HD DVD Loses Format War - Plans For Trek On Blu-ray (and HD DVD) Unknown [UPDATED] February 18, 2008
by Anthony Pascale , Filed under: DVD, TOS Remastered , trackback
Last Fall CBS and Toshiba made a big splash over Star Trek coming out exclusively on HD DVD, starting with the first season of The Original Series. Toshiba reps dressed up in Trek uniforms at an industry trade show, they did a phaser remote-control give-away, and used Trek as a big selling point for their platform during the holiday season. However 2008 has been a very bad year for HD DVD and indications are that the format war is over and HD DVD has lost. Studios and retailers alike are jumping ship and all that is left is for Toshiba to finally call uncle…leaving Trek as a casualty of war.
What’s next for Paramount, CBS and Trek on HD?
The Japanese news service Nikkei is reporting that this evening Toshiba will announce they are ceasing manufacturing of HD DVD products (players & recorders) immediately and will stop selling them at end of March. The last two studio holdouts for HD DVD are Paramount (w/ CBS and DreamWorks) and Universal (including NBC). Both are expected to announce support for Blu-ray in the very near future. In fact The Digital Bits has reported that some Blu-ray Paramount titles (which were cancelled when they went HD DVD exclusive a few months ago) have reappeared on retailers ordering systems. What isn’t clear is if either studio will continue to support HD DVD as well in the short run. Although it would be the reasonable thing to do for consumers they helped push onto the format, there is the issue that retailers like Netflix and Wal-Mart have all announced they will no longer buy new HD DVD titles, and Best Buy is no longer recommending HD DVD to customers.
The big question for Trekkies is ‘What about Star Trek?’ It had previously been confirmed that work on seasons two and three of remastered Original Series has been progressing with likely releases in the Summer and Winter respectively. Even after re-embracing Blu-ray, CBS could still release these titles on HD DVD as well (which would be nice for all those who purchased HD DVD players over the holiday season). However, at least one report says work on those seasons for HD DVD has been cancelled. This has not been confirmed, but (unfortunately) would not be surprising. TrekMovie.com has tried to get some clarification from CBS and/or Paramount, but so far they aren’t talking to us (or anyone). After Toshiba makes their announcement CBS and Paramount are bound to follow with one of their own and maybe that will provide some detail regarding the future of Trek.
…and the good news?
The silver lining may be that once the format war is over all the Trek content that is HD Ready will come out soon on Blu-ray. In addition to the three seasons of the remastered Original Series, there is Star Trek Enterprise (which is already shown in HD Net), the ten feature films (which have been shown in HD on HBO and Cinemax) and of course the 2009 Star Trek feature film. TNG, DS9 and Voyager would all require remastering (and possibly new CGI) to make it onto HD and so those are much more long term.
As more is learned on this developing story, TrekMovie.com will bring it to you.
UPDATE: Star Trek Remastered in syndication unchanged
Some fans have raised concerns over the future of the Star Trek Remastered series that currently runs in syndication. It has been reported that Toshiba has been providing funding for HD DVD project and will end that funding. However, even if true, this funding would only relate to the HD DVD development and not the syndicated series. As far as TrekMovie.com can tell, the remastered Star Trek will continue to air new episodes until next fall (by which time the entire series will have been completed).
UPDATE 2: IT IS OFFICIALLY OVER
As reported at The Digital Bits, Toshiba have officially announced the death of HD DVD. From the release:
Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.
next up…Paramount
Special thanks to Bill Hunt of the Digital Bits who contributed to this story and to Keiko for her Japanese translations and to Brian, Greg and others who have been sending in reports.
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Comments»
Sounds good.
PS. FIRST!!
It was fun while it lasted. At least it appears that once Toshiba makes the announcement, the war is finally over. At least for us who bought the HD-DVD’s of TOS S1 only need rebuy in BD if that is re-issued in BD.
First… glad I waited.
HD DVD format is the modern Betamax Blueray rules!
…or not
I don’t see where any doubt could possibly lie. Anything that was slated for release on HD-DVD will be released on BD (and titles already released exclusively on HD will likely land on BD as well). There is absolutely zero chance that, once officially killed, CBS/Paramount will continue to release on the HD-DVD format.
As for fans who purchased HD-DVD players… It was a significant buyer beware situation, and they now own Betamax/Laserdisk players. I’d have far preferred if HD-DVD had won for a variety of reasons (Sony’s DRM being chief among them), but I wasn’t going to purchase a player for a few release titles until the issue was decided.
Sony and Toshiba did the general public no favors with this “war,” and now that we have a winner we can, as consumers, start to spend our money. As the smaller manufacturing companies that were once on the fence now can tool for one format, competition will force prices to drop. This is a fantastic time to be an HD consumer.
I knew it was over when the retailers started jumping ship. Thanks for the info Anthony.
I wish there was a place where I could bet money on these things. Back when Sony announced that the PS3 would be Blu-Ray capable, I thought that format would eventually come out on top. The phaser remote package deal almost lured me in, but I’m glad I held out this time.
There’s nothing “in doubt.” HD DVD is dead, and so is any future Trek on HD DVD. As soon as Toshiba makes an official announcement, Paramount and Universal will be released from their obligations and will be free to start producing Blu.
Fascinating. I received my HD-DVD Remastered Star Trek set a few days ago, and now Toshiba has lost the war.
The only reason I got an HD DVD player was to get the Star trek TOS. I was really hoping that HD DVD would win the HD wars.
i think people misunderstood the headline so i changed it
what is in doubt is when we will see trek in blu ray
and if we will still see seasons 2 and 3 of TOSR on HDDVD
Regardless, Paramount still haven’t said anything so technically they are still in the HD DVD camp and are planning on releasing 2 more seasons of TOS…which is in doubt.
next time I pick a franchise to run a site for…i will pick on with less pedantic fans
Maybe a bit longer will let them tweak and fix some of the undone effects?
Blu-ray is a ridiculous name. I’m sorry, I just had to say it.
Well, at least the Star Wars movies will finally be released in HD. Lucas had said he’d wait to release all six movies in a box set until there was a clear winner in the format war. So hopefully by this time next year I’ll have some Star Wars AND Star Trek in HD.
That said, it does kinda bite that Blu-Ray won. One of the reason’s I got a 360 was because you can play HD DVD’s on it. Darn. I’m glad I didn’t buy season one last November……
Blu-ray is better. HD-DVD players are too expensive. In a few decades though, all the HD-DVD stuff might turn into expensive collecter stuff. It happened with Star Wars/Trek toys and A-Track players. :)
I’ve never understood what all the fuss is. Regular DVD is not really that bad. Besides, who needs Blu Ray? The next step is digital download anyway. Just finish putting them on iTunes. No packaging or distribution required.
#15
Shaddup. I’m the master of ridiculous names ’round these here parts. You beatledinger.
17 - do you mean “8-Track”?
The Star Trek movies have been remastered in HD??
I’m not trying to nitpick but that’s news to me. My directors edition of ST:TMP looks nothing short of horrible as far as picture quality goes. It is blurry and full of scratches and the VFX shots are full of grain. Doesn’t the HD treatment clean all of that stuff up??
Oh well, I bought an HD-DVD player and ST-R season one. I imagine I’ll have to buy a BD player now. Bummer.
Don’t let these nitpickers get you down Anthony! Intelligent folks knew what you meant , it was BLINDINGLY clear. Thanks for everything you do.
And #9 you’re right on the money. I bought the PS3 for the BR player knowing that it was only a matter of time. I almost fell for the phaser remote but I held off.
Remastered in HD does not = pristine print. It’s a resolution classification. In truth, those new Dochterman shots for the TMP Director’s Edition may not be in HD and will have to be reconstituted as a result.
