Season DVD Packaging

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by Amaris, Jan 29, 2010.

  1. Start Wreck

    Start Wreck Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    May 4, 2005
    Pretty good. Here in the UK, we've always got very elaborate hard shell cases styled vaguely on the show. TNG's sets are in silvery grey boxes that look like a tool box or something, with purple inside. DS9's are similar, although they're black (well, dark navy I think) with cardassian bumpy patterns all over them. Voyager's are similar to TNG but red with a white strip. They all have the actual discs inside smaller holders that unfold, with lots of artwork and images on them. They look really nice. TOS comes in similar hard shell cases but they literally split in half and the smaller insert rests in the middle of them. They're coloured yellow, blue and red, for the different seasons, and look amazing. Enterprise's box set are similar; they also split in half, but they're all silver colour with the blue inner boxes visible through the outer shell, like they're part of the warp core or something. I think these versions were released in the US as well, actually.

    They've stopped doing these ones now, though. The current issue of box sets are all slim cardboard packaging, which I suppose is more convenient for storing them, but not nearly as cool.

    I should take a photograph at some point. I've got the whole set of every series stacked up.
     
  2. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2002
    Location:
    United States
    I'm excited because my ink will arrive today. I'll post pictures once I get the chance, probably this evening. It might sound silly, but this is a relief for me. I have watched several discs this evening, and it's so easy just to switch them out. I can find the disc I want in a split second, flip to it, get it out and watch it, put it back in and do it all in a couple of seconds. No balancing the case on my knee while I unfold it, no navigating broken plastic and trying to keep the discs safe, no sharp plastic slicing my fingers.

    I love it. :D

    Please do. I would be interested in seeing that packaging.
     
  3. Piper

    Piper Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2008
    The US DS9 and VOY DVD packaging is horrendous, especially the DS9 sets - the plastic foldings come apart so easily it's absurd. The VOY ones look cheap and tacky and the "pages" crack very easily. Horrible.

    Those alternative covers look very good though. :techman:
     
  4. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2002
    Location:
    United States
    Oh yeah. The DS9 DVD S3 cut me several times before it finally fell apart.
     
  5. Trek Survivor

    Trek Survivor Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2009
    Location:
    UK
    I actually way prefer the newer style. The fact you can get a complete season for ten quid is a bonus, but I just prefer the art work, and the fact they take up way less space.

    For those who haven't seen them, take a look:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Trek-N...=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1264769085&sr=1-16

    They've released all of TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT in this packaging.

    It seems to get a hard time from fans, but I think they look great!
     
  6. Geckothan

    Geckothan Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2009
    Location:
    People's Republic of Britainistan
    [​IMG]

    Here's my TNG (and TOS) ones, with a new slimline version for comparison. I personally prefer the new ones for convenience, it's annoying having to get the booklet out to find out what disc your episode of choice is on then unfold the ridiculously long digipak to get to it. On the new ones you've got 5 slim cases with the episode information printed on the back, much less hassle. The TOS ones are a hassle too, but you don't have to fold out a huge digipak to get to the discs, they're in more of a "book" format.

    The old ones do look cool though.
     
  7. Arix

    Arix Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2009
    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    These are the ones mentioned in this post -

    Which also happen to be the ones I own. ;)

    They look freakin awesome, even if they're a little inconvenient - I prefer the plastic to cheap cardboard!

    A quick Google search to demonstrate the other styles (TNG, DS9 and Voyager have the same type of box, which is also the easiest to open) -

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    You can take off the stickers of the crew's faces on the Enterprise boxes. :lol:
     
  8. Keith1701

    Keith1701 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 26, 2002
    Location:
    Warner Robins Georgia
    I like the new Packaging as well.:techman:
     
  9. Yeoman Randi

    Yeoman Randi Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2009
    Location:
    In a handbasket
    I cannot stand the TNG packaging. Getting those folding "books" out of the outside box is nearly impossible without shaking my fist and cursing at the gods!!! I don't have a problem with Voy or DS9's. And i just went to the Blu-rays on TOS and they're fine as well. It's just TNG ones that drive me batty.
     
