Ever since the season one finale in February, fans have been wondering about a home release for Star Trek: Discovery, and on Sunday at Star Trek Las Vegas we finally got the answer.
Blu-Ray/DVD coming in November
The final Discovery panel at STLV, featuring stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones and Anson Mount, ended with the official announcement that the first season of the series will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on November 13th in the USA and Canada. NOTE: An international release date is still pending. Pre-orders will be available tomorrow, Monday August 6th.
In addition to the entire first season of fifteen episodes, the home video release of Discovery will include two hours of bonus features, including featurettes, deleted scenes, extended scenes and interviews with cast and crew.
UPDATE: Pre-order available
CLICK HERE TO PRE-OREDER ON AMAZON
UPDATE: Trailer
Here is the trailer show at STLV
More STLV 2018
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No 4K? :(
i agree, it’s a weird thing to leave out in this day and age. It’s also the only thing that would convince me to buy physical media, after all it’s already digital on just about all the streaming services now (for a cost obviously)
“after all it’s already digital on just about all the streaming services now”
It is? I thought it was only on CBSAA in the States and Netflix elsewhere. (save for Canada)
I don’t believe Discovery was shot in 4K
@Matt — it is not. 1080p only. However, I’m told it is in HDR on Netflix. I watch a lot of 1080p on Netflix in HDR and it makes a huge difference. Hopefully the BluRay will also offer HDR, which is way more important for a show as dark as DISC than 4K. 4K is absolutely the most over-hyped technology going today, only really beneficial for screens over 65” for close viewing. I hope that making the series available on BD means they will also let Netflix have the first season in the US. It would be a good way to help build an audience for CBSAA first run for people who know nothing about CBSAA.
The Netflix streaming is so overly-compressed in multiple ways that you are watching what is equivalent to a Blu-Ray disc if you forced the output to 720P. So if you have HDR on Netflix — you are watching a sub-par resolution picture that has slighly better colors and contrast.
The picture you get on a standard 1080P Blu-Ray disc today puts the picture your get from Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and CBSAA streaming to shame, HDR or no HDR. But sure, I to hope the Blu-Ray has HDR.
BTW, it sounds like they may be using more advanced cameras on DSC this year, with a larger AR as well, so Season 2 may be shot on 4K…I don’t think we know yet?
@CC – Unfortunately no 1080p Blu-Ray discs with HDR. The Blu-Ray assoc regulated HDR to UHD discs. Streaming doesn’t need to follow the disc rules.
I thought there was some restriction like that. I hope that they relax it at some point, because I am simply not going to pay $40+ for single movie discs, ever…Criterion remasters excepted.
@Lurker — I’m not into BD so didn’t realize that limitation. Sounds like a marketing move, especially when most UHD BD are 2K upres already. Too bad. I presume the same limitation applies to DV as well? I don’t suppose there’s any chance BD would ever adopt 1080p HDR? They probably want to drive the platform to UHD exclusively regardless of the content.
Netflix and iTunes both offer 1080p HDR, so I’m hoping Amazon comes on board with that as well, as I’m planning to subscribe to CBSAA through Amazon, which allegedly has better picture and audio. Now I’m really hoping Netflix has a deal to show Season 1 in the US when Season 2 launches on CBSAA, as I’d like to re-watch the series in HDR if possible.
@ CC – Yes, limiting HDR formats (including DV) was most likely a marketing move to push UHD BD’s. BD could adopt 1080p HDR, but it looks like it’ll be limited to streaming only. It is what it is unfortunately.
IMDB has the Negative Format listed as Redcode Raw which I believe can do 4K. So they probably shot live stuff in 4K, special effects created in 2K, then editing and final master are whittled to a 2K DI. Still could have released an upscaled 4K UHD Blu-ray – which is no different than the way the majority of 4K Blu-rays are currently released.
Funny thing I read when looking this up – there are UK Netflix users saying the first two episodes displayed as 4K UHD and Dolby Vision/HDR. But now they are back down to 1080P but with the Dolby Vision/HDR formats still.
