Anybody else pickup the TNG Blu-ray Movie Pack?

[Drizzt]

I just picked up the "Next Generation" movie 4-pack on Blu-ray. Just started watching Generations, and man, I gotta say, what a pleasure and a thrill to see the good ole' 1701-D in full 1080p!

I have read all the arguments on this board and others about why it would be a bad idea to put TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT on Blu-ray as well, and why it would not work, but, after starting up these blu-rays, it makes me want them all in full HD. Simply gorgeous in HD.

I also saw that the Star Trek XI Blu-ray is going to be quite a package. Can't wait for that one, as well.

Anyway, my two cent: pick this pack up asap! I can't imagine how cool the 1701-E and the Borg are going to look in HD.

 

[Ziz]

I have read all the arguments on this board and others about why it would be a bad idea to put TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT on Blu-ray as well, and why it would not work, but, after starting up these blu-rays, it makes me want them all in full HD. Simply gorgeous in HD.

The concern over the other series coming to BluRay isn't an issue of if the shows are any good but a technical concern of visual quality of the source material. The three TNG era series were made before HDTV existed, or at least when it was still a new idea. ENT is the only one that could go straight to BluRay now, and probably will. The others will need some considerable cleanup work to look good on Blu. By contrast, theatrical films are made at a higher visual quality to start with, so aside from restoration of an old print, their visual quality isn't in question where HD/BluRay is concerned.

 

[destructive]

picked it up, not a bad set, wish the menus were better tailored for each film, the overall design is a bit too generic

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I am getting these soon.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Got mine Tuesday. It's great to FINALLY have the trailers for Generations and the final trailer for Nemesis.

I was excited to finally have a Frakes commentary for Insurrection. Back when the special edition DVDs were coming out, I was bummed to not have one. The FC commentary was hysterical and informative. This time, however, partnered with Marina Sirtis, it's utterly worthless. She remembers NOTHING about the film is constantly asking "what happens now?" and "why did this happen?". Frakes is no better, dropping comments which tell us nothing about the making of the film. Some of it is amusing, but there's a lot of dead air waiting for them to watch more movie before speaking (jeez, why not review it before doing the commentary to refresh the old memory?).

There are one or two moments of refreshing honesty, particularly when Frakes comments on the "British Tar" bit: "this is a long way to go for a gag." Also the ending bugs him, when Data and Artim are in the haystacks: "this is too cute by half." But otherwise, mostly pointless. There isn't even an alternate commentary like with the other films.

I only scanned some of the bonus features, finding the round table discussions between fans (Larry Nemecek, Jeff Bond, etc.) to be less interesting than I expected. The closing of the Star Trek Experience was both touching and wacko. Do NOT show that to anyone who thinks Trekkies need to get a life and you are trying to convince otherwise. I mean, I hated to see it close too, but I got over it once I left the airport...

Much as I enjoy every Trek film, I didn't get the same excitement with this set as I did the originals. Probably because I wasn't getting versions unavailable since the theatrical run and also because nothing overy exciting was added to the mix. I would love to have seen all of the deleted scenes for Generations and Nemesis finished, rather than work prints (especially since they WERE finished in many cases). The Generations deleted scenes aren't even in anamorphic w/s.

Anyway, I didn't mind the triple dip. It was only $50 for the 4 movies on BD, which comes to a mere $12.50 per film (less if you count the bonus disc, which is not so amazing). The clarity and sound are much better than standard DVD and since they are pretty recent films, the change isn't that crazy.

Honestly, if you DON'T have a Blu-Ray player, don't worry about it over this set. Aside from the trailers for Generations and Nemesis, you're not missing much. And you can see the trailers on YouTube anytime you like. :-)

 

[Mr. B]

I'll get around to renting them but First Contact is the only one I have any interest in buying. If I like the transfer I wouldn't mind rebuying that one.

 

[ScottDS]

I've only looked at Generations and First Contact so far. I have a 42" LCD HDTV and I am not the best judge of A/V quality.

Random thoughts...

-The picture quality on GEN is miles ahead of the DVD which had serious sharpening/aliasing issues (jagged lines on Data's forehead, for example). First Contact doesn't look too shabby either.

-The GEN trailers are included!

-Still the same four deleted scenes - nothing else.

-The GEN commentary with David Carson and Manny Coto (acting as moderator) is nice but the Moore/Braga one is much more candid and informative. Coto brings up a few irrelevant issues (asking David Carson if he knows about digital cinematography and the Red Camera) and they do get a few facts wrong (I believe the ships in the Nexus were CGI and not models, and the stellar cartography scene was done via a combination of bluescreen and translights, not just bluescreen). Carson does have high praise for the actors, the late director of photography John Alonzo, and composer Dennis McCarthy. (How come no one ever mentions Peter Berger? He edited four of the films!)

-The Andrew Probert interview is cool but it's only five minutes long!! They could have done a 30-minute featurette about him and his contributions to both TMP and TNG but we have five minutes instead.

