An official announcement of Star Trek: TOS will soon be upon us.... (1 Viewer)

They just announced the full schedule for this year's San Diego Comic Con, and this panel will be happening on the morning of July 26th:

12:30-1:30 Star Trek, The Original Series: As You’ve Never Seen It—Be here for the worldwide debut of Star Trek, The Original Series, fully remastered and on HD DVD, along with extras including never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes 8mm footage. "Star" panelists include first time-ever Comic-Con attendee Rod Roddenberry, Billy Blackburn (Star Trek, The Original Series extra-extraordinaire), Ryan Adams and David Grant (CBS DVD). and Cory Watson and Jason Hillhouse (New Wave) and more. Room 6CDEF

I just hope it's not priced too high due to being on combo discs.

Star Trek is ALWAYS priced too high

No doubt. The Combo-ness will only give them even more of an "excuse". This will be a nice exclusive for HD DVD, however I do wonder if the fact that a lot of HD DVD's big fourth quarter exclusives to date (BSG, Heroes, and ST:TOS) will have a high MSRP will hurt their sales.

O' crude... I must have missed/forgotten it would be a combo release. Dang those crazy combos!

Too bad this is the first year in a long time I won't be making the SDCC trip. I would have loved to be there for the announcement and to see in person what they have planned. That and you know there will be a "Blu-ray guy" that will get the whole audience up in arms with some crazy question.

Just curious - why isn't it being released on Blu-ray?

I agree this will likely be priced to high for my liking (one reason I have't brought myself to buy the DVD sets).

CBS, which is independent of Paramount, who is neutral and only the distributor in this case, is really jazzed about the Combo Format. This is speculation, but I think the intent is to only release the spruced-up ST: TOS on HD DVD Combo Format (i.e. no SD DVD release) to allow ST fans a "bridge" to HD so-to-speak. CBS has indicated that there will be a Blu-ray Disc release at a future date. Your guess is as good as mine on when that might be.

inexpensive players and some cult appeal exclusives (even if only temporary) are exactly what that format could use now- but I have a feeling they will bungle it and price something like this way too high. Making people pay more now for something they can't use now, and don't know when they will use in the future- is a recipe for disaster. Unless they think a property like this will be compelling enough among its fans to actually spur player sales in the first place...and if that is the case, then the combo feature becomes totally irrelevant. I know a certain % of users appreciate the feature, but I think its safe to say the majority don't- and it's compounded by the fact that studios are too venal to properly exploit the advantages it brings. They view it as an opportunity for an extra cash grab- more money for just another pass thru the rep lines.

Call me crazy but I can't see a need for a combo disc of Star Trek. What person that's going to drop (at least) $100 hasn't already bought the series on SD? And if you already have the series in SD but no HD player yet, why would you buy this release at all?

Well these are the remastered versions with new effects shots. No one has these versions on SD DVD yet. I'm a completest so I'll get these versions even though I already have both of the earlier DVD releases. I think they are just doing a single release for this rather than a separate SD and HD releases.

Doug

I am not certain on this, but I believe the new effects will only be available in HD. I really like the new effects and feel that this will be a major thing for Trekkers. I think this is probably the carrot on the stick for buying the combo. It also appears that in addition to this, this package will have new supplements, new menus, etc. It will be an entirely new release.

Regardless, a combo only release of this series will give HD-DVD a much needed sales boost. We are talking about Trekkers here (myself included). Since it seems it'll likely be a combo release only, it should sell like a regular dvd season set with HD as a bonus - exactly what I think Universal should be doing with their Sci-fi season sets. I agree though, it'll be expensive, but Trek ALWAYS is.

My understanding was that both the SD and HD sides would have the same content, but I imagine we will have to wait till after the Convention to find that out for sure.

Doug

That was my understanding too- and if that is correct, then it shows a really thoughtless use of the technology here.
The combo is a perfect opportunity to provide the consumer with a complete experience- the older transfers done in 480p on one side, and the new HD transfers on the other.
This way, even the legions of fans that already purchased the earlier sets (or the original singles and/or the sets) can now subsidize their "upgrade" by selling off the eariler set without having to lose the original versions at all.

In this case, Paramount would definitely see people upgrading, even if they didn't have HD players now. It would be a win/win for all parties...which is why I'm sure this is not what they're gonna do.
Giving people two versions of the same content in the same package, charging a premium for it, and then forcing them to keep their old sets to have access to the unmodified versions just makes so much more sense
:rolleyes

Hopefully they'll also include the unmolested non-CGI'd Trek episodes in HD otherwise I won't be as enthusiatic.

I won't even comment on the combo deal other than

Standard Trek season set pricing $$$$$$ + HD pricing $$$$$ + combo pricing $$$$$ = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I agree Paul.

Especially when you also consider that there are people out there who simply want the episodes unaltered as produced. I agree that the SD 480p sides should be left as is, and the HD-DVD layers should contain the new versions with the new supplements. This way, people will get the best of both worlds and can sell/ebay their old sets as you stated.

I remember when the season sets of TOS went on sale 3 years ago they were at $149.95 msrp. It would be nice if they could at least lower it to$119.95-$129.95 so that people can find the set on sale at most B&M's for under $100.00. If studios want HD to catch on, they will simply have to have reasonable pricing models. Spending over $100.00 for a set may be pushing things a bit - even for some Trekkers.

You may be disappointed Jim.

I doubt you will see the un-molested versions in HD. I have to agree with those who say that the effects for the non-enhanced versions would look TERRIBLE in HD.

I personally will be happy to get the new versions in HD and have the original un-molested versions in SD.

Has anyone even seen them? If not, they cannot comment on them.

Wouldn't all of TOS have been shot using film? I would take my chances with the effects looking bad on HD as long as they release the originals in HD. STAR TREK:CGI is not the the original series. If that is the only version on HD then it is definitely going to be no sale.

I gotta tell you, the first several episodes of Trek remastered had terrible new FX. The Enterprise basically looked like a videogame. They have now really hit their stride and the new shots of the E are truly breathtaking but at first, eesh! The fans over at Trekmovie.com were begging CBS digital to go back and tweak the earlier done eps' FX with the new CGI "model" of the E but with the stupid time constraints foisted on them, it's doubtful they did.

WoW
Combo's FINALLY pay off for HD DVD.

Thanks for the answer & thanks for the question (which also came to my mind reading the OP)!

The few HD eps I have downloaded on Xbox Live have been impressive - the new CGI isn't so slick and blatant that it takes away from the show, IMHO...I usually consider it an improvement.