why another blu-ray of all Trek movies by 2016 will happen

[BillJ]

I agree with the above posts. I've been a big fan of blu-ray for years, and I used to constantly extol its virtues whenever someone asked. However, very few people I know bother to buy blu-rays. Even people who have decent displays and blu-ray players still buy DVDs (when they buy a physical medium at all).

I don't understand? I really don't. I've heard people complain about pricing, but lots of things are only a couple dollars difference, at most. I saw Jurassic World listed on Amazon and the price difference between the two formats was fifty-five cents.

I don't think we'll ever see 4K discs of deep catalog titles like ST; I also doubt we'll see a new blu-ray set next year, unless it's just a repackaging. I'd be glad to have to eat my keyboard, though!

Same here. I'd love to be wrong.

 

[Lance]

I agree with the above posts. I've been a big fan of blu-ray for years, and I used to constantly extol its virtues whenever someone asked. However, very few people I know bother to buy blu-rays. Even people who have decent displays and blu-ray players still buy DVDs (when they buy a physical medium at all).

I don't understand? I really don't. I've heard people complain about pricing, but lots of things are only a couple dollars difference, at most. I saw Jurassic World listed on Amazon and the price difference between the two formats was fifty-five cents.

I know. It is mad. But it's a reality. I know loads of people who are happy to save fifty-five cents by buying the DVD versions instead of the Blu-Ray, and I just shake my head in disbelief that they've got state-of-the-art equipment but won't stump up the piddling extra amount for the Blu-Ray disc. And then, they use streaming for HD and they say how much ''better'' it is than DVD. Madness.

Frankly, it all comes back down to bad marketing. Blu-Ray didn't establish itself far enough away from DVD in the marketplace; the differences in the format weren't sold to consumers well enough, so they kept buying DVDs, which meant the studios couldn't discontinue the old format because it was still making them tonnes of cash... right up to point where streaming came along and stole the thunder of both physical media formats.

I'm a convert to Blu-Ray and I'll extoll its virtues from the rooftops, but I can't defend how poorly its done in the marketplace comparative to where I imagine the studios expected it to go. By most any measure, it just hasn't washed with the public at large.

 

[KarmicCurse]

When blu-rays first came out they were wildly overpriced. $30 for one movie? That immediately creates a niche market. Then there was the ridiculous practice of putting the DVD in there and charging for both. What is anyone buying a blu-ray supposed to do with the same movie on DVD?

Prices have dropped recently and the BD/DVD packages are less frequent.

I've learned to just wait for big sales at either Best Buy or getting buy-two-get-one-free used at FYE. I end up paying about $5 for blu-rays. It's just about patience.

I would be more willing to buy new to support the market if it wasn't for the cynical double dipping and double packaging.

And in the end, while the difference between BD/DVD is there, it's just not as big a leap for me as DVD/VHS. I think a lot of people say "Better, but not better enough to bother."

 

[BillJ]

When blu-rays first came out they were wildly overpriced. $30 for one movie?

This is the way it is when ever a new format comes out. It cost $1400 to own the complete TOS on VHS. Movies were insanely priced in the early days of VHS. DVD's weren't cheap when they were introduced.

 

[Kemaiku]

These days the price difference between the two is marginal or close to zero in some cases.

I have nearly all my must have movies on Bluray finally since the prices came way down. But it's still a small collection and I use my PS4, not a dedicated player, just spent the money on a good HDMI to my HDTV.

I'm not sure if BR sales have really picked up in the last couple of years but I don't think they're as good as studios were hoping.

 

[BillJ]

I'm not sure if BR sales have really picked up in the last couple of years but I don't think they're as good as studios were hoping.

They never had the balls to phase out DVD. I imagine Disney could prop the format up alone, if they went forward only releasing movies on Blu-ray.

 

[Kemaiku]

If they went entirely Bluray or allowed full 1080p downloads equivalent to the disc iso in size over Amazon or iTunes that would be one thing.

