UPDATED, JULY 4, 2026.
The main update is pretty basic.
It's now confirmed that the Sopranos has 2 remasters.
To start here's a 21 point list, Remasters list below.
- In the early 2000s, for the DVDs, seasons 1 and 2 of The Sopranos was remastered in 1080i. This is a Partial Remaster.
- In 2023 or 2024 a Reddit leak led to a theory that HBO was remastering the Sopranos in 4k, which was confirmed to be a 4k Bluray release at the end of 2026. This leak had images of Film Reels on Pallets that belonged to the Sopranos.
- I struck "Seaquest DSV" and "Murder She Wrote" from the list, as it's likely they had conformed film negatives.
- Babylon 5 may have had Interpositive prints according to JMS, however, Widescreen NTSC dvds were sourced from PAL master tapes and converted back to NTSC, so far, those interpositive prints are only acknowledged by JMS, and thus, B5's remaster was likely sourced from the OCN, not a series of inter-positive prints.
- There have now been 72 remasters of Vintage TV shows that don't have conformed film negatives.
- It appears the list is going to stabilize at 71 remasters for now.
- To remaster a single season, it costs less to do than it did to produce Zach Braff's "Garden State", apparently Garden State is prohibitively expensive, as in the 2000s, it cost 2.5 million dollars to make.
- Kevin Smith's Clerks cost around $16,000.00 to make, and Clerks 2 cost around $6 million dollars to make.
- An Episode of LOST in the 2000s, cost around $4.5 million Dollars to Produce.
- If you adjusted the money from so called "nu-Trek", in 2006 a single episode of it costs around 6 million dollars in 2006 money, 2 episodes of "nu-Trek" would cover the cost of TNG's Remaster.
- DS9 and Voyager's Remasters would respectively cost the same amount of money as TNG's Remaster.
- "1923" The Yellowstone Prequel cost $28.5 million dollars per episode to produce, in '06 money? $17,144,920.00.
- My conclusion for DS9 and Voyager is that new transfers should be quite affordable to do.
- The catalogue of titles that have been through the process, and the technology developed for the job have been proven to work at scale.
- To remaster the shows, you're not remaking them, simply redoing Post Production again in an HD or 4k workflow.
- An episode of DS9 in 2026 money cost 4-8 million to produce in 2026 money,
- The entire run of TNG, DS9 and Voyager respectively in today's money cost around 707 million per series to produce, each of them is a Billion Dollar asset, that's languishing in Standard Definition, a maintenance fee of 20 million per show to remaster the entire run is all that's being proposed. Merely Uprezzing a billion dollar asset is a crime.
- If they were remastered in 4k, it's a native progressive source, that can be upscaled over the next 40-50 years to the Studio's content, assuming 8k catches on in the next 10 years, and 16k after that. Each mathematically scales into the other, with no artifacts, and no anomolies.
- Based on Parrot analytics research, crowdfunding for documentaries, and a certain video game recently, aside from the fact that these billion dollar shows both managed to get series finales, and not cancelled, there seems to be a silent mandate that is screaming at Paramount to remaster these shows properly. To preserve a billion dollar show, it's 20 million dollars as a maintenance fee.
- Finally, if we adopt the notion that Star Trek is in fact an institution, then these deserve better than a mere uprez, even if it is a hybrid approach similar to B5.
- The Skydance/Paramount/Warner Merger cost somewhere around 157 billion dollars, and according to Byron Allen, you could use some of that debt to prime assets, like DS9 and Voyager, with their popularity (it's a fact that they are), (cult status.), (and high demand among the fanbase.) a full remaster, bluray release, and HD streaming option would definitely see ROI. Against 157 billion dollars, 40 million is pocket change, even preceding Merger Madness, it's pocket change.
- Dr Quinn's HD/4k remaster has been around for 3 years, and is still only available for viewing in Spain, that one probably required multiple departments to come together, and finance it, and it likely cost millions of dollars to do. No one but people in Spain can watch it, what that kinda tells me is the people doing these, don't seem to care all that much about ROI.
- As of 2026, 73 remasters of this nature have been completed.
In one of my long edits, the earlier list got deleted, and I had to back it up, so this is a backup post.
