ENTERPRISE on Blu-Ray OFFICIAL Discussion Thread

[LtChange]

Season 1 Disc 2
Episodes:
Unexpected: A mediocre episode as story wise as presentation. The low quality renders show their teeth here like in Broken Bow, also the non CGI moments are pretty good.
Terra Nova: This episodes looks somehow better than the rest of the episodes until now, and the story is marginally better than Unexpected but still mediocre.
The Andorian Incident: Finally an episode where you can appreciate the blu-ray presentation as the sanctuary render looks better than on DVD. Also you can value the live action scenes better on blu-ray after you see the part when Archer comes out to test if the opening in the wall leads to the hidden passage or not. I think for some reason this scene wasn't in HD because in the moment that Archer comes out from the room and the first few seconds it looks really really horrible, it is in SD I'm sure of it, but than it reverts back to HD and the contrast is enormous.
Breaking the Ice: a good episode and it loosk good in HD with the typical problem with the CGI shots.
Civilization: I must say that I love this episode from the story point of view. As for the HD quality something has happened. The colors especially on the planet are great far better than the episodes before, and also, the new CGI renders in space looks somehow better (a trend I could see on the next episode too, but I will talk about that after I finish Disc 3). So overall I like the improvement.

Extras:
Deleted scene from Unexpected: a funny one, but does not add to the story.
Cast impressions: Season 1: your usual cast impressions, where everybody recalls how they get on the show and what they liked. Nice to watch
Enterprise secrets: Fun little presentations about the background of how the show is made.

I will give a 3.5/5 stars fro Disc 2 too.

 

[LtChange]

Hmm... don't agree with this to be honest, LtChange. To my eye, the image on the ENT set veers toward the noticeably, and perhaps a little distractingly, soft far more often than I'd like. The Firefly BD's are more consistent overall, I'd personally rank them as superior - but not by a large margin.

As for TFF, although the disc certainly suffers for an over zealous application of DNR - the image is ahead of the ENT BD's and presents a sharper and more pleasing rendering. It's not a reference disc by any means though!

Honestly I watched Firefly about two weeks ago, and this was an impression. I will compare them later on like watching one after another to get a real feel, maybe I'm mistaken.

But as for TFF I must say I like better ENT compared to TFF or even TUC or SFS because of the heavy DNR used there. Sometimes it is annoying there. OK, Enterprise NCC 1701 on space on TFF or TUC looks better than the low quality renders on ENT NX-01 but the live actions scenes I think are far better on the new ENT blu-rays than the DNRed images from TFF or TUC.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

^ LtChange, I'd be interested in your opinion as to whether there's an improvement as you go along. I'm pretty certain I'm not imagining it!

 

[LtChange]

I watched today Civilization and Fortunate Son and I too can observe improvements. But I will get back to this later on after the whole season.
Later edit:
On the season 2 trailer is it me or are the CGI effects better?

 

[LtChange]

Season 1 Disc 3
Fortunate Son: Some of the new shots, with the ECS Fortunate looks really good, the stock footage is still the same.
Cold Front: Just as with Fortunate Son, the new footage, especially the stellar nursery looks good.
Silent Enemy: Average looking episode, nothing spectacular here besides a good story.
Dear Doctor: I was somehow amazed with the city shots. I don't know, maybe it was me, maybe something other but this episode is really good but:
Sleeping Dogs : Now this episode (beside stock footage) looks good. The quality for live action and CGI is just good. It isn't amazing (well, maybe the live action shots come close, but still not there) but it is really good, maybe the biggest improvement overall to the DVD. The gas planet and the Klingon ship looks great in HD.
Disc 3 Special Features:
Deleted Scene--Sleeping Dog: It is more of an extended scene than a deleted scene, but nothing important.
Archival Mission Logs (Star Trek Time Travel: Temporal Cold Wars and Beyond / Admiral Forrest Takes Center Stage): Some nice extras, I like how the first documentary presents the time travel episodes from the different series, and also the Admiral Forrest bit is fun.
I will give a 4/5 for this disc especially for Dear Doctor and Sleeping Dogs as they are really showing their quality over the DVD release. These two episodes just shout: this is why it is worth to buy the blu-ray discs. Too bad this isn't the standard for all the other episodes ...

 

[Oso Blanco]

Fortunate Son: Some of the new shots, with the ECS Fortunate looks really good, the stock footage is still the same.
Cold Front: Just as with Fortunate Son, the new footage, especially the stellar nursery looks good.

New shots, new footage? I didn't know there were any!

 

[ChristopherPike]

New shots, new footage? I didn't know there were any!

He's not talking about anything like TOS/TNG remastering. Just FX shots unique to that particular episode.

In that instance, anytime the ECS Fortunate and the Naausican(?) ships appear. The NX-01 and a smaller alien vessel, passing by the great plume of Agga-whatyoumacallit.

As apposed to the handful of stock shots reused throughout the series, which were created for "Broken Bow". The NX-01 at warp, going in a few different directions mainly.

