Star Trek: The Original Series S1 HD DVD boxed set hits November 20
By Richard Lawler 
posted July 26th 2007 2:21PM
posted July 26th 2007 2:21PM
CBS and Paramount have lived up to their promise of more details on the Star Trek:The Original Series Season 1 HD DVD/DVD combo boxed set at Comic-Con, announcing the 10 disc set will debut November 20th. As seen in the HD broadcasts, the visuals have been updated, along with remastered audio with a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. HD DVD exclusive special features include picture-in-picture video commentaries, an interactive tour of Enterprise, a documentary on the remastering process, rare home videos and additional information on seven of the episodes. All that Star Trek goodness that comes packaged in a "futuristic, clear case" with an SRP of $217.99, and still no word of a Blu-ray release.[Thanks, Cameron]
Sigh...I was so excited for this. But they just killed it:
(1) Over $200...just for season 1!! That's ridiculous.
(2) Still 4:3 aspect ratio. I know they could have spent more time on this and gotten it into 16:9. I don't care how good quality the HD is...if it's in 4:3, it won't seem like HD to me.
Hahaha.. Now that they slashed the prices of HDDVD players to compete with BluRay, they've managed to make the content more expensive than the player. Smooth move guys.
I'll wait for the Bluray, so they can keep their HDDVD crap.
Even remastered its still 35 year old film transfered to digital. I have the TOS on regular DVD, that's more than enough with upscaling.
Film (even 35mm) is by its very nature higher res, when scanned properly, than HD. So there really isn't any "upscaling" going on... just adapting it to a more appropriate resolution. You will have better quality when film is scanned directly to an HD format in comparison to scanned for a DVD format and that is a fact.
These episodes are not the same as they were on the original DVD release. All of the special effects and exterior shots of the ship have been replaced with updated computer graphics. Also the color and resoution is greatly improved. These episodes have already been aired on HD channels all over the world (usually around midnight) you should try and catch one, they are very fun to watch. Enjoy!
Michael @ Jul 26th 2007 2:55PM
Sigh...I was so excited for this. But they just killed it:
(1) Over $200...just for season 1!! That's ridiculous.
(2) Still 4:3 aspect ratio. I know they could have spent more time on this and gotten it into 16:9. I don't care how good quality the HD is...if it's in 4:3, it won't seem like HD to me.
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ya true widescreen would be nice, but then people will be pissed because you are losing part of the picture. it wasnt shot in 16X9 no need to crop it to such
but over 200 for season one WTF
fuck that, il wait til i can pirate it..
You can't tell me, though, that if you're watching a 4:3 show on an HDTV, that you're just aching to see more of the screen. I'm so used to HD now, that when there's side bars like that, it's actually frustrating cause you feel like what you're watching is constrained.
They do it for Law & Order on TNT just fine. It might cut off a little here and a little there, but I'm sure they could manage to make it work nicely. With 4:3 still in HD, and that ridiculous price (hell, I still find the SD price to be ridiculous), there's absolutely no incentive for me to buy this.
$200!?!?!?
wow..............
maybe by the time they release it in Blu the price will drop............
also cropping the picture like that was mad dumb...........smh...............TRUE Trekies around the world are OUTRAGED by this insolence........How DARE They cut off William Shatners forehead 67.33333333333337% of the time!!!!
That's ridiculous. I'll stick to watching it on MyNetworkTV HD.
I buy mostly Blu-ray now but I still buy a few HD-DVD's now and then like the Matrix. I would have bought this if not for a few things.
1. The price for one is out there. How much do they think they can get out of us early adopters anyway ?
2. It's a combo. They are just not reliable. They have major problems with skiping and syncing. They also still don't have the proccess down right to get all of the manufacturing gook off of the disks so you have to boil most of your combos in water to get them to play at all.
I will wait for the non combo version or Blu-ray ones when they are cheaper.
**They have major problems with skiping and syncing. They also still don't have the proccess down right to get all of the manufacturing gook off of the disks so you have to boil most of your combos in water to get them to play at all.**
Gee, and I've never seen any of that ever, with over 30 discs. Never seen any of the problems that blu-ray owners report about HD DVD discs, for that matter.
