If you have the recently released Star Trek Season One Blu-ray set, then you actually have more content headed your way via BD Live (an optional part of Blu-ray discs that allows for extra content and interactive features to be downloaded or streamed over a high-speed Internet connection). Beginning this week CBS will be posting brand new video bonus material into the Star Trek Season One Portal, available exclusively to those with the Season One Set.
Using their Season One Blu-ray discs, fans will have access to brand new bonus video including roundtable discussions with special effects producers Mike and Denise Okuda, Dave Rossi and Niel Wray, as well as David Gerrold, Tribble inventor and writer of the fan-favorite "Trouble with Tribbles" episode. Trekkies can get the experts’ take on the Season One Blu-ray bonus features and what they are looking forward to in Season Two.
Roundtable with Wray, Okudas, Rossi and Gerrold available this week on BD Live
Since the release of the Season One set (which got a rave review at TrekMovie), CBS has added other bonus material via BD Live, including the ‘Red Shirt Logs’ Easter Eggs from the DVD release and a report from FedCon.
More info at startrek.cbs-bdlive.com
If you buy the set now, you get access to all of this new BD Live Content. The set is available from Amazon, discounted to $64.99.
More to come
CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment are also planning a Tribble extravaganza for the upcoming Season Two BD release. That set will be out sometime in the fall, but CBS have not yet set the date officially, but TrekMovie expects it to be in September. Official announcements of Paramount’s and CBS’s future Star Trek Blu-ray and DVD releases should be coming later this month at Comic Con.
Is the government handing out BD players yet?
It’s a gorgeous set…great to see them continuing to add content to it.
Looking foward to seasons 2 and 3!
BD-Live is actually quite cool – I have used it a few times on my blu-ray player. Now I just want the price of TOS-R 1 to come down a little bit! When it hits around £30 in the UK, I’ll get it.
BD is what, exactly?
BD Bowel Disorder?
Blu-ray Disc, or BD
Is this BD stuff on the discs or downloadable media? How would I get internet downloads via my Blue ray player?
iBD = Irritable Bowl Disorder
7 – many Bluray players have either wireless or reg ethernet connections, like the PS3
I can’t wait for The next generation movies to come to blu-ray. Those are going to look spectacular.
TOS is nice, but i want enterprise. It would be nice to get the other 3 shows too, but i know that will take a while since they don’t have a master film print.
11
I’d like all of them- except perhaps the more static DS9 with fx upgrades first, especially TNG!
It will be interesting to see if the they include “Trials and Tribble-ations” as part of the Blu-Ray collection. Like TNG, DS9 was completing their episodes on standard definition NTSC video tape. If they do include the episode, it will be an SD transfer up-resed from 480×720 at best (and we all know how good those SD broadcasts of TOS -R look on TV). I suppose as a free bonus feature, an SD transfer of the episode would be OK, but considering the HD quality of the TOS episodes, it would be a major disappointment. Perhaps I am an HD snob, but I simply cannot stand watching SD on an HD TV.
The other possibility is that CBS-D has been continuing their tests of TNG era re-mastering with this episode, considering its legacy status within the franchise, and much of the remastering has already been completed with the original episode.
This is great news. Thanks to CBS for supporting BluRay content and the consumer!
Still haven’t got around to picking up season 1 on blu yet, it’s passed my mind a few times, but I might get around to it sooner rather than later. Now, is the Season 2 set coming on the same date as ST09 and the TNG movies?
I forgot TAS “More Tribbles, More Troubles” was also included with the Season 2 TOS-R DVD set. Since that was presumably finished on film in 1973/74, I wonder if that will be re-mastered to HD and included on the Blu-Ray release as well? If so, will the entire TAS series follow on Blu-Ray soon after?
How sad almost 20 years of TNG era Trek is held hostage by technology. Every TNG fan should buy every TNG era offering by Paramount to encourage CBS to move forward with the re-mastering as soon as possible.
Nice, CBS is doing BD Live right! I need to pop in Season 1 again and check it out :)
Between BD Live content and the use of the seamless branching to toggle the old/new effects, this set is really making the possibilities of the technology a reality. More people should really give it a go!
New Effects look incredibly cartoony and amateurish.
It’s truly laughable that Okudas say that the orginal effects are hallowed ground and then they go to make the Enterprise do barrel rolls and look like a Commodore 64 video game.
Gotta hand it to them for making use of the technology. Blu-ray is awesome.
Still doesn’t change my low opinion of TOSR in the least.
Great.
Just bought the set and watched my first blu-ray episode the other day. It’s fantastic, I love it. Glad to own it.
