Star Trek TOS Season 2 HD-DVD- March 25th tentative release (1 Viewer)

[Ric Easton]

Hadn't heard that the new Trek movie was delayed until Summer of '09. When was that announced?

 

[Douglas Monce]

2 or 3 weeks ago, I believe.

Doug

 

[TravisR]

Last week:
'Star Trek' pushed back to 2009 - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

EDIT: Doug beat me to it.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Yeah but you were closer on the actual time frame, and had documentation to back it up!

Doug

 

[Nelson Au]

Nothing new to report on the future of Star Trek TOS on any HDM format.

However, the latest news on the Trekmovie site does go to say that Paramount has cancelled all HD-DVD products, with Into the Wild and Things We Lost releaes next week being the last.

Since CBS was distributing Star Trek TOS on HD-DVD, they may keep going, but it looks like there will be no more HD-DVD's of TOS as was reported that production of the second season was halted.

No news yet on Blu-Ray versions, but as already been said above, they probably will do it, but when is the question. Paramout has a lot of backlogged titles to play catch-up with onto Blu-Ray when they went HD exclusive.

 

[Jim_K]

errr........not really.

 

[Jeff_HR]

Considering that Trek is almost an automatic seller, I'd guess sooner rather than later.

 

[Nelson Au]

A fair enough reply! I hadn't really taken time to review if this is true, I was repeating what was reported on a Trek news site. Though it does sound like a reasonable comment given some of Paramount's blockbuster type films from recent summer releases could go Blu. And it really has no direct bearing on how CBS decides to release TV material.

I agree that Trek probably is an automatic seller, and as a big enough fan, I usually buy them in spite of cost. But I still see Star Trek as somewhat a limited market. As big a world wide property it is for Paramount CBS, I can't see it selling that big to the mainstream like Friends did. Am I wrong? So I can see it coming out on Blu pretty soon, I just don't see it as soon as this summer for example. Maybe this Holiday Season or Spring 2009 if they want to time it with the Abrams film.

I was thinking of the typical Star Trek material most assume are automatic High Definition transferable materials. TOS because it was on film, Star Trek Enterprise because it was shot in HD and the Star Trek films. But I never hear about the Animated Series, which I think is on film. I wonder if that one will benefit that much, maybe color and some detail.

A side note: I did see a recent Oprah about TV iconic characters with William Shatner as one guest and at the end of the interview, she said everyone in the audience will get a copy of Star Trek TOS Season One HD-DVD/DVD set. That's the ultimate mainstream venue to push HD!

 

[Jim_K]

I was just disputing the statement that there were a lot of backlogged HD DVD exclusives to get out first. Transformers, Beowulf, Top Gun and Face/Off are all I can really think of, I'm probably forgetting a couple others but most likely because they weren't worth remembering.

I do agree with you that Trek season 1 probably won't be on BD until the new film comes out. It is a shame that production has stopped on Season 2 (which has most of my favorite episodes)

 

[Douglas Monce]

The question is, will CBS keep making the season 1 set, considering there is no SD only version? Right now HD DVD combo or nothing. Or will they press an SD only set?

Doug

 

[Nelson Au]

Doug, your question is something I had not considered. I just made the assumption that the next iteration of Star Trek on home video would only be on HDM. The old sets are still out there and CBS didn't seem interested in releasing another SD version. Kinda makes sense from a marketing point of view, and I am not a marketing person, that if you re-release something, it has to be different or new in some way. So if they do release on SD, then the remastered version is the way to go.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

Just a guess but I'd say it's a certainty to let the supply run out. Even if it takes a year to put S1 out on BR that's not really very long and CBS is going to have to do separate DVD releases for S2 & S3, as there's no such thing as a Blu-ray combo (praise jeebus).

