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Star Trek Into Darkness on iTunes out today (1 Viewer)

Nelson Au

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Got an email ad today from iTunes saying they are releasing it early on their site. Today in fact. Plus order it and the 2009 Star Trek for $24.99 bundle price.I found this amusing, yet interesting too. In addition, all the earlier 10 Star Trek films can be purchased too for a reduced price of under $50.What I think is interesting is that perhaps Paramount worked a deal with Apple to get the film out earlier then the blu-ray release in order to perhaps get a jump on sales and inflate the take on home video sales to help make up for the lower then expected box office performance.I'll be waiting for the combo blu-ray, 3-D, DVD set. Kevin, I'll be interested in your take on this. :)
 

Steve Tannehill

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There was a thread on this last week when the title was first released. It was released 3 weeks prior to blu-ray street date.
 

Nelson Au

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It was? Where have I been? Oh, you mean the iTunes release was last week? Well, never mind! :)
 

Jason_V

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There's a lot of something going on with this release. I'd love to link to Bill Hunt's article on the Bits, but the site is kinda going sideways for me right now. Anyway, this is really making me rethink the preorder for the disc...

(I don't wanna paraphrase. The piece is just that mindboggling...I don't know if anyone will actually believe me.)
 

Nelson Au

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Wow, I don't feel so bad about making this thread. Thanks for the heads up Jason and link Grady. And Greg, that's really disappointing there is no aspect ratio change on the blu-ray for the IMAX sequences.I had no idea Paramount is parsing out the extras to Target, to Best Buy, to Apple iTunes and whoever else! I agree with Bill, this is one messed up release where the bonus materials are concerned. (and lack of the IMAX bits) Perhaps the marketing folks also feel 99 percent of the buyers don't really care for them. (I also agree with his comment of no DC of Star Trek TMP yet!)I'm thinking of breaking tradition and buy the movie from iTunes too just because I want the commentary and decide between Best Buy or whoever for the 2 and 3-D blu-rays. I place myself in the camp of those who voted it as the worst Star Trek film! Actually I think it was weak by not having a defined bad guy and muddy double climax. Not to mention the awkward homage to another Trek film. So this is really crazy to get mutable versions!
 

SilverWook

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What is Paramount smoking? They'll get nothing but bad press out of this, and a lot of angry fans.
 

Mark-P

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The headline of Bill's rant had me scared that it it was a quality issue with the movie itself. Glad to here that's not the case.

SilverWook said:
What is Paramount smoking? They'll get nothing but bad press out of this, and a lot of angry fans.
Here's one fan who's not angry in the least. I'll be satisfied with the 42 minutes of extras that do come with the Blu-ray disc. But why be angry that the commentary is only on the iTunes version? Guess what? The Blu-ray COMES with a free iTunes code so you ARE getting the commentary and all the other iTunes extras that go with it. Good enough for me.
 

Sam Favate

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I agree that it's bullshit that the extras are all over the place. Paramount's been doing a really bad job on the BD/DVD front lately (in contrast to CBS which has done a great job with the Trek TV titles). It's like they're trying to kill the physical media right now. Very depressing -- even more so given that Star Trek have been taken advantage of for so many years. ("Hey, who's crazy enough to track down multiple copies of the same movie for some extras? Star Trek fans!") [To be fair, CBS has dabbled in some of this by putting exclusive bonus content on the stand-alone TNG discs, BOBW, Redemption and Unification.]
 

Simon Massey

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Im astounded this was voted the worst Star Trek film recently in some polls. Ok, I enjoyed it and I will admit that it has issues, but some of these voters should try sitting through Star Trek V again.

In any case, Im actually going to not buy this for now. Im sick of being ripped off with multiple releases. No doubt there will be another edition released in the future and I can wait. If not, it will drop below $10 eventually and then it may be worth it. I avoided the original and Next Gen films for ages as I was expecting an eventual upgrade and improvement. Paramount are really missing an opportunity there, especially with the seeming success of the TV releases. It was only when all 10 films came up for less than $50 it became worth it.

These days with the sheer amount of releases underwhelming and obvious tactics of multiple releases I think more and more people are prepared to wait for a better edition or wait for a large price drop. Studios are only shooting themselves in the foot long term
 

Jason_V

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Mark-P said:
The headline of Bill's rant had me scared that it it was a quality issue with the movie itself. Glad to here that's not the case.