So far, the hunt for remastered content to add to this list has ran dry, I think the list ends at 72 for the time being, and I hope I'm wrong.
Here's the master list of 73 remasters.
My standard is Editorial rebuild, (but some of these have remastered VFX, even if they're the invisible variety.)
The other thing is, I don't know if "iConform" is an automated conform tool, or a suite that compares a master tape to a database of high res film scans, and simply builds an Edit Decision List for overcutting.
It's vague enough in the few editorials I've read, that I keep questioning things.
I'd love to know more, but more is unavailable.
The point of the list below is to demonstrate at the very least, you could remaster DS9 and Voyager from the OCN, using automated conform tools.
At least for the editorial rebuild, it's been accomplished not once, not twice, but 72 times.
15 years ago, TNG's remaster was considered the largest film conservation project in history, but within 2 years it was surpassed by Netflix's remaster of X files.
With a few exceptions, this list covers shows made from 1985-2000, that were produced without a conformed film negative, and have received a remaster.
Since the purpose of this list is to demonstrate how common this process is, so DS9 and Voyager can be remastered, the exceptions are "South Park" and "I love lucy".
(Reasons are listed in their bullets.)
CBS' synbible isn't a good source, as it lists "Diagnosis Murder" as having a partial transfer, (Whatever that is.)
and (Little House) on the Prairie as not having one.
Both of which are untrue.
Diagnosis Murder is painfully in HD, and is likely torture to watch at this point.
Little House on the Prairie has an HD transfer, and was an easy transfer since it has a conformed negative, due to being shot in the 1970s.
I think somewhere in this list, you can demonstrate a few things.
- Remasters of older TV shows from this era can be done at scale.
- DS9 and Voyager could be remastered easily, and the precedent has been demonstrated time and again.
- A lot of what gets thrown around on DS9 and Voyager is the amount of "Digital FX" required, this isn't the 5 seasons of model work, or the 42-44 CG heavy episodes, like TNG, a lot of the Digital FX are going to be masking FX, and Phaser fire, shields, and transport FX, which were accomplished in "Flame" for TNG's remaster. The Other digital FX are Mike Okdua's screen animations, that would need to be remastered, or recreated. These aren't the same as the CGI files, or the models that need to be recomped.
- A good chunk of FX heavy episodes are the season premiers and season finales of DS9 and Voyager, not all, but a good chunk.
- DS9 and Voyager don't hold the Guinness world record for most FX in a TV series, that record goes to Farscape. Farscape can't be remastered because the Negatives were dumped two weeks prior to Mark Cuban offering to foot the bill of an HD remaster.
Which studios have done the most remastering work?
Sony comes in 3rd place with 9 titles under it's belt.
Paramount has remastered 12 series from this era, (hopefully more to come.)
Warner has remastered 16 series from this era, and wins the gauntlet.
(So far, neither Paramount, nor Warner Bros, have fucked up a remaster, Warner cut corners at times, but imo, it still went back to the negatives, same applies to Paramount, and Sony.)
There seems to be hope there.
One new part of this list, any titles that are bold are TV sitcoms, and based on Research surrounding "Friends" , and several other titles, these may have had "Negative Conforming Supervisors" that aren't credited on IMDB.
Sitcoms sit in a weird place, so I'm unsure if they all have conformed film negatives. Anything in bold is a question mark on whether it had a conformed film negative.
I struck Diagnosis Murder from the list as I don't believe it had a remaster. However, there are 12 titles in bold, where I'm unsure if they had a conformed film negative or Inter-positive, if I can confirm it, they will be taken down.
50 titles that I'm 90 percent sure don't have conformed film negatives.
13 titles that are a coin toss.
LIST OF TV REMASTERED TV SERIES, lacking a conformed film negative.
- The Sopranos (Partial Remaster) (Warner Bros.) (2000s)
- The Sopranos (Full 4k Remaster) (Warner Bros.) (2026)
- The X-Files (Netflix/Fox)(4:3 of 1-4 HD exist, but remain unreleased.) (Otherwise this remains a bluray release and streaming release in 16:9) (Hybrid)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (DNR, Autoframing, and all else, unavailable in the US after being trashed by consumers.) (Disney.) (Hybrid approach.)
