Details on TOS-R HD-DVDs [updated] July 26, 2007
by Anthony Pascale , Filed under: TOS Remastered , trackback
CBS has released details for the upcoming 1st season of Star Trek: The Original Series digitally remastered for HD-DVD:
Disks: 10 (box)
Format: HD-DVD Combo (double sided w/ HD-DVD on one and standard DVD on other)
Sug. price: $217.99 [oh my]
Release Date: November 20, 2007
HD Features (include)
- a "Starfleet Access” interface
- picture-in-picture video commentaries, comparisons of re-mastered vs. original effects, encyclopedic information (science, life forms, technology), episode trivia and more on seven episodes.
- in-depth tour of the starship Enterprise
- documentary on making of remastered Trek
- behind the scenes footage (also on regular DVD side) [related story]
more details below…
Press Release with Details
Exclusive HD DVD Interactive Features and Rare On-Set Home Movie Footage Arrives on November 20, 2007
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment invite you to experience STAR TREK: The Original Series as never before when the legendary first season arrives for the first time ever in a 10-disc HD DVD/DVD combo disc set on November 20, 2007. Meticulously remastered from the original camera negative specifically for this high-definition release, each classic episode is presented in pristine condition with state-of-the-art digital visual effects. 1960s special effects have been replaced with 21st century computer-generated imagery to give new depth and atmosphere to various elements including the main title sequence, the galaxy shots frequently seen from the Enterprise’s bridge, the battle scenes, planets and alien ships, some of the matte paintings used as backdrops for new worlds, as well as the Enterprise and other Starships, which have been replaced with state-of-the-art CGI-created ships. The new computer-generated Enterprise is based on the exact measurements of the original model, which now rests in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
The refurbished episodes also feature higher quality sound for the famous opening theme. The original score by Emmy® Award-winning composer Alexander Courage has been re-recorded in state-of-the-art digital stereo audio with an orchestra and a female singer belting out the famous vocals. A digitally remastered version of William Shatner’s classic original recording of the 38-word “Space, the final frontier…” monologue continues to open each episode.
In addition, the extraordinary set features true HD audio and exclusive HD DVD interactive features produced by New Wave Entertainment. Interactive menus and a “Starfleet Access” interface will allow viewers to activate icons which provide such features as Picture in Picture video commentaries and an interactive tour of the starship Enterprise. Both the standard definition and high definition presentations also include rare on-set home movie footage, an inside perspective on what it took to transport Trek into the 21st century and much more. Housed in a futuristic clear case, the STAR TREK: The Original Series HD DVD/DVD set will be available for the suggested retail price of $217.99
STAR TREK: The Original Series is a 10-disc collection presented in the original aspect ratio (1.33:1) screen. The standard definition presentation includes Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, LAS Mono and French Mono as well as English, LAS and French subtitles. The HD DVD presentation features English Dolby True HD and LAS Mono with English and LAS subtitles. The DVD is not rated in the U.S. and rated G in Canada.
Bonus features on the HD DVD side are as follows:
o Starfleet Access – On-screen graphical interface allows viewers to access Picture in Picture video commentaries, comparisons of re-mastered vs. original effects, encyclopedic information (science, life forms, technology), episode trivia and more on the following episodes:
• Where No Man Has Gone Before
• The Menagerie, Part 1
• The Menagerie, Part 2
• Balance of Terror
• The Galileo Seven
• Space Seed
• Errand of Mercy
o Spacelift: Transporting Trek into the 21st Century
• From new visual effects to sound, this documentary provides an in-depth exploration of the remastering of classic Star Trek episodes.
o Billy Blackburn’s Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories
• Join crew member and “extra-extraordinaire” Billy Blackburn as he shares his own behind-the-scenes home movie footage of life on the set of Star Trek.
o Interactive Enterprise Tour
• Viewers will explore the Enterprise interior and exterior in detail as they pilot their own shuttlecraft in this spectacular 3D simulated feature.
o Perpetual Entertainment’s “Star Trek Online” MMO Game Preview
Bonus features on the standard DVD side are as follows:
o Spacelift: Transporting Trek into the 21st Century
o The Birth of a Timeless Legacy
o Reflections on Spock
o Life Beyond Trek: William Shatner
o To Boldly Go…Season One
o Sci-Fi Visionaries
o Billy Blackburn’s Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories
o Kiss & Tell: Romance in the 24th Century
o Trek Connections
o Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier
o Episode Preview Trailers
o Perpetual Entertainment’s “Star Trek Online” MMO Game Preview
HD DVD offers up to six times the picture resolution of standard DVD, with brighter, sharper and more vivid images and color. HD DVD also offers incredible audio with support for Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby True HD.
Prelim Artwork:
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Comments»
“in-depth tour of the starship Enterprise”
This sounds interesting! I must buy this!
I can wait a few years to buy that…..200 bucks…..sorry
$200, WOW. Nice to have some info/date and having both standard and HD (even though I allready have all of the trek series on DVD) but after all the complaints about the high prices of the first release I’m a bit surprised. I mean I don’t know what the standard/norm will be with the HD series sets but probably not that.
Extras look interesting. I agree with #1, look forward to this “in-depth tour of the starship Enterprise”.
HD DVD not Blu Ray? Will prove a mistake
Who does the commentaries, Solow, Justman?
I’m sure that when this product comes ‘across the pond’ so to speak, that the usual practice of $ = £ will be in effect. If that is the case then there is no way I will be spending £200 on one season.
In fact when I first read the article headline, I thought it was $199 for all three seasons. Even then my first reaction was “Too rich for my blood!”
Sorry to say CBS, but your prices stink!
The in-depth tour of the Enterprise sounds interesting, but not at this price point.
I’ll wait a few years if necessary and get it at a much better price.
I can’t afford that! :(
Not Blue-Ray? $217.99?
I´m sorry, but i won´t buy this pack.
FOXXXXXXXXXXX
When it will come out on Blu-Ray I will buy this. But I will not buy a HD-DVD player just to watch Star Trek. I already have a Blu-Ray player so … I don’t care for HD …
When it will come out on Blu-Ray I will buy this. But I will not buy a HD-DVD player just to watch Star Trek. I already have a Blu-Ray player so … I don’t care for HD …
That price point makes the baby Kirk weep….bitterly.
#6. Mark Lynch
“’I’m sure that when this product comes ‘across the pond’ so to speak, that the usual practice of $ = £ will be in effect. If that is the case then there is no way I will be spending £200 on one season.”
You could wait until they show it on BBC2 like I will. I don’t care about the gimmicky extras — tour of the ship; you’ll try it once, maybe twice at most — behind the scenes footage — not interested — I don’t care about HD either. The PAL system is much better than NTSC anyway with 100 more horizontal lines and 25 FPS meaning no jerky pulldown — one film frame = one TV frame — so the difference isn’t as noticeable. I can understand why people with NTSC systems want to upgrade though.
As for those who say they won’t buy it, I bet most of you secretly will, and CBS know you will. I bet most of you bought it on VHS, DVD and have recorded it off air already. What’s more, I bet when they re-package it in a ‘50th anniversary limited edition box set’ you’ll buy it all again.
Still, it’s your money!
Nope, I bought it on the old CED Videodiscs, and a combination of Beta and VHS videotapes. I have never bought the DVDs as I thought they were too expensive, and seeing this price, I will not being the HD DVDs either. My videodisc and Beta players still work fine. I’ll save the money for popcorn and Diet Dr. Pepper.
^^Agreed. Too much crap I won’t watch more than once. I’d really like to know what retarded monkey at Paramount thinks this is going to sell. I didn’t pick up the original versions because of the price gouging on that one. The price dropped right about the time “Re-mastered” started so I decided to wait for the Re-masters. When they come out with a set sans useless crap and in an affordable range (like 60.00 max) I’ll pick it up.
Until then, I hope they lose money big time on this. The money that I planned on buying Re-mastered with? Already starting spending it on my second favorite show of all time….Babylon 5.
Screw you Paramount.
As for the “interactive tour”…..Been there done that. It’s called “Enterprise 3″ for Elite Force, by some of the most talented modders I’ve ever seen. They even have the “Star League” and “Starbase 11″ tours that you can walk around to your hearts content. And it was free.
Won’t buy it at that price.
And another grumble: the “all new packaging in a futuristic, clear case.” Just looking at the thing makes me roll my eyes — it looks like they’re continuing the tradition (started with the TOS DVD season sets) of spectacularly crappy packaging. Yes, it might look pretty. Even “futuristic” (which apparently means “plastic with holes in it”). But the original DVD season set packaging is some of the worst I’ve seen in terms of actual usability. When you strip it down, it’s basically a set of small jewel boxes bound together with clear tape. Yes, tape. Bleagh.
