DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Star Trek: Generations - Special Collector's Edition (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

DTS had nothing to do with the visual problems - too little bitspace doesn't cause EE and shimmering...

 

[Jack Briggs]

Enrico, I believe this was a positive review. Yep, edge enhancement is mentioned, but it hardly amounts, in this review, to a "major screw up."

For me, this is a much easier rebuy than, say, the fifth movie.

Informative review, Scott.

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

It sounds like the moire effects and EE are pretty obnoxious though...and if you can see them on a 32" display (yikes!), then the large screen RP owners and especially FP owners are going to be pissed off. DTS sounds great...but I may have to pass on this one, unfortunately. I'm also getting to the point where I'd prefer a nice DD track to having both on the same disk; every ounce of bandwidth toward the video helps.

-Dennis

 

[Scott Kimball]

I've been in touch with Martin. He had heard nothing of a recall, and asked for links to the discussions here, so he could follow up.

In the absence of further communication from him, and given Bill's communication with PHE (post #19), I'd say that this is a false alarm from DVD Empire, and that there is no recall.

I would have been surprised if there had been.

While I am quite disappointed with the transfer, the average viewer will not even notice the problems. A recall is an expensive fix for something that, quite frankly, 80% or better of the viewers would never even notice. We at HTF, you must remember, demand better than most people care about. I'm not saying we should accept problem transfers without complaint... but, realistically, it would be a poor business decision to recall the disc for edge enhancement and a missing trailer. I suspect that later printings will omit trailer information from the jacket, "solving" that problem, anyway.

As for the missing trailers... I can't get too upset about that, because it's not a feature I care about in the first place. But that's just me... I understand some people like to have them included.

-Scott

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Scott:

I guess the main cause of concern here is that "moire" effect you're describing.

One aspect of the original non-anamorphic disc that I hated was how "edgy" that transfer appeared on my Infocus X1 system. I chalked that up to the fact that it was non-anamorphic; however, it must be stated that many other non-anamorphic 2.35:1 transfers have looked at lot better on my system. For example, Armageddon, True Lies, and The Abyss, all of which are non-anamorphic and 2.35:1, do not display this "edginess" of the original Generations transfer. (It should be noted that the True Lies transfer does display plenty of EE; but at least the rest of the transfer is nice and smooth.)

So I guess the main question here for those of us who purchased the original non-anamorphic disc is "Is the transfer at least better than the original release?"

Can you, or anybody else, answer that question?

 

[John Alderson]

I was just going to ask the same thing, Joseph. The opening pan across the stars is nearly unwatchable because of how "video" the whole sequence looks... the stars blink in and out rather than smoothly pan. I imagine it's due to the same edginess and lack of filtering that's being talked about. I would like to hear a definite yay or nay on the quality vs. the original too.

 

[Ric Easton]

A real shame this movie had to be treated like this. I guess I'll buy it anyway and take my chances. Though I'm nowhere near as excited as I was that this is coming out.

Ric

 

[Tim Glover]

Nice review Scott.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I'll buy it for the extras & watch the old DVD for the film since this DVD is not done well.

 

[Bill Williams]

While the DVD has some nice extras to it, I think I'll hold onto my 3-sided LD just in case.

 

[Frank@N]

Wow, the review over at dvdmg really takes this release to task for poor video.

Is this really a single layer disc?

 

[Matt Czyz]

Would it be possible to merge the two ST:Generations threads?

 

[DouglasRobert]

Can somebody please answer this question.

Why can't Paramount include the trailers on this DVD?

Doesn't Paramount own Star Trek?
Doesn't Paramount own the trailers for the Star Trek films?

If the answer to the two questions is yes, then what could prevent them from putting the trailers on the DVD?

Just wondering...

Still picking this up whether the trailers or included or not, but I would have thought that they would have had the right to put the trailers on the DVD since they own Star Trek.

 

[ZackR]

Trailers often use other music as "temp music"
That music may have been licensed for use only in a promotional sense - ie, as a theatrical trailer - and therefore, Paramount may not have the rights to redistribute the trailers in another medium or in another manner.

 

[Will*B]

I totally agree. I got this disc in the mail this morning, and am quite disappointed about the video quality.

Also, I spent about 20 minutes on disc 2 trying to find the trailers! (Yes, I feel stupid now.)

PS: I didn't get an inlay card either. All in all, I'm not too happy about this release.

 

[Cassy_w]

The Star Trek trailers used music from other Trek films,

 

[MikeEckman]

Im sad to see this isn't a perfect release, but in 2004, in DVD's 7th year, we still can't expect consistent perfection from the studios. So I'll just continue to take what they dish to us, because at my core, I love these movies, and thats why I buy them, not for their HT presentation.

 

[Scott Kimball]

No, it's 2x DVD-9.

 

[Ron-P]

Well, after reading more about the poor video quality, I will pass. The extras are not enough to warrent a double-dip. Maybe if they improve the PQ someday I'll re-buy this.:frowning:

 

[Jeff_HR]

The price is low enough for me to buy this "only" for the extras.