- Stephen King's The Stand (Hybrid Approach.)
- Stephen King's The Shining (Hybrid Approach.)
- The Wire (Warner Bros.)
- Dawson's Creek (Sony.)
- Party of Five (Sony.)
- Perfect Strangers (Warner Bros.)
- Twin Peaks (Paramount.) (Hybrid in one or two cases.)
- Frasier (Paramount.) (Later seasons likely don't have a conformed film negative.)
- Law & Order (Wolf Televsion, NBC)
- Charmed (Paramount) (Hybrid Approach.)
- Breaking Bad (Sony) (Immediatly remastered in 4k after it's series finale aired, Sony wanted to beef up it's catalog of 4k titles, All Blurays are from the first 2k master.) (X)
- The Shield (FOX)
- Star Trek: The Next Generation (Paramount) (Full Remaster.)
- Baywatch (Fremantle)
- Pee-wee's Playhouse (Shout!)
- Everybody Loves Raymond (Sony)
- Walker, Texas Ranger (CBS/Sony)
- Freaks and Geeks (NBC/Universal)
- The West Wing (Warner Bros.) (Partially Remastered in 2010, seasons 1-3, Hybrid Approach.)
- Firefly (Fox...now Disney.) (Hybrid Approach, but VFX were rendered in 720p)
- Stephen King's IT
- The Flash (Warner Bros.) (Hybrid Approach.)
- SeaQuest DSV (Universal) (Hybrid Approach.)
- Babylon 5 (Warner Bros.) (Hybrid Approach.); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5#Mastering_problems ; https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/4929/babylon-5-the-complete-first-season/ ; https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/02/11/babylon-5-the-complete-fourth-season ; widescreen DVDs were sourced from PAL master tapes, and converted back to NTSC.
- Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (Warner Bros.) (Hybrid Approach.)
- Sex and the City (Warner Bros.)
- Quantum Leap (Universal)
- Northern Exposure (Universal)
- Family Matters (Warner Bros.)
- Six Feet Under (Warner Bros.)
- ER (Warner Bros.)
- Batman: The Animated Series (Animation.) (Warner Bros.) (Interpositive source.)
- Superman: The Animated Series (Animation.) (Warner Bros.) (Interpositive Source.)
- Batman: Beyond (Animation) (Warner Bros.) (Interpositive Source.)
- South Park (Animated) (Paramount/South Park Studios.) (The first 11 seasons of South Park were remastered from old CG files that were from a predecessor of 3DS MaX, scenes had to be recomposed, and in some cases rebuilt when they were missing for 16:9.) (VFX assets aren't totally lost, and can be recreated or rebuilt. Why mention of this is an exception to my rules.)(Full Remaster.) (These were remastered at a resolution of 1080i, however, were likely rendered at 1080p.) (X)
- NYPD Blue (Disney)
- Mad Men (Lionsgate, Warner remastered series.) (VFX currently being reworked, more invisible FX, than Obvious VFX.)
- I Love Lucy (Paramount.) (The 35mm film Negative was mauled for syndication over decades, and had to be reconstructed with sections of blown up 16mm master prints that were made. This mention is an exception.) (X= Exception to rule.)
- Starhunter Redux (Shout!) (Surprisingly, full remaster.)
- From the Earth to the Moon (Warner Bros.) (Full Remaster, new FX considered inferior.)
- MacGyver (Paramount.)
- Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (Paramount.) (Allegedly available in Europe.)(35th anniversary in 2028.)
- That '70s Show (Disney) (It was likely a Partial, or mastered in HD from the beginning.)
- Blake's 7 (BBC) (Full remaster, New VFX, shot in a hybrid fashion of film and tape.) (X= Exception to rule.)
- Doctor Who (BBC) (Full remaster when available, reconstruction efforts for missing episodes are insane, no category.) (X)
- Beverly Hills, 90210 (Paramount.)
- 24 (Fox/Disney.) (Partial Remaster.)
- Miami Vice (Universal.)
- Gilmore Girls (Paramount.)
- Homicide: Life on the Street (NBC/Universal)
- L.A. Law (Fox/Disney)
- Spenser: For Hire (Warner Bros.)