This set looks AMAZING!!!
Come on guys!!! Look at all the extra effort they have gone to! Okay, its bloody expensive, but we all know what Trek on digital is like – EXPENSIVE! They could have made way less effort and still charged as much.
As soon as this comes out on Blu-ray, I’m going to buy it. I don’t care if its expensive. CBS-D are busting their balls each week to create these episodes as often stated on this board by people who constantly decry the fact that they don’t have enough time to do better.
I honestly can’t wait for this set. The only drawback is the lack of blu-ray, although once that comes out, I don’t have to wait for the UK release as the PAL/NTSC issue doesn’t exist in HD and just about all Blu-rays aren’t region coded.
I don’t own any ‘next generation’ video systems (i.e., HD DVD or BluRay) and don’t plan to think about buying one until the HD wars are done. Heck, I don’t even own a HD tv!
Besides, my wife would kill me for spending this much money on a product that I am not convinced will be complete.
Besides, wait a few years, and you will be able to get all three seasons in a bound boxset for about $200. I’d pay that for three seasons… not for 1.
Rob+
The only thing that would make me plop down the cash for this is if someone could confirm that CBS-D has been given the time and money to go back and 1) update the effects in the earlier episodes to the newer model and 2) fix those things they wanted to the first time around but couldn’t.
I know that hasn’t happened, so I won’t be buying these discs.
If it happens in the future, I will buy those sets then.
I predict low sales and thus mega-discounts after a few months. I predict even lower sales through anticipation of low sales and thus mega-discounts. Will be $40 remainders in Wal Mart within the year.
I mean – over $200 for ONE season? They have to be kidding. That would mean the set would cost more than the player!
Still no blooper reels.
#16 Toonloon
You are being sarcastic aren’t you?
# 2. Kirk
I think I can wait too. Sure I am interested to see these on a big HD Television but I really have begun to feel annoyed at the things that get left unchanged. CBS have done some truly great work on this project but I really do feel it’s been full of to many missed opportunities. I think I will wait until the money men in charge of TOS decide its time to do a super deluxe version with all the special effect being looked at. From displays screen on the bridge to the hand phasers as well as the set back drops having some depth added to them etc…
There have been lots of good things to come out of this project but I feel we are only getting a half finished product as a result of the remastered team only being given a week to turn around new effects for a new episode. That sort of time given to look at an episode isn’t long enough. So much is getting left undone. I know some could say the stuff left undone is through choice by the remastered team as the original brief was to just update the space shots and matt painting. But I think they even must realise how short sighted that brief was. I am sure I can’t be the only one who would love to see more being done?
I enjoy the way CBD team have made the new effects fit in with the feel of the rest of the show but I have to say I haven’t been so happy about certain result because of this. For example the cloak of the Romulan bird of Prey in “Balance of Power “ that felt like a massive waste of an opportunity why not make it look more impressive now that that they can? Plus “Tomorrow is Yesterday” The wobbly Enterprise through the clouds was just poor. Why did they try and make it look like a model now? What the point?, this is a chance to make it better. Finally the Thasian ship in Charlie X was very poor, I just feel it could have resembled a ship more than the blob we got. It didn’t necessarily have to be a solid ship but something with more of a definite shape to it and it could of moved a lot better than it did.
I think the trouble this project has had from the start is that they have not been bold enough to change more stuff through fear of offending the “Purist”. I love TOS as it was but I would desperate love to see it fully brought fully in the 21st century or should that be 23rd? I really do hope someone who has a say in this project somewhere who holds a bit of weight in the decision making will really either seriously consider adding more effect changes to this existing project before the DVD realised or that they would bring out another super deluxe version for people like myself. I am sure there must be more people who are hoping for this? Or am I alone here?
I don’t mean to criticize CBD digital work because of the most part it has been fantastic, I just wish we weren’t getting a rushed final product. And at the end of the day that sounds and feels like what we are being given. I am not sure what the dollar rate to pound is at the moment but I reckon $200 is around about £150 and that’s a lot of money for something rushed and only half finished. If they ever do go back and make it all it could be then and only then do I think I could justify buying TOS on DVD again.
Plus I would love to see TOS in widescreen. They could crop it in some places and other places they could add to the edges in others.
For example on the bridge they could crop some of the top and bottom off the non essential action and on planet surfaces they could add extra to the new backdrops they put behind the live action but extending it out to the edges and really rip the back wall of the set.
Yes I know that’s a lot of work but that is the level of attention I would love to see this show given. I guess I am just a mega geek.
#21 No. But now that I’ve calmed down a bit that is very steep. Mind you, the exchange rate between dollars and pounds is really good for us brits at the moment so I reckon it will probably be around the £100 mark, which is about $40 more expensive than the previous DVD sets.
Being anti HD-DVD, I’m probably never going to watch this series in High Definition unless BluRay wins the war.
I’m not pro Sony, but when it comes to Microsoft, I’m staying clear of their format.
Wow, that’s a pretty bold price to be asking for a half finished product like TOS:R. No offense to CBS:D, but this is pocket gouging at its worst. Unless they have been afforded the time to go back and redo the ‘failed’ effects properly, I will never buy these DVD’s. To whoever is pushing the release of these DVD’s out the door, we’re NOT fools…and if these things are pushed out half finished…we will make sure people know so they don’t waste their hard earned dollars.
So, lets get the information out there. Have you allowed CBS:D to go back and fix the half baked work or not?
This is expensive, and the price will eventually come down. I remember like 10 years before TNG’s release on DVD, Columbia House Video was selling two-episode tapes of TNG for $20 or $30 per tape. Then the DVD seasons were like $100 per season, and then they offered all of them for around $400 or so.
The price will come down. If not, I won’t be buying. I am waiting for the dual format players to come down in price. If I have to wait five years, fine.
Now if I were a rich teacher, money wouldn’t be an issue.
I won’t be paying over $200! The worst part is that set could be sold for $50 and still make a nice profit and that’s a fact!
17. Father Rob
Sometimes when it comes to format wars, the only way to end I’m sorry to say is to support the one you think is best. I have an HD TV but I have no BluRay player.
Here’s an excerpt on an article Bill Hunt had to say regarding Microsoft and their HD-DVD format.
“Microsoft doesn’t give a rip about HD-DVD, or movies on disc at all for that matter, except to the extent that backing HD-DVD for a while now both undermines Sony’s efforts and leverages Microsoft’s success in achieving their ultimate goal of dominating the future of online distribution of digital entertainment. And hey… if fueling a format war in the meantime creates consumer confusion that hastens the demise of discs and the advent of mainstream downloading, so much the better for Microsoft. That’s how we see it.”
You can read the whole article here:
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/soapbox/soap060107.html
The price makes me sad. I wanted to get this set, but $217 puts it WELL out of range.
Sounds like a good set, but I’ll wait for the budget bin before diving on this. It shouldn’t retail for more than $150 if they want to move a significant number of units. The BluRay issue is also a big negative, since the industry seems to be leaning there.
£200??? What are you kidding???
$-£ would equal that if you bought this you’re talking £107 which i admit is to rich for my blood just for one season.
I think I’ll just buy the season off of iTunes. I can stomach 56 bucks but 200, dang.
I was going to ask for this for Christmas, but I don’t think I can convince my wife to spend THAT much…
Too bad.
Dual format just makes it more money. Not a smart move, Paramount. Plus with the announcement of Close Encounters on Blu-Ray in November, I think I’ll wait for the BR version of this since it’ll be cheaper.
I don’t have either Blu Ray or HD DVD (as of yet) I’m waiting to see who wins the war first (this is like daleks vs the cybermen all over again)…
Can someone please confirm that you can’t play Blu Ray discs on a HD DVD player? If so this is Betamax vs VHS all over again, and sadly the inferior format won that one.
Since I can’t edit my posts :P
It’s not the money I have a problem with. People forget how much it costs for the original VHS tapes. $217 is CHEAP for all the episodes on a high-def format. It’s the PRINCIPAL of the dual-format discs I have a problem with.
If ten people pitch in $20 each then pass it around then…..
Oh, uh, forget it.
I have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players and there’s no WAY I’ll be parting with two hundred clams for only one season. Have they lost their minds?! Here’s hoping that Netflix is stupid enough to buy some sets.
217$ ouch ouch…jesus
I would pay $200 for this in a heartbeat….if it were on blueray. I love me some TOS, but HD DVD is a lame duck. Let’s hope it’s not an exclusive and all this hi-def goodness will eventually migrate to Blue-Ray.
No 12 Non-frantic
“The PAL system is much better than NTSC anyway with 100 more horizontal lines and 25 FPS meaning no jerky pulldown — one film frame = one TV frame — so the difference isn’t as noticeable. I can understand why people with NTSC systems want to upgrade though.”
