3 replies to this topic

[Alex]

Okay, so most of these are just repackaged versions of previously released standalone sets, but those of you who might not have picked them up yet might wish to do so. Note that these are all US releases, and that the movies are all "new" in some capacity whether it's just a new scan, or an entirely new format.

 

TNG–R Complete Series Set: www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Generation-Complete-Blu-ray/dp/B01BP06ENA

 

I'm listing TNG–R first since high sales could be the push necessary to get DS9–R off the ground. If you've been holding out for a complete series set, you've now got the chance to own one. (I've put my money where my mouth is on this and have already pre–ordered this.) If the set is still a little too pricey for you to splurge on all at once, Best Buy seems to have it split into seasons 1–4 and 5–7 for anyone who wants to spend a bit less, although you lose out on the awesome box art of the series set.

 

TOS–R Complete Series Set: www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Original-Complete-Blu-ray/dp/B01CJW334Q

 

Unlike the earlier set that just slapped the season sets together and called them a series set, this set is actually packaged as a series set. It has a DVD counterpart using the remastered episodes that's been available for awhile now.

 

TWoK Director's Cut: www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-II-Directors-Blu-ray/dp/B01AI7QPM6

 

This has been rescanned from the film negatives and remastered in 4K; it includes both the theatrical and director's cuts of the film, (Lucasfilm should take notes for the next release of the first six Star Wars films; this is how it should be done,) and will ship the same day as the other sets mentioned above. Note that this is a standard Blu–Ray, so you won't actually be seeing 4K UHD on this release. However, that being said, Paramount has said a 4K UHD Blu–Ray release could come later this year, assuming that the 4K UHD Blu–Ray releases of the JJ–verse films do well, so if you want to actually see TWoK in 4K UHD, grab the JJ–verse films even if you do so for no other reason than showing Paramount that you'll pay for more 4K Trek.

 

Star Trek XI: www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-XI-Blu-ray-Xi/dp/B01DY8NDBM

 

This is the 4K UHD Blu–Ray release; note the use of HDR which allows for a wider range of colors to be displayed on the screen. This will give you those deep "movie theater blacks" and bright "movie theater whites" that HDTVs just can't reproduce accurately, as well as the additional colors that are lost going from digital cinema to HDTV. If you don't buy this for the resolution, it's worth the money for the improved color fidelity if you can take advantage of it. Remember, this could be the difference between 4K UHD Blu–Ray TWoK, and just having a standard Blu–Ray release.

 

Star Trek Into Darkness: www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Into-Darkness-Blu-ray/dp/B01DY8AWNO

 

See comments above; everything is pretty much the same here as it is for Trek XI. Again though, remember that this could be the difference between a 4K version of TWOK joining this list in the future.

 

The TAS Blu–Ray set from the other thread isn't available yet, but this should keep most people busy for awhile. Likewise, the only other HD–ready series, Enterprise, still hasn't been compiled into a series set for US consumers, although hopefully that'll change soon. I'm really hoping that I'm not the only one whose buying the TNG–R box set though; I desparately want DS9–R and VOY–R, and more sales of that set could finally make it happen. Then again, I'm even willing to choke down 4K UHD Blu–Ray STID to get to 4K UHD Blu–Ray TWOK.

 

UPDATE: Fixed the TWOK link; my apologies for the typo.

Edited by Alex, 27 April 2016 - 01:40 PM.

[Alteran195]

I've never seen the 2009 Star Trek movie referred to as Star Trek XI and it really confused me for a couple seconds. 

 

$50 for a Blu-Ray seems incredibly expensive, I know it's 4K, but I don't see myself ever spending that much on a single movie.

 

Also, your link to the TWoK movie is the same link as the TOS-R series. 

[Alex]

First an addendum; Barnes & Noble currently has the TNG–R set listed for $167.77, so if you're interested in it and find the $208.99 to be a bit too steep, but still want a full series box set, you might want to pre–order the set from B&N instead. Additionally, TWOK is now listed for $14.99 on Amazon, whereas this morning it was still the full $22.98, so if you want to lock in a pre–order price with a 35% discount, you can now do that as well.

 

I've never seen the 2009 Star Trek movie referred to as Star Trek XI and it really confused me for a couple seconds. 

 

$50 for a Blu-Ray seems incredibly expensive, I know it's 4K, but I don't see myself ever spending that much on a single movie.

 

Also, your link to the TWoK movie is the same link as the TOS-R series. 

