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Star Trek TNG DVDs
pgudge writes "startrek.com had a post about the paramount release of Star Trek The Next Generation on DVD. Claimed a around $100 for the season pack, including 7 DVD's. And that other season are to be released every other month thereafter. all done in Dolby Digital 5.1. Release date expected 26th march"
Good way to watch them without suffering through TNN's ridiculous image
squashing technology (Proudly proving that in the future everyone is
either a pro wrestler, or shaped like a pear!)
Now if only Babylon 5 could get the same treatment. Buffy is on the way. And Simpsons 1st season is out.
Anyone have any more info?
Do we hate the MPAA this week or not???
Great!
This means I'll be able to download the shows real soon now on Morpheus, Gnutella or EDonky2000!
DVD Only Special Feature:
*Skip Holodeck Episodes.
:)
I kinda like watching TNG on TNN, it's weird, I know, but it adds to the atmosphere. So much of Star Trek is like a big party, a community, I don't always feel right watching it myself in the comfort of my own home, I like the feeling that millions of losers are watching it with me. Anybody else catch techTV's little stints at the Star Trek Experience lately? Excellent, nothing like an interview with a real Klingon to remind you that the culture is out there, not on your DVD shelf.
spacefem.com
Yeah, right! All this really means is that there will now be DIVX copies of Next Gen online.
All seven discs are encoded with the Macrovision(TM) AntiCopy process. The above information pertains to the North American release only.
:o)
When are we getting them in region 2? Will ours be macrovision free? As we know only you US guys copy them to VHS for leet pirate salez
This post is not serious
then the way they packaged the original series, by putting 2 episodes per DVD and charging $20-$30 per 2 episodes.
:)
I'll be collecting these, and hoping the original series, as well as Voyager is released in this fashion.
I can't imagine DS:9 would sell quite as well...
It's about time bloody time Paramoun! Who would pay $20 for 2 episodes on a VHS/DVD ?? X-Files on DVD did it right from the beginning. Each season for ~ $120.
;-)
Now we just need Babylon 5, Futurama, Deep Space 9, and Red Drawf on DVD and I'd be a happy sci-fi geek! Oh yeah, and the complete Lord of the Rings.
Although I enjoy watching Star Trek TNG (and none of the other series for some reason), I won't be rushing out to buy this set. I just watched one of the first series episodes on TNN last week, and it was awful -- just like I remember.
If you want to see bad dialog, melodramatic music, poor lighting, etc. then buy this set. Honestly, I feel a little embarassed for the cast and producers when these first episodes are shown on tv...
Whenever I watch one of these first episodes, I feel like they were trying so hard, yet it just didn't come out right. There were cheesy props, outlandish plot lines, and the thoughtful issues that made later episodes a success weren't yet developed. I enjoy it more when the stories and cast were subtle and nuanced. These episodes stand out like an ugly sore in TNG's generally good later work.
I'll wait till the uniforms change -- that's one of the turning points!
Has anyone else really thought about these DVD tv episode deals?
Seems to be a little too much. And when do we get Seinfeld, News Radio, or Night Court?
Get your Unix fortune now!
I was really excited initially when I saw they started releasing complete seasons of shows on DVD. Since getting a couple, truth be told, I hardly watch them at all... There's some things that I'm willing to invest the energy to put on and watch, and other things that I'm only willing to pick up when channel surfing.
The only thing I've found them really valuable for is when someone hasn't seen a series, and I want to show them a few episodes (e.g. The Sopranos). I was delighted to get the first season of "The Simpsons" and tore through the special features, but haven't watched a single episode from it. Something like TNG everyone's seen and I really can't see myself getting a craving to see "Data's Day" and throwing it on...
Am I a freak or do other people buy these things and not watch them?
A new season will be released every other month
March 2002: Season 1
May 2002: Season 2
July 2002: Season 3
Septemeber 2002: Season 4
November 2002: Season 5
January 2003: Season 6
March 2003: Season 7
I can only afford 1 season. Which one should I get for my Dad? He likes them all.
But somehow, watching them years later, especially after going through the entire run of B5 and being a bit older, I find that many of the episodes really, really suck badly.
They simply don't hold up well at all.
And while the first season of most shows usually pretty weak, I find it took a long time for TNG to really get anywhere. The early episodes of the first season are especially painful and I find them completely unwatchable.
I'll just pass on the DVDs and remember TNG for how I saw it then and avoid any reruns. Let the pleasent memories remain.
We are the MPAA, We will add your money and individuality to our own. Resistance is futile.
damn.
lnxslak.
