Remaster Digitally remastered episodes are re - releases with audio and video digitally , or computer - aided , enhanced . For video this currently means enhancing , or upscaling , to either 720p ( usually for television productions ) , or 1080p ( usually for motion picture productions ) ( HD ) standards , typically for Blu - ray Disc releases . The 720p and 1080p refer to the vertical resolution ( in parlance often abbreviated to " rez " ) lines on a viewing screen . Anything upward from , and including , 720p is considered HD as opposed to the old television ( SD ) of 480i ( for America ) and 576i ( for Europe ) . Even higher HD resolution formats are currently under development , 4k ( 2160p ) in particular , the first two " Star Trek " titles released as such in 2016 in what was coined the 4K Ultra HD Blu - ray home media format . Typically , video remastering entails the digital scanning of the individual film cells of the original masters in 720p / 1080p resolution , after which , optionally , digital editing is performed in dedicated image manipulating software packages , such as color correcting or repairing damage on the cells . Digital audio enhancement usually involves upgrades from any older sound system or format to standards , which could be either or . Visually , it is the and ( VFX ) , most notably in science fiction productions such as " Star Trek " , which are particularly well served with remastering . Early " Star Trek : The Original Series " remastering . While the current understanding of the " Star Trek " remastering projects concern the digital projects CBS Consumer Products embarked upon in the 2000s , essentially starting with the 2001 release of , its predecessor , Paramount Marketing and Licensing Department , had already embarked upon an early " proto - remastering " project in the early 1990s . Called " digitally mastered " ( as indicated on the below - mentioned UK VHS box - art , and the " digitally " essentially referring to the computerized editing equipment instead of the films themselves ) at the time , new , cleaned - up and color corrected , transfers were analogously ( meaning that each individual film cell was separately photographed with a high resolution camera , instead of digitally scanned ) produced from the old masters . The operation was especially commissioned for the 1992 - 1993 Japanese " Original Series " LaserDisc collection releases , " Star Trek - Log 1 " , " Log 2 " and " Log 3 " . Picture quality wise , it was the best edition commercially available until the advent of the 2007 TOS - R Season 1 HD DVD version , the earlier DVD versions still making use of the original masters . These Japanese transfers were used twice more , for the lesser known UK 1996 - 1998 , and the likewise UK 2007 - 2008 " " DVD / Magazine combo partwork release . Though not seen by American audiences , the new transfers of the second season episode , proved exceptionally useful three years later when s tribute episode , , was in production , as studio model maker Gregory Jein , who had to recreate the Deep Space Station K - 7 model , explained , " " Fortunately , the clarity of detail revealed by the newly transferred original footage of " The Trouble with Tribbles " proved useful . The art department sent over a drawing that they ' d made of the station , Then we made some modifications based on color prints made from the original negative , which we felt were faithful to the original design . And we sort of winged it from there . Then we made molds and cast them , cut the windows out , and put neon inside . " " ( " " , p . 42 ) Little information is available on this project , as this version was never released on any home media format in America and only on an extremely limited basis in mainland Europe . In 2012 it was revealed that stills originating from this particular project were the ones that were included as illustrative backdrops in the 2010 reference book , " " . The authors have elaborated , " " Most of those wonderful TOS photos that had never been seen before came from a very expensive project that the licensing department conducted many years ago . In order to find new images for the licensees , the department struck new 16 - millimeter copies of the TOS masters — which were then carefully cut up , frame by frame , and mounted into slides . " " Second early " Original Series " remastering . When Paramount Home Entertainment started its release of the " Original Series " on DVD in August 1999 as the " bare - bone " , it had it proudly stated on the cover art that it was a " digitally enhanced and remastered " edition . Paramount ' s Project Manager for the DVD release , Ron Smith , stated to the press at the time , " " We have dutifully cleaned up the opticals , which have become predictably dirty . And part of the endearing charm of the original series are the cool opticals . " " However , he also intimated that his team did not use the analog Japanese transfers but rather revisited the old worn - out original 35mm film masters , cleaning and color correcting " them " up before digitally transferring them . Yet , despite his team ' s efforts , in the picture quality department their work was still inferior to the work done for the Japanese LaserDisc releases – especially where color vibrancy was concerned – as digital scanning techniques were at that time still somewhat in their infancy . Nevertheless , a significant improvement " was " made in sound quality as a new Dolby Digital Surround Sound track was