But then, who am I supposed to believe? You or my own two eyes?
I can't believe the price, that's outrageous.
Of course, they were always ridiculous with the DVD seasons - that's why they sit on the shelf gathering dust most of the time.
If they're intersted in selling more than 2 copies, they'll release it at a much more reasonable price on blu-ray without having to do combos.
If you would have read my post you would have noticed that I was only refering to COMBO HD-DVD's. Not all of them. I have 43 HD-DVD's and the only ones that I have problems with are the combo's. I HIGHLY doubt that you have over 30 combos. It is a great format it's just the combo's that suck. If you read up on AVS you will find that it is a HUGE issue. Combo's just don't work right.
Price is fine, for all three seasons.
@Michael
How does watching this show in 16:9 serve any purpose? It wasn't filmed in 16:9. I don't know about you, but I don't want to see everything stretched, which to me is just as annoying as watching pan-and-scan.
Michael is clearly an idiot, just ignore him.
First these widescreen folk complain about how "fullscreen" DVDs pan and scan sideways, and now they want vertical pan and scan.
They don't get it. We aren't rooting for "zomg widescreen" ... we're rooting for "original aspect ratio." And anyone with half a brain stem can figure that out.
paloooz ya but its original aspect ratio was 4:3 yes it was shot on film like most tv series are, and just like most tv series, it was shot 4:3 so if they go 16:9 u will lose some of the image, not all widescreen movies take tne entire screen on a 16x9 set, some movies are 2.35:1 ratioso u still have black bars on the screen although smaller. non of the staar trek movies were shot in 16X9 most action films arent, most comedys are 16X9 though
Michael
but its original aspect ratio was 4:3 yes it was shot on film like most tv series are, and just like most tv series, it was shot 4:3 so if they go 16:9 u will lose some of the image, not all widescreen movies take tne entire screen on a 16x9 set, some movies are 2.35:1 ratioso u still have black bars on the screen although smaller. non of the staar trek movies were shot in 16X9 most action films arent, most comedys are 16X9 though
if you wanna see it in 16X9 u will need to stretch it.
its almost as bad as pan in scan, sorry but id rater watch the correct way, i wish itt was shot widescreen, but it wasnt, so i don't want them to fuck it up.
still no fn way im paying such a price, ill wait til a non combo version is out (be it hdvd or blu ray) and ill buy as soon as i get the entire series for less than $50
paloooz sorry my bad for typing your name
I thought maybe you'd misread my post. :)
I'm a huge Star Trek Fan, but even I wouldn't spend over $200 for just 1 season. They can't really think many people are going to buy this at that price? I will say it's the Retail price and you would be paying that price at Best Buy for example, but it should be quite a bit cheaper at Amazon. Maybe $150. Plus I get 10% off ANY HD DVD or Blu-Ray that I buy on top of it. I'm normally paying $17.95 for a HD DVD at Amazon with free 2nd day shipping and no tax. I haven't gotten any Blu-Ray Movies and have No plans to. It's cool that it seems to be a HD DVD Release ONLY, but at it's current price, it's not going to help HD DVD much.
The $200 + price is for Series 1, not season 1.
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1936) was shot in 4x3, and it looked spectacular. Just because something isn't 16:9, doesn't mean it won't look good.
nuyobian:
Read the text of the article.
"Star Trek:The Original Series Season 1"
I'm with many others here... $200 for a season is just dumb.
I won't even pay that much for a season of Babylon 5.
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1936) was shot in 4x3, and it looked spectacular. Just because something isn't 16:9, doesn't mean it won't look good.
Sorry about that, I didn't intend to make a reply.
I have absolutely no problem with watching 4:3 on my 1080p display. None. I'd much rather that people zoom it in than crop it off at the source. Maybe the zooming would be better at the source, but then that leaves the picture chopped off for everyone, whether or not they wanted that.
And then, I agree on the WTF on the price. I'll get it when it's repriced a couple years from now.
Amazon.com $133.00; shipping inc! Is that a little easier to swallow?