I already bought the blu-ray set (season 1.) Does this mean I don’t get the bonus material? Thanks to anyone who can help.
19 – “New Effects look incredibly cartoony and amateurish.”
Well I’ve not long since bought this Series 1 Bluray set and I think the new fx are very mixed in their quality. Some of the Enterprise shots DO look very computer-game “cut scene”-esque in their appearance, though much of it is very serviceable really, and some shots very good indeed. Overall I think it makes for a nice improvement, and the improved quality of the film and sound has made watching these episodes again quite a fresh new experience.
I’ll look forward to the other two series being released.
This is awesome, cant wait for this and cannot wait to get season 2 on blu ray and the TNG movies as well
22- BD Live is something that is downloaded to you or streamed. Just pop in the disc and if you have a player that is able to profile 2.0 (PS3 for example) anything that is put on BDLIVE will be available to you. Finally good to see a company update it’s content. Most just show trailers, some like CBS for TOS-R and the new T2 BD have constantly added new things for me to watch.
Having bought the Blu-rays and watched quite a few eps, for the most part I really like the new FX.
One nuisance, though, is that the pic-in-pic material on my BDs gets sound bumps every time there’s an effect branch. According to Amazon, a lot of us are having this problem! Hopefully there’ll be a firmware update to sort this out!
Love the TOS BDs, though. I’m anxiously awaiting the delivery of my new 1080p TV this weekend!
As Mike Okuda has explained himself many times, the ability for CBS Digital to do the highest quality effect got greater as the process goes along. The effects get better and better, simply compare the shots of the E firing proximity phasers in Balance of Terrror, to the Ent firing photon torpedoes in Errand of Mercy. Alomst exactly the same shot, but the level of detail in the cg model of the E and the lighting are leaps and bounds better in Errand of Mercy. I would urge all the fans who weren’t impressed by the first few eps shown to give thes a chance.
Gotta say, I doubt I’ll bother to watch Star Trek with the original FX again now I have the new ones. Nice to have them available as an option, though!
#26-Dom
You’re getting that audio dropout because the player is switching audio streams during the Pic in pic. Instead of setting up one consistent stream for the extra features it forces the machine to constantly swap, and that’s why you’re hearing those dropouts.
#28. At a bare minimum, having the original vfx demonstrates just what CBS-D accomplished.
Considering the obstacles in migrating TNG era series to HD, having even the TOS product to offer any new fans drawn to Star Trek helps build the franchise. Just like many kids born after 1980 won’t watch a black & white movie, there are those who simply wouldn’t put up with the dated effects in TOS.
Even George Lucas couldn’t resist updating Star Wars. Hard to imagine even TMP looks somewhat dated which if nothing else was a visual spectacle in the theatre. Blu-Ray is NOT an early vfx film’s friends. Some of the matte shots in TMP really look rough with so much more detail available.
While I don’t disagree that some of the new Enterprise maneuvers CBS-D initiated don’t seem appropriate with what Roddenberry intended, better technology notwithstanding, I do wonder if it wasn’t part of a concerted effort to inject a little more action into TOS to make it more palatable with modern audiences raised on video games.
Overall, I think the new BD of season 1 is very good. However, I must say I am very disappointed in one aspect.
There are too many scenes where the color balance is off. I find it most notable on the bridge with red unifiorms. One scene will have solid, deep reds, the next will have more of an orange, then back to deep red, etc.
I know there were issues with the source material, but they could have spent a bit more time cleaning up some of the older film stock. I know they were under time and budget pressures, but at times the whole job feels rushed at bit.
#31. I agree. I was hoping that was just the SD transfers on broadcast TV. There is really no excuse for not having a consistent color correction from scene to scene. That is the most basic aspect of modern video post, compensating for any number of common modern production problems, including inconsistent lighting. Take a look at any current network television – the picture quality is flawless, feature quality.
I can only imagine what kids who grow up on HD are going to think of product that was finished for a lower standard of broadcast in 10 years. It will be interesting to see how much old product that is not cropped to 16:9 will still be in re-runs in a decade.
There is intelligent commentary to be found here about the technical aspects of the sound, picture, effects, etc.
And then there are the comments that say “I don’t have a Blu Ray player” or “I didn’t buy this set”.
Brilliant.
#26 Dom — Do you have the Samsung BD-1500? I saw multiple complaints specifically about that model when Season 1 first came out.
