Movie Blurays: Pros and Cons

I'm really thinking about getting the movies on blus lately.

Is it worth it?

And if so which version?

The movies are available single as well as in boxes Classic/TNG and one big box with all movies at once (except XI).

Are all those versions the same?

Which movies benefit the most from the bluray transfer?

I know all of them are the theatrical cut, and I really want the uncuts/director's editions someday.

Should I hold out on the classic movies and just get the TNGs?

Or is the complete box superior? I can always get the DEs seperately later whenever they get released down the road.

How is the audio compared to DVD? And the aspect ratio?
Those things get overlooked a lot, most people just talk about picture quality.

 

Hold onto your current DVD's esp if they are the Special/Director's editions. Also, the color temperature of TWOK is WAY off on Bluray. I started a thread here with pics:

http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=118964&highlight=twok

All the FX shots just look too blue, its a huge difference, I'm sure it was a mistake, but it does detract from the Bluray set.

 

Also, i wish I could say there was a TMP DE on Bluray coming sometime, but I don't see that happening soon. I checked with Darren Docterman a while ago, and nobody had asked him or given them money to render the new FX in HD (even though they can).

I would say if you find a good deal, buy some individual movies on Bluray for now, they are the same as the boxed set, you just won't get the final disc with the Captains Table extra (which is worth a rental if you can).

 

Well, my DVDs arent going anywhere. But for example Undiscovered country is a bad edition without true widescreen ratio. i only get a little box of picture on my HDTV. so its not much fun watching it... also I really am a completist and dont have nemesis yet at all.. Is TUC worth the upgrade even though scenes are missing? which other individual bluray is superior?

 

I expect they won't hit for the double dip until the next film comes out, but then we'll get a whole slew of new Blu-Rays, most likely with the longer versions of the films.

 

Only Trek movie I have on BD is "Star Trek (09)." It's the only movie, I would say, is "worth it." Though strong arguments could be made for a properly made TWK BD. But if you've got the movies on DVD and they look good through your BD player onto your TV I don't see any reason to upgrade the discs.

 

Yeah, well. They do mostly. Except Undiscovered Country, which is letterboxed only. And I dont own Nemesis yet. I wouldnt want to buy those movies on DVD if a bluray is available. But I also dont want my blurays, esspecially Star Trek blurays, to be bad quality. So I need to know if those movies benefit from the transfer or if there is a better version to be released somtime. When I say better, I mean a better transfer not bonus material which I dont care too much about.

 

I've only seen TWOK (not counting the new movie) and the transfer is pretty good, though there is the issue of the color-timing (Regula now looks blue instead of red in some shots). As for the other movies, all the reviews I've read suggest that they are an improvement over the DVD transfers, but not by a wide margin, which has led me to think they're worth getting, but not if I already own them on DVD.

I'll hold off for the double-dip, and hopefully superior transfers.

 

Everything about the BluRay is a mixed bag. Literally. Lowry Digital, the folks responsible for a TON of great movie restorations, especially their work on the 20 original James Bond movies which you can see here. The Star Trek movies they did out of all 10 movies was Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek First Contact. Let me emphasize. MGM, who was in some financial trouble at the time when BluRay was making it's way in (unlike now where they're pretty much dead), had every Bond film restored frame-by-frame by Lowry Digital. Paramount only had two out of 10 films restored when they've been making the biggest films out there. It's like they only gave the movies that made money the special attention where everything else was given to the people who work on the transfer department for BluRay. All that was said was "just make them look better". The end result? Bad color timing and DNR up the wazoo that created a ton of lost detail.

The menus are just atrocious. It's the same animation for every movie including the Next Generation films. Remember those original Collector's Edition DVDs where each film had their own unique menu that didn't rely on the film's soundtrack to distinguish itself from the others? Those were fun and entertaining in on themselves (Star Trek 2 Director's Edition makes a great space sounding screen saver).

Heck, even George Lucas, one of the richest men in the world won't balk at restoring the original versions of the classic trilogy because it's "too expensive".

If you had to get one set, get the Next Generation BluRay set. Given that the films are newer they have the best looking transfers that didn't require a lot of pesky DNR, and Generations (/shiver) hasn't looked better in YEARS since the collector's edition didn't improve the picture quality.

I hope that Paramount releases the Director's Editions of TMP, TWOK and TUC sometime in the near future. TMP just needs to be restored since that was one of Robert Wise's last great thing he did as a film maker and it deserves to be preserved and maintained. TWOK has some nice moments in it's DE, but watching 6 in it's theatrical version kind of make me miss the added moments that were restored, even the flashing images of the conspirators.