As an aside, I do think Paramount made a selfish business decision here. While I do not know the specifics, they went “exclusive” with HD-DVD where there was really no need to do so, particularly at the time when it seemed BR had the advantage. My suspicion is that Paramount got a sweetheart deal from Toshiba to play ball, and they took the $ despite seeing the writing on the wall. And who stood to lose if that is the case? The consumers that put their $ and faith behind the studio. Phaser remotes are too damn hard to resist!
Ah, f— it! I have them on old skool DVD and that will have to do for now. I ain’t made out of credits you know.
had a blu-ray, sold it and bought an hd-dvd player when TOS-R 1 came out. now i’m gonna have to go buy another blu-ray. when is there going to be some good news around here? movie delays and the hd-dvd end…something good’s gotta come up
I can’t wait for Star Trek V & Embrace of the Vampire to be released on Blu Ray, but until then I’m sticking with the standard DVD format.
Hey #27
Maybe Paramount will take all their profits from the ST-R discs and put that towards updating the FX for ST V! That would be a nice gesture! :-P
OK, I’m no uber-videophile, beyond liking a big screen and big, theater-quality sound, so edumacate me here: what is the difference between HD-DVD and Blu Ray? Is it the the number of nose hairs you can count per pixel grid? It just seems to ba a redux of the VHS vs. Beta battle of the 80’s - whomever can toss the vendors the most free trips to Cancun, etc., won the war.
Glad I am not that interested in HD in any format. Can take it or leave it.
Star Trek Season 2 HD production has been halted. http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#toss2 My guess is it won’t be released. Never bought into either format, yet. Still ‘roughing it’ with good ol’ 480p standard! For my 42″ HD set it looks great! No rush to switch anytime soon. Patience will yield its own rewards. May the winner, Blu-Ray, live long and prosper. Who knows? I may even buy one someday!
Good Riddance HD-DVD - BluRay was always superior, (more storage being the chief reason). The sooner Paramount can get with it the better.
re: 21
My copy of STTMP looks fine to me. But then, I like watching shows on old black and white tube sets.
This is why I wait on new tech of any kind. It’s a pure waste to be first on board a ship that’s aiming for iceburgs. Or, if it’s a gamble, why is it a gamble? Just make good stuff CHEAP and sell it. I’ll decide after the dust settles.
Besides, as I’ve guessed before, there’s bound to be new TOS revamps in the future. Those will owe a lot to CBS-D, but may look even better. I’ll wait.
I guess Season 1 be re-released in a BR/normal dvd combo? and season 2/3 the same?
#13 “next time I pick a franchise to run a site for…i will pick on with less pedantic fans”
Bwahahahahaha! That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in days.
If Toshiba were paying for the project then we could be looking at quite a while for a Blu-ray release. Or they could just put out a no frills release on Blu-ray and leave off all the fancy bits.
I couldn’t be happier. My Toshiba plays some dandy hi-def and is a wonderful up-converter for standard DVD’s. Now, with all the stores wanting to make room for Blu-Ray, it’s just a matter of time before all the HD-DVD movies hit the bargain bin. That’s when I’ll clean up!
A lot of people are saying that, although they’d have to be dollar store prices before I’d consider buying dead media.
http://formatwarcentral.com/index.php/2008/02/18/star-trek-season-2-canceled-not-delayed/
This report does not just say that TOS-R on HD-DVD has been cancelled [and would be re-released on Blu-Ray later].
What it implies is that TOS-R has been cancelled altogether, since Toshiba was allegedly financing the whole thing.
#13 - “next time I pick a franchise to run a site for…i will pick on with less pedantic fans”
Lol, you aren’t related to my ex-wife, are you? ;-)
Up to about a month ago, I was so tempted to order up the first season of TOSR, but amazingly I showed some restraint and decided to wait. I’m definitely glad that I did so. One of the few bright things that I’ve done.
I havent really looked into it, but I was hoping that HDDVD would win, from what I have read, it seemed to be quite a bit cheaper with only a little bit of loss compared to BR
#40 Oh my!
Star Trek Remastered season 2 canceled!! Say it isn’t so!!
This is bad news if true. Now even less time and money for our friends at CSB-D.
It was trek being released on HD which got me into the thing. I’m hoping against hope they’ll, at least, release the next two seasons on HD-DVD. Past that, I’ll see what I have to do. They should do versions in both formats. Didn’t the sales of season one hit 100,000 units? I’d think they’d want to keep that market happy and reach the blu-ray people, too.
And it would be idiotic to abort the remastering of the series. Aren’t they more then half done?
If i wait three weeks on getting my HD-DVD player, I avoid this whole thing? Haven’t bought Trek Remastered yet so OK there.
Will buy all three seasons on Blu ray when they come out.
Probably keep HD-DVD player for a while since I bought some flix for it.
HD had more bells and whistles, kind of a shame they lost.
I bought STAR TREK: REMASTERED mainly for the standard DVD side since I don’t own an HD-DVD player. No big loss really. I just wanted it for the new visual effects anyway. If they decide to release the remaining seasons in standard def or Blu-Ray I’ll be fine with it. As it stand right now I’m happy with standard definition.
Do HD-DVD’s self-destruct after one viewing? Do they revert to cave drawings or some other archaic format? Why would one ditch their HD-DVD player simply because it lost the format war? I still use a Sony beta machine, Sony elcaset, Sony DAT, Sony reel-to-reel, and I still watch my Sony Wega CRT even though I have an 62″ DLP (hmmm, didn’t realize I had so many Sony products).
Anyway, I will keep my HD-DVD player and enjoy my first season of Trek, and when Blu-Ray comes down in price I will probably buy one (it may be a Sony…no particular reason), and I will buy seasons 2 & 3 of TOS-R, if available. I will also pick up clearance HD-DVD movies and enjoy those for years. And if my HD player breaks down I will find another at a garage sale for $5 (unless they’re programmed to self-destruct as well).
#38 that’s my plan as well.
HD-DVD’s are going to be really cheap soon. There are hundreds of titles available on the format that would be great to have. I will grab them up and keep my HD-DVD player for a long time and go Blu-ray in a few months.
What else is there to do??
NICE! I am so glad I waited.
All I want is a stand alone disc of the Billy Blackburn home movies. On simple dvd. Is that too much to ask for?
After CBS/Paramount released the series box set of the MacGyver series with the two movies and wouldn’t offer the movies for sale separately,–stiffing the fans who already bought the series season by season–my optimism faded.
Stanky… I agree there’s nothing wrong with stone knives and bearskins. I still gots my 1986 Beta hi-fi vcr and have all the Merv Griffin shows with Shatner…including the Wrath of Khan show with Kelley, etc. Just regret not taping T..J. Hooker for the permanent archives. Like to watch Willy Shat’s hair get poofy.
…One thing that’s reportedly being batted around in Congress is possibly introducing a bill that would require the studios to swap out HD disks for Blu-Ray ones to those who picked the wrong horse. Seems there’s some politicians who remember getting burned in the VHS vs. Beta war, and don’t want to see that happen again.
Lessee, tax rebate, HD adopters getting protection…what’s next? Hillary being revealed as a guy after all? :-P
#27
I was fifteen when Embrace was released. Oh the good times. It’s a classic, really
First Enterprise cancelled prematurely, then startrek.com shut down, then the movie postponed until next year and now this???
#40 — Not how I read it, how I read it is that Toshiba was financing the production of the DVD sets. It has nothing to do with the financing of the TOS-R project itself. That was launched in the summer of 2006 long before the format wars hit it’s peak.
#29 — The second one, it wasn’t really a battle of specs because both were equal as far as video and audio quality/specs, so it came down to studio support and multimillon dollar exchanges of money back and forth among groups, as well as promises of increased security (Which is what sold Fox on Blu-ray), and extra capacity for bonus content such as interactive games (what got Disney over to Blu-ray).
I’m sitting out this whole thing altogether. I’ll wait a few years and just download everything. Pfft.