-The Dennis McCarthy interview was a nice bonus. (Watching all these DVD interviews over the decade, you can tell the longtime Trek vets are getting up there in years!)

-The back of the GEN Blu-Ray case features a still of Data from one of the later movies (you can tell from the uniform). QC people!

-The Anthony Pascale/Damon Lindelof commentary on FC is okay but it's nothing we haven't heard before (which seems to be a running theme here). Lindelof's sense of humor might get on some people's nerves but it's worth a listen.

-The FC roundtable was okay. I really wish Jeff Bond had actually been on some of these commentaries. He's a film/music historian (and writes liner notes for plenty of vintage score releases) and I would've loved to get his thoughts on the passing of Alexander Courage and Leonard Rosenman, not to mention Jerry Goldsmith.

Re: the bonus disc - I only watched "Villains of Star Trek" and "We Love the Star Trek Movies". "Villains" was interesting and it was nice to get Nick Meyer's take on the films he didn't direct. (What was with the handheld camera during his interview?) "We Love..." is just a little 5-minute fluff piece with Orci/Kurtzman, the Reeves-Stevens, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and a couple others talking about their favorite moments.

 

[ctiq21]

Yeah, I picked this up as well. A huge improvement over the DVDs. The high res sound is awesome as well. This is how Star Trek should be seen and heard.

As far as the TNG eps, DS9, and voyager I believe the issue with the transfer to blu ray is they were recorded in video, not film which poses problems. The DS9 tribble episode included in TOS Season 2 Bluray is only an upconvert. It isn't a true remaster.

 

[Jukebox_Jim]

Just got my set in the post today and I must say, was completely blown away by them! Haven't watched a full film yet, just skimmed through each disc looking for the big scenes (borg battle in FC, Ramming speed in Nemesis etc.) The picture quality is Miles better than the previous special edition dvd's and the sound is superb. A must buy!!

 

[ChristopherPike]

I might try to hang on to my money. Here in the U.K., apparently there's going to be a Blu-ray set of everything from TMP to Nemesis, with novelty packaging. Hopefully this preliminary artwork will be changed to the movie-era ship soon. Plus having the Prime films segregated really suits me, since Abrams was so determined to set his Trek apart, he can have it...

Very good news about the Generations trailers! I thought they'd never clear those because of the opening music used on them. Copyright issues on a Holtz suite performance, that can be heard as trailer guy describes the Nexus... unless I'm mistaken.

 

[hamudm]

I have read all the arguments on this board and others about why it would be a bad idea to put TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT on Blu-ray as well, and why it would not work, but, after starting up these blu-rays, it makes me want them all in full HD. Simply gorgeous in HD.

The concern over the other series coming to BluRay isn't an issue of if the shows are any good but a technical concern of visual quality of the source material. The three TNG era series were made before HDTV existed, or at least when it was still a new idea. ENT is the only one that could go straight to BluRay now, and probably will. The others will need some considerable cleanup work to look good on Blu. By contrast, theatrical films are made at a higher visual quality to start with, so aside from restoration of an old print, their visual quality isn't in question where HD/BluRay is concerned.

The remastering in HD of TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT goes like this.

TNG/DS9/VOY were all shot on 35mm film, 4x the resolution of HDTV; HOWEVER, the visual fx were shot on film BUT composited at 480i on tape (including the opening/closing credits). In addition, the episodes were transfered to video tape and edited at that 480i resolution.

So the proposition we are faced with here is:

1. Film elements must be re-mastered, re-transferred and re-edited digitally at 1080p resolution
2. All VFX must be redone. Either re-composited and transferred at 1080p or done from the ground up via CGI at 1080p digitally (probably the best course of action)

As for ENT, the show was shot on HD video cameras; however, the CGI was rendered at 480i. So only the CG elements need to be re-rendered and re-edited into the show.

Either way, this can be done, but in order to be so it must be a cost-effective proposition.

For more detailed info go to: http://www.dvdtown.com/messageboard/topic/8274/3/0

 

[JonnyBoy]

Just got the set today and skimmed through it. I haven't bought the TOS Films on Blu-Ray yet, since 1. They are the theatrical editions only (not necessarily bad, but I refuse to double, triple, or quadruple dip), and 2. the video quality is apparently not what it should have been. I must say the Next Generation films look spectacular.

In some cases, I felt like I was watching a movie I hadn't seen before ( or since I saw it in a theater). Generations looks far better than it has since it was first released, showing only modest signs of the edge enhancement that made the DVD nearly unwatchable. The colors on all the films are amazing, and some scenes , especially effects shots, look stunning, even to the point of dropping my jaw. A great example is the crash landing of the Ent-D in Generations. On DVD (and VHS) the shots of the Saucer flying over the planet looked a little bland and the colors seemed a little washed out. On Blu-Ray, it looks very different. I was actually stunned. The battle with the Borg at the beginning of First Contact had the same effect. Overall, I'd say Paramount did a pretty good job with these transfers, short of a complete restoration.