Fighting for Peace, is like Fucking for Virginity.
Can you explain this "image squashing technology" for us non-Americans? Do they change the aspect ratio?
TNN (The National Network, formerly The Nashville Network before Viacom bought it, moved all its programming to CMT, and turned TNN into a TBS/USA clone) vertically scales the image on many of its shows into the top 6/7 or so of US TV's 240 visible scanlines. In the bottom 1/7, TNN displays its logo and unobtrusive textual advertisements. Good points: It lets TNN go longer without a commercial interruption, it moves the captions out of the way of the picture, and it's easily switched off for broadcasting letterboxed feature films. Bad point: It modifies the image.
Will I retire or break 10K?
from Will Wheaton?
How does he feel about bringing back those childhood nightmares of being Mr Crusher?
I know Star Trek is a huge enterprise (pun intended) now, but there are still a lot of people out there who worked really hard on the project, and deserve to get a bit of reward for their work.
My general rule of thumb for file copying is this: do I take income away from the owners of the copyright? For instance, when you watch TV and videotape an episode, the television company has already paid for the rights for the episode to be shown. So you're not taking anything away from the company. However, if they make a special high-quality DVD edition, and you just copy it, they are losing the money they would have gotten if you rented or *gasp* even bought it.
$100 for a season isn't that unreasonable. It works out to something like $3.50-$4.50 per episode, which is not that hard for you all to do. If you really want them, save your money and buy it! It works out to less than $2/day if each season comes out every two months. Not that hard to do, folks. I know some people who put more than that in the vending machines at work!
Besides which, once you figure in the price of your internet connection, and purchasing CDs to burn the data on, you really aren't saving that much money, but you're getting an inferior quality ripped file!
As for me, I think I'll start saving my money now. That extra footage bit sounds cool!
Slashdot (to MPAA): You fucking fascists. We hate you.
MPAA: But look at these shiny colors!
Slashdot: Oooh! How much?
DVDs of the 2nd season of Sex In The City (from HBO), 18 episodes, is $37.48 at Amazon.com (and fits on 3 DVDs). Sorry, but 26 episodes should under no circumstances cost this much. I would love to own some of the later seasons, but $100 is ridiculous. Making the licensee even more greedy is the fact that HBO is selling at that price without any additional income coming in on the show's balance sheets from syndication rights. Paramount, on the other hand... Sigh.
It would probably be cheaper to put together a cheap computer and a month of broadband internet to download them all in divx...
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Chain Of Command, parts 1 and 2
Season 6
Is Enterprise still on? Did it even make it past the first six episodes?
Um, yes. This is an honest question.
Yup. New episodes in January, I believe. I think those pouty Vulcan lips will keep the show going long enough to hit its stride and attract a following. With some luck, they'll rethink the music.
Why can't they manage to get the shows in order on the DVD's?
Disc 1: Encounter at Farpoint Parts 1 & 2 (episodes 101, 102), The Naked Now (103), Code of Honor (104)
Disc 2: The Last Outpost (107), Where No One Has Gone Before (106), Lonely Among Us (108), Justice (109)
Disc 3: The Battle (110), Hide and Q (111), Haven (105), The Big Goodbye (113)
Disc 4: DataLore (114), Angel One (115), 11001001 (116), Too Short a Season (112)
Disc 5: When the Bough Breaks (118), Home Soil (117), Coming of Age (119), Heart of Glory (120)
Disc 6: The Arsenal of Freedom (121), Symbiosis (123), Skin of Evil (122), We'll Always Have Paris (124)
Disc 7: Conspiracy (125), The Neutral Zone (126), Special Features
This is a great concept, if for nothing else but the marketing involved. At the end of every season after the second one, there was a season finale cliffhanger. You will get to the last DVD in the series and go, "well dang, I gotta have the next season!" Then you run out and pop down another C-note!
-- 4 8 15 16 23 42
that every episode will be divxified and all over gnutella (and the like) within days after each season's release, right?
Hey, I am all for supporting stuff I like, but close to $1K (how many seasons were there, anyway?) is a bit much to rewatch TNG again... Now, DS9 I'll pay for, if/when they put that out on DVD.
Incidentally, this would be perfect for digital distribution though - I doubt many people will buy even several seasons at this price, and $100 is probably as low as they can get, all things considered (most shows are about $160-$180/season if I recall correctly; but that's all from VHS days - 7 DVDs gotta be less expensive than 12 tapes), but I am sure a lot more people would pay, let's say, $30ish per season to download (that's download, not stream) high quality mpegs (let's say VCD compliant, to make that road to the DVD player from the PC that much easier) of one season, from a reasonably fast server. Hell, I would, and I am willing to wager that in fact they'd end up making a lot more money off of it that way.