Where can I get an HD player for cheap? I just figure to get both and hook ‘em both up to the old big screen. After all, I have a VHS player hooked up so I can watch my Twilight Zone and Outer Limits tapes (they just look better in ultra-low def). Plus, my TV has, like, a jillion inputs.
We should keep posted on where or who is having the best HD clearances on players an flix.
The basic Toshiba player is routinely found for ~$130. Amazon has it for $117.36 right now.
When the player is down to $50-$75, fish on! I have to have some up-side.
Oh well, at least I got most of my HD DVD’s for next to nothing, and after HD-DVD is long buried I’ll be able to buy really cheap Hi-Def movies on Amazon and E-Bay. There really is no difference in quality between HD and Blu-ray. Blu-ray never really utilized their storage capacity. It was just to make the PS3 disc drive a bit more efficient to make the movie discs compatible with their game discs. At least I got my Phaser remote bitches!!!!
Kinda like owning a laser disc player or ATRAC. Out-dated but excellent conversation pieces!!!
#57 - That is what kept me from buying TOS on the first dvd release - I could see the seams in Spock’s ears and well, in the HD version, now you see the seams and the pumped up lighting is in HD as well and sometimes just looks bad. While I like HD allright…I find it silly to release older things in HD when they were made to look best before HD was even conceived. HD doesn’t always mean it will look better.
Our dvd player broke a few months back and we’re waiting a bit longer to replace it with the format mess going on. I’m hopeful that when Blu-ray is declared the absolute winner there will be some sales and special offers going on to promote the format.
Pumpkin
To be honest, the only reasons I bought TOS R were for the updated FX and the HD special features. High Def seems silly to me as well on an old show. I would like to be able to access the special features on my discs, though.
So I wait with my line in the water.
I love my laserdisc player. and what is ATRAC? or did you mean 8-Track?
It’s amazing how much pull Warner Bros. had in this format war. Once they announced their intentions to switch to being Blu-ray exclusive, the war was over.
Exactly #9. People like you prove my point that people who want to watch movies bought a PS3 but serious gamers who want to play the best games own an Xbox 360. Won’t be too long now until Microsoft unveils a Blu-Ray peripheral for the 360.
Just realized my question might have been too pedantic. Oh my!
Well by my count there are 22 more Tos-r episodes yet to air, im not sure how many of those are already done but could this mean that cbs-d will not complete the remainder for syndication or eventual release? My thought is if there complete then they will will eventually end up on blu-ray. Paramount could sue Toshiba for breach of contract and get the funds to complete and have all the episodes re-encoded and end up on blu-ray . Also consider that Toshiba will probably produce blu-ray players eventually after hd-dvd is dead an buryed so who knows how the cards will fall in this senario. Bottom line is if there is money to me made by Trek in HD paramont will find a way.
#13
Brave heart Anthony! Don’t let a few… pedantic apples spoil the lot, I always say.
You’re doing a great job and it is appreciated!
I’m both the proud owner of both an HD-DVD player and a Blu-Ray Player. I wasn’t going to get into this hi-def battle at all except that I got the HD player cheap and the Blu-Ray player as a gift.
For all the arguing back and forth from both camps there is really no discernible difference between the two. The only drawback I can tell for the Blu is the ridiculously long load times. One of my discs even came with a disclaimer pretty much stating “If you’ve got something to do go and do it, ’cause you will be waiting.”
As far as digital downloads. I’m probably in the minority here with my outdated thinking but I like having the movie in a slipcase. I like seeing my collection of discs on the shelf.
steve623
I wondered too, so I looked it up on Google and found out it was the Sony mini-discs. Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding. With a name like that, no wonder it was disregarded and left by the wayside. Sony was not going to let Beta, ATRAC, and Blu-ray die. One of them had to stick.
ATRAC. What were they thinking? That’s like coming up with a new computer display and calling it Electronic Signal Display Emitting Laser. Or EDSEL for short. A name built on success.
Well, I knew blu-ray is going to win. Only bad thing is it’s another hundred or so bucks to buy the blu-ray version.
But forget blu-ray, Betamax is gonna make the return of the millennium!
#60
ROFL!
Yeah bitches we got our phaser remotes! Who knows? Maybe someday they’ll be worth more than the hd dvd machines we got suckered into buying. Until then we can drive everyone in the house crazy with the sound effects.
I’ve decided I’m not investing in any more HD media. Scru Blu. DVD will do just fine until we’re downloading everything. Yes, I’m just bitter. :)
Guess I’m gonna have to buy a new player.
The only way I would even consider buying Season 1 of TOS: Remastered again is if they fix those early episodes, like Balance of Terror. Otherwise, forget it! Why should I own it on Blue Ray if it looks as bad as it did on HD DVD. Give me some incentive to buy!!!!!!
I still prefer standered DVD and with the market research so does the general public. Im slowly starting to update just brought a 50 inch Hi Def Plasma TV. Hopefully the studioes will start coming out with hybrid BR disc that you can play standered DVD has well. Much like the HD/DVD comb discs. Since im not going to enjoy going out and rebuying my 500+ DVD collection.
Figures. I just received my phaser remote for my HD player TODAY. I mailed in my coupon and proof of purchase the very first week of the promotion. I will use my phaser remote until my HD player dies. It does a great upconvert to conventional DVD’s even if HD DVD’s are no longer produced. I have blu-ray as well on a PS3. Image quality is similar on both. Hopefully there will be a blu-ray phaser remote some day.
At some point the new High Rez laser disc will be something for me. A player with the ability to play ol DVD and the new format. Although I stayed on the side line of the “format war” my preference was for the format that had the most data capacity and that medium won. So, when the Blu-Ray machine comes out that plays DVDs and any “HD-DVD” that I can get for under $200 I’ll buy it and then the first high rez title I’ll buy isn’t Star Trek but Blade Runne and I’ll work my collection up from there. Trek’s HD-DVD season 1 won’t be for nuttin nor will Battlestar Galactica’s first season also on HD-DVD. I’ll gladly invite both high rez formats to my collection when I don’t have to take it in the turd cutter for a format that at this point I don’t need yet. D V D is just fine for now for my needs.
Paramount Executives on the Bridge of the USS HD-DVD:
Exec 1:
“nice ship here! Sure it has only 30 decks instead of 50 but we’ll squeeae and make do.”
Exec 2:
It appears that the ship is run entirely by loyalties, FUD and …. by computer.
Ecec 1:
“The only thing speaking.”
Commander Krudge Gates:
“Let me hear!!”
Computer Voice:
“5,4,3,2,1………..”
#72
I’m definitely keepin’ the Phaser Remote box. No sealed plastic wrapping the remote. In 30 years or so, I may just be a thousandairre!!!
To NBC/Universal:
Don’t make your one screw up on a Hi-Def format be Battlestar. What the f-ck were y’all thinking releasing that garbage???
Please fix it in 3 or so years when y’all release it on blu-ray. Looks damn near the same in standard def. I bought both. Gimme my $99.99 plus tax back…. Bitches….
Maybe they should let a responsible effects house like Eden FX or ILM take a crack at the effects before they go Blu Ray , thoughts people? So it looks less like a video game.
Now the Blu-Ray camp needs to get it together and release a final profile of Blu-Ray players at an affordable price. This is what bugged me about Blu-Ray, with the studios looking to push all these special features (like the ones found on TOS-R 1) I’d hate to buy a Star Trek set and then own a profile player that couldn’t handle everything on the disc. It looks like unless I get a PS3 then it’s not going to be anytime soon when this all comes about. But maybe since Universal being such an advocate of these things it will push them to get some decent players out that fit a final profile of sorts. Or we can hope. Until that is cleared up I am not going to get into Blu-Ray. Of course maybe by the time Paramount finally gets around to releasing more Trek in HD they’ll have cleared this all up. In the meantime my HD movies still work and the upconversion on the A2 is pretty good, it’s just too bad that Toshiba really didn’t know how to market this properly. They just thought that having a low price meant that people would flock to the format and there was more to it than that. Well the phaser remote idea was cool, I’m glad they tried to cater to Trekkies a bit but in the end that didn’t matter enough.