But churning out even cheaper DVD's, 720 and tiny 1080 (4-5GB rather than the 17-20GB of the iso) versions has to be undermining it.

They need to be more consistent with their releases and if they want people to ditch physical, give them the full size/quality digital release for a good price.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

They never had the balls to phase out DVD.

With two different levels of resolution and a huge user base of standard definition televisions in use still in 2009 CBS Home Video was not going to only release Star Trek TOS in Blu-ray. Too much money on the table to not cash in on.

If they went entirely Bluray or allowed full 1080p downloads equivalent to the disc iso in size over Amazon or iTunes that would be one thing.

They need to be more consistent with their releases and if they want people to ditch physical, give them the full size/quality digital release for a good price.

I think this DVD/Blu-ray exact scenario will happen again between 2016 and 2020 with 2 physical format releases from CBS Home Video for the Trek TOS, TNG, and JJnuTrek feature films for home video on Blu-ray (1080p) and Ultra HD Blu-ray "4K" which is technically just under 4k with UHD resolution being 3840×2160p using the HEVC/H.265 codec.

Sure streaming is gaining speed but people will still buy physical formats for the next 10 years.

 

[Lance]

They never had the balls to phase out DVD.

With two different levels of resolution and a huge user base of standard definition televisions in use still in 2009 CBS Home Video was not going to only release Star Trek TOS in Blu-ray. Too much money on the table to not cash in on.

While I totally see what you're saying, the reality is therefore that the roll-out of Blu-Ray was flawed. It worked on a two-pronged assumption that people would upgrade their TVs to be able to watch HD, and that people would buy Blu-Ray to take full advantage of the extra resolution. There was also Sony's belief that the PS3's ability to play Blu-Ray discs would feed into this plan and convince the masses to wholesale upgrade. It evidently didn't.

Basically, I think they failed in their implementation of the newer format. They didn't ''sell'' the benefits of the upgrade to the public well enough, and many of the earliest Blu-Ray discs (including most of the Trek movies) suffered from ridiculous DNR that made actors look like waxwork figures, when even Joe Schmoe from Idaho was able to see that wasn't the case on the DVD versions.

The bottom line is, they screwed up big time, and the Blu-Ray media never fully recovered from these early mistakes in the eyes of consumers.

I think this DVD/Blu-ray exact scenario will happen again between 2016 and 2020 with 2 physical format releases from CBS Home Video for the Trek TOS, TNG, and JJnuTrek feature films for home video on Blu-ray (1080p) and Ultra HD Blu-ray "4K" which is technically just under 4k with UHD resolution being 3840×2160p using the HEVC/H.265 codec.

Sure streaming is gaining speed but people will still buy physical formats for the next 10 years.

Then unless they've learned the mistakes from last time, they may be fated to repeat them... and I *certainly* don't share your confidence that physical media has got 10 years left in it (I say that as someone who prefers physical media and who will support it to it's dying day, but digital platforms are gaining ground exceptionally fast).

 

[martok2112]

Then there was the ridiculous practice of putting the DVD in there and charging for both. What is anyone buying a blu-ray supposed to do with the same movie on DVD?

If I'm not mistaken, and I could very well be, I think Disney started that trend, and then other companies caught on. The idea: Lots of family vehicles (SUV's, motor homes, luxury cars, etc) can be outfitted with DVD players. (At the time, blu-ray was probably not considered a viable option because one can get a DVD player now for about 25 bucks. Outfitting with a blu-ray player is just "pimping my ride now" ) This was a great option for families that were going on vacation, and had kids who wanted to watch their favorite movies while on the road. By putting the blu-ray and dvd in the same package, the kids could take their favorite movies on the go, and parents did not have to pay twice for a blu ray, and then a dvd copy. Besides, I'm sure that to the average five year old, high definition is not exactly an issue when it comes to watching their favorite Disney cartoon.

Prices have dropped recently and the BD/DVD packages are less frequent.

From what I've seen, yes, prices have indeed dropped some, but the package options are more varied, and have not dropped in frequency.

