Anyone know how we can suggest to CBS to put the Original episode previews on the upcoming Blu-Ray releases of TNG? We've had the TOS trailers since the series VHS/Betamax debut, but for the other series the trailers have only appeared online (and sized for dial-up download) or on CD-Rom for TNG & DS9 using the same files as the Internet releases. It would be nice to see the trailers even in just 480p as bonus content on the discs.
I too would like to see the original preview trailers preserved in some way on the Blu-Ray releases. They helped make TNG an interesting show to keep coming bak to week after week during it's original run 1987-1994.
I only saw a few trailers when the how was on the air, so I was glad to pick up the S&S Companion CD-rom years ago, but the trailers, while in AVI are in a size like 100 by 140, really small, and I've tried playing them on my TV and they do not look good at that size (I've even tried making a VCD of a few upressed to just the 480i level of VCD/VHS and you could barely make out anything).
I think the reason these are not included on the TNG episode sets (SD or HD) is because it would entail paying Ernie Anderson and Don LaFontaine, the announcers for the previews. For some reason since the TOS previews were narrated by series regulars (or was it just Shatner?) using (I think) captain's log entries that were already recorded for the episode, they were able to bypass this issue. There were Japanese R2 (and therefore NTSC) full-resolution DVDs released of the preview trailers for all seasons of TNG and DS9. I bought them on eBay a few years ago fully expecting crappy-quality DVD-R bootlegs, but when I played them I was shocked that they looked for all the world like legit, professionally-authored, Paramount-released DVDs -- pressed (not burned) and authored with LCARS-like menus (much like the series' DVD releases). IIRC the menu text is in Japanese so it's a little tough to figure out the episode you're choosing, but not too bad. I had always planned to merge these with the video from the episodes (inserting them between the last act and the end credits just like they originally aired -- I did the same thing with the SD TOS releases), but I never got around to it. I haven't looked at them in years, but if anyone's interested I'll try to dig up them up. The keepcases will be much tougher to find since I don't store my DVDs in the original packaging (which gets boxed up in my garage -- takes up too much space). I haven't searched eBay or elsewhere for these recently either, but I have to think there are more copies floating around out there.
I could see that issue popping up were we talking about trailers that had never been distributed on some form of physical home media before (such as Voyager's or Enterprise's trailers). But considering that they were included on a Companion CD-Rom back in 1999 that, while a computer program, was intended for distribution and playback in homes and, as far as I understand it, would not fall under digital download (which would be the rights that CBS/Paramount would've had to clear before putting them on startrek.com) . So Ernie Anderson and Don LaFontaine have already signed off on rights to distribute the trailers with their voices to a home audience.
I got a hold of those too! Many moons ago when I was learning Adobe Encore, I even created full motion English menus with music and sound effects (and even an Easter egg feature!) to complement the existing region 1 DVDs. It was fun and exhausting and entirely too much work for a bunch of corny TV spots. But hey, I'm a nerd.