What I’d really love for TOS is to see a box set with the original series and ALL the nice bonus features and bloopers that are floating around everywhere…to have a bunch of interviews, behind the scenes stuff, and blooper footage all in one nice set would be tremendously lovely.
Knowing that there is tons of ’special features’ spread out all over the place and some not even available on DVD still keeps me from buying TOS on dvd…I know that the instant I decide to “settle” they’ll release another set that’s even more expensive and better than the one I decided to own. (ST seems more susceptible to that phenomenon more than any other tv/movie series.)
Funny how people hear about old technologies but don’t read about them. For instance 8-track and ATRAC.. I had a couple 8-track players in the late 70’s, In the 90’s I bought a ATRAC Sony discman..The packaging told me that I could fit hours of music on one CD..after I loaded the software into my computer, I found out that sony insisted that I prove that I had actually bought the music that I was planning on listening to…I rarely keep reciepts for such casual things..so I deleted the ATRAC from my computer and just made normal MP3’s…Beta will not come back ever..but the old players sell for sometimes 2-3 hundred dollars.. I have had 6 betas and am now looking for one to transfer 18 beta tapes I still own..whew..oh and by the way. I havent bought either HD format machines because my TV isnt HD.
I still say chill-out till blue-ray players and recorders some down to $80 and $200 respectively
For now there is an up-converting dvd player from memorex that is available at target for $45 this week. If you get an HDMI wire from Monoprice.com for $4 you are going to be pleased with any reasonably mastered DVD. The picture ends up better than many “HD” channels that use bad cameras.
I am actually kind of upset that Paramount has not offered a $75 conventional DVD of TOS and TNG with up-rated effects. have the original on the back if you want.
Victory! The taste is sweet! On your knees, Captain!
Good thing I decided to hold off on purchasing these Discs. Now at least I will enjoy them on bd when/if they do come to that format.
#80: I agree with you.
I’ll Buy Enterprise seasons 1-4 on HD-DVD (R.I.P.) before I buy TOS-R on ANY format!!!!!!!!
there has been some confuion above regarding the report about HD DVD development on seasons 2 and 3 for Star Trek. Firstly this has not been confirmed. Secondly this has nothing to do with the weekly syndicated remastered series. That will continue to air regularly.
One of the reasons I held back reporting on this story is that really the whole thing is right now a bunch of questions. No one has the answers yet and CBS and Paramount are not talking.
So NomaHD was beat out by Tan-Blu?
hm, as far as i know, Toshiba has currently NO! Plans to withdraw from HD DVD according to a Company Spokesman. The Meeting where business things are discussed is today. So thats all Roumer until Toshiba declares officially defeat.
hm, Forgot to put an URL in.
So here ist is.
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/ir/en/news/20080218_01.htm
I had a strong feeling the PS3 would decide the war.
Anyone who bought a HD DVD player, well, ther ARE still loads of HD DVD titles so they didn’t just become useless and you guys DID get the TOS release.
But stil, I’m glad, now I’ll definately pick up that PS3 soon.
great now bring on a bluray burner for my mac!
It is true, Toshiba canceled work on Season 2 for HD-DVD!!!!
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Star-Trek-Season-2-HD-DVD-Cancelled/9018
It’s a bad time to be a trekkie!!!!
You do NOT require “new CGI” for an HD transfer. Don’t let’s allow this to become common practice, just because they did that with TOS.
Ah well, if they never release TOS-R season 1 on Bluray then I’ll feel slightly better about it, but to be honest, anyone that was going to buy it probably already has, or will buy it when it comes down to £0.99 for the set on HD DVD.
So there probably isn’t the market for TOS-R on Bluray now. And since the people who would buy Seasons 2 and 3 already have HD DVD players, that’s the only market and I can’t see it happening.
Expect Seasons 2 + 3 it on Standard DVD next year with a reissue on iTunesHD-3D Holographic once they actually invent it.
If they love us like they should, they’ll whack a HD DVD flipper on the other side of the SD disk. But they don’t. So they won’t.
I’m off to be grumpy.
Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/?epi_menuItemID=8529ea2ad8631dcd3bb97904c6908a0c&epi_menuID=887566059a3aedb6efaaa9e27a808a0c&epi_baseMenuID=384979e8cc48c441ef0130f5c6908a0c&ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20080219005651
Glad I’m poor as a rat and haven’t been able to buy any of both yet.
XDD
What I’m really looking for is the complete inability to purchase Trek in Blu-Ray because unlike HD-DVD, Blu-Ray is region encoded. So if you don’t live in North America, you are pretty much going to have to wait a couple of years (just like you did with the DVD sets) to come out in your regions format. With HD-DVD I could watch TOS-R in HD because there were no regions. Buy in the USA and watch in Australia. Given that less than 5% of Blu-Ray content released in the USA has been released in Australia so far, it looks like the real losers of the format war are people who aren’t American.
“Blu-ray is a ridiculous name. I’m sorry, I just had to say it.”
I’ve been saying that for two years.
Buff.
We are lost here in Spain, then.
We don’t even have the 4th season of Enterprise in DVD yet.
Toshiba pushed it.
WE bought it.
THEY OWE US.
I’m glad I didn’t buy another Toshiba laptop or an HP computer with an HD drive.
This is WORSE than Beta, because there’s less out there.
SCREW Toshiba AND Paramount.
Orin said:
“unlike HD-DVD, Blu-Ray is region encoded”
WHAT!? I didn’t know that. Ugh. I was hoping all that region BS would be over with the new generation. It’s so stupid.
AND we have DRM.
The more things improve, the worse they get.
I seem to recall that there are new, improved Blu-Ray players on the horizon that will have more features than the current Blu-Ray players do and support new functions. For example, there will probably be a software upgrade for some players to support 100GB 4-layer discs, but there are companies that have created up to 6 or 10 layers that hold 200GB, and they wouldn’t be just a software upgrade. So I wouldn’t run out and buy a Blu-Ray player.
Spanish news.
The radio here just said that Spanish customer protection laws allow the customer to return the HDDVD machine because Toshiba’s anounce counts as a violation of the contract IF the HDDVD machine has been bought in the last two years (If it is under warranty)
Check the customer protecion laws of your country!!!!!
Yup. Even better is that you could get around DVD region encoding by modifying your player. Try that with a PS3 and other Blu-Ray players that require firmware updates to go to the newer Blu-Ray profiles and you’ll probably get a nasty surprise. They can brick your player for an unauthorized mod. Not only is Blu-Ray region encoded, but unlike DVD, the region codes can be strictly enforced.
There are some region free Blu-Ray titles, but it requires a significant amount of research to determine what they are and you risk buying something from an offshore source and ending up with something you can’t play in your player if you were misinformed. I’ve got both players, but my HD-DVD collection is more extensive simply because I could purchase stuff overseas and with Blu-Ray I’m limited to whatever is released locally - and as I mentioned, what has been release locally is pretty pitiful.
The hybrid disc format is what killed HD-DVD. It sounded like a good idea, but every hybrid title offered was priced nearly 50% higher than a standard DVD or a comparable Blu-Ray title. No doubt, the hybrid format also resulted in the high price tag on Star Trek season one in HD-DVD.
As the former purchaser of a Beta machine (back in my college days) AND later an RCA CED (***sigh***) videodisc player, I was going to wait this time.
Now for the real question: When are they going to come out with a B-R jukebox player?
Man you guys crack me up. Go and spend all your money on Bluray.
^
Dvds are just fine with me and allready paid for.
^
I still say Bluray won’t last the deacade. Something else will happen.