You now have packages that are Blu-Ray 3D + Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital Download or Cloud Streaming. Or Just Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital Download. Or just Blu-Ray + DVD. Or just Blu-Ray. Or just DVD. It depends on how many options you want with your purchase. Myself, I always go for the most options when I can, especially considering that at some point in the future, I do plan on getting a 3D tv.

I've learned to just wait for big sales at either Best Buy or getting buy-two-get-one-free used at FYE. I end up paying about $5 for blu-rays. It's just about patience.

Wait! FYE's still exist?

And in the end, while the difference between BD/DVD is there, it's just not as big a leap for me as DVD/VHS. I think a lot of people say "Better, but not better enough to bother."

Actually, I'd say the difference is about as night and day betwen BD/DVD as DVD/VHS.

I remembered A/B watching Star Trek The Motion Picture Director's Edition on VHS and Blu-Ray. The differences were very stark. Until I'd seen the DVD version, the VHS version was just fine for me. Once I'd seen the difference, my VHS purchases dropped sharply.

Same thing with Blu-Ray. The picture quality compared to DVD is the same as DVD/VHS. You can especially tell this when backing up one's blu-rays and dvd's to an HDD. (I usually do this in the mp4 format.) The difference is pretty obvious.

But, ripping aside, I also would have to say that the difference is natively pretty obvious. I recently watched a blu-ray copy of the pilot for the original Battlestar Galactica, and I'd noticed a few things that I had never seen before, either on broadcast, or on VHS or DVD.

But, as you said, not everyone wants to jump to blu-ray when the picture they're used to on DVD is good enough. However, once they've seen the difference... well.... as they say:

 

[Lance]

^ Competely agree martok2112. Since I've been converted to the Blu-Ray cause, my viewing of standard DVDs has become much less enjoyable. I see all the compression artifacts and faults, where once I didn't even used to notice them at all.

 

[Smellmet]

I'm a total convert to blu-ray, the picture and sound is just as big a jump as VHS was to DVD. The only DVDs I still buy are family guy boxsets, for obvious reasons.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Wait! FYE's still exist?

Yup! Two in my area in the Piedmont of NC.

Most of them tend to be in malls though; only two I've seen so far that are standalone stores.

 

[martok2112]

Wait! FYE's still exist?

Yup! Two in my area in the Piedmont of NC.

Most of them tend to be in malls though; only two I've seen so far that are standalone stores.

Cool!

Yeah, the only FYE's I've ever seen were mall stores... and both went out of business in those locations.

I loved FYE's. Great way to get DVD's/Blu-Rays/video games/music, and even some collectibles.

 

[Timby]

While I totally see what you're saying, the reality is therefore that the roll-out of Blu-Ray was flawed. It worked on a two-pronged assumption that people would upgrade their TVs to be able to watch HD, and that people would buy Blu-Ray to take full advantage of the extra resolution. There was also Sony's belief that the PS3's ability to play Blu-Ray discs would feed into this plan and convince the masses to wholesale upgrade. It evidently didn't.

The other thing is that it was just too soon. DVD exploded around 2000 / 2001, and people spent a lot of time and a lot of money transferring their VHS collections and building out their DVD libraries. Literally five years after that, here come the studios with Blu-ray Disc, asking people to do it all over again, with more expensive players and more expensive discs.

 

[BillJ]

The other thing is that it was just too soon. DVD exploded around 2000 / 2001, and people spent a lot of time and a lot of money transferring their VHS collections and building out their DVD libraries. Literally five years after that, here come the studios with Blu-ray Disc, asking people to do it all over again, with more expensive players and more expensive discs.

I think they were in a tough spot there. People wouldn't want to buy those shiny HDTV's if there was no content to play on them.

 

[martok2112]

This takes me back to the days of VHS vs Sony Betamax.
Sony lost that format war, even though the Betamax video tape supposedly had a sharper picture and perhaps better sound quality than VHS. But VHS became the popular format, supported by a larger number of companies.