The soundtracks are also equally stunning. Again, Generations stood out more to me than the others, mainly because the others have always sounded pretty great on DVD. All the films make great use of the surround channels, and the LFE is downright earth-shaking at times. Again, bravo Paramount.

The new extras are short but pretty nice. Although pretty fan-wanky or fan-fictiony or what ever you want to say, the in-universe doc on the evolution of the Enterprise was neat, with some cool CG footage specially created for the doc. The ILM feature on the First Contact disc is too short, as are the others, and I would have liked a lot more, obviously, but I like what we got.

I haven't heard any of the commentaries, so i can't comment, but I guess I don't have too.

Overall, I am really happy with this set. The audio and video quality is pretty good, especially in the case of the previously-poorly-treated Generations. I would still really like to see some deeper documentaries, and I wish that Paramount would restore the deleted scenes to a more presentable quality, but ultimately I am very happy to have this set. Now, bring on the double-dip TOS collection!

 

[trevanian]

As for ENT, the show was shot on HD video cameras; however, the CGI was rendered at 480i. So only the CG elements need to be re-rendered and re-edited into the show. [/URL]

ENT live-action was only shot on HD for season 4; the previous three seasons were shot on 35mm, like all the rest of previous Trek. Your source needs to factcheck, and all that is needed is to LOOK at the shows, the picture is quite a bit different.

 

[JarodRussell]

As for ENT, the show was shot on HD video cameras; however, the CGI was rendered at 480i. So only the CG elements need to be re-rendered and re-edited into the show. [/URL]

ENT live-action was only shot on HD for season 4; the previous three seasons were shot on 35mm, like all the rest of previous Trek. Your source needs to factcheck, and all that is needed is to LOOK at the shows, the picture is quite a bit different.

Which means exactly what he implied. TNG, DS9 and VOY live action scenes have been shot on 35 mm film. Just like the movies. So all they need to do is to change the visual effects sequences. That's a lot of work for 21 seasons, but it's possible.

 

[Mr. B]

Those shows must also be fully re-edited after all the dailies have been scanned. There are no film copies of full episodes... and depending on the documentation that may or may not exist, that could be incredibly arduous.

 

[Shazam!]

jeez, why not review it before doing the commentary to refresh the old memory

Yeah, I think there should be some sort of rule where they have to watch it the night before they come to record a commentary.

 

[Vader47000]

Checked out the pieces about Star Trek the Experience on the bonus disc.

Oy. The featurette about the closing of the attraction is pretty good. It's basically a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the final day.

There's also video from the attraction itself, both the Klingon Encounter and the Borg Invasion 4-D. Oy, were these a disappointment. I was hoping it would be a virtual presentation of the attraction, complete with the ride film, a la what was done with the Back to the Future ride for the recent DVD of that movie.

Well, what we get wants to be a virtual ride, but turns out to be a heavily edited version of the ride. What's missing? Any footage featuring the cast from the TV shows. And the actual simulator footage is barely shown, summarized in montage form.

I don't mind if we're just supposed to get a flavor of the ride, but the way it's shot it seems like it wants to be a virtual re-creation of it. I suspect that Paramount was too cheap (befitting its reputation) to actually pay for the licensing rights for the actual cast. I hope that's not the case, and that they wanted to save some of the fun if the ride reopens somewhere else.

Speaking of Paramount being cheap, however, might doom any lengthy projects to remaster TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT. I suspect the cost benefit analysis will center on how well the remastered TOS sells on Blu-ray.

 

[Harvey]

Why would Enterprise need to be remastered. Wasn't it broadcast in HD Widescreen?

Yep, checking IMDB, it was mastered in HD. Seasons 1-3 were shot on 35mm, but mastered in HD. Season four was shot in HD and mastered in HD. An HD, 1080p Blu-Ray would be easy, and is likely to be out within the next few years. No re-mastering required.

 

[Captain Fine]

I went to Futureshop to pick up the TNG movies on blu-ray on the Tuesday they were released but they were sold out. The salesperson said that they got 6 copies and they sold out within 2 hours. If that's any indication of demand, then I'd say they should do TNG on Blu-Ray as well (the show I mean).

 

[hamudm]

I already had all of the SE DVD's, but I have purchased the blurays of 1-10 now as well. I have to say that after the debacle of the original series blu rays, the TNG set is REMARKABLE. I'd have to say after watching the first two, the pic/vid on GEN is very good while First Contact is absolutely flawless! A truly remarkable experience and well worth the upgrade from the SE DVDs.

As a matter of fact, all around, even though some films are transferred better than others (mostly the TOS set where TWOK is the only massive value added), the blu rays are well worth the upgrade, particularly the TNG set which is pretty much reference quality.