It will be interesting to see how they price the BR release, they learned early on that $200+ wasn't going to fly and they no longer have the dvd combo "feature" as an excuse to jack up the price. I'd also wish fans would take this as an opportunity to let CBS know if they're going to do it, do it right. Include the ORIGINAL unaltered episodes as well and I'd like it if they would put the new effects in 16x9, either included or separated from the episodes, as long as it's there.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Even with out a new show on the air or a movie in theaters, Star Trek is still a billion dollar a year industry. Not what I'd call a small market.

I agree I'd like to see the original effects shots in a branching version.

However I wouldn't like to see the new effects in 16x9 cut into the actual episodes, that would be rather distracting seeing as the rest of the show is 4x3. And the new effects were actually composed for 4x3, so the extra material on the sides would be irrelevant.

I guess having them in 16x9 separately couldn't hurt.

Doug

 

[Nelson Au]

Ahh, but if we ask that they include the Remastered HD version of the original episodes, without the CGI, isn't that the excuse they need to ask for a higher MSRP? Don't get me wrong, I'd love for them to include the unaltered episodes.

No denying that the dedicated Star Trek market is there. And I agree, for the niche that BD currently is, it is a killer app.

I am not a fan of the idea of seeing it in 16 x 9. I've only seen one screen cap of Star Trek in 16 x 9 for the Japanese market where it is currently airing the Remastered episodes. It's a shot from Balance of Terror with Kirk in the foreground and Sulu and Scotty in the back. Scotty is on the outer upper section near his station and his head is cut off. So it's a tough call, it would be cool to see the new CGI effects in 16 x 9.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

Yeah I wouldn't really call it "small" either, but it's undoubtedly smaller. Trek has a rabid following by a certain amount of the population, that's probably outweighed by the casual following of FRIENDS and Seinfeld by a much larger group. But that fan dedication from trekkers is a big deciding factor in releases. Say season 2 of Voyager wasn't a big seller. It may have sold numbers that for another show wouldn't have justified doing further seasons, but because of the dependability of the fans purchases it takes away a certain amount of risk. (these are just theoretical examples to get my point across, I've no idea how well season 2 of Voyager sold).

About the 16x9 effects shots, all I've ever seen them say is that they composed for both, but all the shots from the remastered team posted on Trek.com and Trekmovie.com have always been in 16x9. Isn't that a clear indicator of what they prefer? Frankly I don't see how these shots would look better with alternate framing, are they simply chopping the sides off for the 4x3 versions? I've never seen comparison shots come to think of it. To me, even though it's a bit murky, it feels like an OAR situation and I'd just like to be able to see the material unedited is some fashion.

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Nelson I'm not asking for 16x9 versions of the show (I wouldn't want that), just that they put the new effects shots on the disc somewhere, even as a separate feature. Though if they could branch separate versions of the shots in the shows I'd watch it that way. (with 4x3 original footage and 16x9 cgi shots, I know that would bother the hell out of a lot of people though lol)

EDIT; and if they included the original episodes in HD and unaltered new shots, they could charge me whatever the hell they like.

 

[Douglas Monce]

The still shots you show here are a bit misleading in terms of the framing being designed for 16x9 or 4x3, because the ships are almost always moving toward or away from the camera. Eventually of course in shots like these the ship is going to more than fill the frame. It doesn't mean that it wasn't composed for 4x3.

Doug

 

[Ric Easton]

I've always thought it would be geeky cool just to have a collage of assembled beauty/action shots of the remastered Enterprise set to music. Yes, I am a geek.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

Youtube. They have them for nearly every episode and a few overall ones. There's at least one official one too from Trek.com. Unfortunately it's all in Youtube quality.

 

[Nelson Au]

Zack, I'm with you for an extra feature or branching so we can see the CGI in 16 x 9.

 

[Nelson Au]

Here's a surprise new story, trekmovie.com is reporting that TVshowsonDVD is reporting that Star Trek Season 2 of the remastered Star Trek is still coming out, but as standard def DVD!

Release date is August 5, 2008. No other details. Here's the link to: Star Trek DVD news: Release Date for Star Trek - Season 2 (Remastered) on DVD | TVShowsOnDVD.com

No news for a Blu Ray version.