The Borg MegaCube

Alien54 writes "Paramount Pictures this week revealed plans to release a DVD box set containing every single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Called the 'Borg Megacube', the box set will include all seven seasons of TNG across 48 discs, thus collecting all the individual DVD sets into one package. As the name implies, the set comes in the form of a Borg cube. Due out at the beginning of November..."

Comments

Region 0?

[mr.henry]

The Borg MegaCube, the ultimate DVD collection, contains the Complete Star Trek: The Next Generation series 1- 7 across 48 discs and is strictly limited to just 1000 numbered copies worldwide.

I wonder if it's region encoded.

The press release is full of foofoo crap ("By order of Starfleet Command...") and doesn't contain too many specs, like whether it's NTSC or PAL!

It makes me cringe to think about people dropping 450 #'s on this thing and then not opening it up for fear of it losing the precious MINT, NIB collector's status. Personally, I'd rather have a complete run of the series in a nice binder. (On DVD-R.)

Re:Region 0?

[e5z8652]

A thousand copies?

With all the trekkies out there (myself included) you'd think they could make a ton of money by pressing more than a measly thousand copies.

These things will only sell for so much on e-bay.

Re:Region 0?

[Dionysus]

For people in Europe, it's pretty much irrelevant which region it's encoded for, since the majority of people get their DVD player fixed when they buy the machine.

Re:Region 0?

[Mod Me God]

Kinda encouraging piracy isn't it... $100 for a single sereis anyway, no mistake why I have the entire set already... on my hard drive.

Re:Region 0?

[nempo]

amen

Re:Region 0?

[pla]

I wonder if it's region encoded.

Yes, they released it region coded.

But wait for the kicker...

They haven't yet announced a region-1 version!

Good thing most of the people with an interest in this have the sense to buy a region-unlockable DVD player...

Re:Region 0?

[Millbuddah]

Unfortunately, it is encoded region 2. Here's to hoping they'll release it here.

Re:Region 0?

[Anonymous Coward]

get their DVD player fixed

Why did that conjure images of rendering the DVD player useless, like getting a dog or cat fixed?

Re:Region 0?

[fireboy1919]

The number of disks sucks as well. At least, I think it does.

If we assume that the DVDs are storing everything in slightly higher quality than analog television streams, each episode should take about 300MB - which is realistic, since the feeds were made for television and are going to be played on televisions.

Each DVD holds just over 9GB. We'll leave the extra for "special features" and just leave the 9GB. Actually, why not leave an extra 216MB and only use 9000MB? 9000MB*48(Disks)/300(MB/Episode)=1440 Episodes.

In actuality, there are only 177 episodes, which would fit in (300*177)/9GB=5.82 DVDs. Each episode actually gets a total of roughly 2500MB each.

People who're willing to pay for such a waste of space deserve the price.

Re:Region 0?

[J_DarkElf]

NTSC and PAL are meaningless with DVDs.

DVDs are digital, and it's your DVD player which is PAL or NTSC, not the disc.

When 'NTSC' is used on DVDs this usually means it is Region 1, and I can still play it on my region free player which is connected to a PAL TV.

I've never seen a DVD labelled 'PAL'.

Re:Region 0?

[Dahan]

If we assume that the DVDs are storing everything in slightly higher quality than analog television streams, each episode should take about 300MB - which is realistic, since the feeds were made for television and are going to be played on televisions.

300MB per episode? How do you come up with that number? We're not talking about burning MPEG4 DivXs onto a DVD-R here; we're talking about MPEG2 DVD video. I've never seen anyone put more than 7 30 minute episodes onto a DVD-9, and even that many is very rare. Usually it's more like 4. Lets say about 7Mbits/second bitrate, 25 minutes per episode--that works out to be about 1300MB per episode.

Re:Region 0?

[Shelrem]

And what exactly do you use your dogs and cats for?

b.c

Re:Region 0?

[rodgerd]

This is so wrong in so many ways, I can't even begin to describe.

Suffice to say, you're wrong. And there are plenty of PAL DVDs. Perhaps you should provide others with explanations only when you have the slightest clue what you're on about.

Re:Region 0?

[J_DarkElf]

From that article:

They're Not Really PAL or NTSC
The first thing I need to clarify about DVD is that PAL and NTSC are words and formats that are applied to DVD for convenience, and because of historical convention. There is nothing fundamental about a DVD which makes it either PAL or NTSC, but for simplicity and brevity, I will continue to use these terms throughout this article.

At their heart, DVDs are merely carriers of data files with compressed audio-visual information contained therein. This information can be placed on DVD in one of two resolutions; 720 x 576 pixels (PAL DVDs), or 720 x 480 pixels (NTSC DVDs), and with various frame rates (24, 25, and 30 frames per second are common). The DVD player itself takes this data file and formats it appropriately for display in either PAL or NTSC.