Alteran195, the 2009 movie was frequently referred to as "Star Trek XI," or just "Trek XI" around here and elsewhere throughout the course of its development. While it began in the same vein as referring to the next James Bond film as "Bond 25," and was intended to be replaced by a proper title, the term "Trek XI" stuck once J.J. Abrams made the decision to refer to the film simply as "Star Trek." The reason it stuck was that "Star Trek" could refer to the franchise as a whole, the original series, the first motion picture, and the 2009 movie, and with TMP's 30th anniversary occuring in the same year as Trek XI, there needed to be some sort of shorthand to really make it clear at a glance which film was being referenced, and Trek XI was already in use as a way to distinguish the then–new film. I can't blame you for not having seen it referenced that way before, as we really haven't discussed it much around here in awhile though. I prefer the term "Trek XI" to the other shorthand term that cropped up later on, "Trek '09," because it's consistent with the old numbering system that even Paramount has retroactively applied to the packaging of the earlier films (e.g. "Star Trek X: Nemesis,") and reinforces the idea that the JJ–verse is still connected to the Prime Universe, even if only by a single Romulan ship. For the purpose of this post, I wanted to be clear that "Star Trek" didn't refer to TMP or TOS, particularly since I felt just using the term "Star Trek" might mislead some people into believing that TOS had received a previously unannounced 4K Blu–Ray release, which wasn't the case. Likewise, I decided against describing "Into Darkness" as Star Trek XII/Star Trek 12 or Star Trek 2, specifically because it didn't need to be labeled as Star Trek XII for anyone to be absolutely clear on what it was, and labeling it as Star Trek 2 might cause someone glancing at the titles to assume it was TWOK. (This is part of the reason I despise the "Star Trek 2" naming convention for STID, and prefer when it's labeled "Star Trek 12" when described by installment number.) I didn't mean to confuse you, and I honestly thought everyone here was familiar with the Trek XI monikker.

 

As for the 4K UHD Blu–Rays, I can't remember where I originally saw this, but someone actually did the math and concluded that the pricing is in line with what's currently available. The current Blu–Ray+DVD+Digital Copy 3–disc set is going for $26.05 on Amazon, factor in the removal of the DVD as taking about $7.50 off the value of the set, and you're left with material worth $18.55. Now factor in that the going rate just for 4K streaming is about $30 dollars a film, and factor in the $18.55 value of the standard HD Blu–Ray and digital copy, and $47.99 actually looks pretty reasonable for a 4K UHD Blu–Ray+Blu–Ray+Digital Copy set. While you can get a set that omits some extras for as little as $9.96, the older sets may have expired digital copy codes as well, so this actually isn't too unreasonable; early domestic DVD releases could easily go for $30 dollars, early domestic Blu–Ray releases retailed for about $40, and now we've got 4K UHD Blu–Ray releases retailing for about $8 dollars more rather than a full $10 dollars more, and they're including the regular Blu–Ray release along with a digital copy, which is something neither previous format did at launch. I'm not saying that the set is cheap, but most other 4K UHD Blu–Ray releases are going for $29.99, and Trek typically comes with a mark–up, so this doesn't seem too inconsistent. I don't think it would hurt to knock $10 off of the price though and ask for $38 instead of $48, which does seem a bit excessive. Then again, the STID Blu–Ray set that I own with the Blu–Ray+3D Blu–Ray+DVD+Digital Copy is currently going for $68.98 on Amazon, so next to that the 4K UHD Blu–Ray looks insanely reasonable in terms of price. For reference, the original 3–Disc edition of Trek XI is currently going for $34.04, and originally retailed for $39.99. The more recent releases from 2013 are going for signficantly less though, but it looks like some material may be missing from those. Remember, UHD Blu–Ray is still extremely new; the prices will come down over time, but buying into it now is like investing in DVD in '96/'97 or Blu–Ray in '06/'07; the prices are still quite high. Of course, given that I've imported discs from Japan before, I'm kind of used to paying $60 a pop for certain titles, so Paramount's sticker–shock might not seem as outrageous to me as it might to others. (I also remember when a single season of TNG cost $120 for a DVD set and nobody had them on sale.)

 

Finally, thank you for letting me know about the TWOK link; it's been updated, and I've also made note of a pre–order price reduction above. Hopefully that's a good sign that this is selling, and that might also be a good way to convince Paramount to release it on 4K UHD Blu–Ray sooner rather than later.

 

UPDATE: TWOK has returned to full price.

Edited by Alex, 03 May 2016 - 11:48 PM.

[Alex]

***TNG–R First Impressions & TWOK Director's Cut Update***

First, a minor update regarding the TWOK Director's Cut Blu–Ray. While this new release combines all of the bonus material from the previous Director's Cut DVD and theatrical Blu–Ray release, and includes the original theatrical cut of the film, I feel it's worth noting that there's one minor alteration made to the Director's Cut itself at Nick Meyer's insistance, which is the removal of a couple of seconds of footage where Kirk tells Spock that David is his son, and Spock replies "Fascinating" in typical Spock fashion. Apparently Meyer didn't want the scene included in the original DVD release, and was finally able to convince CBS Inc. to drop it from the Blu–Ray version. (The audience already knows David is Kirk's son, so the scene is kind of redunant, which is apparently why Meyer wanted it out removed.) Aside from a few seconds of footage being removed though, the release is identical to it's DVD counterpart. I felt this was worth mentioning for the sake of accuracy, but whether or not it benefits or harms the director's cut is beyond the scope of this post.

