Star Trek Insurrection -- Fixing aspect ratio issues

Hi all –

Paramount just reissued the Star Trek The Next Generation movies on BluRay and UHD. One hope I had for these (outside of a better transfer) was perhaps they would fix a problem that plagues the movie Star Trek Insurrection. It’s best demonstrated by watching this YouTube clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW9-sKRSyY0&ab_channel=TheComplainingChannel

As you can see, there was some mix up with aspect ratios with the movie that has never been corrected. I’m almost certain this has plagued the movie since it’s theatrical release (I swear I remember noticing this issue at the theater, where it was even more pronounced), and so while I hoped they would fix the issue on the new release I had already resigned my hopes. And sure enough, Paramount checked only the necessary boxes for this release without bothering to correct a fairly major problem with one of its movies.

I’m interested in fixing this and have a plan of attack:

1. Build an index of all problem shots in the movie, using beginning and ending frame numbers
2. Using MKVToolNix, take an MKV rip of the movie and feed in that index to split the video into several MKVs – breaking the movie down into segments
3. Appropriately vertically stretch the problem shots
4. Re-assemble the movie using video editing software
5. Appropriately re-matte the movie so that the stretched problem shots’ matting matches the rest of the movie
6. Render the fixed Star Trek Insurrection

The reason I’m posting about this is it seems like the first step I mentioned is a lot of grunt work. It’s not something I want to tackle alone. Is there anyone else interested in seeing this movie fixed? And are there any members of this message board who would be willing to help in building that shot index, using Google Sheets?

SpacemanDoug said:

I’ve seriously never heard this before

It’s kind of a weird issue that maybe goes unnoticed because the image distortion isn’t glaringly terrible. But it’s there nonetheless, and disappointing it hasn’t been fixed.

Some important information: MKVToolNix’s splitting is not frame-accurate.
You could avoid all the splitting if you import the movie a few different times into your editing timeline, stretch each of them one of the ways it may need to be stretched, and compare them shot by shot.

Thank goodness I wasn’t going crazy. I’ve noticed this ever since DVD. I saw this theatrically, but don’t remember that, but I sure remember it on every video release since. This is the first time I’ve seen anyone else mention it.

Stretching the video vertically and then cropping it introduces the issue of chopping off the top of people’s heads. IMO that cure is worse than the disease. If I had to choose between stretching vertically and cropping OR squeezing the video horizontally and having black bars on the sides, I’d choose the latter.

jimbotron235 said:

Thank goodness I wasn’t going crazy. I’ve noticed this ever since DVD. I saw this theatrically, but don’t remember that, but I sure remember it on every video release since. This is the first time I’ve seen anyone else mention it.

Stretching the video vertically and then cropping it introduces the issue of chopping off the top of people’s heads. IMO that cure is worse than the disease. If I had to choose between stretching vertically and cropping OR squeezing the video horizontally and having black bars on the sides, I’d choose the latter.

Yeah, that’s a good point. Maybe could have two different versions for whichever folks prefer. Either no picture loss for the problem shots w/ black bars on the sides or the presentation I had outlined.

The only reason I remember the issue being present at the theater was because I remember thinking there was something wrong with the projector, haha.

WDW203 said:

Some important information: MKVToolNix’s splitting is not frame-accurate.
You could avoid all the splitting if you import the movie a few different times into your editing timeline, stretch each of them one of the ways it may need to be stretched, and compare them shot by shot.

Ok, that’s good to know. Thank you for the insight and the suggestion.

wowbobwow said:

Yeah, that’s a good point. Maybe could have two different versions for whichever folks prefer. Either no picture loss for the problem shots w/ black bars on the sides or the presentation I had outlined.

The only reason I remember the issue being present at the theater was because I remember thinking there was something wrong with the projector, haha.

This is even MORE obvious in 4K. There are some scenes where you have consecutive shots with the same characters but radically different geometry. The first and second shots with Riker is a strong example. The fact this happens throughout the film and isn’t just the result of a bad day of filming is even more confusing.

When I was working on the latest version of Amadeus theatrical cut, I noticed the original Blu-ray resolution was 1920x794, an unusual aspect ratio of 2.42:1, and then I noticed that everything looked squished. Not squished as badly as this, but enough to look off. I stretched it to 1920x804, a more standard 2.39:1. It makes a huge difference. Thankfully no cropping needed.

spoRv said:

Checked the UHD-BD, and it has the same frame size of SE DVD; now, it must be checked if it has the changing aspect ratio or not.

I’ve checked the new BD which does have the issue. I haven’t checked the UHD but I can tomorrow. I’m assuming it likely will though.

spoRv said:

I didn’t check all, but watching at some screenshots here and here, it seems it has the same aspect ratio problem, too… 😦

Due to the pervasiveness of the problem, I think the speculation about it being incorrectly configured camera equipment is probably correct. And that’s why it’s carried down through every generation of home video release (and if my memory is correct, it was like this at the theater).

Hi all –

Been thinking about how to move forward with this. I think the most time effective approach is what WDW203 had suggested and handling this entirely in video editing software. I have access to Adobe Premiere, which is what I will likely utilize. It will result in the end product being a little more lossy but I’ll try to mitigate it as much as I can.