Here's one fan who's not angry in the least. I'll be satisfied with the 42 minutes of extras that do come with the Blu-ray disc. But why be angry that the commentary is only on the iTunes version? Guess what? The Blu-ray COMES with a free iTunes code so you ARE getting the commentary and all the other iTunes extras that go with it. Good enough for me.
Here's why: the Target, BB and iTunes versions all have different extras. So if you want all the extras that were produced for the release, you need to get all of them. Sure, you get the iTunes download, but do you get the BB and Target VAM too? Nope.

Here's another problem: why does physical media get the short end of the stick? There are at least THREE discs in the BD 3D package. You mean to tell me Paramount couldn't find a way to include everything in one mega pack? Really? The movie isn't overly long, from a BD capacity standpoint. Wanna know what's going? Paramount cheaped out. They found a way to have three major retailers pay for part of their release through the exclusives. Add into that the special packaging Amazon has (IIRC) and the short end of the stick fans are getting.

Here's yet another problem: I don't want to be beholden to my iPod or computer to watch the extras. If I'm home at 1 am on a Saturday night and I can't sleep, I want to be able to put the disc into my PS3 and queue them up. The Alien boxset, for example, had HOURS of extras plus four films and alternate cuts of the films. What did most of us pay for that? $75? Maybe $100? That breaks down roughly to $25 a movie, give or take. The 3D version of STID is $25 on Amazon right now. So you get 42 whole minutes of the cast and crew saying how much they love each other (EPK) and four versions of the movie with no content difference for $25 instead of two discs (per movie in the Alien set) chock full of extras.

Yes, as Sam points out, the TV division of Paramount-CBS-is dabbling in this as well. The major difference I see is that the recut two part TV episodes are available at all retailers. Meaning, if you have a bias against iTunes, you don't have to give them money or use their service. You can go to Amazon, Target, BB, your local mom and pop store, etc. We don't even get that opportunity here.

Pre-order...cancelled.
 

Cinescott

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I don't expect there to be a boatload of extras on every release, even major releases, but to throw them out as exclusives all over the map really chaps me.

Yes, I get a download code with the Blu-ray, but I don't want to be stuck at my computer listening to a commentary! Even if Paramount had released all the extras to one major retailer, at least there'd be a go-to for people who care about extras, like me. However, how can anyone justify buying three separate versions of this film to get all/most of the supplements? It's crazy.

I'll get the standard 2D version for the supposedly great transfer and a good movie, but that's it.

Also, the download-exclusivity weeks prior to a Blu-ray is something I strongly dislike as well. I've never seen an iTunes download that approaches BRD quality, so what is Paramount trying to accomplish here? Get the public accustomed to sub-standard quality so streaming and downloads can become the norm??? Maybe it's simply Apple throwing some money at them to prop up their movie margins. I don't know. Probably both.

So, Paramount, if you're reading, please farm out everything, because you simply don't seem to understand your core audience.
 

Lord Dalek

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Wow, Bill "corporate schill" Hunt showing some legitimate rage at a studio for once. Is the sky falling?
 

Nelson Au

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I had not done any advanced research into the blu-ray for the contents and extras. That's interesting the iTunes download is included with the blu-ray. If that's the case, I'll be curious what that's like. I know iTunes has HD versions, but that's likely 720. What I'm curious about is that my computer has an HDMI output and I've never tried to connect it to my pre-amp. I've always wondered if a film file would be able to have the Dolby HD audio tracks. And whether the version you get to download from the blu-ray code is actually the same that will have the commentary track. If its got the commentary track, that saves that extra purchase. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks. It does seem odd how Paramount doesn't want to do the blu-rays in a manner that's more inclusive of features. But the real head scratcher is the lack of interest to invest in these films. They know Star Trek is a huge business, they must know the fans want to see the DC of TMP. When the DC of TMP was originally made, I've read either here on the HTF or elsewhere that the studio really didn't want to pay for all the effort to do the CGI effects to complete TMP. The budget was very small, so much so that the team which are Star Trek fans, basically did a lot of extra work to make the DC effects work and the re-edit per Robert Wise on their own dime. I'm going to guess there is still a bean counter there still hurting from the costs incurred when Star Trek was slated as a new TV show to return in the mid 70's as part of their aborted Paramount TV network, but then spent more to retool everything to make Star Trek TMP. Then each film after that got less and less budgets. Star Trek Into Darkness got a huge budget, but fell short. So it's back to feeling like Star Trek is like a money pit with poor returns. I'm glad CBS is taking care of the TV side.
 