So run, don’t walk and spend your money on a Bluray player suckas.
Sounds like a total pain in the keester…and an expensive one. I think standard DVDs look great on my TV and the idea of HD really doesn’t get me excited enough to spend the money.
If the show is good, I enjoy watching it just as much on VHS for that matter.
the answer?
downloadable hd movies and terabyte hard drives, who cares about compact disc format?
in 10 years holography could be the big format, anyway, stored atomically by altering crystal lattices with lasers
I threw Anthony a note related to this on Friday . . . and no name check?
I’m disappointed!
So, Toshiba was paying Paramount to make these discs in exchange for their exclusivity. That was a good business move by Toshiba (in theory). But I do think Paramount went and did this for the wrong reasons.
arrrr… at least the HD DVDs will still make dandy coasters…
perhaps someday we’ll get so advanced that we’ll have the little yellow cards Kirk and Spock used which, as a’far as I could tell, could only hold audio and computer info…
108 “As the former purchaser of a Beta machine (back in my college days) AND later an RCA CED (***sigh***) videodisc player, I was going to wait this time.”
You too? Actually my CED and Beta machines still work, and I still watch Star Trek titles on both formats. But, like you, this past experience has kept me from buying into any new format. Heck, I only just recently converted from VHS to DVD. Plus, I gave up on CDs and went back to vinyl records.
actually Paramount had been putting tha Blue-Ray in the remastered shows all along… it be the ship’s new phaser fire
arrrrr…
more on the story:
http://www.wcbs880.com/Blu-Ray-Handed-Victory-in-Home-Video-Format-War/1678028
Well, (as “old-fashioned” as it is) at least I have the episodes taped. The ones that have been aired so far, I mean. It’s not as good as a DVD/Blue Ray, but I’m not going to go out and buy a Blue Ray player just for one or two things. Plus, wouldn’t I need to have HDTV too? Or can I use it with my standard TV?
Of course any smart person would’ve already bought one of those players that plays BOTH formats long ago.
#115
I still have the CED player in storage down in the basement, as well as the disc collection. Tough call what to do. They’re not worth much on the secondary market (eBay), the accumulative weight of the discs and carrying cartridge is…well…remarkable, and I believe that I’ve finally replaced all of the movies (save one or two) that I had on CED (and then a whole bunch that were never released in that format) with DVD.
I’m still not going to jump into B-R. I’m going to wait at least until they offer a jukebox player… …because I hate having to have a bunch of movies, in their cases, and having to do the ’swap out to watch’ thing.
(the reason that I have three (3) 400-disc DVD jukebox players… ;) )
Those of you who are concerned about region coding are victims of FUD.
Studios such as Warner (and Paramount when they released on Blu-ray) did not region code their titles. Region coding is OPTIONAL with Blu-ray. Catalog titles more than a year old that are region coded are supposed to be reissued as non-region coded. Several Sony and Disney titles are issued as ALL region titles.
A lot of studios consider region coding very important. New Line Cinema would only release on Blu-ray most titles because of this. Their one and only HD DVD, “Pan’s Labyrinth”, was out for a while.
As far as DRM goes, BD uses the same as HD DVD did: AACS. The BD+ protection is optional, and so far only Fox home video uses it. Again, this was a reason HD DVD did not have more studios.
Anyone who thought HD DVD’s hold on the market was never more than tenuous was mistaken. If Warner had gone HD DVD only for some reason, then Hollywood would have been split 50-50: a true stalemate. Plus folks would be debating which BD company would throw in the towel, or at least make combo decks (Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Hitachi, Pioneer, Sharp, Mitsubishi, etc)
I’m glad this format war (aka Toshiba’s patent money grab) is over. I just hope when TREK TOS comes to BD that it’s more than a measly 3 episodes per disc on 10 (TEN FRIKKIN’) discs!
#120: There is a Sony jukebox BD/DVD/CD player, the HES-V1000.
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665231960
I was afraid this was going to happen… it’s the VHS v Betamax war all over again… I hadn’t gotten around to buying the remastered first season yet; now I am waiting to see where the chips fall as they will.
It is safe for Sony say, “It is a payback time, bitch!” since they lost the VHS vs Betamax war years ago.
Well, one good thing for those of you that bought an HD player and have some HD DVDS… they might start selling off the HD DVDs they already have out, for cheap, and you could still get some to have for your players at a discount!
It would be truly unfortunate if TOS-R seasons 2 and 3 don’t come out on BluRay OR HD-DVD. Season 1 looks absolutely beautiful in HD.
#122
At $3500 (retail)?… Granted that’s a little over than 2 weeks take-home, but I’ll wait a little while longer: I just bought a second motorcycle.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/paramount-and-universal-to-publish-films-on-blu-ray/
I’m relieved I waited to choose sides in this ghastly war, but it’s a shame Paramount didn’t see this coming. I would certainly hope they’d provide some kind of rebate for the folks that bought Season 1 on HDDVD to purchase the BluRay discs, but I doubt they will. The bad thing is that the already expensive BluRay players will likely go up for a time.
Why, exactly, would prices go up? As stated earlier, the smaller manufacturers that couldn’t afford to tool for one format and be wrong can now begin production. Competition doesn’t drive prices up.
Blu-ray might not be the best name, but guess is less worse than blue-laser, which sounds very 70´s.
Does anyone remember the CED Video Disc vs. Laserdisc war back in the early 80’s? I lost out on that one. I still have all the Trek videos available at the time on CED. I was so excieted to get TMP on this new format. Of course eventually both lost out to DVD.
I’m sure glad I waited. TOS-R almost drew me in. Do BluRay players play standard DVD’s also?
Um, hello? I would still like to buy the remastered eps. seasons 2-3 on disc. If it’s OK with the studios and all. Please? I have money. I don’t actually care about the format.
To be honest this is why I hadn’t purchased the TOS-R disc release. As noted in #132, it *almost* drew me in. Will patiently wait for the Blu-ray version to release (I hope — and I may be the minority here — that they do a normal release, with labels noting episodes, and not the two-sided bit).
yeee arrg…
I waited until well o’er a hundred commenst to start me rant… how courteous o’ me…
mayhaps I rely too much on a form of cable tv to supply me with what I watch… like scaterring airings of Star Trek shows… But I dunna never got inta DVDs and the techno-companies be a’screwing the consumers…
so the magic disc can be CD, DVD, HDDVD, BluRay, CDROM, or whatever the bloody hell else comes along…
All in tha name of better quality… If I wated ta see something real, I;d be looking outside, not in tha fantasy worlds of films…
How much detail do we need in films? I mean… is this the search for acne? Show me Scotty’s poor teeth so close and clear that I swear we had a carnal moment… Will I be able ta tell if Shatner indeed had a wig on during TOS?
Too much definition and clarity is a bad thing for some forms o’ entertainment…
Oh, that’s why I carry a bag around with me on me shore leave date nights… (wit’ airholes, of course) …not that I be discriminating…
arrrrr…
Now I know that the new DVD player I need to buy will be Blu-Ray. When my old player died, I was wondering what format ST 2009 would take when it reached DVD.
I still use good ‘ol DVD.
I’m glad I didn’t start buyin’ HDDVD or Blu-Ray until now.
But now we all know.
And knowing is half the battle.
Don’t know why everyone is ragging on Laserdisc, the format was around for 22 years, HD DVD barely made it to 22 MONTHS before it went RIP! (btw, Betamax lasted 27 years).
My LD player is still going, so I can still watch any of the 40 or so TOS episodes (they came two to a disk) on I have on LD, including two versions of “The Cage” one of which is the mix of color and bw footage, as well as the complete color copy.
Long live Blu-ray! The war is over before it really began.