 

[Oso Blanco]

He's not talking about anything like TOS/TNG remastering. Just FX shots unique to that particular episode. Anything with the ECS Fortunate and the Naausican(?) ships. The NX-01 and a smaller alien vessel, passing by the great plume of Agawhatyoumacallit.

As apposed to the handful of stock shots reused throughout the series, which were created for "Broken Bow". The NX-01 at warp, going in a few different directions mainly.

Oh, I see. I'm still undecided if I should by the BDs or not. I'm still being unsure because of the color "corrections".

 

[ATimson]

Oh, I see. I'm still undecided if I should by the BDs or not. I'm still being unsure because of the color "corrections".

They may legitimately be corrections. NTSC is notorious for having color issues (thus spawning the faux expansion of "Never The Same Color").

 

[Oso Blanco]

How do the BDs compare to the PAL DVD release?

 

[LtChange]

How do the BDs compare to the PAL DVD release?

That is what I'm comparing with, I say it is better. Not that big difference as with the TNG sets but: live action is much better, CGI is pretty bad in the first few episodes, but by disc 3 it can be seen that is better, today I watched Shadows of P'Jem, and the orbit around the planet is beautiful, and the Vulcan ship is better than the one in Breaking the Ice

 

[Oso Blanco]

But what about the differences in color? Are they as evident compared to the PAL version as they are to the NTSC version?

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

But what about the differences in color? Are they as evident compared to the PAL version as they are to the NTSC version?

Although I am in the UK, I imported all my ENT DVD box sets from the States to avoid PAL speed-up. The new colour timing on the BD's is clearly discernible. Your PAL DVD's will have almost certainly come from the same masters as their US counterparts - just scaled to 576i and sped up! Colours would be the same on both DVD sets. NTSC colour fluctuation was/is only a problem with television broadcasts - but is stable on home video.

 

[MacLeod]

Well both PAL and NTSC both have their pros and cons, but PAL I believe is better for colour stability (as well as having higher resolution) than NTSC. But NTSC due to have its higher framne rate might have less flicker in the image. But PAL runs something like 4% faster than NTSC

 

[Oso Blanco]

Although I am in the UK, I imported all my ENT DVD box sets from the States to avoid PAL speed-up. The new colour timing on the BD's is clearly discernible. Your PAL DVD's will have almost certainly come from the same masters as their US counterparts - just scaled to 576i and sped up! Colours would be the same on both DVD sets. NTSC colour fluctuation was/is only a problem with television broadcasts - but is stable on home video.

That's funny, I'm in Germany and got my box sets etc. from the UK because I wanted the writing on the box and the inlays to be in English. I didn't know about the PAL speed up back then, and that two DS9 episodes were cut for the PAL version ...

So, the color difference will be there for me too ... hmm. I think I will wait until it's going to drop in price and think about it again.

 

[Tosk]

I certainly understand the knee-jerk reaction to consider the color-timing "altered", but I can't help but feel like it's actually closer to the truth to call this the intended look for the show. I for one much prefer it to the often yellow skin tones and sometimes over-brightness of the DVD versions.

 

[LtChange]

I really don't think that the color correction is annoying or something. You don't even notice it if you don't put the two shots side by side ...

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

...and that two DS9 episodes were cut for the PAL version ...

Wow, I didn't know that! Do you know which episodes, what was cut - and why?

I certainly understand the knee-jerk reaction to consider the color-timing "altered", but I can't help but feel like it's actually closer to the truth to call this the intended look for the show. I for one much prefer it to the often yellow skin tones and sometimes over-brightness of the DVD versions.

Honestly, I prefer the new colour timing - it has a far more naturalistic appearance to my eye. Also, the boosted contrast helps alleviate the somewhat drab and washed out visual sheen that permeates the look of the show.

 

[Oso Blanco]

Wow, I didn't know that! Do you know which episodes, what was cut - and why?

To The Death - The neck snapping shot was replaced by a reaction shot of Worf, and the snapping sound was removed.

Sons And Daughters - About half a minute was cut from the final scene, when Worf, Martok and Alexander mixed their blood together and drank it. It was considered too dangerous because of the whole AIDS thing.

By the way, both cuts were made due to British regulations and were then adopted for the rest of Europe. Probably because it would have been too expansive to produce two different versions for the European market.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Wow, I didn't know that! Do you know which episodes, what was cut - and why?

To The Death - The neck snapping shot was replaced by a reaction shot of Worf, and the snapping sound was removed.

Sons And Daughters - About half a minute was cut from the funal scene, when Worf, Martok and Alexander mixed their blood together and drank it. It was considered too dangerous because of the whole AIDS thing.

By the way, both cuts were made due to British regulations and were then adopted for the rest of Europe. Probably because it would have been too expansive to produce two different versions for the European market.

Thirty seconds from Sons And Daughters - that's harsh! Thanks for the info, I am now even more gratified I elected to import all my DVD Trek from the US! Of course, these are things it's worth keeping an eye on if DS9 eventually hits BD. In all probability, the unedited cuts would be used in all territories - but a new submission to the BBFC would be required in the UK, and you just never know.