Paramount Press Release: Star Trek TOS Season One (Blu-ray) (2 Viewers)

[pitchman]

Disc 7 was floating in the set I bought at BB too. No scratches or scuffs, though. I really appreciate the extra thick clear-coating that goes on every Blu-ray disc. It definitely does seem to make a difference!

BTW, I already watched "The Man Trap" and the quality of this set superb! Kudos to Paramount and all involved.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I am curious, you have prime, correct? Yours was shipped on Monday and you'll get it Tuesday. Mine is shipped on Monday and I'll get on Wednesday and I have prime also. Why the day difference? It's my understanding they don't count the day it ships as on of the 2 days shipping time.

Are you quite close to where they ship from?

 

[Nelson Au]

I decided to watch Charlie X, it was the one I really wanted to see first. I wasn't that impressed, only because it's not that different from the HD-DVD! So it looked terrific! But I'll watch more critically in the evening, when my HT room can be dark. (It's got a lot of high windows that I can't shade)

I don't think I'll mention much more about the PQ because it really looks better then ever. You can see the pores on Shatner's face and the wood grain on the sets! Colors are vibrant and beautiful.

What I wanted to talk about and get feedback on is the audio and the ability to change from original optical effects to the new CGI effects.

I have an older B&K surround processor so it won't do the new audio codecs. I had to manually switch it to DTS audio for the down converted audio. That sounds great! But the big realization for me, and I've seen and own every single video release of Star Trek TOS, is the mono audio. What a treat! I have not watched the laserdiscs recently, but what I have forgotten is how much better it sounds in terms of hearing all the effects and dialogue up front.

There is a scene in Charlie X when Charlie is walking about the ship, as he's backing out of the Jeffries tube and the two techs are climbing out, you can hear a medium pitch whine, and it's pretty loud. When I switched to the new digital track, which I did via the menu, you can't hear that anymore. It's been dialed down to almost nothing but the dialogue is fine.

And yes, you can hear the original titles music if you select the mono version. And I was watching the titles in both the original opticals and CGI with mono sound. But I'd be curious to hear from those with newer processors, what options you have for the audio, if you're limited to hearing the original titles music in Mono only.

The scene when Uhura is trying to reach the Antares, you can hear the sounds of the subspace radio audio as Uhura is trying to dial up the gain. In Mono, it's really loud! And it sounds good! Makes me wonder why, when they remixed the audio, they decided to tone it and the earlier Jeffires Tube sequence audio down.

The next big question was how did the original optical effects look. They looked fine, lots of grain. And the shots in Charlie X were just ship shots in space. Some had some dust from the optical layers. Wasn't bad, was what I expected. But one sideview shot was in black and white, while the others I saw were in color.

Okay, the other test I wanted to try was switching between optical effects and the new CGI effects on the fly. I have a new Sony BDP-550 Blu Ray player. You have a choice to play either version from the menu at the start, so I picked the original version. As the Antares is coming along side the Enterprise, I used the angle button on my remote and nothing happened! So then I popped the menu back up and I was able to switch it by selecting he CGI version from the menu, but this restarts the episode.

By the way, you can only change angles when the effects shots appear, not during live action.

So I tried it again, played the episode with the original effects. When I can time it right and press the angle button, it will switch, but there's a delay and it switched maybe 1 out of 3 tries, So timing is critical. One time, after it switched, it reverted back to the original optical effects. After messing around a bit, I tried it another way, the instructions in the pop-up menu say you can switch from optical to CGI by either the angle key, or use the camera icon on the pop-up menu. I tried that and it seemed to work. but it was still hit or miss for me.

I'm curious what you guys find as you try this feature. For me, it seems you should decide which you want to watch and stick with it! (edit: The optical effects shots are very short too, so by the time you hit the angle key and the player has a chance to reset, it's too late, it's over! Probably why it didn't work for me)

I'll be doing a more in depth viewing as this week goes along. For now I wanted to see if the first disc would play since it was floating around in the case when I bought it.

You guys will enjoy this if you've never seen the HD-DVD! Star Trek Lives! (I use to write that on the blackboards in high school!)

 

[James_Koch]

So guys, is this set awesome?

I ordered it from Best Buy, but instead they sent me the Nickelodeon Emma Roberts flick Hotel for Dogs. :frowning:

I just can't believe they screwed the order up that bad.

 

[ATimson]

I can. Walmart.com did something similar once--I got Pokemon Yellow instead of Super Mario Advance 4. Fortunately, the store still took it as a return.

 

[Karl Pozorski]

I picked this up at Walmart for $69 and also had disc 7 floating around. Seems to be o.k. though. I am impressed with the restoration and the updated effects. Good job Paramount and CBS. I agree the angle switching is touchy. I think it's easier to just pick one version and stick with it. Is this set awesome? I have only watched The Man Trap so far and it blew me away. So far so good.

 

[Michael Rogers]

I'm using a Panny BD 30 for mine. It has no dedicated angle button on the remote. You have to select the angle via player generated sub menu.

I've used that (and there is a 2-3 second delay between switching for me too) but I've more used the angle button on the pop up menu. Unlike the angle function on the player, you can toggle your choice even when a effects scene is not playing.

So lets say you see an Enterprise flyby with the original effects (you selected the original version to watch) and you want to see the new effect.

I pop up the menu and press the angle button on the menu after the scene and reverse search back (or if it's the start of a chapter use that) and it will be the new effect (if it has the required 2-3 seconds to change).

I've never had it fail to make a change whether using the player or using the pop up menu.

Selecting the original version will start up original effects version with mono sound and enhanced will start new effects and the true HD soundtrack.

