EPCOT Spaceship Earth refurbishment coming soon?

[jah4955]

There have been discussions about bringing the Chariot back within the last few years. At one point it seemed so close to happening, and then WDI came into the building and ripped the old projector out.

It could technically still return, that projector bay is empty, but it’s not as easy as flipping a switch like it used to be.

Projection technology has advanced a long way since 1982 so it shouldn't be difficult to bring it back or maybe even improve it.

Having it back would go a long way imo.

Actually it's not. The mannequins from the Peppers Ghost Videophone scene are still there but everything from the model city on was removed in 2007.

I watched @marni1971 's 1994 tribute again today. Although I rode all versions, the video reminded me that it truly is the best ending to-date.

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

Got to ride today, projectors are all noticeably new and better aside from the physical cave scene which needs work. You can see the full rectangle from the projector scattered on the wall which looks bad. On-vehicle screens are new but difficult to notice much of a difference. Displays appear to be higher resolution, but they are still playing the original low res 2007 media which negates much of any improvement. They sadly look like QLED panels to me because none of the individual pixels ever turn off like you would expect from OLED. If they are OLED, the screen media needs to be rerendered to take advantage of the new display (this should really be done either way if this version of the ride is sticking around for the next few years). Unfortunately all that work for the screen media was outsourced and would cost Disney money to redo for an incarnation of SSE that is hopefully on its way out, so this won’t happen.

The main thing they did in this refurb was replace all the building’s smoke detectors, and I said that this wouldn’t be noticeable but I ended up being very wrong. Every new smoke detector has a little green light that blinks in unison every ten seconds (pulled out my phone’s stopwatch to check lol). This is a minor annoyance if anything but just something to note.

As part of this refurb the Project Tomorrow projectors were removed and messed with, but they were not replaced. These projectors are 20 years old and hit their EOL ages ago, maintaining them has been a nightmare for a while now. There have been pitches to replace them, but again, considered prohibitively expensive. Unfortunately they are much worse now than they ever were before, as the center globe seems to be having really bad convergence and alignment issues.

Overall it is nice to see SSE get some love, but it’s not much more than routine maintenance (as we all hopefully expected). I hope the proper refurb happens sometime soon and all this work being done now helps expedite that process.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Every new smoke detector has a little green light that blinks in unison every ten seconds (pulled out my phone’s stopwatch to check lol).

That includes in 180top? Maybe we can just pretend they're satellites.

 

[Biff215]

Got to ride today, projectors are all noticeably new and better aside from the physical cave scene which needs work. You can see the full rectangle from the projector scattered on the wall which looks bad. On-vehicle screens are new but difficult to notice much of a difference. Displays appear to be higher resolution, but they are still playing the original low res 2007 media which negates much of any improvement. They sadly look like QLED panels to me because none of the individual pixels ever turn off like you would expect from OLED. If they are OLED, the screen media needs to be rerendered to take advantage of the new display (this should really be done either way if this version of the ride is sticking around for the next few years). Unfortunately all that work for the screen media was outsourced and would cost Disney money to redo for an incarnation of SSE that is hopefully on its way out, so this won’t happen.

The main thing they did in this refurb was replace all the building’s smoke detectors, and I said that this wouldn’t be noticeable but I ended up being very wrong. Every new smoke detector has a little green light that blinks in unison every ten seconds (pulled out my phone’s stopwatch to check lol). This is a minor annoyance if anything but just something to note.

As part of this refurb the Project Tomorrow projectors were removed and messed with, but they were not replaced. These projectors are 20 years old and hit their EOL ages ago, maintaining them has been a nightmare for a while now. There have been pitches to replace them, but again, considered prohibitively expensive. Unfortunately they are much worse now than they ever were before, as the center globe seems to be having really bad convergence and alignment issues.
View attachment 888480
Overall it is nice to see SSE get some love, but it’s not much more than routine maintenance (as we all hopefully expected). I hope the proper refurb happens sometime soon and all this work being done now helps expedite that process.

This is the first report I’ve read that claims the screens are new. Thanks for all the info.