Though, I suppose I could still wait for the little plastic data cards as used on TOS when they can hold 1000 or more Ultra-Uber HD Holo-Movies per card…
No format lasts forever. I hoped HD-DVD would last longer, but even Blu-Ray will eventually fall by the wayside when online downloads become more prevalent. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy TOS-R on HD-DVD, and will also pick up a Blu-Ray player.
139: “but even Blu-Ray will eventually fall by the wayside when online downloads become more prevalent.”
And why would we want that?
As at least one other person said… So glad I waited. #133 says Blu-Ray will eventually fall by the wayside, and while that is no doubt true, I don’t think that will happen any time soon. Certainly not nearly as soon as HD-DVD did. With pretty much the entire industry now lining up behind Blu-Ray, I think it’s safe to say that Blu-Ray will last for a good long while. I don’t think the entertainment industry wants yet another format war any time soon. HD-DVD, for good or ill, is just the loser of its war. Just like Divx (remember that?) was.
Look at it this way… Good old regular DVD has been around for over a decade now, and there’s no reason to toss your regular DVDs out. Most people still have players and discs in just that format alone, many of us waiting to see how the format war played out. Even now, after Blu-Ray’s triumph, I’m not making the move any time soon. My DVDs and players work just fine, and I’m not moving until the prices drop signficantly, and until regular DVD begins to disappear. That’s not going to happen for awhile yet.
There’s a lesson for Paramount in all of this… Bad enough they chose th losing side in the format war, but worse still that they couldn’t give fans — most of whom still have REGULAR DVD — the remastered TOS in that same regular DVD format alone. The combo discs were ridiculously overpriced (though I imagine that price will come down now!), and I wasn’t going to shell out that kind of money knowing that the discs I buy might end up being in the wrong format when I finally do go high def. A set of regular DVDs, at half the price, would’ve put the set on my Xmas list (and I bet a lot of other people would’ve too).
I might be willing to buy remastered TOS on a Blu-Ray/regular combo disc now that Blu-Ray has won, but not at the kind of price Paramount was asking. Paramount needs to realize that regular DVD consumers are still out here too.
I’m glad I waited. I use standard DVD and it is good enough since I’m also waiting to upgrade my tv set to HD. The HD tv sets still cost too much for my liking. As much as I like modern PVR type boxes, I still use a VCR at home because I am too cheap to buy a PVR set top box. I like to spend my money on buying hardware for my PC which becomes outdated much faster than home entertainment electronics.
I wonder how long BluRay will last? Wtih the potential for movie downloads only being limited by bandwidth, flash memory becoming ever more dense and this new holographic based media I have been reading about, BluRay may end up being the short lived format winner in the long run … maybe.
This is why I have taken to playing with souping up cars. Upgrades to cars have a much longer shelf life. Getting 100 more horsepower out of a car is still 100 more horsepower today and ten years from now.
#130
That’s probably true. I was thinking moreso in terms of HDDVD being competition to BluRay, and now with BluRay essentially having no competition that the price might surge for a while. Now if people want HiDef they HAVE to go BluRay or nothing at all. Economics is not my strong suit though, so I’ll have to defer to those that know more about it than I do.
#110
Stanky, I was in the same boat as you until I finally bought a plasma HD television. I’m telling you, it brings new life to EVERYTHING you watch. I’ve actually found myself enjoying the political debates, just because I can see every pore on Barack Obama’s face! :)
138. Right. LaserDisc was “under the radar” for a long time. It only had one form of serious competition; RCA’s Selectavision video disc format, which died a painful death in about 2 years. DVD was NOT competition for Laser, it was its replacement. Laser became a boutique format for videophiles and true movie buffs. Until DVD, where else could you get widescreeen versions of Star Trek? Now it’s common, back then, people who didn’t “get it” complained about “those black things on the top and bottom of my 32″ inch screen”.
Let’s also remember that when DVD was released, there were competing formats; DVD and DiVX (no, not the codec, the rent to own format). DiVX went by the wayside in about the time it took Toshiba to retire HD-DVD.
The best part about having a PS3, IMHO, is the ability to upgrade the firmware. The last one gave owners BD 1.1, which improves the Java layer and decreases load times and DiVX support (no, not the rent to own format, the codec).
140. As far as BD falling by the wayside; the reason the studios are working on on-demand content delivery systems so hard is that they don’t want you to own any kind of content. Digital delivery will make the concept silly in a few years. Look at iTunes or Apple TV downloads (purchases not rentals); you are only capable of playing them on devices that work with the DRM Apple and the studios set up, on the devices you are allowed to play them on, but they can’t be burned to DVD for later use.
ANyone remember VideoDisk AKA CED (not to be confused with LaserDisk)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance_Electronic_Disc
People go on about digital downloads, but they aren’t really realistic for the majority of uses yet, or for the forseeable. There simply isn’t the communications infrastructure yet to allow the speed and sheer volume of downloads worldwide. Plus, a lot of people like the possession of physical media, the covers, the booklets, the bonus gifts and so on.
I’ll still buy a lot of stuff on DVD while it continues, but ‘bigger’ stuff like Indiana Jones and Star Trek will be definite Blu-ray purchases for me.
All we need now is for back catalogue titles to be issued without region coding. I can understand a film not yet released in Europe being US-only for a couple of years, but it’s nuts for a film like Bonnie and Clyde to be coded.
Logically, with the web connectivity of Blu-ray systems, region coding for discs should be able to be cancelled every so often via system updates!!
Anyone interested in that Videodisc thing I posted a minute ago.. check this out on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEd5h4wci70&feature=related
Skip forward to about 4:11 to see how the thing actually worked. It was kind of akin to an old LP record. It was analog just as a record.
I remember seeing The Best Little Whore House in Texas on videodisc and player about 10 years ago at a thrift store.
Does anyone know if ST-TMP was released in it’s original theater version (no added footage) on LaserDisc? I know it was on CED VideoDisc because I have a copy. Every copy of the Betamax and VHS versions I have owned were the “12 minutes of footage added” versions. Was just wondering.
In the early 80’s, when the competing formats were Betamax, VHS, and CED Videodisc, CED Videodisc actually had the better picture. However, the format was plagued with problems, which ironically, were pretty much cleared up right before RCA decided to stop making the players in 1984. Some CED VideoDiscs continued to be manufactured through 1986. The ones made in the later years had great CX encoded stereo sound. Star Trek III - The Search for Spock was the last Star Trek title made on CED Videodisc.
Sorry - I’m posting my comments rather late so I doubt their value, BUT…
Even though I own two HD TV’s (all content supplied thru DirectTV and standard DVD) I had not yet bought a player.
The ONLY HD DVDs I have is the TOS-R season one set my wife got me for Christmas.
I guess the set ts a collectable now, better leave it unwrapped. Try to avoid the temptation of pulling out my son’s XBOX 360 to watch them.
Now that Blue-Ray is THE MAN, I’ll look for a good player at a good price. I sort of spoiled as I own a SONY 250-disc DVD jukebox and it’s awesome - I wonder how many credits to get a HD version?
In closing, I hope the CBS/Mount-heads can get the change over to Blue Ray going for all of TOS-R so I can handle waiting these 14-months for the new movie.
I own players of both formats… a Toshiba HD-DVD player and a Sony PS3. The PS3 was much the better movie player, as the Toshiba had a weird problem of freezing for several seconds at random points in a movie (even on brand-new TOS-R discs) on the two different machines I tried (I took the first one back because of that problem.)
But the PS3 was more expensive and required expensive add-ons, like the remote control to use comfortably, and the connections available (especially audio) were somewhat more limited than the Toshiba player. I was able to get good surround sound from my Toshiba HD-DVD Player, but the sound from the PS3 is much less impressive.
I’ve never been a fan of Sony, which I think is not the most customer-oriented organization around. I’m worried what will happen with Blu-Ray now that Sony no longer has any competition in the HD format.
141 - I wholeheartedly agree.