Fine argument if you’re sonically challenged. I to live in a PAL market and prefer movies running at the same speed as the theatrical release and not 4% faster with pitched up audio because of the PAL conversion process. I by NTSC DVD.
Back on the subject. As much as I’d love to see these episodes it ain’t gonna happen until I can buy a combo Blu-ray/Hd-Dvd player with 1080/24 for good measure.
No 12 Non-frantic
“The PAL system is much better than NTSC anyway with 100 more horizontal lines and 25 FPS meaning no jerky pulldown — one film frame = one TV frame — so the difference isn’t as noticeable. I can understand why people with NTSC systems want to upgrade though.”
Fine argument if you’re sonically challenged. I to live in a PAL market and prefer movies running at the same speed as the theatrical release and not 4% faster with pitched up audio because of the PAL conversion process. I by NTSC DVD.
Back on the subject. As much as I’d love to see these episodes it ain’t gonna happen until I can buy a combo Blu-ray/Hd-Dvd player with 1080/24 for good measure.
#36… yes, the HD-DVD and BluRay formats are generally incompatible.
However, there are a few manufacturers who are no making combo players. LG, for example, makes the Super Blu Player which can read and play HD-DVD, BluRay, and standard DVD discs. It even has an upconverter built in, so it will take standard DVD discs and modify their output to full 1080i.
Of course, none of this ability comes cheap, with players like the Super Blu retailing for around $1300.
Give it a year or two… by then, the format wars should shake out, and the players should become more affordable.
All agreed that this overpricing will equal poor sales, even among the diehards… so team, what are you willing to pay for this?
I’d go about $50 for a season and not too much more I think. To me even that’s a little pricey relative to other products out there. So thats my high end, gotta have it range. I’d like to see them around $30, $35.
BEST!!
=h=
\/\/007!!!
so they are releasing this so soon, eh? I assumed they’d wait until the remastered series completes…
$217.99?
They’ve lost their minds. I THOUGHT I was gonna pass before…now I KNOW I will. All with (as far as we know) UNFINISHED FX!
Wow! What a deal! CBS-Paramount…you amaze me with your marketing acumen!
TTM
Am I missing something? Weren’t these supposed to include the un-altered episodes as well? Or was that another fabrication.
^^^ Yet another reason to pass, Daren.
I just remembered that Anthony is going to be at the San Diego panel today.
Hey Anthony! If there’s a Q&A session, please ask them what their marketing department was smoking when they came up with that MSRP.
Why would anyone even consider paying anything near that asking price? Paramount / CBS really thinks we’re stupid and not mature enough to make a good financial decision, they picture us as drooling fans waiting to pounce on any new Trek DVD that they put out.
The $217.99 price is insulting.
I guess we live in an age of never ending credit card debt and this is the reason why.
SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!!!!!!
Have they also included the same extras as the regular dvds?
I was amazingly enthusiastic to buy this until I saw that SRP. No thanks. I can wait til they’re discounting them. I don’t think anyone is going to be buying these in droves. Not at $219 SRP.
Nuts to that.
Sorry – $217.99. As if that makes it better.
Of course it figures I JUST bought a Blu-Ray player. Oh well.
I wont buy it, in the beginning, if the price comes down (like the DVD’s have in the past years) I might buy it then, as for the Special features, the HD features look sweet, but I dont have an HD-DVD player, so I can wait. The Standard DVD features are mostly reuses:
*Spacelift: Transporting Trek into the 21st Century – NEW
*The Birth of a Timeless Legacy – NEW?
*Reflections on Spock – NEW?
*Life Beyond Trek: William Shatner – Included in DVD release
*To Boldly Go…Season One – Included in DVD release
*Sci-Fi Visionaries – NEW?
*Billy Blackburn’s Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories – NEW
*Kiss & Tell: Romance in the 24th Century – Included in Bonus Disk for S1
*Trek Connections – Included in Bonus Disk for S1
*Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier – Seen on the History Channel
*Episode Preview Trailers – Included in standard DVD
*Perpetual Entertainment’s “Star Trek Online” MMO Game Preview – NEW!
So out of all of them, 3 are definately new and 3 might be new, the other are all reuses, not to mention one of the new ones is a commercial!! It would have been better if they were all new features
At least it’s not a screw job when they have the originals on the standard side and the remastered ones on the HD side.
BRING ON THE BLU-RAY!
I don’t begrudge anyone who is in business a reasonable profit but this is
shear lunacy. The unit cost for most DVD’s is around a dollar per disc with
packaging. I can’t believe the HD process can be that much more per unit.
Like most fans over the years with all the formats we’ve been exposed to I
have every episode on tape, laser discs, and now DVD’s. I would very much
like to have all this newer and better but not at this price. The per season
cost shouldn’t be more than $60.00. The powers that be had better rethink
this type of marketing. Ten percent of something is far better than fifty percent
of nothing. Something new and better is no good if no one buys it.
Egads! I could buy a decent thrall for over 200 quatloos!
Are they replacing the crappy early Ent shots and re-doing the credits?
Anthony? U know?
I also want the new effects to be in 16:9, and switching to 1.33:1 during the live action stuff, like it is supposedly on Xbox Live. I hate that 90% of the stuff I watch is 1.33:1.
If they composed the new shots in 16:9 (which they have), and they’re not on this disc, they’re holding out for something…
I’m going to have to wait for the revisited remastered set, which at least gives me the choice to watch it how I would like.
Just a nitpick, why is Romance in the 24th Century a part of this? That would make it TNG era…
Let’s try Romance in the 23rd Century.
(Hey, CBSD, do I win a free set for catching your gaff?)
Paramount’s decision to make it a combo set jacks up the price all by itself. And from my standpoint, I want it on Blu Ray and at something around $100-120. There’s no way I’m paying over $600 for three seasons of a 41 year old television show, whether it has a new coat of paint on it or not. Just have to be patient, gang. We all want it…..we’re just gonna have to vote with our wallets and wait it out.
#61
The 16:9 aspect you see on XBox Live during the FX shots was actually a mistake made by the gang over at CBS during the mastering process. It makes little sense to have the aspect ratio change mid-program. Everything will be in 4:3 since that’s what the native content is to begin with.
Yikes, that’s some money.
I’m going to wait this one out.
It amazes me that everyone on this site is so anti HD-DVD, this format war produces competition, and competition is good for the consmer, I would hate for Blu-Ray to be the only format of choice, technically Blu-Ray’s capacity is better, but in reality many Blu-Ray discs offer less special features than their DVD counterparts, and even though Blu-Ray has more studio support, HD-DVD in fact has more titles avalible for purchase, 600 titles vs. blu-ray’s 280 titles (as of this date and taking into account HD-DVD has no region coding), special feature interactivity (also known as IME, or in move experience) is built into the HD-DVD spec (unlike Blu-Ray), and HD-DVD players are, by-in-large, cheaper than Blu-Ray players, I suspect this set hasn’t been announced for Blu-Ray because Blu-Ray’s interactive specs (namly BD-Java) haven’t been finalized, as for this being a screwjob, STAR TREK on home video has ALWAYS been overpriced, a typical HD-DVD costs about $28.95, with 10 discs in this set the price comes to $21.79 a disc, a bargin, in CBS’s eyes, it is still expensive, but anything high-definition is going to be more expensive, from televisions, to camcorders, to discs, i understand many people do not wish to, or cannot afford to upgrade their equipment, and shame on CBS for not offering a DVD-only set (though that may change in the future)
Daren, I already have the originals…the comparison shots are nice, but not worth $299.98 for Jeebuses SAKE!!!! LOL!!!
$50 and no more!
Excuse me…$217.98…my bad…
Add me to the “no sale” list. $200 is too high. Sorry.
Scott B. out.
I’m a big fan of Trek Remastered, and I STILL wouldn’t have paid over $50 for this set. And I’ve got lots of spending money too!
As much as I’d love to see the uncut versions of these episodes…. it’s just not worth that much money for something that’s about 98% the same as what I already got. I’m not going to pay $217 for a few seconds of new FX.
#66
You make fair points….but let’s face it….as much as competition is a good thing, a format war is a real pain in the ass, as it causes consumer confusion and slows adoption.
I think we all know Toshiba’s going to have a hard time pulling this one out…the studio(and hardware) support for Blu Ray is a bit overwhelming and it’s now begun to suffer from a perception problem that it’s a dying format(that Blockbuster announcement, while it means little to me since I don’t go there, is bound to have an impact on the consumer). Also, in the geek community, many folks will avoid it simply because Microsoft supports it.
Anyhoo, like I said, you make valid points….just thought I’d throw my two cents in….
Anthony- please find at the Con if they have redone the earlier poor remasterings (Balance of Terror, ect) if not I won’t be purchasing.