created for the release , and picture quality " was " markedly improved over the prior home media formats , including the US LaserDisc releases – having made use , unlike the Japanese version , of the original film masters . Smith additionally intimated that it was for this occasion that he original pilot episode , , was restored to its full color version . Only a hybrid black and white / color version had hitherto been available . This however , was a " commercial exaggeration " on the part of Smith , as the full coloring of " The Cage " had already been completed for the 1989 - 1991 ( low - rez ) VHS / Betamax and Laserdisc home media format releases . " Star Trek : The Motion Picture " - The Director ' s Edition . In 2001 , the aforementioned Director ' s Edition of was released on DVD . While the production did not , strictly speaking , conform to the current understanding of remastering , " i . e . " the upgrade from SD to HD ( as DVD the production was merely meant to be played on television sets and was therefore executed in the SD 480i / 576i video format with picture quality enhanced by traditional analog methods instead of digital upgrading ) , it still was in essence a remastered production as it did receive a new , upgraded soundtrack . Most notably , however , was that many scenes were digitally enhanced and visually changed with the addition of computer - generated imagery ( CGI ) . Striking examples of these were the enhanced air tram station as well as the first and only full view of " V ' Ger " , which was not there in the original version . The CGI for this production was provided by effects house Foundation Imaging , while the soundtrack was remastered in Dolby Digital 5 . 1 at Robert Wise Productions by Chuck Michael under the auspices of Michael Matessino . ( ) " Star Trek : The Original Series " . On , CBS Paramount Television announced that , in celebration of the 40th anniversary of " Star Trek : The Original Series " would return to broadcast syndication for the first time in sixteen years . Beginning with , each of the series ' 79 episodes were digitally remastered to 1080p HD video , and DTS - HD Master Audio 7 . 1 Surround audio standards , with all newly ( re - ) created visual effects and music . The refurbished episodes were converted from the original film to a high - definition format similar to that used on . The opening theme was re - recorded in digital stereo with new vocals by Elin Carlson , and William Shatner ' s opening monologue was remastered from the original elements . Most notably , though , many of the visual effects were recreated using CGI by CBS Digital . The opening credits sequence was revamped , several matte painting s received a CGI face - lift , and spaceship exteriors including the Romulan Bird - of - Prey and the Klingon battle cruiser were recreated using state - of - the - art digital effects . However , for some reason , the credits at the end of the episode were not remastered and digitally enhanced . The new CGI " Enterprise " was based on the exact measurements , originally taken by Gary Kerr , of the original model , which is on display in the gift shop of the Smithsonian Institution ' s National Air and Space Museum in Washington , DC . In creating the newly conceived visual effects , CBS Digital made use of the CGI software . ( " Sci - fi & fantasy modeller " , Vol . 26 , p . 49 ) In an interview with TVGuide . com , project supervisor Michael Okuda said , " " We ' re taking great pains to respect the integrity and style of the original . . . Our goal is to always ask ourselves : What would Roddenberry have done with today ' s technology ? " " Denise Okuda and Dave Rossi were also involved with this relaunch of the original series ; Niel Wray is the visual effects supervisor . A Q & A with the production staff was posted by the official " Star Trek " website on . A video preview and interviews with people involved in the project can be viewed by clicking the link to the left of the page . The " new " " Star Trek " debuted . See side - by - side comparisons of the new visual effects from the first episode broadcast , . The first few episodes were rushed , as CBS only gave its team " " one month to deliver the first two episodes with over 120 new effects shots " . " Starting with , a new , improved " Enterprise " model was used . Members of the effects team have commented that they may go back to the earlier episodes and re - render the ship scenes with the new model , though that did not come to fruition . When TOS cast member Leonard Nimoy heard about these changes in special effects , Nimoy simply responded " " Shame on them " " for changing the effects , saying that it was " out - of - bounds " for them to do that . However , after viewing a remastered episode , reportedly he was quoted saying , " " I ' m amazed . " " The seasons were to be released in an HD DVD / DVD combination set , with season one released in . The release of seasons two and three were canceled in February 2008 due to the decline of HD DVDs in comparison to rival format Blu - ray . However , the second season was released on regular DVD on . all three seasons are available on Blu - ray Disc , as well as through Apple ' s iTunes Store ( along with a " best of " collection for budget - minded fans ) , with select episodes available on Microsoft ' s Xbox 360 Video Marketplace . Unlike the HD DVD releases , the Blu - ray editions also include the original versions of each episode , allowing the original special