 

Moving on, my TNG–R Blu–Ray Box Set arrived on June 7th, (given that this was the official "release date," I'm guessing CBS Inc. had a "severe street date" for this release,) and I opened it up today, which means it's time for first impressions. The first thing I did was examine the fine print on the bottom of the box, which reveals some interesting information about the release as a whole. While most people who buy this set won't be affected by this information, CBS was careful to note that the German audio track is predominantly mono for the first season, (as it was originally,) but that "Encounter at Farpoint" is presented with stereo sound. More relevant to most consumers however is the use of DTS–HD Master Audio for the English audio track, which is a huge step forward from what we've had in previous releases as far as sound is concerned. Moving onto even more important information related to overall image quality, CBS was also careful to note that a handful of episodes were missing some of their original film elements, and that those episodes had some footage upscaled from standard definition videotape. While this shouldn't be news to people who followed TNG–R as it was being created, I definitely appreciate CBS Inc. being thorough about this, listing each of the specific episodes affected on the outer packaging, along with the approximate amount of footage that had to be upconverted from standard definition tape. I also feel it's worth mentioning that it's literally only a handful of episodes that are affected by this, with no episode even having a full two minutes of upconverted material, and the total amount of upscaled footage for the entire series totalling roughly five minutes, out of hundreds of hours worth of material. As for the rest of the outer box itself, it looks just as gorgeous in person as it does in promotional artwork, with one side having a really cool image of Picards "...it's continuing mission" printed on a photo of the crew, which even caught my girlfriend's eyes. When the box is empty, there's also a lovely starfield on the inside of it where most releases would have been cheap and just left things blank. Overall, this is just a nice touch in terms of presentation, and makes me feel like I'm definitely getting the most out of the $208.99 that this set goes for.

 

Inside of the "outer box" are two "inner cases" with "Seasons 1–4," and "Seasons 5–7" respectively, with the former having a "Tactical Gold" color on the spine and the latter having a "Command Burgandy" color on said spine. In addition to this complete series box set, TNG–R is also sold at Best Buy in "Seasons 1–4" and "Seasons 5–7" sets, which are just the "inner cases" sold separately without the "outer box." (If anyone needs links, let me know and I'll try to put them up here for you.) The "inner cases" are clear plastic containers similar to the ones used by other Blu–Ray/DVD distributors (e.g. Shout! Factory, Right Stuf! et. al.,) for other Blu–Ray/DVD releases, although the size of these cases is noteably larger than what most sets would require. Also, because of the aforementioned case size, the portion of the packaging that actually holds the discs is separate from the rest of the case, unlike on similar cases where the packaging is all effectively one piece. On one hand, this style of packaging has an immediate advantage, which is that you can lift the discs out of the incredibly deep cases and flip through them easily to get the one you want without having to wrangle with the massive case, but on the other hand, having it separate from the outer case does pose some challenges, particularly on the "Seasons 5–7" box which I had to play with a bit to close back up again. These cases definitely feel like they were intended for this box set, and that selling them separately was an afterthought though, although it probably would have been even better if CBS Inc. had split the cases into "Seasons 1–3, Seasons 4 & 5, and Seasons 6 & 7," or a similar configuration allowing for slightly smaller boxes, and the inclusion of "medical blue" on one of the spines, although I totally "get" why CBS packaged the discs the way that they did. Removing the portion of the case that contains the actual discs is easy though, so overall the packaging is pretty good.

 

The disc trays themselves are simultaneously an improvement and a step backwards from previous Trek releases though. In the past, Trek discs typically had one disc on a single "page" of a tray, followed by another of the same, and another, and another etc. This release puts two discs on each side of a "page," and while I don't necessarily mind that, the discs do overlap each other, which is definitely something that I'm not fond of on any release. Having said that, there is a positive to this packaging which is that the discs are much easier to get out than they are in previous sets where you had to fight with the packaging, so overall I'm happy with the way these were packaged.

As for the actual discs, the front is completely blue with the logo and other information displayed in a shiny "silver" for lack of a better term, which does give the disc a nice, classy look to them. One thing I didn't like is that at least one disc in each case had come lose in transit, but given that these are Blu–Rays, and that they're coated with a material that supposedly withstands an attack from a  phillips–head screwdriver, neither disc displayed a scratch, which would not have been the case if these had been DVDs, so as long as the discs aren't getting damaged, the packaging is fine for these releases.

When it comes to the show itself, these seem to be identical to previous TNG–R releases, so if you know what those look like, that's what you'll be getting. There are plenty of clips of TNG–R floating around, but I'll say that there's definitely a noticeable improvment in quality on TNG–R as a whole, and it's definitely a worthwhile Blu–Ray purchase. All in all, I highly recommend this set, and hope that it's the kick in the pants necessary to get DS9–R and VOY–R underway, as I'd love for those to be the next two Blu–Ray box sets in my collection. If you don't have TNG–R on Blu–Ray, definitely pick up this set or the separate seasons 1–4 and 5–7 sets; these are definitely worth the money, and the only reason I didn't buy these sooner is that I was waiting for a complete series box set. Now that such a set exists, I'm thrilled to finally own TNG–R myself.