HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

You won't be disappointed.

I have not checked those particular issues, but I checked others and they were intact on the original mono soundtracks and with the original optical effects shots too. I can check, what specifically is different? It's been so long, I forget!

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Well in terms of the first 13 episodes, the DVD opening titles show "Star Trek" and then the title is pushed back and "Created by Gene Roddenberry" appears underneath. This is NOT how the opening episodes were supposed to be. The Roddenberry credit was not added there until later in the series. There were also issues if I recall with the "Starring" and "Also Starring" credits missing on some of the old DVDs. I was hoping they'd finally corrected all this for this "definitive" set...??

With Balance Of Terror, presumably even if you put on the mono soundtrack the re-recorded theme is played? (I can't confirm because my set hasn't quite finished its trip across the Atlantic, this is just what I've heard from somebody who's already received it)

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The titles having Gene Roddenberry was a second season thing as I recall. The remastering team was quite good in recreating the titles down to the position of the stars.

Never the less, I checked the Blu Ray of Balance of Terror with mono sound and the original broadcast version. The titles only show Star Trek, no push back and Gene Roddenberry added. The mono sound is the original music.

The only other thing that I've seen discussed for the past DVD versions, is the music was not the correct titles music for the early episodes. I have not checked for that yet. And I haven't checked Where No Man Has Gone Before yet to see if the "Space, The Final Frontier" monologue is removed. I will later this evening.

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The monologue is absent. I saw that episode yesterday and remember thinking it odd. I haven't seen TOS in many years so I didn't know if it was correct or not. I'm assuming that the omission is right, that it's never been there for this episode?

This set has been a real revelation and a real treat.

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

I did check WNMHGB and the absence is correct! Even the swoosh of the ship fly-by is not there as it should not be.

And the theme is another version, different from the production episodes. So it looks like we got the originals.

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

I noticed in The Squire of Gothos that there is an audio glitch with the mono sound. In Chapter 2 when Kirk is introducing his crew, the sound level suddenly drops for a couple of minutes. It's not like this in 5.1 nor on the old dvd 5.1. Could this be how it originally was before a remix?

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

I got the set recently and just started on the first disc. I had the previous DVD set with the lame "tricorder" like box sets. I thought the menu design on that set was great. However, the one on this BD set is rather weak in my opinion but BOY! that image is something to sing about!

I noted the same issue with the sound as others and had to crank it WAY up (-4 db or something like that). Most of my discs pan out at -15 to -25 db. I forget what reference level I set my system at.

Why did Paramount master the volume so blasted low! What stupidity! What is gained here for them I wonder? The only real problem is to remember to turn the level back to a safe level when you are done with a ST disc.

A question, can anyone tell me how to access the secondary audio on the "Star Fleet Access" pop-up interviews? I can't get the sound. I have the Panasonic DMP-BD30. Would I have to go into the player's Audio settings and switch the Secondary Audio to ON? What a pain. You would have to go in and out of the player's menu every time. I'm not sure if this is the proper solution.

Hoping for the best...

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I don't know about your specific player. But you have to make sure that it's set to reencode the audio, not bitstream it.

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

Anyone?

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

Scott-

Your question caught my eye and I was curious.

I pulled out the laserdiscs of TOS and cued up the Blu ray using the mono audio track. At 13m:15s in, on the blu ray, I did hear a slight drop in the audio as Kirk introduces Karl Jaeger and goes on for about 30 seconds. I also noticed the audio go slightly flat as Kirk introduces DeSalle, but the range comes back right after that. I didn't try to get too precise as to when the audio levels come back.

The laserdisc is the oldest source I have of TOS as a comparison. I also have the first and second edition DVD's. I played the very first DVD release from 1999. The LD is from 1985, but I bought them in 1988. The LD has no audio drop at that sequence. The DVD of course is fine, but I don't trust that as it's been cooked for 5.1 audio. So the LD is the closest to broadcast sound.

That's a good catch Scott and sort of revealing. So perhaps the audio is dropping there as it did in 1967 and the LD audio has been slightly tweaked to compensate for the drop.

I think that Paramount probably made tweaks to all the audio on the LD masters and it's probably in stereo, though it doesn't say so on the LD jacket. The first DVD's were remixed for 5.1.

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

I recently got this set and was blown away by the quality of the first disc. But curiously the second disc appears to be a significant step down in quality. Are the masters for episodes such as Mudd's Women in worse shape than the episodes on the first disc? It's almost like I'm watching upscaled DVD material. Night and Day compared to The Man Trap, for example.

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

I do love this set overall as most everyone else here does.

However, one thing caught my eye this morning when watching the trailer for "The Enemy Within." Obviously, the trailer is much dirtier than the episode, and lighter as well.

It was the lightness that struck me, because there is the scene where Kirk and Spock are talking to Yeoman Rand when she is sitting down in Sickbay and her lipstick is smeared on the left side of her face (if you're looking at her). You can see it clear as day. I didn't recall seeing it when I watched the episode itself, so I went back to it and sure enough it is there, BUT because it is now saturated with color (which overall I am very pleased with) the smear is really only visible if you are looking for it.

It doesn't bother me too much, but it was shocking to see that detail practically erased with the picture and coloring improvement.

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

I think I remember reading that they fixed things like that (and stains on costumes, etc.) when they did the new effects. No doubt that there's guys in this thread that know better than me though.

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

I didn't see that as something that needed to be fixed though. It made perfect sense for her lipstick to be smudged at that point. Also, it is noticeable if you are specifically looking for it, but with the color turned up it washes most of it out.

I wouldn't think that would be something they purposely tried to fix, but I could be wrong.

Re: HTF Blu-ray Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

Well I finally got a chance to break open this set and watched Where No Man Has Gone Before and The Man Trap.

Some intitial thoughts:

1. Picture quality - outstanding. Really, the best I've ever seen Star Trek. Fantastic!

2. The new effects (the first time I've seen them) - interesting, but nothing to write home about so far.

3. The sound - wow what went wrong here? I have to echo the sentiment of others. I've only listened to the original 2.0 mono track so far but I had to crank it +5db louder than I usually have my audio and the menus just blew my head. Bad enough for a movie presentation but when you're returning to the menu every 50 minutes this really is very disappointing.

4. The extras - look fantastic but haven't gotten to them yet (I'm familiar with the stuff carried over from the DVD obviously).

5. The packaging - disappointing. Would it have hurt to include a proper booklet with episode synopsis etc like the DVD sets? Also a negative mark for (once again) not presenting these episodes in the correct order. Broadcast order just won't do.

So... in a nutshell - fantastic sound but the inconsistent sound levels, the incorrect episode order, and lack of proper episode synopses stops this set from being truly definitve IMHO.