Daren – What about TMP in HD?? What are they doing with the heavy grain?? Will you have to redo effects shots for HD???
No…..stinkin….way. That’s just a stupid waste of money.
The old special effects are ok with me…..
I’ll get em’ off Ebay in five years or so, for $40 a piece.
Thanks Mr. Pascale for this heads up on the HD-DVD.
This is no surprise that so many here say they won’t buy due to the price or double dipping or the principle of dual format discs.
I think it’s a good deal for what you’re getting. Plus it will likely be a bit less money at your favorite retailers on week of release.
$217.99!!!! $217.99!! Great Scott! How am I supposed to generate that amount of money? It can’t be done! It’s cant! I’m sorry TOS-R season one. but I’m afraid you’re stuck on the shelf.
Open message to Paramount/CBS:
Please reconsider the market and your consumers. The un-remastered episodes are readily available on DVD at a substantially lower price point. DVD sales are slowing as more content becomes available through alternative formats (Blu-Ray, iTunes, etc.). Agreed, the bonus features sound very interesting, but not enough for such a high MSRP. I also suggest you take a look at the TV ratings for TOS-R so far. Do they imply that the target consumer will pay that much for what is, at the most basic level, just a re-release of TOS Season One? Finally, look at the responses in this forum. They are overwhelmingly negative regarding the price point for this product, and this is coming from your main demographic. Your pricing needs to be seriously reconsidered.
Personally, I’d pay $100.00 for this. $125.00 tops. But $217.99? As Captain Kirk said once, “go to the devil.”
$200 ? $200 ? $200 ? TWO FREAKING HUNDRED DOLLARS !
I think, i’ll wait, no need to rush out and buy this anytime soon.
I stick with my current only $50.00 each TOS DVD sets I have.
- W -
* Sorry CBS, that’s asking way too much from fans, you should know better then to price them out of our range like that, ask Paramount about sales on the TOS DVD’s sometime *
How is this a good deal? I can get the entire series of Land of the Giants for $150-$160 at Amazon! This is a ripoff!!!
I hope CBS-Paramount are reading these posts. Wake up and get a clue guys — very few of us are going to shell out that kind of money for this!
You’ve lost your greedy little minds!
Nice set – WRONG PRICE!!!! Sorry – $75 was the max I would have paid NIB – hoping for more standard ~$50 for a season box. $217 SRP??? Insane.
I’ll wait for one of you to buy it then sell it on eBay at a fraction of what you paid for it. Besides – I have to buy the HD/BR/SD DVD drive as well, after all Star Trek will be the reason I upgrade.:-)
ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FRAKING MIND CBS? I WILL NOT BUY THIS, NO BLUE-RAY.
Seems a lot for what is basically a rushed product… EVEN if they do re-do replace their original ENTERPRISE model…which I doubt…
They’ve not said “word one” about replacing that cgi model or going back to do anything to those episodes! Even if they did…I can’t see paying more than $75 for these.
Where’s the HD version without the added effects? I want to buy that one.
Guys, please bare in mind just how much work has been put into these new versions. If you factor that into the price you can see why its so high. All those guys, including the Okudas, need paying. Also, it just occurred to me that perhaps the reason for these DVDs being prepared so quickly is to see if it is economically viable to keep paying CBS-D to update the remaining episodes – ie, if the boxsets sell, they will do the remaining episodes – although the very high price may render that arguement moot.
Toonloon, good point which is why I thought it’s not a bad deal for this set. As I said, there will likely be discounts during the first week of release.
But I doubt the monies generated from the DVD’s will help fund the rest of the remasters. I thought that Paramount was fudning this all the way through anyway for future broadcast and home video usage (and future home video formats!). And to preserve the show in it’s best highest resolution.
In a way, if you want to play, you do have to pay. It’s not like this set is a rehash, or repackaging of the old SD DVD’s. It’s an all new release. Yes, it’s very expensive. I agree the deal would be sweeter if they included the original untouched episodes in HD. I guess that’s like Lucas not releasing the original trilogy in anamorphic on SD DVD. I will buy this set though.
Sure, the money is no problem. But due to format wars, and the fact that I already have the current dvd sets of the show, I won’t be buying this for a while. Plus, I don’t care about recycled extras from the last release. I hate it when they put previews on the discs, like I’m supposed to run out and buy that too. I prefer a simple graphic start-up menu, not the extensive ‘tour’ of the bridge they did during the last release. I don’t enjoy waiting minutes just to get to the place where I can hit the play button. This set looks like it’s more of the same.
And the plastic box! What IS that??? It really doesn’t look like the set design or technology of the old Star Trek. And who needs it? I like my dvds to fit into my shelves side by side. This is complete packaging overkill. Loose the goofy box, that should bring the price down a bit.
It might make it more palatable if much more was done to enhance the effects and replace the older Enterprise. Yeah, I’d like to see this and I will, but I’ll wait for a while until the price comes down to where I can justify it for myself. I can’t imagine the general public, apart from fans, will be buying this set in high numbers, based upon what people are saying here.
I love Trek as much as everybody else around here, but $218 for one season is absolutely ridiculous, no matter what the format or the feature set. That’s about 5 to 7 times what other studios charge for their TV shows.
Take away the superfluous bells and whistles and all you have left are cleaned up prints and maybe two minutes of CGI footage of wildly varying quality per show.
Now I know why there haven’t been any more remasters posted to the Xbox Live Video Marketplace; it would be far cheaper to download them there and keep them on my hard drive than spring for this set.
Wow, lots of comments. I’ll add my votes:
1. I’ll wait for the inevitable Blu-ray release.
2. $200??!! For ONE season!?
3. This would be a **lot** more appealing if the effects shots were in 16:9. I downloaded a couple of the X-Box Live versions of these and thought they looked fantastic.
4. You should be able to switch back and forth between the original effects and the CGI ones (not just P-I-P comparisons).
5. Although some of the remastered live-action scenes look beautiful (”Miri” has lots of these), a lot of them looked like they weren’t cleaned-up or color-corrected at all (washed-out colors, soft focus, dirt on the image), even adjacent scenes within the same episode. I’ll be much more interested if they’ve fixed this on these discs.
6. I’m not holding my breath for “updates to the updated CGI shots”.
Another thought: with everyone screaming bloody murder about the price, you can bet HD “rips” will be freely available in no time. I thought the media companies were starting to learn their lesson about what happens when they overprice their products…
I with y’all. That price is absolutely silly. That’s almost $10 per episode!
Good thing I can’t afford an HD-DVD player much less a TV that would make it worth my while.
Doubtful it will come out on Blu-Ray for at least a year or two since Sony couldn’t get off their lazy butts and standardize their player feature like Toshiba did with HD-DVD.
This set includes picture in picture which is run by a Java engine (on Blu-Ray), and Blu-Ray Java will not be standardized until Oct 31st. That’s also why the HD-DVD release of 300 includes features unavailable on Blu-Ray…
I’m format neutral (have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray), but at a $218 price tag I will have to pass. The weird thing though is if you read the original press release it states the TOS standard definition set (meaning all three seasons) retails at $218, and the HD-DVD series also comes in at that price. So the question is now, is this single season set $218 or will it eventually cost $218 for the entire series meaning this set is actually $70?
#42. KevinA
“Fine argument if you’re sonically challenged. I to live in a PAL market and prefer movies running at the same speed as the theatrical release and not 4% faster with pitched up audio because of the PAL conversion process. I by NTSC DVD.”
Fine argument if you’re not optically challenged. I prefer space ships to move smoothly. I rarely buy any DVDs.
#42. KevinA
“Fine argument if you’re sonically challenged. I to live in a PAL market and prefer movies running at the same speed as the theatrical release and not 4% faster with pitched up audio because of the PAL conversion process. I by NTSC DVD.”
Fine argument if you’re optically challenged. I prefer space ships to move smoothly. I rarely buy any DVDs.
The Star Trek season sets have always been ridiculously over priced. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people out there willing to buy Star Trek stuff at ANY price. Paramount was greedy, and now CBS is too. I don’t own any of the Star trek seasons on DVD because I simply couldn’t afford to buy them. Not everyone can plonk down 100 bucks a season for a box set.
Now they’re asking 200 bucks for 1 season? That’s 600 dollars for all three. Too rich for my blood. To rich for a lot of people’s blood.
Someone out in CBS marketing is an idiot.
Sorry, first post said “not optically challenged.” Thought I’d caught it in time but it submitted anyway.
I tried reading as much as possible. Is this set season 1 of TOS? Or the first batch of TOS-R? And are they going back to fix mistakes of previous episodes? If not, then there should be a lawsuit against these people for ripping off the consumer.
This price is ridiculous!