If only there was a way to sort out this digital distribution/rights management debacle without making it feel like the consumer is taking it up the ass.
sic transit gloria mundi
According the this it was filmed full-frame.
Hogsback
MTV Plays music?!
This episode guide has been a great thing, at least while I'm online.
But I can't find the old Vidiot Postscript version that killed so many trees while I was in college. I mean, printing that puppy up on a nice color laser would be a great companion to this DVD set!
Method of processing duck feet
I don't see them on the feature list, dang... that would have made this one really worth having. Perhaps we might get lucky and see some on the upcoming sets.
I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I kinda remember reading that there are a host of licensing issues surrounding outtakes and bloopers hence the lack of any released tapes. I have a short mpeg of a few from Voyager, DS9, and TNG and they are great! You can find them on Kazaa (gotta love spyware...) since I doubt my host would be too impressed if I were to host them off my site.
forma3
UPN is showing Enterprise in the 16 x 9 ratio in anticipation of the advent of High Definition television. This format, with more picture and better clarity, will eventually replace TV viewing as it exists now in the more limiting 4 x 3 aspect ratio.
-- from FAQ at www.startrek.com
skkkoooonnnggggkkk ptui
I wonder if they'll return my calls on this one?
*grin*
That would be handy, but then you'd be twice as pissed when the same moderator who disses your story on Thursday posts the story two days later. At least I can understand two people having different opinions of whether or not a story is news, but when it's the same person, it just seems so arbitrary...
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
Is the new theme song.
Rock
the
fucking
mullet.
C-X C-S
The order on the CD's match the order the episodes were written, not produced.
In other words, this is the sequence the writers thought they should be.
I'm not crazy,I'm actively irresponsible.
Season 5 *was* definitely one of the best seasons, (though I think you missed Darmok on that list :) )...
.. But my all-time favorite episode had to have been "Frame of Mind." (When Riker is convinced he's going insane.) I loved the surreal ones - and that one definitely takes the cake for that label!
------------
"...and Maddest of all, to see Life as it Is, and not as it Should Be."
Step 1. www.warnerbros.com
Step 2. Do a search for Babylon 5 under DVD heading.
Step 3. Fork over dough for intro movie. Cost = 14 + 4 Shipping. $18.00 total.
Step 4. Begin saving dough to buy Seasons if / when they come out.
L2
"That's no moon"... Obi-Wan Kenobi
I may want to watch the boob tube and have it serve up content I may actually want to watch (i.e., from my collection), but maybe not something I want to bother to choose specifically (how often do you really set out to watch something like first season TNG, but one cannot help entranced by it when it comes on, if only for the mockery factor). Its just plain un-American to not enjoy flipping channels.
Regarding not having a life, think about how much less of a life I have than you, seeing as you're going around pointing fingers at all the people who supposedly don't have a life. On a slashdot article. Regarding Star Trek. Anonymously.
Yeah, I may be a geek, but at least I realize it. :)
Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
With some luck, they'll rethink the music.
I want them to do something to the music alright,
but I'd have said something much more elaborate and graphic than "rethink".
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
About the only Widescreen TV show I can think of is B5. Are there many others?
Yes there are, though B5 was basically the first one, the other pioneer being Lois & Clark. Some other shows that I know of include ER (from season 6, I think), NYPD Blue (from season 8), Sopranos, Buffy (from season 4), Angel... Neither TNG, DS9 nor Voyager were widescreen, Enterprise is the first one in Star Trek franchise. Come to think of it, most of recent television shows with budget have been moving to widescreen, though television broadcast versions may still be pan&scan. Widescreen is the future way, and now there no point making shows that will have black bars on left and right in 5-10 years.
Actually, most of European TV productions, even low-budget ones, have been widescreen for years already.
And back to B5... It's a rather complicated example when it comes to widescreen. While live action was filmed widescreen with Super35 process, almost all CGI and composite shots were done in 4:3 (except for the last few episodes). Therefore all the CGI and composite shots must be cropped from top and/or bottom for widescreen version. Also there will be definite resolution loss when making anamorphic widescreen masters, because the original rendering was made for NTSC resolution. There is a long analysis of all the problems involved here.
I HOPE when they do this movie that they AVOID what was done with Pearl Harbor-- splitting the movie across two discs. That was inexcusable in my mind, and could have been avoided (there's what, three audio tracks for Pearl Harbor? DROP one or two of them, and include only the Dolby Digital 5.1 and the Dolby Stereo 2.0 (release a seperate DTS DVD, if need be)). Blech, icky.
