in HD because the masters are 480i. Except for Trek TOS and Enterprise, TNG, ds9 and voyager ain't gonna look any better. Theoretically they COULD find all the original film trims and retransfer and edit from scratch and redo all the FX in HD (TOS Trek remastered is currently redoing most of the FX in HD) but it's doubtful.

Seinfeld had something similar to this done (obviously without the extensive effects work), so it's certainly a consideration for more popular shows.

Why isn't it?

Sopranos: Season 6, Part 1 = 12 Episodes
Lost: Season 1, Part 1 = 12 Episodes (presumingly)

Very different. Seinfeld didn't have a ton of special effects that don't exist on anything with greater resolution than 480i video. Also just because Seinfeld did it with 1/2 hour shows imagine getting all the seasons of the 3 treks and even finding all of the original film footage? Remember, these were edited NOT on film like TOS Trek but on video. The prints are not even edited now or assembled. They are just living in cans, unassembled and heaven knows how they were even stored. So finding what 20 or so seasons or 20+ shows, 400 hours of footage, scan all that into HD, cleanup the footage, then add from scratch all brand new FX in HD? It's taking 2 years just to do the 3 seasons of TOS for CBS digital and those shows had less FX than the later Treks. Don't think it's going to happen. Maybe, just maybe for TNG but I doubt it. Voyager?mmhmmm....

I wouldn't say it never gonna happen. The reason its taking so long is because most likely they have just small teams of people working on them. Bottom line is they could in theory resell all of those seasons to the fans in HD which would equal a big sum of money. If there is profit in it then it is not out of the realm of possibility for the studios to do. I personally think that eventually they will port most of the really popular shows like the Star Treks and X-Files over. They could hire a small team of people to work on them for a few years, it would probably cost them a couple million dollars and they would make a nice hefty profit. Of course this all depends on just how widespread the HD formats become. If they remain a niche type thing while SD DVD remains the true monster format then I highly doubt it but if the HD formats do in fact become the successor to DVD then I am very confident that we will in fact see those shows on HD.

Speaking of TV shows and HD, what ever happened to the complete Twilight Zone in HD. I remeber hearing about that a while back that it was confirmed, I think Image entertainment, was bringing the entire Twilight ZOne series to the HD formats. I havent heard anything about that since then.

PS...

agreed. TNG maybe... DS9, Voyager....? hmm.......

and yes, where is the twilight zone announcement?