Well then, I guess I won’t be buying the DVDs. Great Scott, $200!!! I would have for $100, but $200!!!
This what I could get for that price that would cause me to circumnavigate my Star Trek habit…
1) Clothes for our new baby
2) out if four Civil Air Patrol Cadets with minimum service dress uniforms (sans shoes)
3) purchase a hand-held aircraft radio
That price is ricidulous.
Also, George Lucas has stalled the release of SW on Blu-ray because the protection was cracked, but that has been rectified now and apparently some sort of virtual thingymajig will mean that the pirates can’t duplicate Blu-rays. I never buy pirates and have quite a substantial collection of DVDs so this can only be good news. Unless of course, as someone above stated, they anger the market into piracy by demanding seriously misjudged and inflated prices.
OMG!
I´m a brazilian fan, and I was looking forward for these dvds.
Yes, I WAS, because 217 bucks is way too much, even for a dvd market like the the one in the US.
To make a comparision of prices :
217,00 dollars = 434,00 reais (our currency here).
I can buy all seasons of TOS AND a top of the line dvd player from Philips, LG or Sony with that amount of money.
I think the guys at the CBS Home Video Dept. are drinking some heavy Romulan Ale when they decide the price.
I´ll wait until someone on Ebay puts this for sale for $50,00 bucks.
ps: sorry for my poor english.
There’s one other thing that must be understood, HD-DVD and Blu Ray are still considered a very, very small niche market. It has not reached any kind of mass market level yet, not like standard definition DVD. So it will be pricey for a while.
True, but this is excessive for such a half-assed effort by CBS-D.
I, myself, would pay 199.99 for Season 4 of Enterprise on Blu-ray. Those FX are going to rival most motion pictures when they’re released in HD.
Just another flip of the bird from Paramount to the fans (and a first bird from CBS)…that’s what this is!
Too expensive! Looks like back to ebay to complete my collection of the original DVD release after all.
^23, I can’t understand your desire to chop off parts of a picture that was not composed for widescreen just because your TV is the wrong shape. DVD Player on my widescreen Mac can zoom in and show what it would look like, and you’ll get lots of chopped off foreheads and chins in close-ups, and push actors’ hands out of view in medium shots. Bad idea! Sure it would be nice to see the new effects in widescreen. Personally, I don’t think it would be too jarring to have the effects in widescreen even if the live-action isn’t. In live theater lighting is used to change the amount of the stage you see from scene to scene.
Magic Al, You need season 3? I have it.
I cannot wait to see this work pirated and on a torrent.
..almost $10 an episode. egads!! back in the early days of VHS it was $19.99 for one episode of un-remastered Trek with no extras. With Laserdiscs it was $29.99 for 2 episodes of un-remastered Trek with original trailers. Now it’s $10 for 1 standard fdefinition episode you can watch now while having the HD version as an ace in the hole down the road when you finally catch up with the rst of the 21st century. (although the rest may be using blue-ray..but that’s another story).
Add to that the remastered High def print have all new CGI effects. Add to that, the new extras and you get one hour of pretty damn good entertainment for less than two burger baskets at Sonic.
It’s new technology..a combo disc… its high def for alll those plasma screens out there and its remastered with new FX. It’s not going to be cheap…..people have been spoiled by DVDs. For those that remember the $20 VHS tapes, aside from being on a losing format, this aint so bad.
^ Same Here. I allways buy Widescreen movies, not as much for filling the sides of my screen (which is nice now having a wide tv) but because I want to see it in its whole form without being trimmed on the sides. So cutting off part of the upper/lower picture to make it widescreen seems wrong? And if you really want it to fill the screen use the zoom or strech function.
Let’s do ourselves a big favor and boycott this release. Simply rent it and then return it after viewing it.
This is my third post on this, I’m outraged that a product manufactured in CHINA is being sold for well over $200!
The cost for this item is only a few dollars.
Get real Paramount and CBS.
Let’s do ourselves a big favor and boycott this release. Simply rent it and then return it after viewing it.
This is my third post on this, I’m outraged that a product manufactured in CHINA is being sold for well over $200!
The cost for this item is only a few dollars.
Get real Paramount and CBS.
C’mon ..pay the price. The CBS-D guys are counting it! That’s why they’re doing this in the first place! They gotta eat too!
Sounds awesome. Why so bloody expensive? Is Paramount trying to get Star Trek fans to finance the entire company?
Sheesh. I guess I’ll be waiting on this one. In a few years it’ll be $50 on Amazon or ebay. I’ll pick it up then.
Wag of the finger to Paramount for gouging Trekkies again.
102: The XBox Live downloads for TOS-R had 16:9 effects and 4:3 live-action. The only thing I found jarring about these was how wonderful the 16:9 effects looked. =)
Yet another jacked collection I won’t be buying anytime soon. It’s this sort of “cash cow” mentality that sunk the franchise. Don’t seem to have gotten any better. :(
They should release the standard DVD versions seperate from the HD-DVD… who wants HD-DVD anyway?
108. Driver – July 26, 2007
C’mon ..pay the price. The CBS-D guys are counting it! That’s why they’re doing this in the first place! They gotta eat too!
I don’t exist for them because they don’t exist for me. I live in a martket where the REMASTERS didn’t even show. Others here had it preempted and scratched infavor of all sorts of drivel.
I was depending on this being on DVD so I could see it. Now it’s “cost prohibitive.”
I guess the old “VHS: versions I bought at Target” will have to suffice.
Viva l’pirates!
Better yet, to remain legal, I’ll just wait until they make their way to the bargin bin or five years when the price won’t be an option. I mean, I can get games for the old NES Nintendo system for like three for a dollar now!
I was gonna buy it, but have you seen the stock market today??
If I missed it, did we find out whether they’re going to fix the more glaring boo-boos (orange flame, fugly pinwheels, etc) before they sell this collection.
I’ll admit, it’s a handsome-looking set, but yikes that price.
A number of people want this release on HD-DVD (I know I do). Just go to High Def forum of the AVS forums. The release makes perfect sense and ends up costing less for Paramount to manufacture in the long run.
I just think the price tag is waaaaaayyyyy too steep.
83. Toonloon –
It’s still too high a price to ask…unless CBS – D has been able to go back and give all the season 1 episodes a final check to even out the quality. I have a feeling we’re going to see these released…as broadcast…and there will be an embarrassingly noticeable variance in quality/style from episode to episode. I’m sorry, but the TOS effort has not always delivered professional quality product, and the price they’re asking is ridiculous.
$217.99? Oh my indeed. Even though the CGI graphics of the remastered series look so damn great, I am still not a big fan of it (Don’t ask, I don’t know why). Very good special features though.
I think that I will stick to my DVDs for now, which I happened to get all three for less than $200
NOW! Let’s hear some news on the new movie! :P
Wrong price and wrong format. Pass.
to paraphrase the great leonard mccoy:
“217 DOLLARS?!?!? are you JOKING?!?!?”
i’d really like to get this set, but i’m not paying any 200+ bucks. sorry, CBS.
The Trek buying public is speaking here…
Its 1854 hrs Coridnated Universial Time…do you know who might be reading this?
Very Correct, Brian, “Wrong price and wrong format. Pass.”
In 1994 a musical group we had, Mariachi Cascabel, cut a CD. We offered it on tape and, according to Studio Executives…you can offer it on CD. At the time, I did not know a single person who had a CD player…lest on in a car (although I know it was becoming more common)
We “bought the farm on CDs,” now you can get them in Progresso or Reynosa, Mexico for $2.00. Had we gone tapes, with a limited CD run at that time we would have done better.
If we had stayed together and produced another album in 1999 or 2000, the reverse would be true.
Thus, as I agree with Brian.
“Open message to Paramount/CBS:
Please reconsider the market and your consumers. ”
Heh! They DID consider the market. They were counting on all the poor fools who shelled out the big bucks for any and everything with the Trek name on it scooping this up as we did in the past.
But, looks like the joke is on THEM this time. I don’t see these selling much at all at that price.
When it was $20 a tape I still didn’t buy it. It’s called eating. I’ll use my money for that. Hello Ebay and amazon. I’ll see you for my DVD collection of the original series. I think I spied about $135 for all three seasons of the unmastered release. I’m sure that I can get the remastered eps on Craig’s list or amazon or Ebay eventually for 50% off what they are trying to gouge us with here. I, too, wanted to get this for Christmas and was willing to go about $300 for ALL THREE SEASONS. Sorry CBS, you just lost my business. I hope one of your marketing “geniuses” scouts the fan boards to see what the mood of all of us is, because this is going to be one big wake-up call.
The price is disgusting. They are just hoping die hard fans will pay for it. I’m just going to go to target and buy it for sixty dollars.
