Yeah I can barely watch my next gen DVD's anymore especially the later season 5-7 they are so horribly soft and full of artifact, and it's more than they shot these on film and editted on video, they are just horribly mastered. DS9 suffers from horrible Artifacting also. I shake my head to think what I paid for these.
I suppose it depends on your expectations and knowledge of the subject matter. I paid nearly twice what many people have paid for DS9 (U.K. versions; some of these have run over $150 for one box) and I am entirely satisfied with how that series looks (as well as how TNG looks). But that's probably because I don't know any better. The only arena in which I am extremely discerning (and knowledgeable) when it comes to quality is in music. And by quality, I am speaking of compositional techniques, not recording technology. So for my own part, I am entirely satisfied with the DVDs I own of all of the Trek series, and probably will be for many years. I wonder too if viewing these episodes on a 57" television (which we do) helps or hurts the overall picture quality....
I just started re-watching the 3rd Season of DS9. I'm watching on a 50" 1080i plasma with an upconvert player. I think it looks quite good. Compared to some other TV DVD's, at least the picture is solid on my system. Some TV shows, like Get Smart for example, there are tiny artifacting that I see. Most noticable are on skin tones. Like the Chief's forehead, if he's still, it's okay, if he moves, I see some kinds of odd artifacting there.
I don't see on the DS9 discs. I do want to see how the TNG discs look. I have not seen them on this new display. But on a 26" LCD TV with a 480i DVD player, TNG looks quite good!
Yes, both shows will look soft cmpared to newer DVD's. But I can live with it and it's watchable to me.
On a side note, it's amazing to watch to TNG now. I saw an episode with Ensign Ro recently. And it seems almost naive after having seen Battlestar Galactica with Michelle Forbes as Caine. Both shows were written by Ron Moore too. So I have to wonder what goes through his head. TNG had to be antiseptic while BSG is probably where he wanted DS9 to be.
The question of the trailers got me curious, so I check out my HD-DVD's. I never looked at the trailers on this set yet! The trailers are with each episode and accessed in the menu for that episode.
Here's the kicker, the trailers are included on the Standard Def side only. And the trailers are the same as the older DVD's. They start with the shot of the Enterprise pivoting in space while there is type that says Star Trek Next Voyage. The two trailers I saw; Charlie X and Where No Man Has Gone Before were not remastered and were not pristine. Charlie X had a lot of specs and minor scratches. I checked the same Charlie X trailer on the last Standard DVD box set, the trailer is in the same condition.
I always wondered about these trailers. Going all the way back to the early 80's on the video tapes and laserdiscs, the trailers all had the Star Trek Next Voyage title with what I always thought of as a third season shot of the Enterprise. This made me wonder back then if the trailers were goosed up after the series ended for syndication with the added Star Trek Next Voyage title? Of course in all the years of watching Star Trek on syndication, I never saw a trailer.
Yeah, I've kept my eye on those trailers for years. I kind of like the scratchiness in them; contrasted with the actual episodes, it's quite telling.
I recall owning the two-episode per disc sets (vols. 1-40) for quite some time before I realized that if you clicked on the appropriate place, you actually had four trailers per disc! That one almost got by me. I liked having the four trailers, as it got me wanting episodes on DVD that I (at the time) didn't necessarily have yet.
Yeah, I still watch those 2 episode per DVD discs every now and then. The main reason is that you don't have to sit and wait for an eternity for the menus to load in the season box sets!
The scratchy trailers certain do contrast with the clean episodes!
Did you happen upon the four trailers per disc as I did? I had no warning. I just decided one day to 'menu up' and see what happens. That was quite a treat.
I like the two-disc editions. I often find that the two episodes on some of the discs are among my favorites, too. One of my pleasures is to put on my This Side of Paradise and Devil In the Dark disc.
I did find those 4 trailers, 2 for the episodes on the disc, and 2 for the episodes on the next disc, on the 2 ep DVD's. Like you, I didn't seek them out at first. It wasn't till much later that I discovered them. They were essentially an Easter Egg in the early days of DVD! What throws you off is that those discs do have the specific episode trailer in the main episode menu.
For years, I have wished to see even any of the bits that were left on the cutting room floor. The closest I've gotten to realizing this dream is seeing some of the (unused) stills at the ends of various episodes (during the closing credits and music), and the photos. on the Eddie Paskey (Leslie) site. I thought the boxed sets were going to include some of these tidbits (assuming they even exist) when they first were issued.