All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
Coolness! I've been waiting for this for a long time, and it even looks like they're doing it right by not putting a mere 2 episodes on a disk. (It's still a bit pricy, but not as extortionary as it could have been.)
Oh, wait, I don't buy DVDs on principle. Damn you moral code!!!
--GrouchoMarx
Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?
Still, my personal favorite Picard impersonation still goes to Jon St. John (The guy behind Duke Nukem) found here
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Why charge 50$ a season when you can charge 100$ for a season by your logic. Releasing DVD collections of highly sought after syndicated shows makes you lose money. How many people are going to watch FX every day (theoretically making FX money being subjected to their advertisements) to see their favourite X-Files episode when they can go out and buy it on DVD. The theoretical shrinking of the syndication market by releasing DVD or VHS copies of an entire season needs to be made up for in the eyes of the executives. It is unfair but that is why they do it.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
I thought avacado! Am I alone in this, or is "pear" the consensus?
Seriously though, why does TNN do the banner-squishing thing? Why can't they just display their logo in the lower right corner, like everybody else?
More to the point, why do I get the disturbing feeling they're tarketing their trek airings at the - erm - less educated market? I watch star trek: tng, and I see ads for Baywatch, monster trucks, and conspiracy "news" shows. Is the Star Trek demographic changing, or is TNN just on crack? Or are both true?
I'm the stranger...posting to
As soon as she died, I just knew the show would get better! Ugh, butch tomboy who hits on androids - spare me. (Note: I don't care what you say, no one who isn't really drunk would think Yar was sexy in the "Everyone is Wasted" episode.)
Also, LaForge's promotion greatly improved the quality of the show.
I'm the stranger...posting to
"Damn you moral code!"
See, that's why I've adopted the solution I have: Bitch about the MPAA constantly, then buy the DVDs, turn off my brain, and complain on slashdot about how crappy the DVDs are, how eveil copy protection is, and how much I hate the MPAA. It's the best of both worlds! (And not in the bad assimilation way.)
I'm the stranger...posting to
What's low-end soft-core porn without a cheesy soundtrack?
I'm the stranger...posting to
The music point is dead on... they need to use Creed's latest hit for the theme music. with a smattering of Prodigy and a bit of older NiN.
Although when they hit the "holodeck episodes" (by finding an alien ship with a holodeck) they can do things like jamming with ICP or the Mansons... Marylin meets the real manson family could be a funny one.
they NEED to take it out of a death time-slot. and put reruns of that weeks episode on later in the week. (Sunday at 1pm would be a great position)
oh and do some fricking cross channel advertising! cable adverts cost almost nothing... basically if you have $1500.00 you can get your spot on every high visibility cable channel at a nauseating level for 2 weeks.
if they dont srart promoting it and paying attention to it..... its dead.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I'd rather see a DS9 release. Baby steps, I guess.
I hate to be topical, here, but we are not Borg. The "Slashdot Community" is no more a single hive-mind with but a single thought than any other broad-based subculture (I remember someone explaining to me that this is why the gay community has such a hard time getting anything done).
When you see one article with folks flaming the MPAA and saying that they (MPAA) needs to be stopped, and another which raves about some new DVD, why would you assume that the same people are interested? Slashdot is correctly reporting on "News for Nerds", it's not censoring "cool MPAA stuff" because it would hurt some particular cause any more than its censoring anti-MPAA stuff; nor should they!
Now, I very much see the value in pointing out to the "ooh, shiny thing" audience that these brand new nifty DVDs are brought to you by the folks who want to stamp out fair use as if it were a plague, but let's not expect that EVERYONE will listen. Many folks who are geeky enough to care about what Slashdot says have no interest in fair use and what it means to them. I consider this their loss, but it's a valid point of view.
I bought X-files 2nd season a while ago but was thoroughly disappointed in it. The package was nice and audio and visual quality was good, but the "usability" of the disc set was abyssmal.
First of all, when you start watching an episode you're forced to watch the equivalents of the "FBI warning" in at least four languages. After the episode ends, you get to see another four warnings before you get back to the main menu.
The main menu is my second gripe. I like to watch TV DVDs like I listen to music. I play them in the background, mostly listening and occasionally watching. What I don't want to do is to click through menus every time an episode ends. I want the all episodes to play consequently without any interaction from me. Unfortunately the X-files collection doesn't let you do that. After watching the episode (and the damn warnings) you have to travel all the way back to the main menu and click on the next episode (and watch the warnings again).