DVD Release Date?

Paramount shot documentary footage of Star Trek: The Experience in Vegas over the last few days it was open which is allegedly going to be included as an extra in the film's dvd release. I'd love it to be true, but it'll be a bit of a cross-timeline mess if it is...

 

*Odd*


J.

 

Quick and Dirty:

"upconverting" is a bit misleading, but it's been used for years now since the advent of HD television. It's actually scaling, taking an image and making it appear larger and clearer. Your DVD player plays a DVD and transmits a signal to your TV at 480i (i = interlaced, where a scan line is made every other line unlike progressive (p) where everything is reproduced from top to bottom. Interlacing saves bandwidth, but looks terrible on HDTVs), that's 720x480, which on a standard definition TV looks great. Your HDTV plays at a resolution of 720p (1280x720 give or take a few pixels here and there), or 1080p (1920x1080).

What your upconverting DVD player does is take that 480i signal and, using an HDMI cable signal and deinterlaces it. This, in ideal circumstances, gives the appearance of sharper, clearer video.

The difference between an "upconverted" and Blu-ray image is night and day. It is dramatic, and Blu-ray looks far superior. You will be disappointed with an upconversion, as it only works as well as the hardware and the source material. 9 times out of 10, you might not even notice an improvement.

Also, a Blu-ray player will upconvert your DVDs and do an excellent job in the process.

One more thing: Depending upon the resolution of your HDTV, remember this:

Your HDTV will either have 720 or 1080 progressive lines to display. The best a DVD will give you is 480 interlaced lines. Now expand that 480 interlaced lines into 720 interlaced lines and then watch as it's converted over to progressive and smoothed over to work out the pixelation. The end result is passable, but passable isn't that good, it's really not. You can get a Magnavox Blu-ray player for $168 at Walmart. An upconverting DVD player is about $65-90. Honestly, it's more than worth the extra bit of money.

Oh, and some examples:

http://www.zonadvd.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=792
http://www.zonadvd.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=761
http://www.zonadvd.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=777

It's almost like removing a cataract from the TV screen.

J.

 

Agreed. I wonder what the marketing plans for the DVD are...

 

I would be really surprised if it was out of theaters before July, so they won't have it on DVD then.

My money is on mid-to-late November.

 

I read somewhere that they're trying to keep it in as many theatres until August as they possibly can.

 

The sooner the better as far as I'm concerned. But considering how long we had to wait for this movie, especially after it was pushed back, this won't be as bad. What will be bad will be waiting for Trek XII. If they're filming next summer, will it be possible for them to finish for Summer 2011?

 

Yeah, that's enough time.

 

You know, I used to think that...until I bought a 73" DLP HDTV. - Now I have two Blu-Ray players (one for the Living Room and one for the 46" LCD HDTV in the bedroom).

 

As I stated in my original post that I'm hoping for something similar to what they did with Iron Man last year (I think it came out sometime in September) wouldn't mind waiting until near Christmas for a proper extras treatment.

 

Why would they want to do a Christmas release for XII when they did summer for XI? I would expect XII to make more money, so shouldn't they release it at a time when it can make more?

 

According to The Digital Bits:

 

It'll be the first Bluray I buy. I'll be getting a brand new Bluray player with it and a HD TV if I don't have one by then.

Nice pre-xmas treat. It'll look stunning in 1080p.

 

The trend seems to be anywhere from 4 - 6 months after a movie initially opens at the Box Office. I suspect we will see an October release. MI:III opened in May at the theaters and was out by the end of October too (same studio).

 

And EVERY HDTV UPCONVERTS. Every one that's ever been made. You don't need a fancy 'upconverting DVD player' to do it.

All HDTVs upconvert. If they didn't, playing a standard definition DVD would result in a tiny postage-stamp-sized image in the middle of the screen surrounded by a foot of black on all sides.

The dilemma is, will your HDTV's upconverter be better or worse than that of an upconverting DVD player? Most HDTVs, it's the former. A decent HDTV will have a better upconverter. If you have such a TV, that's all you need.

In fact, I bought the specific Blu-Ray player I did, because it can DISABLE its own upconverter (for standard def DVDs) - I know my TV will do a better job of it.

 

I may have to get that Blu-Ray for Christmas after all. Tomorrow morning they deliver my new Samsung DLP (yeah, 1080p) baby!

Thanks for all the help.

 

If they want to make money it will be before Black Friday and not after

 

VideoETA.com lists it as October 2009. They're always right.

http://videoeta.com/movie.html?via=form&id=82795

 

The projected date I saw was November 17, 2009. This would make sense as it is just in time for holiday shopping.