effects and images to be seen in high - definition for the first time . CBS Digital wrapped up their visual effects work on TOS Remastered just before midnight on . The last episode they worked on was the show ' s first pilot , " The Cage " . The last shot rendered was of the " Enterprise " " sailing off into the unknown at the end of the episode . " At the time CBS Consumer Products had few to no official lines of communications with the " Star Trek " fan community left ( see " main article " for particulars ) , and in an effort to remedy the situation sought out cooperation with the blog , in order to keep the community appraised of every aspect of the project , among others by publishing sneak previews and the like , and allowing the blog editors exclusive access to CBS Digital to report on the progress . " Star Trek " films . The success of the remastered " Original Series " , as well as the upcoming re - launch of the " Star Trek " franchise in 2009 , encouraged Paramount Pictures to push forward with the remastering to 1080p HD video , and Dolby TrueHD 7 . 1 Surround audio standards of their movie properties . The remastered versions of the first ten were released from 2009 to 2010 in both the DVD and Blu - Ray disc formats . According to the box - art of the remastered DVD version of , it was this movie that has required the most extensive restoration work and was " fully restored in high definition with brilliant picture quality " , whereas the remaining nine were just " digitally remastered " . The movie ' s director , Nicholas Meyer , has stated that this was due to the fact that the original master print " was in terrible shape " . ( - audio commentary ) A striking detail was , that when it came to the remastering of " The Motion Picture " , as one of the last released in 2010 , only the original theatrical version could be done so . The reason for this was that Foundation Imaging ' s additional CGI elements for the Director ' s Edition were no longer available for upgrade ( in this case re - rendering to a higher resolution ) , due to Paramount ' s failure to maintain ownership of these elements . Reconstructing the CGI effects from scratch was cost - prohibitive . Nevertheless , according to one reviewer , the sound quality was superior to all the others . What this reviewer had overlooked , however , was , that the soundtrack had already received an extensive overhaul in 2001 for the " Director ' s Edition " , a privilege the other nine movies did not enjoy . On the other hand , the eleventh , 2009 movie did not need any remastering , as it was already shot in HD standards . It is unclear which company has been responsible for the remastering of the movies . Technical ramifications for the " Star Trek " remastering projects . The remastering projects did involve some technical aspects that had bearings on those originating from the " Star Trek " franchise , but which , in general , applied to other motion picture productions as well . Some of these technical aspects are explored in some detail below , as far as their effects on the " Star Trek " remastering projects were concerned , while several of these " did " steer some decision making processes of CBS Consumer Products , when releasing their remastered " Star Trek " products lines . Analog versus digital . While analog photography is currently increasingly considered antiquated and obsolete , especially by the younger generations , analog photography still holds , given the current state of technology as of 2015 , one huge advantage over digital photography ; Due to the underlying physics , analog photography differs immensely from digital photography in that analog images can be ( from their negative film cells ) enlarged almost " ad infinitum " , as generations of 20th century cinema goers can attest to , and actually the primary reason why digital scanning for remastering purposes is even possible at all in the first place . Not so with digital images , once originally shot in a predetermined resolution in terms of number of pixels and predetermined frame size , it will indefinitely remain so . While enlarging an analog image will not noticeably result in loss of sharpness ( actually the main reason why , as of 2015 , so many professional still photographers still ply their trade " old school " ) , the same can not be said of digital images . When a digital image is enlarged , each single pixel is accordingly enlarged in size , which works out fine until the Human eye is able to discern each and every individual pixel , a phenomenon known to every around the world as " " . This is the reason why later episodes of and , originally produced in analog SD standards , can never be shown theatrically – enlarged onto the very big screen , the digitally - rendered VFX scenes would fall apart due to the pixelation phenomenon . Though it is , due to the underlying physics , impossible to objectively determine the resolution of analog imagery in terms of the later digital resolution standards , serious efforts have been made to do so . Currently , after heated debates among professionals , a sort - of - consensus has been reached that analog imagery struck on the traditional 35mm film is comparable to a 4000p - 6000p digital resolution range , while 70mm analog prints ( typically for films ) were estimated at 18000p . Downscaling and spatial resolution . No matter what the " real " resolution of analog film footage was ( being more than ample for any 1080p remastered project ) , in more