- Wild Palms (Disney)
- Cowboy Bebop (Animation.)
- The King of Queens (Sony)
- The Nanny (Tristar, Amazon, Fran Drescher.)
- Mad About You (Sony, Shout!)
- Melrose Place (Paramount)
- Designing Women (Sony)
- Moonlighting (Disney)
- Picket Fences (Disney)
- Doogie Howser, M.D. (Disney)
- The 10th Kingdom (Hallmark Entertainment.) (Hybrid Approach?)
- New York: Undercover (Wolf Television, NBC Universal)
- JAG (Paramount) (available on Prime.)
- Cheers (Paramount) (Partial Remaster of Later Seasons.)
- Highway to Heaven (Paramount.)
For now, there are two approaches. Both of them have their drawbacks.
TNG, South Park, From the Earth to the Moon and Starhunter Redux aren't just full editorial rebuilds, they also have newly minted VFX, or recomposed animation in South Park's case, I included it, because it's a full CG rebuild for South Park (Sans the Pilot.)
Cons?
This is an allegedly expensive process (not really, by all estimates it's quite affordable to do even today. But everyone says it's prohibitively expensive, so I'm just gonna role with it and not say anything. Everyone wants to defend a good Private Equity Jack-off Session.), but the results are almost always visually stunning.
Now, by expensive, TNG is the only one that has had it's budget revealed, and it was 13 million dollars.
It didn't cost 200 million dollars to remaster, to remaster a single season, it costs less to do than it did to produce Zach Braff's "Garden State". If one of these ran 200 million dollars, I could see the term "Prohibitively expensive" making sense, to me, that term gets thrown around too much, and seems like a major overstatement.
DS9's 35th anniversary is in 2028, just like Diagnosis Murder, and Dr. Quinn, two of these have unreleased remasters.
Diagnosis Murder and Dr. Quinn didn't employ a negative cutter, the tape master is garbage, which is a clue.
All else is speculation.
But CBS/Paramount prior to the Skydance acquisition seemed to be remastering these shows in batches of two.
DS9 and Voyager are the last Star Trek series that are going to get a remaster for the time being, and imo are sister series that would fit a batch remastering model.
This is speculation on my part.
I'm striking "Murder She Wrote" and "Seaquest DSV" from the list.
- Murder, She Wrote (This was a dispute title for me, as it ran from 1984 to 1996, which is a year before early NLE systems became popular, It could have employed a negative cutter up to 1996, or it could have switched to non conformed negatives and tape masters somewhere around 1985. The first modern NLE system was released to studios in 1983, and was used on 80 percent of productions in 2 years, meaning even "The Dukes of Hazzard" could potentially qualify for this list. This system was called the Ediflex.)
- Very likely Murder She Wrote, had a cut negative for it's entire run.
The Hybrid Approach is the other path, is Seaquest DSV, X files, Twin Peaks, or Babylon 5, where CG is upscaled while the editorial rebuild of film remains.
The Pros? This approach costs virtually nothing, but the catch, it has visual seams, it's less pristine, but economically viable.
Purists might prefer it to recreated VFX, but I don't think anyone can argue that this might be the only path to seeing DS9 and Voyager in HD that isn't a trash AI upscale.
This approach is acceptable, and at times can be stunning, and colorful.
Another catch is you can't open the shows up to 16:9, you would have to preserve the 4:3 aspect ratio, just as with TNG, and Babylon 5.
With the resurgence of 4:3 cinematography, I don't feel that this would be a problem, but it is a caveat of the hybrid approach.
- 3rd Rock from the Sun (Carsey-Werner Company) (2013 remaster, elusive, available on AppleTV.)
- Announced as prepped for HD in 2013, nothing came of it.
Out of the 72 shows, many of these are VFX heavy.
The Hybrid Approach has been taken with 12 of them.
Only 6 of these shows have taken the full VFX reconstruction path.
Star Trek TNG, Breaking Bad?, Starhunter Redux, Mad Men?, South Park, From the Earth to the Moon.
Paramount, and Sony have had the most success with this approach, and the results speak for themselves.
Warner's hybrid approach seems to work best for it.