Jason_V

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I sent the following message to Paramount Home Video via a private message on their FB page. They don't allow people to post on their walls:

You guys have lost a sale of Star Trek Into Darkness on BD from me. The produced extras have been farmed out to iTunes, Best Buy and Target (I don't even know who else) instead of including them on any of the home video versions? Why? Do you honestly think any consumer is going to buy all those versions to get all the VAM? There's plenty of room on the three discs in the 3D BD version to include everything that was created. Amazon is selling this version for $25. That's four versions of the same movie and 42 minutes of promotional fluff.

Over the years, I have purchased, all 40 individual volumes of TOS on DVD, the original silver box versions of TNG on DVD, all of DS9, VOY, ENT and the animated series. I even have all of TNG on BD (including the Best of Both Worlds and Redemption movies AND the TNG BD starter disc). Enterprise sits on my shelf now on BD. I've purchased every last version of the movies, from the original single disc bare bones edition through the BD box sets. I know I'm not alone in any of this.

Why do you have such contempt for your most loyal and core audience? Is it that you know Trek fans will buy anything with Trek on the cover regardless of quality? I got the chance to meet with some fantastic people over at Paramount Home Video last year on the Paramount lot. They were gracious, helpful, interested in both good and bad comments about their product. They cared about the consumer; at least, that was the impression the entire group I was with received.

This Paramount? I don't know what's going on, but I'll wait for STID in a bargain bin at this point. There's no way I'm spending $25 on this disc now, or trying to track down all the retailer exclusives.
 

Ronald Epstein

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Very good rant by Bill Hunt.

I think everyone should be highly outraged by what
Paramount has done here, particularly on a major release
such as this one.

Let's hope that something like this doesn't happen again.
 

Cory S.

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Nelson Au said:
I had not done any advanced research into the blu-ray for the contents and extras. That's interesting the iTunes download is included with the blu-ray. If that's the case, I'll be curious what that's like. I know iTunes has HD versions, but that's likely 720. What I'm curious about is that my computer has an HDMI output and I've never tried to connect it to my pre-amp. I've always wondered if a film file would be able to have the Dolby HD audio tracks. And whether the version you get to download from the blu-ray code is actually the same that will have the commentary track. If its got the commentary track, that saves that extra purchase. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks. It does seem odd how Paramount doesn't want to do the blu-rays in a manner that's more inclusive of features. But the real head scratcher is the lack of interest to invest in these films. They know Star Trek is a huge business, they must know the fans want to see the DC of TMP. When the DC of TMP was originally made, I've read either here on the HTF or elsewhere that the studio really didn't want to pay for all the effort to do the CGI effects to complete TMP. The budget was very small, so much so that the team which are Star Trek fans, basically did a lot of extra work to make the DC effects work and the re-edit per Robert Wise on their own dime. I'm going to guess there is still a bean counter there still hurting from the costs incurred when Star Trek was slated as a new TV show to return in the mid 70's as part of their aborted Paramount TV network, but then spent more to retool everything to make Star Trek TMP. Then each film after that got less and less budgets. Star Trek Into Darkness got a huge budget, but fell short. So it's back to feeling like Star Trek is like a money pit with poor returns. I'm glad CBS is taking care of the TV side.
I AirPlayed the enhanced commentary for this in 1080p from my computer to my TV through my Apple TV. It can be done. It just involves having the right equipment.
 

Cory S.

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As for the extras, the most complete package is the Target exclusive. You get the digital copy code for UV and iTunes and the iTunes code includes the iTunes extras with the digital copy of the film. The Target exclusive is just another 30 minutes of BTS stuff.Best Buy's exclusive is the same material as the Target exclusive. The difference? The Target exclusive is on disc, the Best Buy exclusive is digital via their CinemaNow service.
 

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