than one way Paramount " lucked out " with the remastering of four of its ten original theatrical features . While all the analog , live - action footage could be scanned digitally without much further ado , it should be noted that the four " Next Generation " films , starting with , contained an ever - increasing number of digital VFX sequences , culminating in that virtually all exterior VFX sequences of and were digitally composited . This could have been a problem as far as the digital sequences were concerned , were it not that they were all composited for major theatrical features ( " i . e . " far larger screens ) , and therefore constructed in a resolution which at the very least approximated the resolution of the rest of the live - action footage , " i . e . " a resolution far higher than required for any contemporary SD television series or home media format . This meant that when the movies were remastered , the digital sequences of the four " Next Generation " movies were actually down - scaled . Digitally down - scaling comprises the processes computer algorithms perform by , given a set frame size , removing pixels of digital footage stills in order to have the remaining ones fit a given frame . Typically , these algorithms remove the more ambiguously - coded pixels , often resulting in far more crisp and more sharply defined images to the Human eye , even though they are then , most counter - intuitively , of a lesser resolution . This phenomenon , where reducing the resolution actually enhances the perceived image quality , is called improving the and a principle which states that , simply put , the more pixels there are in a fixed frame dimension , the less a pixel can resolve itself – in layman ' s terms , becoming more blurred to the Human eye . These technological properties made the remastering of the franchise ' s first ten a relatively cost - effective – meaning the studio did not need to revisit the original digital VFX sequences for reconstruction in higher resolution – and therefore profitable effort in comparison to its very costly previous " Original Series " project , and its subsequent , even more expensive , " Next Generation " project . It has concurrently explained why the studio was able to release the remastered movies in such quick succession , spanning a time period of merely two years , 2009 - 2010 . It also means that if the new 4000p format becomes the new norm , the procedure can be repeated for the first ten movies , though not from the digitally enhanced 1080p versions ; the original film elements have to be revisited in that case . Incidentally , CBS Digital had four years earlier already stumbled upon the " spatial resolution " effect by accident , when they decided out of cost considerations to cut down on computer rendering time by dialing down the ( pixel count ) resolution of their highly detailed original CGI " Enterprise " model . ( " Sci - fi & fantasy modeller " , Vol . 26 , p . 49 ) As explained above however , when enlarging , the original high - rez image becomes much clearer and more crisp due to the spatial resolution phenomenon , whereas the down - scaled image falls much sooner prey to the pixelation effect . " Star Trek : The Next Generation " . After several months of speculation and partial confirmation , on ( the 24th anniversary of the series premiere ) , StarTrek . com announced that was to be remastered to , again , 1080p HD video , and DTS - HD Master Audio 7 . 1 Surround audio standards , for release on Blu - ray Disc and eventual syndication , starting in . The remastering process required returning to the original film negatives , as all editing and visual effects compositing took place in post - production on the magnetic videotape format back in the day , which not only lacked the required resolution for high - definition , but more importantly , not being a film format , simply can not be scanned digitally for HD remastering , unlike the " Original Series " project , which was originally edited into the final product on 35mm film masters . As a result , the collection of original " Next Generation " footage , totaling over 25 , 000 reels , was painstakingly re - edited exactly as had been done for the original airing , essentially doing the post - production process all over again in its entirety , which , in the process , also explained why the remastering project turned out to be so costly . Visual effects were entirely re - composited from the original constituent film elements , and not up - converted from the derivative videotape end products as explained . Compared to its " Original Series " predecessor , this had , excepting the construction of the new digital visual effects , made the " Original Series " project actually the more straightforward one . Audio is the form of 7 . 