Another reason that the High-Def video formats might not sell as well as DVD has:
How many people have $1500+ to spend on a decent High-Definition TV?
I know I don’t, and the Standard Definition television I have (probably 8-10 years old) is perfectly suited for my DVD collection, and new movies are still coming out on DVD.
High-Definition is better, but it is excessively high priced.
People on a budget can NOT afford them, let alone lay down additional cash to get their movies in another format.
Anthony, the poll should have a “No, because I don’t care.” or some other choice for those of us who are sitting back and LOLing and another format war. I have my laptop. That’s good enough for me.
Simon it isn’t FUD. I have both players and want as much HD content as possible. I simply can’t find more than a few titles because no more than a few titles have been released in Australia in Blu-Ray because of Region encoding. Region encoding pretty much doesn’t matter if you live in Region-A because you get all the goodies. Live anywhere else and you are basically stuffed. I’d love to buy more Blu-Ray stuff, but at the moment I’ve got everything worthy that’s been released in my region, and that is less than 15 titles!
155 - All Warner BD titles have no region coding.
All Sony & Disney *catalog* titles have no region coding. So go ahead and buy “Cars” or “Close Encounters”. They are marked “Region A B C”
So far it’s only Fox and MGM (distributed by Fox) who don’t follow the BDA recommended policy of region-unlocking titles more than one year old.
Still, you have a couple hundred titles there to choose from!
152: “I’ve never been a fan of Sony, which I think is not the most customer-oriented organization around. I’m worried what will happen with Blu-Ray now that Sony no longer has any competition in the HD format.”
That’s another piece of misinformation floating around from the HD DVD side. HD DVD was a monopoly: Toshiba. If you wanted a HD DVD player they were pretty much it.
Blu-ray has Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, Sharp, Philips, Hitachi, Samsung, LG, Denon, Marantz, and others all fighting for your Blu-ray dollar. They are ALL in competition with standard DVD as well. They *want* you to upgrade.
Gee, perhaps I’ll move out of my parents basement and take up girls as my new hobby.
I don’t know what hurts more, the death of HD-DVD, or taking 3 photon torpedoes in the butt.
Back in the early 80s I proudly owned these CEDs:
Star Trek: Vol.1, The Menagerie
Star Trek: Vol.2, City on the Edge of Forever/Let That be Your Last Battlefield
Star Trek: Vol.3, Trouble with Tribbles/Tholian Web
Star Trek: Vol.4, Space Seed/Changeling
Star Trek: Vol.5, Balance of Terror/Mirror,Mirror
Star Trek: Vol.6, Amok Time/Journey to Babel
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Alien
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
(among others)
I had my High School Chums come over often to show off the picture quality
Then came VHS
Ultimately, my CED collection was replaced with versions in the new, better format: VHS, with my HiFi VCR hooked into the Aux ports of my Stereo for 2-channel theatre-like stereo sound.
Then came DVD, and people put their letterboxed VHS tapes on eBay.
I bought them up, eventually owning TWO VHS tapes of each movie in my collection: a pan-and-scan version, and a letterboxed version
I said “Now that I finally have the entire picture on my screen, there is absolutely no reason to buy them ever again!”
(also, during my eBay searches for letterboxed VHS movies I already owned, just as a goof, I scored Undiscovered Country and Generations in another defunct format: CDi !! - anybody else remember CDi ?????)
Then came the DVD-only Extended Edition Star Trek The Motion Picture.
And the silver cased 2 DVD editions of the other films.
Then I got TOS seasons 1 and 2 as gifts – I had to get season 3 to complete the set, no ?
And, of course, the Animated Series, too !
And I just had to own the Quadrilogy, and the new 2004 versions of the Star Wars trilogy, and so on, until I ended up with my entire VHS collection (75+ titles) in DVD form, with my DVD player attached to my HDTV over 480p componant (recently upgraded to 1080i upconvert over HDMI) and digital coax into my Home Theatre for true theatre-like 5.1 DolbyDigital™ SurroundSound™.
I said to myself (and my wife!) “OK, now I am really done rebuying all this. DVDs are the best format !”
And now here we go again.
Along comes BluRey – now, people on eBay (and maybe B&M retailers) will be looking to get rid of Remastered season one on HD-DVD/DVD combo…… here I go again…….
I wonder…. How many versions of all these TV shows and movies will I eventually end up with.?
CED….(p&s)VHS….(letterboxed)VHS….CDi…..DVD…2-disc Special Edition DVD…HD-DVD…….BluRey…………
I did toy with the idea of buying TOS-R season 1…but really, I only have a 13 incher CRT (talk about dinosaur). I didn’t need the HD versions, I just wanted the S-DVD version. Maybe I can buy TOS-R for cheap soon because it will still work on my DVD player, which is oddly enough made by Toshiba.
And the people rejoice!
The Great Format War of 2002-2008 is over! Whether for better or for worse, the Blu-Ray Disc won out. (In general, the BRD is better than the HD DVD…but the HD DVD is cheaper to produce)
The people keep rejoicing and waving flags in celebration. What kind of flag nobody knows! (Probably some American, of course!)
BOY am I ever glad I haven’t spent any money on these, I was waiting to see which would go the way of the betamax.
Doesn’t make much difference to me. I won’t buy the remastered series on either HD DVD or Blu-ray. But I’ll snap it up the instant it appears in the standard DVD format.
Dannyboy1, the remastered series is on standard DVD, the same pack has dual sided disks - side1 is the titles on HD-DVD, side2 has it in standard def.
The thing though, is that last week when they ruined my Christmas and backed the new film to next fall, I had a feeling that one reason could have been that if Paramount stuck to their exclusive contract with HD it would have ended in March of 2009, making it so they could release all the Trek they want in April and May to plug the new movie. So much for that thought. But I do think that the first ten films will be coming in new Deluxe Edition DVDs and Blu-rays (hopefully with the theatrical cuts of TMP and VI and a new cut of V) and a whole bunch of even more extras (that weren’t on the current SCE’s), plus the remastered versions of TOS will come sometime in the next 15 months leading up to the new movie (yeah, 10 months does sound better, but who knows WTF goes on on that damn mountain).
First!
I’m glad I held off. I would have predicted that things would have gone the other way, so I’m now extra satisfied that I didn’t give in to my urge to buy.
#149
I own ST:TMP on Laserdisc and it is the original theatrical version released in 1979. I actually really like the this version.
No 12 minutes of extra footage here.
Has anyone received their 5 free HD-DVD’s from Toshiba for buying their player in the last three months??
I sent in the rebate form so I better still get my 5 free HD-DVD’s from Toshiba that I mailed in or else!!!
The most interesting part about this “format war” was chiefly that so many people became “experts” - exerting their limited knowledge on both technologies as if they knew what was really going on.
-Sony is one of the largest developers/owners of the BluRay technology - not the sole owner.
-Disc capacity may be a sign that a format is “better” - but for those people that used this as an indicator that BluRay was “superior” to HD DVD need to realize that it was more of a matter of what content was actually placed on the discs. More isn’t always better - especially if it’s either wasted space, or filled with a bunch of SD extras. TV sets won’t magically reduce the number of discs they use - the buyer’s perception that they’d be getting less could cause people to not buy the discs.
-Neither format will “turn into pumpkins” and I would personally think re-purchasing the same movies and television shows for $30+ or over $125-200 (in the case of Star Trek Season One) would be foolish to say the least. No one “needs” to re-purchase the season - especially if the benefit of spending hundreds of dollars on the same exact films/tv shows is that they’re using one player instead of two. However, if people have money to blow - by all means, go ahead and waste it - the studios will love you for it.
I happened to think that ‘Blu-ray’ was a FAR cooler, more futuristic sounding moniker for a high definition format than HD DVD. The future is now…
I’ll STILL be buying certain old movies for my collection on standard DVDs as well in future though, as some studios will most likely NEVER BOTHER putting some titles out on a high definition disc unfortunately.
