On a completely unrelated note, I've always thought that First Contact had an absolutely beautiful musical score. I could listen to that main theme over and over again.
Just a tip to people who will be getting theirs from Best Buy. At mine at least, the DVD had been placed in the TV SciFi section! Not necessarily the employees fault because the label had it categorized as so. I work there and we do have to place product where the label says so hopefully this will be corrected soon.
This is my favorite Star Trek film, and at the current reasonable price, I'll get it, but what I am really looking forward to is the impending hd-dvd release later in the year. This is one of the 10 or so titles announced that really make me want to get an hd-dvd player. Sorry if I was a bit off-topic, but I can only imagine how great this film will look in hd-dvd!
Our Best Buy sets up a separate table for all the DVDs that are in the weekend's ads. That way, you don't have to hunt the shelves for the new/on sale stuff.
I just popped the new First Contact disc into my player, and the transfer absolutely just looks gorgeous via my Infocus DLP projector setup. The old First Contact disc always appeared slightly too dark. This transfer alone is worth the upgrade price, irrespective of the additional abundance of provided extras.
Speaking of which, I activated the Okuda "Trivia Track" for about five minutes and was delighted to see that they're now using the "pop-up"-like methodology to display the trivia. The first time I saw this was on the recent TOS season boxes, but this is the first time I think it's been utilized for a Star Trek feature film.
here some note for all trailer fans and owners of the original region 1 dvd release of first contact...
on the old dvd the trailers have dolby digital 2.0 surround and true dolby digital 5.1 audio. for some reasons paramount dropped the 5.1 audio on the collector's edition which i find is a loss as the audio is pretty darn good.
so to those who still have the old dvd you may think of keeping it if the trailer means anything to you.
cheers, enrico
ps: the same thing was done by paramount with star trek 5: old dvd had trailers in dolby 5.1 and c.e. only the 2.0
Definitely one of the better releases out there! Some real substance in the featurettes... did anybody think that the "Making of First Contact" was more a back-slapping fluff piece than it should have been? The HBO First Look special was a bit more substantial than this, at the very least more encompassing in 30 minutes than the DVD featurette did in 20 minutes.
By far the best featurette overall was the Jerry Goldsmith tribute. Rick Berman was surprisingly joyous and yet very melancholy in talking about Goldsmith's talent and loss last year and feeling it on both a professional and a personal level - quite rare indeed.
Did anyone notice on the Teaser Trailer that evidently, at the time, the effects shots hadn't been completed for the Enterprise-E, because all the exterior shots for the Enterprise were from either the TV show or Generations? I never noticed that before, I guess since I hadn't seen the teaser trailer since it first premiered in theaters.
The movie looked absolutely stunning. Great clarity, the colors in the background were beautiful, first rate all the way. It was like watching it for the first time -- aside from knowing all the music cues, dialogue and plotting. LOL!
My one gripe with the original disc was that the bass was almost non existent.
Well, there's bass, but it's evenly mixed, not ostentatious in the modern fashion. It's a good representation of what you would have heard in a theater in winter, 1996.
As for the dts debate, the actual box for First Contact and the actual set-up menu screen for sound both say "English dts", not 6.1, and unlike all my other dts-es discs, the disc does not flag as dts-es. It simply comes up as good ol' dts.
I'll check in a little while to see if there is a dts-es track on this. As of now, I'd say no.
And if you look real close, one of the shots is actually the primary hull of the NCC-74656 firing phasers on the Borg. That ship (NCC-74656) being the Voyager. I don't remember that shot EVER being in an episode, and as Ron and Brannon point out in the commentary, the movie was made during Voyager's first season...before the Borgies ever show up.
I got my DVD today and can confirm Ernest Rister's comment about the DTS track. It's only DTS 5.1 audio, there is no ES 6.1 Matrix or Discrete track. And the DD track is only DD 5.1, no EX audio track.
daryl, ernest, have either of you listened to see if you hear a seperate rear ss channel?
i know it doesnt neccesarily mean there is one but putting my denon into matrix mode i can hear seperated sounds coming from both left and right and center back.