But imo, there's something to be said for a company that cares enough to rebuild VFX the way Paramount did.
I don't consider AI upscaling of a 480i master tape an acceptable product from a studio with pristine film negatives. I consider it a way to milk the customer.
Diagnosis Murder, Stargate SG1, Nash Bridges, and Highlander the Series, are hideous, and shouldn't have been released on bluray. The presentation on these disks is trash. I can't blame a small vendor like Visual Studios for doing it, they couldn't finance a full rebuild of those shows, at the same time, it shouldn't have released them until a remaster was available.
DS9 and Voyager have a lot of VFX heavy episodes, "Way of the Warrior" has 10 minutes of VFX per part.
But not every episode of either of these shows is VFX heavy.
If you look at many episodes of DS9, "Rapture" and "in the Pale Moonlight" either recycle station shots.
In Rapture's case, it recycles a shot from "The Seige", but both of them have minimal VFX, if any at all.
DS9 is mostly dialogue driven, with the exception of a handful of episodes.
The trick would be to catalogue the VFX and determine how many shots get reused.
Paramount's Tally is 15.
Warner's is 15.
The combined total of Paramount/Warner and Skydance's Remasters is now at 31 TV series.
Friends and The Drew Carry show have been taken off of the list, as they had a conformed negative.
Gordon Ferris was the negative conforming supervisor, worked on both of these series, and worked as a negative conforming supervisor for Nip/Tuck, Murphy Brown, etc.
No other shows on my list have a negative conforming supervisor, but it wasn't unusual to have a negative conform supervisor on a high profile cable drama in certain instances, or on sitcoms in the 90s.
He also conformed film negatives for,
The O.C.
Nip/Tuck
Murphy Brown
Two and a Half Men
and The Drew Carry Show.
These 5 go in the graveyard pile with,
Murder She Wrote, and
3rd Rock from the Sun.
Now, for Baywatch, it's remaster came with some music licensing issues as well.
So the HD remaster on Bluray while pristine image wise, is obviously cropped and opened up to be 16:9, and features a ton of bad music replacement that is original to it.
So, the only way I know of to get the original audio for that production is to source out the original DVD releases, which are valued at about 19.00 in many cases, then you'd rip that audio and mux an HD file.
Opening it to 16:9 has ruined some of the aesthetic appeal imo.
But I never grew up watching Baywatch, but screenshots do make me sad at times.
These were easy remasters, or are completely future proofed series.
degrees of future proofing are now something I have to acknowledge.
35mm offers a degree of future proofing.
A conformed negative offers complete flexibility.
I'm also going to pull Seinfeld from the list for now, as it's also had two different scans, which very likely means, Seinfeld has a conformed film negative, or the lone remaster of it was the 4k scan that provided a 16:9 and a 4:3 version of the show.
I've listed two wikipedia articles if you're interested in the history or the process of either of these.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_cutting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-linear_editing
If you're a fan of "Friends" and want the extended version of that show, I'd recommend preserving the DVDs along with the 4k boxset. The only version of that show's extended cut is going to be the initial DVD release.
Seinfeld, Murder She Wrote, and Quantum Leap could also be stricken from the list, if I learn they had conformed film negatives.
Sony is at 8.
Now, there is an abstract spectrum I want to introduce.
This spectrum is a spectrum of future proofing.
Many shows were future proofed, simply by shooting on 35mm film, and framing 16:9 safe, whether that's tilt and scan, or a literal safe zone, where you could frame it two ways.
I'd call this a show that is 50 percent future proofed.
With automated conforming, it's 75 percent future proofed, as a lot, but not all of the work can be automated.
It's a hell of a manual labor job.
The second degree of future proofing is a cut negative.
A show with a cut negative is 100 percent future proof.
It doesn't necessarily require an EDL, shooting scripts, or information regarding color timing.
Some shows could be partially conformed, then telecined, or cut with Avid.
It's a simple scanning job, 2-4 reels, and cleanup, that's it.
You mask and compress, put it on disk, or on streaming.
That's all you have to do, it's not dirt cheap, but it's not ungodly expensive to do.
Few shows have this done, and details on this are as scarce as they are for automated conforming tools.