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

[Todd Stout]

I just found about 8 copies at a local Wal-Mart so I picked one up for myself. I was surprised that it rang up at $10.65 after tax so I guess I scored.

 

[Britton]

Data's makeup really started looking weird to me once the Next Gen crew graduated to the big screen.

 

[Erin C]

The desert scenes between Picard and Soran look horrid,
but most of the interior darker scenes I can live with.

 

[Chad E]

I must live in the only city on the continent that actually observed the recall! I checked Future Shop, Best Buy and Wal-Mart, and no Generations SCE at any of them.

September 28? OK, for three weeks, I can wait. It's just too bad that I had to. It seems like a strange thing to do a recall over... as someone noted upthread, DVDs are always being released with incorrect specs.

I was actually hoping that since the covers here in Canada are different than the US (bilingual) that maybe the covers here were printed correctly, and they didn't need to be recalled... but I guess no such luck!

 

[Allan^L]

My Future Shop in Mississauga had lots of copies. Guess they didn't get the memo.

 

[Dave Farley]

The Kmart here had eight copies on the shelf tonight.

 

[IanS]

nowhere to be found in Montreal.................

 

[Jose Martinez]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...322306330&rd=1

Looks like some Trekkers are are stupid enough to spend twice as much for this "rare" DVD. (Of course, years from now I'll probably kicking myself for not grabbing one myself )

 

[Jeff Bamberger]

See this raises the question below for me, and I think it was asked somewhere above but maybe not answered.....

Has anyone yet done a direct comparison of this new version to the prior version?

I have the non-ana version and on my 27" Sony (with no squeeze mode), it looks pretty good. I question on a set like this will the "deficiencies" of this new transfer outweigh any improvements of the old.

Generally, I have only been upgrading to the CEs if the A/V is vastly improved, and on my 27" Sony, certain improvements may not be noticable. Yeah, I love the extras, but I won't double dip for extras if the A/V is not vastly improved (again, keeping in mind what I am viewing on).....

Any thoughts would be appreciated......

 

[David M.]

Hey Chad E,

Are you talking about London?

I had no luck either including the music stores at White Oaks and Masonville.

I did get my copy from Amazon.ca yesterday.

 

[Chad E]

Yep. I only checked the Best Buy, Future Shop and Wal-Mart on Wellington... easy, since they're all so close together!

Since it doesn't look like the discs themselves are changing, I figured if I was able to find it, I'd pick it up. Since I didn't see it at any of those places, I just left it. Maybe the smaller stores (like CD Plus or something along those lines) might still have it, but I wasn't going to go out of my way to hunt it down. Since it's basically a delay in street date, I'm assuming that FS will still offer it at the C$13.99 price when it comes out. Three weeks isn't that long to wait!

 

[Jason_V]

I checked another BB about 10 miles from where I got mine on Tuesday and they had none. There was no notice saying it had been recalled (but Resident Evil did have a BIG note that the advertised movie ticket was not included). I got my price match with CC.

I listened to about half of the commentary with Ron Moore and Brannon Braga last night. I thought these two guys were at each others throats based on what happened early in Voyager's fifth season. I was pleasantly surprised they got along well enough to record a track in the same room and it didn't have to be spliced together.

 

[Britton]

I think Braga and Moore patched up any problems that might have resulted from the Voyager days.

 

[John H Ross]

Well... I watched this new Collector's Edition last night and it looked every bit as awful as this thread would suggest - even on my 28" widescreen display.

The whole picture appeared to shimmer for much of the film. The scenes of Veridian III were probably the worst affected. Slow camera pans across rocks resulted in all sorts of jagged artifacts.

Appalling.

And... I noticed a sound dropout on the DTS track during Kirk's line "I was out saving the galaxy while your father was in diapers". I'm using a Denon DVD-2900 (which seems to be dropping out on every DTS track I try these days :-(

Incidentally, and slightly off topic, is anyone else noticing a large number of dropouts on the Denon (Alien (R1), Alien Resurrection (R1), ST Generations (R1), Die Another Day (R2), Attack Of The Clones (DD, R1) or is it just me? I appear to have the latest firmware installed:

DRV 030827 (includes “Alien”/DTS fix I believe)
B/E 6237W
PANEL 0043-F

John

 

[TedD]

Are they in the same location every time you play the DVD? If you are using an SPDIF copper connection, make sure your player and your receiver are plugged into the same outlet. Alternately, try using a fiber SPDIF connection.

Ted

 

[John H Ross]

No, they don't appear to be in the same location every time. This morning I went thru all the discs I've had problems with, I went straight to the place where the drop out occurred and they played flawlessly. I'm going to run a few of them thru from the beginning. It's the unpredictability that's annoying me most!

Please can you explain what a SPDIF copper connection is?

At the moment my DVD player is connected to my amp (a Yamaha DSP-A1) via an IXOS optical cable. I've used the amp and the cable for several years with my Sony 7700 without noticing a single dropout.

Would this cable be a better choice?
http://www.hifistore.co.uk/product.php?qsProd=OT1

Even now I'm not noticing any problems with CD or ProLogic playback, only DD and DTS.

John

 

[KyleC]

Went to Best Buy last night but they didn't have it out. The guy looked in the computer and said they had 10 copies but he couldn't find them. I guess I'll wait until the 28th.

 

[Ric Easton]

Well, I fiannly got around to an A/B comparison last night. The non-animophic older version definately looks better. Images just seem to be more pleasing to the eye and have more of a realistic look.

For me, the worst part were the space scenes. The stars on the newer version were just too distracting. They also appear to be bigger and they definately wig in and out during pans. I usually don't have a descerning eye for EE, but this was a real eye-opener. As mentioned the scenes on Veridian 3 had a bad case of the jaggies, the ropes and riggings during the sea-faring Enterprise scene were also distracting. Eyes looked unnatural, Soran's hair blowing in the wind looked odd, and of course there was the problem with Data's shimmering skin.

I will be hanging on to my original version.

On a positive note. I enjoyed Braga and Moore's commentary quite a bit... "Let's tech the tech!"

If Paramount wants to partially make up for this for me, they can stick the missing trailers on the First Contact disc. Oh, and give FC a decent transfer.

Maybe with all the ST releases this year, (TOS, Voyager, ST:6 and Generations, this one just got away from them. I am surprised that they didn't hold off on TOS until Voyager ran its course.

Ric

 

[Dave Mack]

Where's Martin Blythe...?

 

[Lyle_JP]

As far as I'm concerned, they already did. I have no problem with the already excellent First Contact transfer appearing on a future FC:SE. I'll be buying it for the extras.

-Lyle J.P.