One other thing…two more cents if you will…
If they really wanted to make COOL packaging, they should have made the package that big three pronged engineering tool that Scotty uses in the second season. It even has a little window on it where you could see the actual DVD case inside.
Cool, huh? LOL!!! Would you pay $200 for that?
112. stand alone standard dvds
I’d buy if standard dvd was an option…and if the price was comparable to the original series sets already issued.
Or better yet give us a stand alone release of the Billy Blackburn home movies.
Greedy Paramount suits.
There’s no way I would spend that kind of money on a single season.
And that’s even if there WASN’T a format war going on.
Since we’re debating HD formats as well as the price of these discs, here’s some news fresh off the press, per imdb.com:
Target Targets Blu-Ray
Sony, which once saw retailers shunning its Betamax video recorders, received a welcome surprise Wednesday when Target Stores announced that it will not be selling HD DVD players during the holiday season this year and will focus exclusively on Sony’s Blu-ray high-definition DVD players. Target also said that it will expand its inventory of movies available in the Blu-ray format. “I think what you’re seeing is that retailers are deciding [between Blu-ray and HD DVD],” Sony home entertainment president David Bishop told Home Media magazine. “This is the beginning of a trend.” He indicated that carrying both types of high-definition players has confused customers. “We think this is a big step in clarifying the decision to the consumer,” he said. But Ken Graffeo of Universal Studios Home Entertainment, which releases high-definition movies exclusively in the HD DVD format, told the trade publication, “The question I ask is, knowing that HD DVD is the most affordable high-definition format, it will be very interesting to see how the Sony player will appeal to Target guests.”
so does this mean i have to go buy some 900 dollar HD player to watch these things or can is work in standard players as well?
A few things, As far as george lucas is concerned, He says that there arent enough Hd and Blueray players in the marketplace for him to make a decent profit and he also says that fans already own both trilogies on dvd and he believes that fans will not buy the SW sets all over again. and he is right. If you dont have a HDTV, why bother getting a HD or Blueray player?
As far as ST remastered, Way too pricey. not a chance. I’d have to spend 2000 dollars to watch it anyways, I got into a friendly argument with a salesman at best buy, He simply couldnt convince me to buy a HD type player because without a HDTV to watch it on, there is no picture difference played on a regular tv.
$1000.00 for the HDTV
$600.00 for the player (HD or Blueray)
$217.00 for 1 season of star trek
Wish they would release the 8mm footage on a seperate dvd for $19.95 Since it isnt Hd anyway.
TWO HUNDRED BUCKS?!?!!!!
I was curious of maybe buying one season to sample it, but not for anywhere NEAR that kind of money!
And looking deeper:
“Strafleet Graphical Interface” = DVD Menu screen
“Interactive Enterprise tour” = static shot with an arrow pointing at the saucer bump and saying “This is the bridge”.
“Exciting bonus features” = New shots of cast memebrs sitting in studio saying, “Yes, I remember Star Trek”. Then a collection of clips you’ve seen a thousand times and then a final “Yes, that’s right – I was in that one and I have some memory of it too. I remember one day on the way to the shops, I locked myself out of my house. I was so mad!”
Although I could make that 8mm footage HD very easily.
Then they’ll release it separately with a 49999 price tag!
lol
Don’t forget that this set is half the series, not 1/3. The orignal box sets cost 98-108 dollars a peice when they first came out, and there were three of them. There will only be the two sets this time. Of course we’re still paying more, but not as much more as it might seem.
^ At least I would hope that it would be that way. :o
Another thing about these ‘bonus features’ on the present dvds: all have this irritating background music from the ST movies or series while a person is speaking. What? We haven’t heard the music enough? We need the music in the background, why? It’s corny and distracting from the interviews? And really, who needs to know about Shatner’s horse ranch anyway? These cutsie little features are a ball of fluff in most cases and why are they including some of these again? Can’t they find something else? For the money, all the bonus features on this should be something we’ve not seen before.
133 – unless you know something i don’t, the TOS remastered eps are being released in three season sets, corresponding to the original three production seasons, and not corresponding to the two TOR-S seasons currently in syndication. So its $217.99 x 3 and not $217.99 x 2
They need to give us a definitive answer on that.
No Blu-ray! No Sale! I still haven’t seen anything that shows why HD DVD is better, I haven’t seen anything that proves what their camp has been saying. Blu-ray has more disc capacity, more studio support and the ps3 can play them right out of the box. So, finger crossed that there may be a Blu-ray version in the works, since Paramount is backing both and this is the first time they would be doing a HD DVD exclusive. Also, that price tag is way too high, and just for one season!! Probably because they’re those flipper discs and they seem to be more expensive than regular BDs or HD DVDs. But still, over $200 for a single season, too much! Paramount really knows how to stick it to the fans.
From a technical standpoint, Blu-ray is vastly superior to HDDVD. However, it is easier to retrofit DVD factories to HDDVD instead of starting from scratch to make Blu-ray discs. Or in most cases the HDDVD masters are simply transfered to Blu-ray so they’re made for HDDVD from the start. That is a rip off.
If properly mastered, like planet earth and lowry’s james bond set, the uncompressed masters are transformed into the Discs straight.
For example:
Ripoff:
Master->HDDVD->Blu-ray (BR being an afterthought)
Correct:
Master>Blu-ray (planet earth)
Master>HDDVD (planet earth)
Master> DVD (james bond gift sets)
I have Goldfinger (Lowry Edition) on DVD and upscaled it looks better than any HDDVD movie I’ve seen yet.
Wow what outrage!!!
As someone who owns both HD DVD and Blu-Ray players and thoroughly enjoys both. I will not buy this set if they do not address the shockingly poor early remastered effects especially a super classic like Balance of Terror !!!!!
As for the price HD and Blu-Ray disks do cost much more to pruduce than standard dual layer dvds. Both average $25.00 retail for a single disk . Ebay has become the place to buy them preowned at about 60% of retail.
137 – I think we know the answer don’t we? Wasn’t the reason CBS-D was even more pressed for time? They had to go back and finish the original first production season episodes they hadn’t already worked on in time for the HD-DVD release? And you’ll note that there are no second or third season episodes listed above as having commentaries, picture-in-picture, trivia, et cetera. That’s pretty coincidental if the set isn’t the original first production season.
*sniff!* I guess nobody liked my incredible packaging idea for the DVDs…WAAAAAAAHHHH!!!
I thought it was a cool idea. You buttheads!!! LOL!!!
So, Billy, this is season 1 of TOS in HD? They remastered all of the episodes that did not air yet?
That’s my understanding, yes.
The Associate Press just released an article on Comic Con, with NO mention of Trek. jeez.
I’ll wait til this flops and they decide to split the sets into regular DVD and HD, when they’ll sell better.
I am pretty sure you kids saw this already, but hears a new poster for the XI
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/official-1-18-08-and-star-trek-posters-released.php
BADASS!
#147 Lousy C. — first I’ve seen of it! Very Old-School cool — thanks for the link!
#143 — that is correct, CBS-D worked double time to remaster all of Season 1 of TOS, while also remastering whatever episodes were needed to finish the syndicated airing schedule.
#90 — you basically hit on why a Blu-ray release isn’t out yet, it is the same reason why Warner (which is normally agnostic) hasn’t put a Matrix boxed set on BR yet. The full interactivity with PiP support isn’t mandatory in BR players until this fall (level 1.1), there is no guarantee that the early BR players can ever be updated to support dual-streams of video decode. Certainly the PS3 has the horsepower and could be, but the early standalone players don’t have a very good outlook. So it seems both CBS and Warner share the same philosophy of waiting until BR players with the ability to support interactivity features they are looking for are actually on the market so that way they can provide an identical experience no matter the platform.
I’m not paying that price when I only want them on regular DVD for now.
If we are lucky the three season box set will only cost £599.99!
Awesome!! This will drive down the price on the regular ol’ DVDs. The only ST I have on DVD are the movies. Which are available in 2 disc sets for under 10 bucks.
I don’t plan to go HiDef until 2012 when we’ll all be pretty much forced to.
What about the changes to the previous episodes? Have they added the revisioned model to Miri, and others?
You’ve actually released some good information, Matt. Are you at this event?
“On who’s authority can you do this?”
Wow. At least give a choice between buying either the DVD or HD-DVD format. Where’s the logic in shipping both sets in one package? Split the package and lower the price and I’ll buy it in a heartbeat.
(still its very VERY tempting to buy just to have it!) ;-)
No, but Anthony is, he will be calling into me so more details later on. I have talked with him before about the TOS DVD set, etc. Some of what I mentioned was known months ago but wasn’t publicly confirmed.
I just can’t wait to shell out all this money to see crappy stock footage for fighter jets, an Enterprise that flies on the wrong axis, matte lines, and blinking Gorns. Sigh.