1 DTS Master Audio . However , there was one happy side effect ; due to the fact that the editing process had to be done all over again , it enabled some episodes to receive the " Director ' s Cut " treatment , by reinserting scenes that were originally cut , trimmed or deleted for their original airings , provided the original film elements were still available for remastering . Unfortunately , the practice was abandoned after the second season of the remastered project . Aside for organizational reasons , there were in some cases also practical reasons for abandoning the practice ; some of the deleted scenes only still existed on so - called taped " workprints " , pre - final edited versions of episodes made for evaluation purposes by producers . Most of these workprint tapes were habitually not archived at Paramount and ended afterwards up in the possession of collectors such as Cyril Paciullo , having acquired them at the various Star Trek auctions . Paciullo has made his collection available to CBS for inclusion on the fourth season release of the project , but being magnetic tapes , even though some digital cleaning up could be performed , true remastering remained outside the realm of possibility as explained . For integrity reasons , the conscious decision was made to include such deleted scenes as separate special features on the releases , as reinserting them would constitute a too large a break in quality with the rest of the remastered footage . As with the remastering of " The Original Series " , Denise and Michael Okuda served as consultants . Unlike its predecessor , none of the visual effects were slated for replacement with newly conceived CGI , or as Project Consultant Mike Okuda explained it , " " We love the approach that CBS took for this project . We take the original film elements and put them together in a new way . The material still has all the details and they are beautiful . And the new visual effects are really the old visual effects but a lot more beautiful than you have ever seen them . " " However , some use of CGI was made . This was restricted to correcting continuity details , or for replacing original elements that were either lost , such as in the case of the Crystalline Entity , or technically impossible to upgrade . The most notable examples of the latter case were the replacements of long shots of planet s , which were originally executed as matte paintings , by newly created CGI effects , though Digital Artist Max Gabl took care they approximated their original appearance . Gabl stated , " " I think most of them are total recreations . Because the planets we ' re looking at from the original " [ TNG ] " series are very low - res and blurry . There ' s no way to put more detail into those , so it ' s basically all recreation . Mike Okuda tells us exactly what we need in there , and it ' s just back and forth – playing it and seeing what the details are going to look like and then I put them in , compare with the old , [ Mike will ] look at it , I ' ll make the changes and that ' s how it goes . " " CBS Digital was again appointed lead company in the remastering project , as well as being made responsible for the creation of the replacement CGI effects . Contrary to " The Original Series " remastering project , CBS Digital had by this time switched over to the software ( as used by Foundation Imaging for the earlier Director ' s Edition of " The Motion Picture " ) for the recreation of missing elements in CGI . In a similar fashion as they had done for the " Original Series " remastering project , CBS Consumer Products again reached out to the " Star Trek " fan community , this time by giving access to the project to the administrators of the blog . It was TrekCore ' s Adam Walker in particular , who was given access to production staffers and actors alike for conducting in - depth interviews that were published on the blog . Cooperating with the blog was beneficial for CBS as well , as it was through TrekCore that Paciullo ' s above mentioned workprints became available to them . TrekCore is cooperating with another blog , , where broke down each episode for the differences and occasionally received input from production staffers to explain detail issues . The first release for the high - definition " Next Generation " was a sampler disc , " " , released on , and the . The TNG Season 1 Blu - ray was released on , the TNG Season 2 Blu - ray was released on , the TNG Season 3 Blu - ray was released on , the TNG Season 4 Blu - ray was released on , the TNG Season 5 Blu - ray was released on , and the TNG Season 6 Blu - ray was released on . The final TNG Season 7 Blu - ray was released on . Highly anticipated , the first season release was well received and did very well in initial sales , selling 95 , 435 copies in the first week after release in the US alone . By then , CBS had already decided to speed up the release schedule for the remastered series . For CBS to be able to do so , they had to sub - contract , considering the amount of work the remastering entailed , other companies to do the work on a season alternating basis . Independent company HTV - Illuminate was awarded the commission for the upgrade of the second season . However , their work was less well received , as many considered their efforts sub - par to that of CBS Digital . Though not having confirmed if this was in any way related , CBS has made the decision to go with another effects house , Modern VideoFilm , for the remastering of season four , while simultaneously keeping a tighter rein over the work , aside from doing the two - part episodes and themselves . While the work of Modern VideoFilm was far more favorably received , the services of the company were not retained for the sixth season , the remastering of which , like the seventh one , entirely performed by CBS Digital themselves , the workload on the company due to the tight release schedule notwithstanding . " Star Trek : Deep Space Nine " . Although there have been no plans to remaster either " Deep Space Nine " or " Voyager " , the producers of the documentary " What We Left Behind " have expressed their intention of remastering certain clips from " Deep Space Nine " .