Perhaps you should read what you link to?

Yes, there is a difference in resolution, but this is compensated for in the player.

Re:Region 0?

[Dahan]

NTSC and PAL are meaningless with DVDs.

Incorrect.

DVDs are digital

Correct.

and it's your DVD player which is PAL or NTSC, not the disc.

Sort of, but not exactly correct.

When 'NTSC' is used on DVDs this usually means it is Region 1, and I can still play it on my region free player which is connected to a PAL TV.

Incorrect.

I've never seen a DVD labelled 'PAL'.

That may be, but I highly doubt that you've seen every DVD. I own a few DVDs that say PAL on them. Here are links to the NTSC version and the PAL version of the same film.

PAL DVDs are 720x576 resolution, 25 frames per second; NTSC DVDs are 720x480, 30 frames per second.

Re:Region 0?

[Enraged_jawa]

450 pounds for a Borg boxed set? Out of my price range, I'll have to wait for the Romulan boxed set wich I expect will be a lot less.

Re:Region 0?

[Dahan]

Yes, there is a difference in resolution, but this is compensated for in the player.

What about the frame rate? That's not something that can be easily compensated for (at least not if you want good video quality). You mentioned playing NTSC discs on your region-free player on a PAL TV set, so you're lucky that your set can display so-called PAL30 signals--a signal with the PAL color encoding scheme, but 30 frames per second. In the US, regular TVs only display standard 30fps NTSC. If you put a PAL region-free disc in a standard US region-locked DVD player, it'll play, but the player outputs NTSC at 25fps, and the TV can't synch up to it. You'll see a picture, but it flashes and jumps around vertically. Some region-free players will do the right thing and play PAL DVDs at 30 fps. This speeds up the video slightly, but isn't noticeable unless you're actually timing the thing.

But the point is, contrary to your claim, discs are labelled NTSC or PAL, and it does matter which it is.

Re:Region 0?

[fermion]

Generally with extras sound tracks, extra footage, etc, a single season of TV is realased accross 3 to 5 DVDs. This makes sense because a single DVD can store, at most, about 4 hours. For a theatrical release this is the two versions of the movies, the wide screen and fit-your-tv version.

So, with 177 episode and 48 DVDs, one gets 3.8 episode per DVD, which is about as much as one can expect.

For such a price, at this late date, one would expect a lot of extras. OTOH, the best sale price I ever saw on TNG was about $100 a season, so this may be a bargain.

Re:Region 0?

[Dot.Com.CEO]

I don't understand why this is modded funny. It is true. I have 3 dvd players in 3 different stores. When I asked whether they were region free they all said "don't buy Sony or Pioneer" and gave me a sheet of paper with instructions on how to set the player to any region I want. Aiwa all the way, btw.

Re:Region 0?

[Dot.Com.CEO]

It's not PAL30. It's PAL 60. 99% of TV in the market today support it. 99% of the TVs in Europe support NTSC, as well. Basically, PAL is a superior format, resolutionwise, and has no problemwith inferior resolution NTSC video. Anyway, most DVD players convert NTSC-60 to PAL-50 flawlessly. You only there is some kind of conversion in extreme pan shots.

Re:Region 0?

[Dahan]

Whoops, the 30fps PAL is known as PAL60, not PAL30... 60 fields per second.

Re:Region 0?

[CyberDave]

I agree with the other replies to this thread. 300MB is ridiculously low for about 45 minutes for the MPEG-2 codec used for DVD-Video.

Even the much-lauded Xvid, DivX, and other MPEG-4 codecs aren't terribly great at that bitrate, judging by the 350MB versions I have of various TNG and DS9 sets (which are being replaced by the real DVDs as I can afford them-I own DS9 Season 1 and all of TNG except Season 2).

Not to mention the fact that while the TNG and DS9 may have been shown on TV, they were shot on 35mm film, allowing for a pretty good telecine transfer for the DVD format. The episodes on DVD are dramatically better than they ever were when originally shown on DVD.

CyberDave

Re:Region 0?

[CyberDave]

Replying to my own post, but the DVDs also have remastered 5.1 channel audio, a stereo audio track, and at least 2 subtitle tracks that I can recall off the top of my head.

Also, if you are like me, and hate the cases Paramount uses for the TNG and DS9 sets (DS9 is slightly better than TNG), then check out the 6- and 7-disc Alpha cases at http://www.inetdvd.com and replacement cover art created by Ric Easton at http://www.dvdcoverart.com. The seven case spines line up to form one compsite mural image. They're pretty sweet.

CyberDave

Re:Region 0?

[Dahan]

Yeah, I goofed on the PAL30 thing. I agree that most PAL sets support PAL 60, but I think you're overstating it when you say that 99% of TVs in Europe support NTSC. This list shows which formats various TVs support, and while just about all of them support PAL and PAL 60, only a few also support NTSC.

