• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Enterprise Returning To DVD

Status
Not open for further replies.
Not sure I see the logic in the complete series set. Seasons 1-3 in a binder and Season 4 in regular packaging? When I bought the complete series on Blu-ray, they were able to put all the discs in one binder.
Not the first time CBS does that. I have the complete DVD set of The Fugitive (original series from the 60s) and its packaged the same way.
 
On my TV, the difference is negligible between Netflix HD, iTunes HD and Blu-ray. With my projector and large screen, I can easily tell the difference. It's why I still buy Blu-rays.
Also Blu-Rays are nowhere near as compressed as files from Netflix and iTunes. I just checked my PS3's memory for info on an episode of Mythbusters ("Battle Of The Sexes", Season 12, Episode 5, 42 min., 34 sec., 2012). My PS3 is saying that the 480p version is only 540 MB big, with an average video rate (in the AVC codec) of 1.5 Mbps (but the rate goes between 175 Kbps and 1.9 Mbps), and AAC audio at 256 Kbps (range of 224-275 kbps). The HD version, also using AVC and AAC, has its video at 6.0 Mbps (4.5 - 7.5 Mbps) and audio at 256 Kbps, (224 - 275 Kbps) with an overall file size of 1909 MB, or just shy of 2 GB.

I don't have the Sexes (from 2012) one on DVD, but I'll use the "Holiday Special" (from the 2007 DVD Collection 2) for comparison. (480i, Time of 42 minutes, 1 second) The DVD is a DVD-9 (about 8.4 GB of space), with 4 episodes on the disc, so each episode has about 2 GB of space. The average bit rate appears to be about 6.5 Mbps, but the rate goes between 3.5 and 8.5 Mbps, with Dolby Digital audio at 224 kbps (and it stays at 224kbps). Both MPEG-2 and AVC use inter-frame GOP compression, so there is only one complete frame every 15 frames for DVD, and I don't know what it was set at for the download.

Visually, between the SD versions (on a Philips 40 inch LCD, with the PS3 de-interlacing the 480i DVD to 480p over HDMI) I've noticed that any video from a Public Domain source seems to be extremely soft on the PS3 download, while its sharper on DVD, but at the same time the PD footage comes from a variety of sources. But with the actual footage shot for the show, I noticed that in the download the hosts seem to be seperate from the background and the background tends to show jaggies in really fine objects and other compression artifacts. The DVD had none of that, and the hosts looked like they were apart of the image.

As for the HD vs. DVD, when I turn the PS3's upscaler on, really aside from the image being just a little sharper, they were about the same, and again with the HD, just like with the download SD version, it seemed as if the hosts were, on occasion, being seperated from the background by compression. Even at 720p the DVD and HD seemed to be very close.

But there is one thing I will note: in "Holiday Special" I noticed that the consumer camera's that were used for the Turkey drop, they were using the HDV codec. I don't know what the pro camera's were using (possible HDCAM or DVCPRO HD) for a codec, so I don't know if there was a change in camera's (such as using AVC-Intra for the codec or camera's that use CCD's and CMOS sensors) between "Holiday Special" and "Battle Of The Sexes", which might affect the final output.

Edit: I also checked out the episode "Let There Be Light" from the 2013 DVD Collection 10, also upressed to 720p and 1080p and again the DVD looked just a hair softer than the HD download.
 
Last edited:
I bought the DVD set that was just re-released. As speculated, there wasn't anything new in it. But I was a broke college kid when they originally came out, and I don't really like to buy used DVDs, so I was happy to get this for the price I did ($50). Yes, I know I could just watch them all on Netflix or whatever, but I just wanted to own them... because I'm hardcore... or whatever. =D
 
I bought the DVD set that was just re-released. As speculated, there wasn't anything new in it. But I was a broke college kid when they originally came out, and I don't really like to buy used DVDs, so I was happy to get this for the price I did ($50). Yes, I know I could just watch them all on Netflix or whatever, but I just wanted to own them... because I'm hardcore... or whatever. =D
But the new DVDs have the new extras, right?
 
But the new DVDs have the new extras, right?

As far as I can tell they're the exact same that was released a decade ago or so. I went through ENT on DVD via Netflix a few years back, and from what I remember about those DVDs, they seem pretty identical to what I bought. If the extras are new, they're re-edited from existing material because the footage seemed to be at least 10 years old.
 
Having owned the 2005 DVD sets, I'd say the Blu rays are worth paying extra for. A 90 minute cast reunion on the S2 set, similar sit down with Berman & Braga on S1, new 3 or 4-part documentaries per year all round etc. More colourful and less grotty picture quality, save for Season 4 which brightens up whichever version you have.
 
The blu raya are already out at Best Buy for some reason. Couldn't resist, I picked mine up last night, upgrading my seasons 3 and 4 of dvd (never got 1 or 2, had to be choosy at the original prices) and now I can watch some of those earlier episodes that I haven't seen since they aired!
 
The blu raya are already out at Best Buy for some reason. Couldn't resist, I picked mine up last night, upgrading my seasons 3 and 4 of dvd (never got 1 or 2, had to be choosy at the original prices) and now I can watch some of those earlier episodes that I haven't seen since they aired!

Plus there's some great special features. The cast and crew (especially Braga) get really candid in the interviews. There's a fun hour-long round table discussion with the cast on season 2, disc 1. (Jeffrey Combs even shows up!) There's another one with the writers. (On one of the season 4 discs, I think). Plus some neat commentaries too. (John Billingsley and his wife Bonita Friederecy get really silly on the one for "Regeneration").

There's also a downloadable commentary with writer David Goodman for the episodes "Judgment" and "North Star" at Trekcore. (Though the latter might be redundant, since Goodman recorded another commentary for the same episode for the Blu ray)

http://trekcore.com/blog/2014/02/st...-north-star-and-star-trek-the-motion-picture/
 
Phew, dead thread smell. Time to bury this one for good.

If you're aiming to reanimate a thread that's been dead for more than fhree months, start a fresh new thread instead, okay? Thanks.

*closed*
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top