 

[dmc493]

The main thing they did in this refurb was replace all the building’s smoke detectors, and I said that this wouldn’t be noticeable but I ended up being very wrong. Every new smoke detector has a little green light that blinks in unison every ten seconds (pulled out my phone’s stopwatch to check lol). This is a minor annoyance if anything but just something to note.

I knew I wasn’t going crazy, it’s the first thing I noticed and yes it’s in the 180top too but if you blink you might’ve thought they were just stars. In the rest of the bldg tho I couldn’t stop looking at them. Will be interested if the avg guest notices it

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

This is the first report I’ve read that claims the screens are new. Thanks for all the info.

I don’t think I would have noticed if I didn’t know screen replacements were part of the project scope ahead of time. Functionally no difference for the time being, other than perhaps the more washed out displays some cars used to have are now looking better.

 

[jah4955]

On-vehicle screens are new but difficult to notice much of a difference.

This tells me we're stuck with the 2007 ending for a while yet to come?

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

This tells me we're stuck with the 2007 ending for a while yet to come?

I see it as future proofing. Screens aren’t going anywhere when the proper refurb happens, they just hopefully won’t be used aside from the language select screen

 

[trainplane3]

On-vehicle screens are new but difficult to notice much of a difference. Displays appear to be higher resolution, but they are still playing the original low res 2007 media which negates much of any improvement. They sadly look like QLED panels to me because none of the individual pixels ever turn off like you would expect from OLED. If they are OLED, the screen media needs to be rerendered to take advantage of the new display (this should really be done either way if this version of the ride is sticking around for the next few years). Unfortunately all that work for the screen media was outsourced and would cost Disney money to redo for an incarnation of SSE that is hopefully on its way out, so this won’t happen.

I don't think they're OLED at all. Looking at the pictures, they have that glow regular LCD displays have. And you shouldn't have to re-render anything to look better if they were OLED. There would be a noticeable difference just in the lack of screen glow from the screen if it were OLED.

 

[HMF]

This tells me we're stuck with the 2007 ending for a while yet to come?

Unfortunately, We already knew that.

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

I don't think they're OLED at all. Looking at the pictures, they have that glow regular LCD displays have. And you shouldn't have to re-render anything to look better if they were OLED. There would be a noticeable difference just in the lack of screen glow from the screen if it were OLED.

Yeah, I don’t think they’re OLED. Wondering if there was a mixup with someone misreading QLED or if they just decided to cheap out. Quick way to tell would be checking vehicle 192, assuming the test panel they had in it hasn’t also been replaced as part of this downtime.

 

[jah4955]

Unfortunately, We already knew that.

yes...but I was hoping they'd at least not replace screens (except for those that were actually broken)....with the logic they'd fall apart sooner to become an additional motivator for re-imagining the ending sooner rather than later.

 

[Pájaro Naranja]

Disney has the money and resources to give Spaceship Earth the major refurb it deserves but they keep kicking the can down the road. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[tparris]

I see it as future proofing. Screens aren’t going anywhere when the proper refurb happens, they just hopefully won’t be used aside from the language select screen

Screens won’t be removed even with the big refurb? I know the 2020 redo got axed but wasn’t the plan with that one to remove the vehicle screens completely?

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

Screens won’t be removed even with the big refurb? I know the 2020 redo got axed but wasn’t the plan with that one to remove the vehicle screens completely?

Nope, screens were always staying even with that refurb. Think about it, the language select is a quality of life feature that makes SSE more accessible. Removing the screens would mean taking time and money to chop them off and fill the holes in every vehicle, plus removing the language select. Don’t believe removing them was ever even really considered.

 

[HMF]

yes...but I was hoping they'd at least not replace screens (except for those that were actually broken)....with the logic they'd fall apart sooner to become an additional motivator for re-imagining the ending sooner rather than later.

Yes, I am hoping that the screens disappear during the next refurb too.

 

[HMF]

Disney has the money and resources to give Spaceship Earth the major refurb it deserves but they keep kicking the can down the road. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They also have the resources to fix the yeti and several dozen other things they could do but won't