Ok, I just purchased a Blue Ray player just for TOS remastered. Picture is perfect, however, when ever a remastered scene starts it says “ANGLE ON” in the top corner of the screen. I have an Insigna from BEST BUY. I have tried every menu and I can’t turn off the annoying feature. Do other people have this problem also? I am thinking about returning if I can’t figure it out. Any advice?
Anyone know when this week this new content will be up?
35 I’m not familiar with your specific device, but my new projector would display ‘changing source’ each time i switched from my PS3 to DVR etc. until i found the setting to uncheck the ‘display messages’. I would be surprised if your new BluRay palyer doesn’t let you turn that off.
#35 I think the problem is your unit. I know that Insignia’s are inexpensive, but you get what you pay for. I would rather bite the bullet, spend a little more, and get a quality unit, then a cheaper off-brand. My personal preference is Sony. I have never had a problem with my Sony units, and I have 2 of them. I would return that and get something a little better. Pretty much anything would beat that or a Samsung
#35 — #37 has the solution, it’s a stupid default setting that a lot of players have, you can disable it in the setup menus.
34. Matt Wright: ‘Do you have the Samsung BD-1500? I saw multiple complaints specifically about that model when Season 1 first came out.’
I’ve got a Sony BDP-S350, a Profile 1.1 player firmware updated to the latest version of Profile 2. It seems the problem is not just model-specific, judging from the number of remarks I’ve seen about it elsewhere. I’m hoping the next update will sort it out.
I even emailed Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits about it once I realised that this problem isn’t restricted to just one model. The fact that it happens just as it hits a branch point between old and new FX strikes me as significant.
I mean, I’m not overly worried about it. I’ve long since stopped worrying that much about extras: seeing Star Trek in HD is worth the £50 alone! But it would be nice if it was working properly having just forked out £450 for a Blu-ray player and HD TV!
30. RD: ‘Just like many kids born after 1980 won’t watch a black & white movie, there are those who simply wouldn’t put up with the dated effects in TOS.’
Yeah, I’ve always liked the ‘look’ of TOS’s FX more than those of TNG, but when I bought TOS season one on DVD a few years back (advertised as ‘beautifully remastered’) with its filthy dirty prints it was obvious the FX couldn’t stand up to the scrutiny of a decent modern TV. I didn’t buy seasons two and three, because I wasn’t prepared to buy the episodes in that state.
I remember saying at the time that they should locate the original FX negatives and digitally re-composite them, but once the TOS-R FX got up and running properly, they were more than adequate.
Granted, the revamped Balance of Terror, in particular, looks a bit clunky already, but on the whole, the quality of the new FX is stunning.
I think when I have children, I’ll introduce them to black-and-white and silent movies and TV shows as early as possible. I grew up in the 1980s with Laurel and Hardy films, Harold Lloyd films, the old matinee serials like Zorro’s Fighting Legion and so on, so have no issues watching that stuff. I know plenty of people in my age group who do though!
I can’t wait to see Metropolis more or less complete on Blu-ray. The last DVD release was stunning!
Weird from what I’ve seen Sony models aren’t normally affected. Typically only Samsung (no updates to fix it) and certain Pioneer models (but these have a firmware update that fixes it).
Seamless Branching is the culprit as you say, but what’s odd is, no player should have problems with it, it’s been in the specs since day one, and the concept has been used on DVDs too.
I returned the Insignia. The SONY is much better!
41. Matt Wright: ‘Seamless Branching is the culprit as you say, but what’s odd is, no player should have problems with it, it’s been in the specs since day one, and the concept has been used on DVDs too.’
Thing is, the FX are only multi-angle rather than seamless branching, if I’m not mistaken. I’m more concerned about ‘real’ seamless branching stuff like Close Encounters when I buy it and eventually Alien! As I say, I suspect the next update will sort the issue: surely Sony must be aware of it.
Still, given Star Trek season one is my first Blu-ray disc purchase (I got the Spider-Man trilogy thrown in free with the player), I’m both very impressed and very happy!
So far no new content?
I went to FedCon and would be VERY interested in hearing what kind of footage they now include on the BD set! Can anyone help me out?
46 – Sure I watched the FedCon footage, it was very nice. So good to see international fans loving Trek. They really gave a good feel for it, i think, not having been there. Showing quite a few fans, both dressed in costume and not, and how impressive the stage was and a few interesting interviews with Trek cast, calling it the most like a rock-star experience of all the conventions. Anything specific you were looking for?
I was just wondering what they show and how lng the feature is. I love FedCon ever since I went to FedCon 3 ages ago, so I do like the fact they are getting props.
That’s very cool, well i would def. recommend picking up the Bluray set, and taking a look. PS, no new content yet, or am I missing it?!