Worth upgrading to Blu Ray?

[PaddyRyan1706]

If you already own the films on DVD - I'm just wondering what difference it makes to the transfer of the picture?
Have director's edition of TWOK on DVD but wondering if worth upgrading?

 

[Smellmet]

I've got an extensive blu ray collection and I haven't bothered with the trek movies. I've got the 1 to 10 box set that had the TWOK DE in and it's fine still. I have all 3 Nutrek movies on blu ray however. Give me TMP DE on Blu-ray and I'll upgrade.

 

[PaddyRyan1706]

Now you're talking!

 

[Balok's Decoy]

I'm of the opinion that blu-ray is a vastly better format, provided that you have a tv that can take advantage of blu-ray. I've watched some of my old DVDs on my blu-ray player and it just makes me want to buy those movies on blu-ray. You can really tell the difference.

EDIT: I also think if given a choice between streaming or watching DS9 or Voyager on DVD, go with the DVDs. They're worth the investment. Apparently with streaming there's a problem with "deinterlacing." You can read about that in this review of the Voyager DVD release.

 

[Orac]

My opinion is that it's not worth upgrading. However if one has spent a lot of cash on an unnecessarily large high definition television for their personal use then their opinion would naturally be that it is worth it.

 

[BillJ]

I have a 50" 4K TV and found the upgraded picture definitely worth the price. I paid $61 for the first six roughly seven years ago, my daughter bought me the TNG films later on.

Star Trek II is available on its own (both versions of the film). So if someone is on the fence, they could pick that up. But it is actually a new 4K scan, the rest were scanned at 1080i back in the early-2000's.

 

[Sibyl]

There's a 4K TWOK? I don't see it on Amazon.

When I had a 1080 TV, the difference between NTSC (480) and HDTV (1080) is astounding. When I first saw an HDTV, I didn't think there was anything all that amazing about it but soon found otherwise. The images of the Refit Enterprise in Drydock are (in comparison) phenomenal).

I have a 4K TV now, and the results are that much more spectacular, but the Prime universe is not available in 4K yet (other than this TWOK, perhaps), though my TV and UHD Blu-ray player do upscale, which works amazingly well.

 

[Guy Gardener]

If you want Blu-Ray quality picture from your DVDs, just buy a smaller TV, or rescue your old TV from the back of the garage from underneath all that camping outdoorsy shit you never use.

 

[BillJ]

There's a 4K TWOK? I don't see it on Amazon.

There is a 4K scan. It hasn't been released in 4K yet.

 

[Vger23]

There's no comparison in terms of the quality between the BR Trek films and the DVDs. I literally find myself squinting reflexively when I try to watch TMPDE for example.

But, I'm watching mine on a 109 inch screen with a 1080p HD projector.

 

[Sibyl]

There's no comparison in terms of the quality between the BR Trek films and the DVDs. I literally find myself squinting reflexively when I try to watch TMPDE for example.

But, I'm watching mine on a 109 inch screen with a 1080p HD projector.

Noice!

 

[Nightowl1701]

Definitely get TWOK: DE on Blu-Ray, by all means. The rest are just going to have to wait for a hard reboot in Paramount Home Video's thinking (funding?).

 

[Pure Antiproton]

Watching TOS on blu ray now. You can spot the stunt doubles in the fight scenes! That alone makes it worth the investment. 2nd the notion that TWOK on blu ray should not be missed. The movie is amazing in that format.

 

[Guy Gardener]

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/1/25/14387744/pioneer-ultra-hd-bluray-drive-4k-pc

The regular Bluray has FINALLY been supplanted by a superior optical disk, the Ultra HD Blu-ray, 2 years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_HD_Blu-ray

You do need to buy an expensive new player, but you are also now allowed to buy much larger televisions, or projectors, and there is no reason to believe that the HD Blu Ray won't have the opportunity to be expressed as a huge library of popular movies since an HD Bluray at it's largest is only a 100 GB, when they have been able to make an unmarketable 1 terabyte optical disk since 2010.

The first video players were over a thousand dollars, and you could only play home movies on them. Good times.

 

[arch101]

IMHO, TMPE is the superior version, but I love the film so much I broke down and bought the regular version on BD. GOOD LORD, WHAT A GREAT LOOKING FILM!
As for all the rest of the films, I don't think it's necessary. Although, the JJ films pop more on BD.
Really, really need that BD of TMPE anytime now, Paramount...

 

[Smellmet]

IMHO, TMPE is the superior version, but I love the film so much I broke down and bought the regular version on BD. GOOD LORD, WHAT A GREAT LOOKING FILM!
As for all the rest of the films, I don't think it's necessary. Although, the JJ films pop more on BD.
Really, really need that BD of TMPE anytime now, Paramount...

It looks like I'll have to take the same course of action.

 

[RAMA]

It's a no-brainer...480p vs 1080p or 4k? No comparison. The bigger the screen the worse the DVDs look.

RAMA

 

[Kor]

Assuming you have a modern HDTV with 1080p resolution and a 40-inch or bigger screen, then blu-ray is absolutely essential.

DVDs look like garbage in comparison.

Kor

 

[pfontaine2]

When discussing Trek films, I only have ST:TMP and ST:TWOK (the most recent release) on Blu-Ray. While I appreciate the work recently done on TWOK, I have to say that TMP looks absolutely stunning on Blu-Ray. The increased detail is truly evident and frankly all other versions look murky in comparison. It's one of my favorite Blu-Rays and watch it quite often for the shear spectacle of it.

 

[Qonundrum]

If you already own the films on DVD - I'm just wondering what difference it makes to the transfer of the picture?
Have director's edition of TWOK on DVD but wondering if worth upgrading?

Ultimately, yes. The wider color gamut, cleaner sound, and added visual detail are worth it. And TMP's cut is the original, not the special edition with the replaced sound f/x and numerous scenes chopped.

The bad news is that, except for TWOK, the same scans of the masters used for the DVD edition were used and given heavy DNR in some cases, leading to loss of detail - e.g. wisps of smoke no longer appear, faces look waxy in some scenes... mostly trained eye stuff. TWOK had been scanned fresh from the original negs - and then rescanned again for the more recent director's cut. Which reminds me, there are some half-decent 4K TVs approaching the sweet spot of $500 -- though at 50", 4K is technically overkill - but more and more sets are going to be exclusively 4k, and some of the features like full LED backlighting (not edge-lit), simulated HDR, etc, make the newer sets worth it. Though I usually prefer Samsung or especially Sony for their superior interlace handling of upscaling 480i content (e.g. most DVDs, like "The Simpsons", Star Trek DS9, etc.)

But if you have a 40" TV or bigger, splurge - it's no contest. The differences will astound, even if they used a wee bit too much DNR at times, I have no major complaints - apart from hoping the other movies are rescanned from their finished neg instead of reusing the old 2k master used for the DVDs (but are sufficient in definition for Blu-Ray, and if I remember rightly those scans were in 2K...)