  10. StarshipDefiant

    StarshipDefiant Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2009
    These are pretty cool cases, they're along the lines of what I was talking about, except that they are the width of a single DVD case. I find that those or the ones you posted feel better, for reasons you and others have mentioned, easier to get them, store better, etc...
     
  11. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2002
    Location:
    United States
    Here's an update. Got my ink cartridges, printed out normal quality liners on regular letter paper.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I think they look great!
     
  12. Ziz

    Ziz Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2001
    Location:
    NY
  13. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2002
    Location:
    United States
  14. Sector 7

    Sector 7 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2008
    Location:
    Rural North Carolina
    For those having problems printing good covers due to margins, etc. try using UndercoverXP. It is a free program (donations requested, but not required) that is very easy to use and customize to almost any kind of DVD, CD or Blu-Ray case... including slim cases.

    I have always used glossy photo paper to print covers because they look beautiful. I think it is worth the extra cost of paper and ink to print a photo quality cover.

    Hope this helps.
     
  15. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2002
    Location:
    United States
    I definitely agree with the semi glossy or glossy photo paper. I'd do it except I can't seem to find my pack of it, so in my desire to make the covers, I just used regular paper. Still looks good, but the semi-glossy/glossy would make it stand out.
     
  16. Ziz

    Ziz Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2001
    Location:
    NY
    You ain't the first person to say that.


    As far as printing the covers, most cover artists buy 13x19 paper in their sheen of choice then cut them down to 8.5x13 sheets.

    To print the covers, I just use Windows Paint. Ready?
    1) Fire up the cover in Paint.
    2) File>Page Setup - Legal size paper, Landscape, Horiz & Vert centering checked, set all printer margins to 0; Paint will re-adjust them to your printer's minimum defaults.
    3) File>Print in your printers Best/Highest quality mode.
    4) Go back to step 1 with the next cover.

    As long as you don't shut down Paint in between covers, it will retain the margin/orientation settings.
     
  17. Madzilla

    Madzilla Lieutenant Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2007
    Location:
    Jersey, UK
    I have the UK ones - I like the bright colours of the US boxsets, but I found handling them a pain. I did get a couple of the region 2 plastic boxsets, but they were so expensive that I decided to wait for all the slimpaks. They were cool though; I especially liked the capsule-like Enterprise ones.

    The only ones I still have in plastic are TOS and TAS (the latter hasn't been brought out in slimpak so far, don't know if it ever will be).

    I do like the slimpaks, though, they look great together on the shelf - once again, the nicest set is probably Enterprise. You can't really tell here but they have a sort of glossy hologram effect and look really nice:

    [​IMG]

    Here's all of VOY - I do like the ease of getting to the discs in their individual cases as opposed to the plastic boxsets.

    [​IMG]

    Those cover printouts above are wonderful, I adore the Captains set.
     
  18. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2003
    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    After buying Babylon 5 and Farscape on DVD last year, and getting a good comparison, the packaging for all of the Star Trek series is utter garbage. Don't get me wrong, the discs are the important thing and they are great, but the packaging looks like they were done from 5 year olds. The TNG sets are too bulky and big. The DS9 sets fall apart after the first run through of the series (Ripping much, even though it wasn't my fault?) and the VOY and Star Trek sets are the lesser of evils. What I like about the B5 and especially Farscape packaging is that they are compact yet easy to get to. I mean in one size of a TNG case, A&E was able to put in four seasons worth of Farscape. They are just really nice, and even though they are cardboard outers, it's so easy to get to. On the B5 cases, those are just really easy to get to with a nice outer shell. Paramount could learn a thing or two from those two sets.
     
  19. milo bloom

    milo bloom Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2008
    Location:
    The varied and beautiful Chicagoland suburbs.
    If anybody from Paramount is reading, I'm seriously holding out on buying DS9 and VOY because of the shoddy packaging. I would love to see them in slimcases with boxes like the BSG seasons, or better yet, the standard width cases that can hold up to six DVDs like Fox's Buffy, Angel and M*A*S*H are currently sold in.

    I've got TOS in the single disc versions (since I already had most of the collection when the season sets came out, I just decided to finish it off) and I have the complete TNG set (which is in awful cases too, but I got a good price on it). But I can wait on the rest till they're in better cases.
     
  20. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 10, 2005
    Location:
    Confederation of Earth