Witness many years later, the Blu-Ray vs HD disc war. Sony seems to have gotten its revenge. Blu-Ray format pretty much outstripped the HD disc. I don't know so much about in terms of quality, but in terms of popularity, Blu-Ray came out on top, and I think it was largely because of the PlayStation 3.

The way I figure it, if you either like Blu-Ray movies, or video games, why not get something that does both, so that if you're into one aspect, you can get into the other aspect later at a time of your choosing. In either case, you have a wealth of content to dive into when you go one or the other. The PlayStation 3 was a no-brainer.

Hell, my first DVD player was a Sony PlayStation 2. I already loved video games, and I wanted to see what the DVD rage was all about. Might as well kill two birds with one stone. Later on, when I did a side by side comparison of Star Trek TMP DE on VHS vs DVD, the difference was immediately apparent. The purchase of PS2 was well justified.

 

[Corran Horn]

The other thing is that it was just too soon. DVD exploded around 2000 / 2001, and people spent a lot of time and a lot of money transferring their VHS collections and building out their DVD libraries. Literally five years after that, here come the studios with Blu-ray Disc, asking people to do it all over again, with more expensive players and more expensive discs.

I think they were in a tough spot there. People wouldn't want to buy those shiny HDTV's if there was no content to play on them.

DVDs playing in blu players has likely helped both. You can get a blu player for around $50 now - probably the cost of a DVD player nowadays.

 

[Lance]

The other thing is that it was just too soon. DVD exploded around 2000 / 2001, and people spent a lot of time and a lot of money transferring their VHS collections and building out their DVD libraries. Literally five years after that, here come the studios with Blu-ray Disc, asking people to do it all over again, with more expensive players and more expensive discs.

I think they were in a tough spot there. People wouldn't want to buy those shiny HDTV's if there was no content to play on them.

DVDs playing in blu players has likely helped both. You can get a blu player for around $50 now - probably the cost of a DVD player nowadays.

While it may have helped sell HD TVs and Blu Ray players to consumers, statistics would seem to show that it didn't help to sell Blu Ray discs. The reason they couldn't phase in the new media and phase out the old is because far too few people took up the new media, and when faced with a BD or a DVD of the latest blockbuster popcorn flick, most people, for reasons I can't really fathom, opted for the cheaper of the two options to buy on shiny disc, even though the difference in price point was usually just a couple bucks.

It's a bizarre situation to be sure, because you'd think the sales of the machines alone would be reason enough to say, "Ok, let's discontinue DVD now". But they never did.

The most likely explanation IMO is simply content. Beyond anybody's expectations back when DVD first came along, far and away the thing that sold DVD to most people were not movies, but TV shows. And the large back catalogue of TV shows that could still be released on DVD were not made for broadcast in HD, and would provide very little material benefit to consumers even if they had released them on Blu Ray, so 'classic TV' was (effectively) locked out of the Blu Ray market altogether. Rare are the examples of archive TV that could be released in HD, and even then they were expensive to go back and redo. So, we had this situation where the studios were loathe to give up DVD, simply because there was still a definite revenue stream. But it means that in the here and now, both physical media formats are being eclipsed by streaming, and in this climate I can't see a '4K-Disc' ever being able to claw back the huge market share that DVD and VHS once had...

 

[One Lucky Red Shirt]

Except for the TOS blu ray box sets, if i do pick up a tv series i usually go the dvd route. Although i do buy blu ray movies, tv series are just so much cheaper on dvd. For the average consumer, thats the way to go. Such as i just picked up the whole series of fringe for $8/season at big lots on dvd. Now thats a deal. My girlfriend and I had a good time watching them and we didnt trip or stress about the price. Same goes with the battlestar galactic reboot series. I love blu ray but dvd is fine for tv series.

Anyways, paramount please release the old films on blu ray. All versions. I miss TMP special longer version. And the director's cuts on khan and TUC!!

Anyone else feel my pain? Paramount needs to help release our pain