 

The 6 TOS Bluray's picture quality range from 'good' (ST1 & 2), 'decent' (ST 3 & 5), and 'awful' (ST 4 & 6). All have plenty of room for improvement, though obviously some more than others. I wouldn't necessarily recommend any of them, but if I could I'd pick up the first two films separately.

The TNG's are all pretty good, I doubt they're going to be improved in any future releases, and you can probably find the boxset for a low price.

 

I'm a huge Blu-ray fan and I follow at least 6 Blu-ray themed sites and the general consensus is that May 2012 (a month before the next Abram's movie) is probably the last best chance we'll ever get for a better release of the TOS movies (better transfers, menus, deleted scenes and most important the directors/extended cuts of 1, 2 & 6)

2012 will also be the 30th aniversary of the most loved/acclaimed movie TWOK and a fitting time for the Director's cut to be released with a deleted scenes section.

Paramount would have to start work soon if they wanted to find and prep deleted scenes sections and upgrade the FX for TMP.

Lastly, I hope they don't come up with a lame, "we can't find the original film elements for the extended bits of TMP, TWOK & TUC".

Even if that WERE true---which I doubt, it would be very reasonable to rerelease the movies with seamless branching and show the extended parts in 480P. We are only talking about 3 minutes and thirty seconds of TWOK & TUC and the viewer would be making the choice to buy and then select the hybrid version. There have been many films released on DVD/Blu-ray that use lesser film elements mixed with pristine elements to recrerate the extended version of the particular movie.
The extended parts from TWOK & TUC look very clean and sharp in the 2 disc sets and therefore would only show a drop in resolution not a wholesale drop in picture quality with dirt, specs, lines, tears and warping that i have seen in some pieced together restorations.
If we hear some lame, "Gee, it just can't be done", excuse we'll know it is a lie.
It CAN be done, perhaps not perfectly, but it can be done.
Wise, Meyer and the fans deserve to have TMP, TWOK & TUC on Blu-ray in their extended versions AND restored properly.


And yes, fix the color on TWOK---you have put on those red lens sunglasses to see the current version in the proper color!!!


Oh yeah.....

The Next Gen movies do look damn good in Blu-ray and are worth the purchase in their current release.

 

Thanks for all the iput. I decided to follow the general concensus and ordered only the TNG movies on bluray.
If I feel the urge to watch Undiscovered Country without black bars on all four sides of the screen I just rent the disc...

Now what do I do with the old TNG DVDs?

 

After upgrading to BD versions, I used to sell my DVD versions of various movies on Amazon. However, over the past year or so, the value of used DVDs has dwindled so much that it's not usually worth my time. Many of them go for around $5 or less. So, I usually just donate them to charity now.

Doug

 

AbundaTrade.com is another website to consider for your used DVDs. They act as a middleman, buying your DVDs and then selling them for profit. You get considerably less than you can get on Amazon Marketplace but more than you can get on Amazon Trade-In, and if you have a large collection to sell it’s a lot less hassle then selling them individually on Amazon.

It so happens that I’m currently trying them out for the first time. On Monday I shipped them 44 DVDs, which have not yet been delivered. If anybody’s interested, I’ll let you know how smoothly the process goes.

 

I honestly hope that the TMP DE will be burried and forgotten about! What I want is the Special Longer Version, no matter if it's DVD or BD!

 

O dear god! No.
While nowhere near perfect, the DE is a vast improvement of the theatrical version

 

I disagree. The DE is nothing more than an insult to both the Theatrical and Special Longer Version. Tampering with old movies and trying to "fix" them is an insult in itself!

 

Yeah, especially when the director of said movie gave his thumbs-up.

And that 'special longer version' (or rather 'special longer TV-cut for more commercial breaks) is much more of tampering with the movie than the DE ever was.

 

That depends. The Star Wars tampering was an insult - because it consisted of incongruous CGI slapped onto decades-old material. Other new versions of other films were what we Germans call verschlimmbessert, including TUC SE - those conspirator flashes, ugh. The TMP DE was done very tastefully and from looking at it you'd never know the film didn't always look this way. The DE is the superior version of the film and I dare call anyone who disagrees a film-making ignoramus.

As to the original question: I've only seen the TUC Bluray (yesterday, as a matter of fact) and while there may be more impressive picture qualities out there, it's better than DVD in any case. Besides, it's the original version. And there's new bonus material while all the DVD features are retained. I'd say that's a good deal. I've also ordered the "Motion Picture Trilogy" (TWOK/TSFS/TVH) edition because it only cost me 20€. I'll upgrade all the films to Bluray soon.

 

Indeed.
I mean, you only need to watch the scene you use in your avatar; Kirk's emotional connection to 'his' ship comes across much stronger here than in the theatrical version.
It's still a pretty liveless movie, nothing can really change that, I guess, but the DE IS better.