Once chosen you can change the visual version anytime via the angle button on the pop up menu (as opposed to using the player angle function that only works during changed sequences) and, of course, you can change audio via the audio button or pop up menu.

I looked at pieces of shows I knew had some changes in audio to verify the mono tracks are indeed the old mono tracks and not just a mono version of a remix. So far, so good except for a couple minor points.

Charlie X's mono track had the badly cut in door opening sound effect (it's weirdly distorted at the beginning) when Charlie walks in on Spock and Kirk playing chess just like it should be in the original. There is no "proximity phaser/photon torpedo" sound effect on "Balance Of Terror" just like there should be.

The exterior ship sound was used inconsistently during the first season. Sometimes exterior Enterprise scenes had only music, sometimes they also had a sound effect representing the ship. Of course, on the DVD remixes they placed the ship sound in every scene.

It seems in the places I remembered to check so far, that is also restored, except in a couple scenes on "Tomorrow is Yesterday". Where there were a couple sequences where they added in the ship sound where I don't think it was originally. That's the minor point I was talking about. Not too much of a big deal.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I Watched Hotel For Dogs tonight it was Cute but it's no Trek !

I watched Where No Man has Gome before and I think the image is a tad bit sharper than the HD-DVD version not a huge amount but a Slight bit.

 

[ScottR]

I just finished watching The Man Trap....WOW!!! Absolutely beautiful and the best looking tv release I have ever seen! I also recreated the broadcast version by bringing up the pop up menu before the ending credits and watching the preview for the next episode..then when it faded out I hit the pop up menu again and the closing credits started immediately! I flipped through some episodes and noticed that the closing credits on The Menagerie Part 2 have some really bad gate weave...don't know if it was ever like that before.This release is awesome. I can actually see different lighting techniques for different characters!

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Thanks Ric.

Picked the set up and lo and behold I had the loose #7 disc too. It seems the hub on the back plastic inside cover is molded too low.

Overall impressions are favourable. I don't see any difference in video department over the HD DVD set despite Bill Hunt's claims that there is one. On the audio front I do agree that the DTS HD tracks sound great and are a definite improvement.

Watched City on the Edge of Forever - most awesome.

Oh and while its nice to have the original SFX shots, I'm definitely going to be watching the enhanced versions going forward.

 

[Dave Mack]

This set is indeed awesome!

 

[nolesrule]

What kind of purist are you?

 

[Dave Mack]

Just finished WNMHGB. Wow. Jaw dropping.

Great stuff. Kudos. Had me shedding a tear at the end. Alongside my dad, Captain Kirk and the grew were my heroes growing up. Amazing to see the show looking this good. The PQ is so good I feel like I'm on the bridge with them. (I know, nerd alert...) Wish my Pop were still around to give these a spin with. Would be a lot of fun. I can only hope my kid is into them one day as much as I was.

(And Shatner can act his ass off when he wants too....)

 

[Nelson Au]

I just watched The Corbomite Maneuver. I've not seen this on the HD-DVD for a while, and it's disconnected right now. As I'd do an A-B comparison. But I thought it was terrific as everyone has been saying!

Some shots on the bridge are sharp as a tack and look very deep, as in 3 dimensional. Other shots are a bit soft, but I'm not complaining.

I still had issues with the angle button on my player, thanks for your insight Michael. When I got the angle to change, it only stayed there for about 2 seconds and then it reverted back. Not sure why, if it is designed this way or it's a player issue. Look forward to hearing from more people and their Angle button experiences!

Lou, I agree that the CGI effects are super compared to the originals. But where I am happy to have the originals is when the shots dissolve to live action and we can see the full dissolve and not miss shots like Kor's in Errand of Mercy.

And agreed Dave, Shatner is the Man! Not so sure Chris Pine can ever be!

 

[Ric Easton]

Watched "The Man Trap" and "Charlie X" last night. Looked fantastic! Looking forward to "Where No Man has Gone Before" tonight after Lost!

BTW, just occurred to me that I don't think we're gonna see Gary Mitchell in the new Trek movie. Kind of a shame, I think!


Another BTW... A friend of mine at work just mentioned her kids were getting into Star Trek (collecting the new toys). They had been into Star Wars big time. I told her I had all the episodes, but now I'm wondering what to start them out on. The kids are 8 and 6. The Animated Series? Season 1 from the beginning? Would they be too slow for a kid's attention span? Go right to The Wrath of Khan?

 

[Jim_K]

Watched some episodes last night and the PQ is on par with the HD DVD set, which was excellent.

Packaging is much sturdier than the HD DVD. My Disc 7 was a floater but the scratch proof coating saved the day.

Menu navigation is a night and day improvement. The BD is rocket fast while the HD DVD navigation was obscenely sluggish on my XA2.

But the biggest upgrade is including both the original and new CG versions. I'm very, very happy.

Now bring on Seasons 2 and 3!

 

[Lou Sytsma]

An extremely discerning one.

 

[Ensign Eddie]

If it ships first thing in the morning, I will usually get it the next day. Most of the time I get it the second day after it ships. Since I preordered this, it shipped really early on Monday. Also, I live in Dallas which may cut down a leg or two on its journey (although there have been shipments that looked like they were playing a game of hopscotch around the country!).

BTW, I did receive the set yesterday. For what it's worth, disks 1 and 7 were also loose in my set (but I didn't see any scratches).

 

[Jeff_HR]

My disc 7 was a floater too & that "stupid" black rectangle thing was stuck to the front of disc 7 also. No apparent damage. :frowning:

 

[Michael Rogers]

I love the animated series so much. It's the way I found Star Trek as a kid in 1975. I would think the kids would love it too as long as you tell them that it was animated before computers so there is not as much movement.

How about a mix of live action and animated's best episodes?