Well when you lose your job the decision is moot. No luxuries until the bill are paid. And since the bills are barely getting paid, I’ll have to make due with my VHS Trek bought years ago.
So are they scrapping the regular, ordinary DVD set-up and making everything Blu-ray? I can’t afford to replace everything. Does anyone know (for sure, no speculation) what’s happening?
kg
171 - “I’ll STILL be buying certain old movies for my collection on standard DVDs as well in future though, as some studios will most likely NEVER BOTHER putting some titles out on a high definition disc unfortunately.”
Never say never. They said the same thing about a lot of stuff on VHS, and lo and behold there’s now a DVD version. Studios such as Warner have said that they will try to get a BD version out at the same time they reissue a classic on DVD.
172 - “So are they scrapping the regular, ordinary DVD set-up and making everything Blu-ray? I can’t afford to replace everything. Does anyone know (for sure, no speculation) what’s happening?”
No, it’s not like VHS where you have to redo everything.
Blu-ray Disc (BD) players all play DVDs (and at better quality). Newer movies are coming out in both formats and they are remastering older titles for BD.
#173 Simon
Well the day that I see the likes of ‘7 faces of Dr Lao’ on Blu-ray, I’ll start thinking never say never. Until then, I won’t be taking the chance on certain titles.
#172 Katie G.
I sympathise, it’s a cruel world indeed that makes us all worry about the bills, rather than being able to concentrate on the cool stuff in life. Believe me, I have a juggling act overall myself to be able to invest in ‘home cinema’ hardware and software. However, #173 Simon is correct, so do NOT worry about standard DVD being replaced or superceded anytime soon by Blu-ray DVDS, as according to TheDigitalBits site (who’s judgement on all things DVD/High Definition DVD I regard in the highest), standard DVD will continue to be around for say, the next 10 YEARS or so, with lots of ‘back catalog’ stuff, as well as ‘future releases’ still to come out as normal.
For years, I thought that HD was pointless. Sure, it looked a little better, but I told myself that it wasn’t worth the money. Finally, when TOS-R came out, I bit the bullet and bought an plasma screen and a HD-DVD player. (I also got a Blu-Ray player.)
OMG! Was I wrong! TOS-R in HD is spectacular. It’s a whole new viewing experience. I wondered why I waited so long! I immediately ran out and picked up several other movies (mostly in Blu-Ray!). I won’t be replacing all of my old SD DVDs, but future purchases will be in Blu-Ray, for the most part. And I can’t wait until the Star Wars movies come out in Blu-Ray.
I’m sad that HD-DVD bit the dust, mainly because it means it will be longer until TOS-R seasons 2 and 3 will come out.
arrrr… since I’m likely tha last ta post here and no one will ever read me comment, I’ll just say thus:
—–
my experimental Yellow-Ray DVD player was a complete failure.
No matter how much beer and rum ya drink, ya just can’t sustain the stream long enough for an hour epsiode, let alone a two hour feature film…
and tha quality, well, it can be piss-poor of course…
—–
I be done here, then. Much like HD. Very good then.
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/80109/with-hd-dvd-dead-will-blu-ray-prices-begin-to-fall
Still a possibility that BluRay prices may stay high for a while.
Well I for one who once bought ONLY Sony electronics WILL NOT buy Sony ever again.
Once their stuff was quality, but the last two purchase were enough for me when they went kaput within a year.
Yeah they can benefit from the BluRay licensing, but I’ll definitely be playing it on something else if ever I bother to even go high def… but may not go high def on general principle.
177 Sean: Blu-ray isn’t a hardware monopoly like Toshiba’s HD DVD. You have Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Philips, Pioneer, Sharp, Denon, LG, etc all fighting to be the Blu-ray player you purchase. Pricing, features, quality differ, that is true competition. Prices will fall, but not at the unrealistic rate that HD DVD was at (Toshiba was losing millions).
178 YUBinit: Look at all the brands I listed. You don’t have to have a SONY Blu-ray player. Myself I have both a PlayStation 3 and a Panasonic BD-30.
BTW: Panasonic is majority patent holder on Blu-ray technology.
The Blu-ray Disc Association core membership was Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer and Philips. The press likes to boil it down to Sony because they are the most famous, which the HD DVD group (Toshiba, Toshiba, Toshiba, Onkyo & Venturer players made by Toshiba, XBOX add-on made by Toshiba) used to spread misinformation.
Oh I realize I dont have to have Sony to play BluRay. Are you sure about Philips/Magnavox? DAMN… my high def tv is Philips. LOL
#180….yep.
http://www.blu-ray.com/players/
Blu-ray is superior. Yeah right, that’s why there are class-action lawsuits in court right now because of Blu-ray’s build specifications. Seems tons of consumers bought Blu-ray players that will not play certain Blu-ray disc & because certain promised features do not function. The build specification was supposed to be finally squared away but the new players have been delayed again. So even though HD DVD is dead I would not recommend buying a Blu-ray player. Kind of sad because at least the HD DVD players worked correctly right out of the box with all of the features. Am sure those Blu-ray people are not going to be too thrilled at the thought of having to buy yet another machine just so the disc will play correctly. After all that’s why the class action lawsuit was filed. Seems crazy that the studios would choose Blu-ray over HD DVD knowing full well about these problems & looming lawsuits. Seems pretty crazy seeing as how the player that worked correctly was also much cheaper to purchase. Seeing as how the economy is sliding into a serious recession I don’t see Blu-ray taking off anytime soon. Overpriced buggy junk with overpriced blank disc & movies. I will just keep my HD DVD player and use it for regular DVD since the regular DVD’s look far superior on this player than my standard DVD player. Seriously $30.00 for a stinking movie that’s been recycled for years is totally insane. I will just skip high definition video disc & wait for the next format to replace it & only after it’s long settled. Not an early adopter. Only reason I bought an HD DVD player was that I needed a new DVD player (up-converting deck to upstairs HDTV gave up the ghost) & I got the Toshiba cheaper than I could get a really decent up-converting player. Seriously do not feel the need to run out & buy a Blu-ray. Kind of have the feeling that Blu-ray is probably dead as well unless the industry simply wipes the shelves of standard DVD & tries to force it on people. By the time Blu-ray gets their act together downloads will be almost ready to replace it. So I see Blu-ray as having a limited future. Doubt seriously it will have a long run like standard DVD as the writing is already on the wall.
Good lord, the fight to be first, and to say nothing but being the first is so retarded. Some sites make a rule against that, and I now know why. With that bitching session out of the way, I like this site a lot, I find it one of, if not the most reliable place to get Trek news.
I found the whole format war silly, and never got any of the new stuff (didn’t know what one I’d ever get anyways) as it was expensive. The HD Stuff looked cool though, I’ll give it that, I never understood what the difference between the formats were. It’s to bad to cancel the rest of the series over this.
Sorry if this doesn’t make sense (lord knows it didn’t say what I wanted it to say) I was pretty tired when I wrote this
How about releasing Star Trek - Remastered on standard DVD now and then on whatever high def format that Paramount’s little heart desires somewhere down the road?
As for me buying into Blu Ray… I’m going to wait until the Blu-Ray camp gets their act together and finally releases a Profile 2.0 spec player and drops the prices on the hardware a bit more. I picked up an HD-DVD player about a month ago when the prices were slashed in half (yes, I figured the end was likely near for the format) and to be honest high def doesn’t look that much better than DVD on my 46″ HDTV. I’m in no big hurry to buy into Blu ray at the current prices for hardware and software.
Today Best Buy is selling HD-DVD FIRST SEASON STAR TREK for $99.99 some $40 or $30 less, but on the back it reads you can play it on a DVD players also is this right? (HD-DVD and DVD)? But I think I will wait for HDTV and Blu ray prices to come down next year .