Yep, that would be my guess as well in terms of how they shot the series.
And “there is a sucker born every minute” regarding the buyers of all of those upscaled 4K UHD discs.
@Lurker — the show is finished in 1080p. No 4K or 2K. There was an article about it on this site a while back, and I confirmed it with my sources as well. If anybody saw a UHD tag on Netflix it was upscaled by Netflix. There will be no 4K BD.
1080p IS 2K. :-P
“The show is finished in 1080p. No 4K or 2K”
You apparently don’t realize that 2K is 1080P?
1080p (= 1920 × 1080) is close.
2K = 2048 × 1080
I hope they will announce an UHD set.
They didn’t shoot in 4K?! Even when the tech industry is pushing TVs, players and streaming services that offer 4K? Are they really STILL this incapable of forward thinking? They don’t remember how they had to redo all the effects of TOS and TNG as well as run new masters of the footage to get them up to HD standards, which also meant they couldn’t sell DS9 or VOY on HD formats?
See the comment above about 2.8 being used for 4k finals.
And there are occasionally aesthetic reasons for using lower-rez formats (not saying that is true for DSC, obviously.) The Neil Armstrong movie is mainly shot on Super16mm film, mixed with 35mm, plus archival 70mm and some high end digital work. Even most of their aerial work was shot on film.
The Redcode Raw notation is probably an error. There were some shots, probably for VFX, that used Red cameras, so images of that probably formed the basis for the imdb note, but most of the show is captured on Alexa cameras.
Since nobody seems to have seen an Alexa 65 on the set, it’s almost certain they are using the standard Alexas, which max out between 2.8K and 3.3K. Plenty of stuff gets uprezzed from 2.8K for a 4K finish (SKYFALL is the classic example, but nobody on this series is Roger Deakins, so the comparison doesn’t quite hold water), but I don’t think that’s happening.
So far as I know, there are still no tech journal/making-of articles on the show anyplace, just puff pieces, so it is hard to speak with confidence about the tech specs. Very odd, that, but then again, CBS spent months last year alternately not responding to press inquiries and then saying in fall that the stories could start being done in Feb when the first season ended. Maybe everybody just gave up trying?
Just today, I re-asked somebody who worked as a vendor on season 1 if he’d yet been allowed to do interviews (he had been gung-ho to do one 55 weeks ago), and he said he was not aware of anything like that happening at all yet.
4K is a gimmick except for gaming and unusually close viewing. The human eye at normal viewing distances can’t tell the difference between 1080P and 4K.
Besides, the special effects for Season 1 of DSC were not shot at 4K anyway.
DSC has great colors and a lot of dark scenes though so even just upscale it would still be worth it for the HDR alone.
@EHF — that’s a good point. 1080p upscales to 4K 4:1, so done properly for BD, it shouldn’t make a difference. I prefer my TV to perform the 4K upres, but if I were watching on BD it would be acceptable. I imagine CBS is withholding UHD for a future release since we all know how they love to double dip! It is surprising though as UHD BD would allow them to charge a lot more, then again, they’d probably reach a smaller audience for their effort.
The average human eye at normal viewing distance can’t tell the difference between Netflix and blu ray, either.
So sick of your penny ante pixel obsession. Nobody cares.
Utter nonsense. With a good 4k setup, the difference over 1080p is extremely obvious.
@Antony — most people don’t have a good 4K setup. I personally can’t see the difference and I have one of the best 4K TVs out there.
People still going to complain they won’t pay to watch it?
Yeah, how dare CBS not hand deliver me a free boxset. Pure greed.
LOL
Hahaha
LOL
Now that’s comedy!! Haha good one.
Exactly! How dare a company want to make money! Sheesh…. :P
I don’t even own a DVD or Blu-ray player. Streaming is King.
Except when your internet is poor and then it defaults to 240p.