I cannot wait to get my hands in this franchise.
I wish they’d sit on this release for a year. Wait til all the episodes have aired, THEN release it on dvd/hd, whatever. People are right when they say that it’s being rushed into production. If they’re rushing so hard to get the episodes done by November, can we reallye xpect them to go back and recut and render the first 10 or so episodes We saw? We all know that the quality of the rendering improved dramatically as the season progressed. Are they really going to have the time to fix their early mistakes? And for that mater, if they were obvious on regular resolution TVs, how obvious will they be in a HD format?
Well, at least the DVDs will be rid of the syndicated cuts.
At 1:33 on the hddvd, all I can see is no cut outs for commercials. At this time I’ll save $200 and watch and record TOS OTA .
#158–I cannot wait to get my hands in this franchise.
What exactly do you mean by this?
Please allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Sean Philip Burns, a life-long Star Trek fan and current film grad student at the University Of New Orleans.
Over the past few years I’ve been obtaining several motion picture degrees and certifications in order to bolster my resume when the time comes to make my splash in Hollywood. I hold the following degrees: A BA in Photography/ Cinematography, BA in Film Production. Avid Certs, MCSE cert, various others. Currently I am working on a Double Masters in VFX, and Film Production. I come with a rill up the sleeves attitude and am no stranger to doing the nitty gritty film tasks that turn most away. IE frame by frame tasks, cleaning up composite shots, recomposition, and keying. I am more than capable of using software to speed up this process as I have a tenancy to do things quickly. Time is money and I have knack for saving it.
Ever since childhood in the 80’s I’ve been addicted to Star Trek: TNG, other series caught my interest as I grew older but TNG remains my favorite. I’ve been saddened in recent times by the lack of quality control and greed shown by Paramount and now CBS/ CBS-D. I want to change all of that and give the fans, like myself, what they want.
My opinions are as follows: ALL 10 films need a restore job by DTS Images in order to future proof them. ALL 10 films should be in both original and SE format; new effects, etc. All of the TV shows should be rescanned and remastered with adequate FX and not overpriced!! If need be I can handle the scanning and keying process entirely by myself. You wouldn’t see me for around 5 years but the cost would be down significantly. lol How about that idea, Matt? Wanna join me in a dungeon for a half decade and rescan TNG, TOS, VOY, and DS9?
On this board i repeatedly tout the greatness of DTS Images, and Eden FX. In my eyes, those companies are cutting edge and are the pillars of achievement in the FX and film restoration world.
i would love to be a higher arch on this site! Any openings?
Take care everyone and 12-25-2008 cannot come fast enough!!!
Sean Philip Burns
No problem if people aim me.
AIM: embryoniccineon
SRP 217 dollars? Uh, no thank you. Wish there was a standard DVD only version. Paramount’s pricing on Star Trek series is completely insane, which is why I haven’t bought anything other than The Animated Series.
The problem with Blu-Ray is the picture in picture and trivia pop up features, they require Java, and Sony has yet to release the final standards for Blu-Ray Java, and will not do so until Oct 31st.
Also bear in mind for those of you saying no Blu-Ray, no sale. If you were an early adopter and bought a Blu-Ray player before the 2nd generation machines came out (the new ones were released in May/June) the Java functions will not work at all on your player.
Yancy
CBS’s price point is reasonable. C’mon, folks, they’re targeting the dedicated, die-hard Trekkie fan base that will pay…
Wait a minute! I’m NOT paying $200+ for that!
(And until the Blu-Ray versions are produced, there’s definitely NO way I’m buying any TOS Remastered sets!)
Actually, I see CBS’s reasoning for the high price. Like most products, they sell high from the get-go, then offer discounts, followed by deeper discounts, etc.
Still, I’m not paying $200+ for Season One. (However, TOS Remastered Seasons One, Two and Three sold together at that price: probably yes.)
#164 – Also bear in mind for those of you saying no Blu-Ray, no sale. If you were an early adopter and bought a Blu-Ray player before the 2nd generation machines came out (the new ones were released in May/June) the Java functions will not work at all on your player.
Wrong. Java is installed into every Blu-Ray player I’ve seen. It can be upgraded by upgrade discs which “flash” the machine, much like a firmware update.
Sure, the standard may be undergoing finalization, but don’t buy into this. It’s a valid concern for sure. Check with your Blu-Ray manufacturer. In the meantime, it looks like an HD-DVD machine will be needed for this set. Let’s stop the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD debate. Go get a hybrid player for both disc types from LG, Philips or another manufacturer that produces them.
If CBS is smart (and seeing the displeased demographic here which dislikes the price point AND the disc type), they’ll investigate ways to increase their sales (lower price points, Blu-Ray format release).
Tell you what, CBS: If you re-do the f/x shots from the first remastered episodes to debut last year, I WILL buy the HD-DVD version. Those Enterprise shots were pretty good, but the CG models were sub-par.
‘Nuff said?
but it IS $217 for JUST one season.
There is misinformation all over the net because originally the press release was wrong.
That’s WAY too much $, CGI or no CGI…
Trust me on this – I work in an electronics department. I have for close to five years. HD-DVD has currently almost 40 studios behind it. It has better reverse compatibility, and it’s price point is lower. Toshiba developed it with Microsoft. MS behind a product will propel it — they have the money to do it. Blu-Ray has 3 studios, and Sony is a stalwart. They refuse to give up any ground. They are also a powerfully rich corporation. Neither will fail. You are going into a dual-format world. Which is why LG has released a dual-format player. They have the idea! Paramount was one of the first studios to sign with HD-DVD. I’d pay the 217 for it, I refused to buy the original series on DVD at fifty bucks at walmart the other day. I want the remasters! I don’t own a next-gen dvd player yet, but you can bet I will plop down 2 hun for a Toshiba HD-DVD, and plug it into my plasma…and boom! Trek Remastered! But, as mentioned above, there will be no format winner, because they will both be around for quite a long time to come.
Well, I had thought I would be buying this set for $99 (hopefully less) or maybe as much as $119 a season- and additionally would need to buy an HD-DVD player too for $200. So $217 which probably means $150-180 in the stores, if that is the Blu-Ray price too, then I can just purchase the sets, and spend about the same amount of money.
However, I have purchased 8 of the movies twice on DVD now, I have purchased 40 DVDs of the original series for about $600 total, and I have bought 14 seasons of TNG and DS9, mostly at $100 a season.
I am afraid I am done. I would be happy to buy this set at a reasonable price around $80 a season, and I would be happy to expand my collection with Enterprise and Voyager for $40 a season for those shows– but I am done with this over $100 crap from you. I will pick these up on the discount racks or in second release, or something. When I can get X-Files or 24 for $20 a season, and HBO Mini-Series for $60 or less- paying this much for even the remastered one isn’t worth it. I think the team is doing a fairly good job with the remastered, although I would have liked to see all the music re-recorded with new soundtracks released– but I won’t pay that much to see this.
Don’t worry guys and gals…unless you have to be the first to own these new TOS-R DVD sets, you won’t have to pay that “outrageous” suggested retail price. Gosh Paramount/CBS is really trying to rape the Star Trek faithful with that kind of pricing!
For those with short memories, when the TOS original series box sets were first released, they were sellling on Amazon.com for almost $99 per season, plus shipping. But, if you had waited just six months, the price came down by almost 50%! Now you can easily buy these very same sets for around $30 on Ebay!
So for me I’m going to just sit back, continue to enjoy my current TOS DVD sets, and patiently wait a year or so until the price on these new TOS-R sets drops to a reasonable and fair price.
I got burned before when I rushed to buy the original TOS season sets when they were first released, but I won’t let that happen again. I was a “sucker” once, but I won’t be this time.
Oh well, live and learn!
Mike :o
i didnt buy TOS on dvd – i only got it on vhs hahahaha
So I shall be buying these (when they come down in price of course)
“You could wait until they show it on BBC2 like I will.”
Is the Remastered Star Trek being shown on BBC 2 Then?
In addition to TOS series, has there been any further mention of the Feature Films???
Thanks!
Agreed, $200 seems to be too much. I’m really disappointed with the price and the dual format way they are releasing it. Perhaps this has a lot to do with the expensive price too?
Hopefully if it comes to blu ray disc, it will not be a dual disc format. And also cheaper in price.
I’ve been waiting too long for these, I can’t wait another 6 months just for a price drop.
Milking the cows !!!
The price is to high … for a 40 year old series … even with the new effects, it’s still a 40 year old show!
CBS ans Paramount are both greedy … and I hope that the retail price will go down, because I,m not paying over 200 $ for 20something épisodes ! No way. Enough.
Perhaps after a good lottery win. Perhaps never. Perhaps… . Sorry. Those people are insane. I’ll buy the box for $70,– or never!