Blu ray player doesnt even need internet to play a disc.
5G is coming my friend. One day all new TV sets will have a 5G antenna built in and ready to stream every internet channel you want.
Blu rays discs are also immune to rights deals. So if a streamer suddenly loses their ability to stream something, you don’t lose it because you can play it whenever you like. Regardless of business deals with giant media companies.
Finally those of us who live in areas where broadband speeds don’t reach speeds fast enough to accommodate streaming can watch Discovery.
(There are communities near me on the outskirts of Pittsburgh that only have dialup speeds)
Just a suggestion, check out satellite broadband, it is available virtually everywhere across America. There are two companies that you can purchase from. I won’t advertise for them here but do some research and use some REAL LIFE NON-FICTION space technology. Speeds are way faster than what they were even 2-3 years ago!!
I have satellite broadband and its a joke….I pay for the maximum allowed usage and usually top out usage within a week if watching shows on it….once killed it in the first weekend trying to watch Stranger Things..watched about 5 episodes and then had to wait till the next month to get the rest….once you top out your allotment then they clock you back and any program watching is useless…
Just another reason to live in a major city. country living sucks.
True
yeah, the fact that there is no traffic noise ,very little to no crime – unless you count the neighbors goat trespassing ….. you wake up in the morning and deer are within a 100 ft of your house and they have the audacity to come back in the evening is really annoying. Not to mention the wild turkeys, armadillos,raccoons and occasional bald eagle flying overhead….you have to get up and do chores like feeding horses, driving a tractor and actually doing manual labor really sucks….the schools care too much for the kids…and the graduation rate of 98%+ is really a nuisance…and dang…can someone please turn the light down on those stars…they’re just too bright…..and even though the “cement pond” in the back yard is nice, having to walk down to the real pond to go fishing is a real bitch…..
5G is coming.
I wonder if this will finally shut up the people complaining that they need All Access to watch the show. I would imagine not.
I won’t bother buying this, since I can already see every episode on All Access, but I’m glad that its available.
Good. I’ll buy this (even though I dislike the first season) just to support the idea of physical releases.
Well, depending on the price. If it’s a hundred damn dollars or something like that, forget it.
Ah yes, they’re going the GoT route there: No home releases until shortly before the next season starts.
@JAGT — frankly I’m surprised they even bothered to announce it this early … especially with the mini episodes coming up as further inducement to get the hold outs to subscribe and watch. Preorders will give them a lot of information about who’s interested in this format and may help map the popularity outside the streaming service subscribers.
I figured they might. The key is, however, will they make it available to Netflix? Something is telling me they won’t.
This is great news. It will definitely convince a few who didn’t want to pay for AA to give this a shot. And the more people who see the show, the better I guess.
I haven’t bought a disc in over a decade so it’s definitely not for me but its still nice for people who like physical media.
That’s the first step. The next is, will it be available on Netflix? It is still not there when I do a search. And things are usually able to be put in the Save category before they are even announced as being available on disc.
Pre-orders are up at Amazon and Best Buy (here in USA).
I hope they don’t give us something like the Justice League Blu wherein Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon are absent from the behind-the-scenes material, thus giving the impression the movie was made on autopilot by the ultimate computer. I demand healthy heapings of Fuller, Berg, and Harberts in my featurettes, or the Shih Tzu gets it. If Treksters are going to buy some discs, they’ll be expecting something more than flimsy PR revisionism. Yes, I just admitted to watching Justice League special features. What of it?
I was really hoping to get an extended cut of Justice League. That film could have really used it. BvS was too long already and the extended cut did little to nothing to make the film better.
Somehow I doubt that we will get a lot of Fuller unless it’s from older interviews. Remember he was let go long before the first season even started filming. I’d be surprised if they invited him back for the special features. I’d also be surprised if they talked about what changed after he left in any detail.
WHOO-HOO!!!!!
Still need a DS9 and Voyager remaster.
Is there going to be a 4k version???