There is no change I’ll be buying this for that that price. None. Zero. Not going to happen. This is just …. stupid.
We need to put Star Trek HD in perspective. Star Trek was shot in 35mm half-frame, and even the original production film clips (clips that are a generation prior to optical duplication for the final prints) exhibit significant grain in high-res film scans. I am not convinced there will be any substantial improvement for TOS Star Trek in HD-DVD vs. what we already see in standard DVD resolution. In any case, I cannot imagine an improvement warranting roughly $650 to re-purchase the entire series.
This set is far too expensive. Personally, I have already spent too much money on Star Trek over the years. I won’t buy this set.
But the pricing isn’t the only issue with this release. It’s a shame that CBS doesn’t make use of the technical possibilities both HD DVD and DVD offer. After all, there is no reason other than greed for not including the original version of TOS in HD as well. On DVD this could easily be achieved using multi-angle or seamless-branching technology. On HD DVD it wouldn’t be any problem at all as this format was designed for the inclusion of several parallel video streams from the start.
Despite that, CBS has decided only to include the new “enhanced” version of TOS on these HD DVD/DVD combo-sets. The result will be the same that we already know from Star Wars. The original Star Wars films are only available on DVDs based on old NTSC-masters from the early 1990s which were great by the time they were produced but don’t stand up to today’s standards. As CBS is refusing to realease Star Trek in its original form in high definition, the only HD-version that Star Trek will be available in will be the “enhanced” version with its CG special effects. The original version that many people have been so fond of for more than 40 years now, will only be available in SD, that means in a technically inferior version.
As HDTV will be the standard in home entertainment in a few years, TV stations will stop airing the original versions of TOS as these are not available in high definition and will only air these new “enhanced” versions of TOS. Star Trek in its original version will be obsolete and eventually be forgotten as it won’t be shown on TV any more.
The samed has already happened to Star Wars. Whenever Star Wars is being shown on TV, it’s the in the special edition from 1997. The original versions of Star Wars aren’t on TV anymore (in part due to inferior picture quality).
With Star Trek it will be the same.
I believe that viewers should have a choice whether they want to watch Star Trek with new special effects or in its original form. Both versions should be offered in HD. What CBS is doing here just isn’t fair.
I won’t buy any HD release of Star Trek (be it on Blu Ray or HD DVD) as long as the original version of the series won’t be included as well.
I wish Paramount/CBS would simply offer two different versions and allow the fan to choose what format they want- a standard DVD release or the HD release.
Why make someone purchase a format they don’t want, especially since the vast majority of people DO NOT have HD televisions or HD DVD players yet. I don’t get it!
Many, many films are released in both Full Screen and Wide Screen formats, so there is no reason they can’t offer two versions of TOS-R too.
Mike :o
180, this is two versions. Standard DVD on one side, to watch until you get an HD player and HD TV. At that point you simply flip the disc over and enjoy TOS in HD on the other side. And people who want this for the same price as a standard boxed set of Hogan’s Heroes are just going to have to be content with their old DVDs. I mean, come on, has anyone priced the difference between regular DVD movies and HD movies?? If it’s $14 for Apollo 13, you can count on paying $29 to $39 for HD or Blue Ray. Star Trek is no different. Sucks, but that’s just the way it is.
Personally, I have no problem paying that for my all time favorite show in the best possible quality with new FX. But not until it gets to blue ray.
CBS should include the original version of “WNHGB” on this set. But of course they’ll hold it back and include it on a future “super-duper ultra deluxe collector’s platinum limited edition” version. (roll-eyes)
Wrong on the Java front there. Ethernet capability is not standard in in Blu-Ray, so many 1st gen Blu-Ray players cannot upgrade to the new Java standard. Also the Java 2 standard versus Java 1.1 is substantially different and most older players simply cannot handle the added features. Add to that the concern that some players may not properly be able to handle playback of discs encoded with the new security standards and you have problems.
That’s why Paramount is not releasing this on Blu-Ray yet. Sorry you drank the Sony kool-aid… hell I support both formats but I’m not so blind as to realize Sony essentially screwed over early adopters.
Nuff’ said
Yancy, can they burn the update in ISO image format to a CD for updating without an Ethernet port? I’ll have some happy clients if that is so. Thankfully i resisted the koolaid from both sides.
Yes they can just burn a download to a DVD-R and update their player, that is how all 1st generation BR players have been updated thus far (or if you remembered to send in your registration card for the player, most vendors also ship out a proper DVD with the update on it with in a few weeks).
There seems to be some muddling of the Blu-ray hardware profiles among the posters here. Profile 1.0 is what all players support today, yes it has the BR-Java layer, all BR players must have a basic Blu-ray Java (BD-J) virtual machine for interactive menus, on disc games, etc …otherwise it would not be a BR player. Profile 1.1 adds some key features such as the mandate that the player support decoding two video/audio streams at once for PiP. Profile 2.0 (also called BD Live) is an optional level above 1.1 and is essentially Profile 1.1 plus Networking ability. The Wikpedia article on the profiles is actually pretty accurate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray#Profiles
Yeah that’s what I thought. I just need some $$$ for a new setup. My wall of degrees is killing me financially. Wiki Accurate? Never thought it possible.
Again the problem is you can update some of these players via DVD-R, fine but some players do not have the on board hardware capacity to run the Java functions properly. That’s why a number of older models are having problems running the Pirates movies, even after the 1.1 update.
I have one customer updated to 1.1, who has to sit through three minutes of the player grinding and grinding away as the player tries to launch the opening Java menu (God only knows why Disney chose to make the opening menus run on Java at all, they could have been simple motion menus). Eventually he gets a menu which stutters and barely functions and all he can essentially do is play the movie.
Sorry but some of these older players ARE going to have serious problems.
Yancy
Yancy, I am going to have to wait to buy a BR player. I cannot take the chance of having profound problems with my player. Time will tell.
http://rupesh-pawar.blogspot.com/2007/04/new-specs-for-next-generation-blu-ray.html
These are direct answers from the Blu-Ray association. Many older players will be unable to play PiP on the Trek DVDs when they eventually reach Blu-Ray. If you have not purchased a standalone player I would recommend waiting until November to pick up one of the newer less expensive models that are now making their way onto the market. Or as an alternative pick up the 60GB PS3 which had a $100 price reduction to $499.
It’s a solid player and now (with the 1.9 firmware update) fully supports playback of 24p encoding on discs (assuming your set supports this).
Yancy
The PS3 is EXACTLY what I am waiting to. The firmware updates would be easier over the PS3 network. Grad school is killing me. Christmas is the soonest i can buy. Providing they’re not gone by then.
If schedule allowed, it would be an opportunity to place a trailer for ST Xl on these new disks – in 1080p.
I’m with the majority on this one. I was expecting $200 or so for all 3 seasons, not for just one!
I’m a techno-dinosaur; I don’t even have cable! I have a dual-format player: VHS & DVD, not DVD-HD; that’s my idea of a dual-format player! As for Blu-Ray: what’s that? I don’t even know if I could play DVD-HD discs on my non-HD player (pause for howls of derision from those under 40 years of age), which makes me hesitate at buying the TOS-R discs, even if the price went down!
I watch TOS-R episodes on a UHF channel, through an antenna, on my non-HD 19″ Monkey-Ward T.V.! And I can tell the difference, and enjoy, the vast majority of the new FX.
So, CBS-D, how about a set, at a considerably lower price, for old geezers like me, who can’t tell an anamorphic 19:1 widescreen Blu-Ray whatsit from a hole in the ground?
Wondering what order the episodes are in: production or airdate? I hated how the season sets were in airdate order instead of production. I also hated the preschool-type plastic. The two-episodes-per-DVD were much better.
Or they could try stardate order just to give us something a bit different? No matter what, $200 is outrageous. Hell, $100 is outrageous for something they’ve repackaged so many times. I expected $60.
@Commodore Wesley, No, you can’t play HD-DVDs on an ordinary DVD player
I totally agree the MSRP on this set is crazy….
#192/194 — This set is actually a DVD/HD DVD hybrid ‘flipper disc’ which is a standard DVD on one side and an HD DVD on the other. So with this set there is a playable side for regular DVD users. Of course to be clear it isn’t the HD side, you do need a new player to get all the high def goodies.
Paramount (CBS) could learn a thing or two from MGM. They plan to sell the
entire series of Stargate:SG-1 for $275. Thats ten years worth for $27.50 per
season. A much more reasonable price. Unit cost is not that high that the
powers that be can’t make the cost for the fans a little more viable.
Sorry Not Ever coming to Blu Ray now that Oaramount is HD DVD exclusive. LOL!!
Hm, I’m just ok with this but nevertheless not completely confident, therefore i am gonna research even more.