And I do think PAL is superior to NTSC both in terms of resolution and color quality, but the 50Hz bothers me. I almost always see flickering on TVs when I go to PAL countries... but maybe I've only been seeing crap TVs :) (and it's been about 5 years since I last saw PAL... will be going overseas in November though, so perhaps I'll get to see some modern sets). I haven't seen a PAL 60 signal yet...

Re:Region 0?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

These things will only sell for so much on e-bay.

Sure, but for a 1,000-copies-only piece of official Trek gear like this, "so much" will be plenty for the ruthlessly profiteering out there...

Re:Region 0?

[rootofevil]

Back on Romulus 1, dvd buys you!

Re:Region 0?

[Alan Partridge]

"Good thing most of the people with an interest in this have the sense to buy a region-unlockable DVD player"

Can you explain the logic of this statement to me?

Re:Region 0?

[pla]

Can you explain the logic of this statement to me?

Sure.

US DVDs use region 1. Paramount has not yet announced anything but a region 2 (Western Europe) release of this set. Without a region unlocked player, Americans could not enjoy this product.

Re:Region 0?

[JonathanBoyd]

The majority of people who by DVDs aren't even aware there is a region system, let alone know how to modify their player.

Re:Region 0?

[drsmithy]

If we assume that the DVDs are storing everything in slightly higher quality than analog television streams, each episode should take about 300MB - which is realistic, since the feeds were made for television and are going to be played on televisions.

Production masters are at much higher than "TV quality". DVDs are made from them, not a Divx rip from a $50 TV capture card.

Re:Region 0?

[Dun Malg]

I've never seen anyone put more than 7 30 minute episodes onto a DVD-9, and even that many is very rare. Usually it's more like 4. Lets say about 7Mbits/second bitrate, 25 minutes per episode--that works out to be about 1300MB per episode.

I think the ST:TNG episodes are a full "TV hour" long, aren't they?

Re:Region 0?

[glesga_kiss]

What do you mean with "don't buy Sony or Pioneer?"

Most of the easy region mods have been for the lower end of the market DVD players. Meanwhile, the more expensive players required hardware mods or updated firmware, which cost more to do.

Many of the cheaper brands, such as Samsung, became infamous for selling machines that could be hacked by certain sequences on the remote-control. This started off back in the day when the legality of these hacks was still in question. The smaller brands were not members of the DVD consortium, and weren't forced to follow it's rules as closely. The reputation pretty much remains. It's interesting for Sony, because one division (movies) want's region coding, while the hardware division wants to do anything to increase sales, e.g. easy region free.

Re:Region 0?

[MagPulse]

It makes me cringe to think about people dropping 450 #'s on this thing and then not opening it up for fear of it losing the precious MINT, NIB collector's status.

Thanks to people like that, some day I hope to be able to afford a MINT, NIB Commodore 64 so I can open it next to a Christmas tree and relive my fourth Christmas and the beginning of the rest of my life.

Re:Region 0?

[NanoGator]

"The majority of people who by DVDs aren't even aware there is a region system, let alone know how to modify their player. "

We're talking about Star Trek here, not Will and Grace. These fans will do it.

Re:Region 0?

[pod]

I see you've never bought a TV series DVD before. In every case that I've seen they come with 4 episodes per DVD. How do you get 300MB per episode? That's pathetic, even a 42 minute 300MB DivX would look like crap. MPEG2 uses much higher bitrates than that. Last time I ripped a DVD (for personal use of course) it was 24 Season 2, and each episode was almost 2GB.

So the math is:

48 * 4 = 192

This is more than sufficient, and allows for some extras and special features.

Re:Region 0?

[insomaniac]

Well that might be where you live but here in the netherlands the public knowledge about DVD encryption is quite high, you won't find many people with a region bound player here.

Re:Region 0?

[EpsCylonB]

It's interesting for Sony, because one division (movies) want's region coding, while the hardware division wants to do anything to increase sales, e.g. easy region free.

This is something that runs all the way through sony. Perhaps the most interesting dichotomy is the battle between the hardware division (which wants a slice of the currently profitable mp3 player market) and all of sony's content assets (they are a music publisher, own tons of labels and one of the major hollywood studios) who want DRM as soon as possible.

Re:Region 0?

[Flopper]

99% of the TVs in Europe support NTSC, as well.

I can't agree with that. Only the more expensive TVs, not the cheapest ones, support it really.

Re:Region 0?

[Alan Partridge]

No, no. I understand the DVD regioning system (evil though it is), it's the direct correlation between Star Trek fandom and good sense that doesn't logically follow.

Re:Region 0?

[JonathanBoyd]

I'm curious about how you can be so sure about that. Is this your experience with your circle on friends, has a survey been done nationally, or what? This is genuine curiosity, BTW, not an attempt to be sarcastic.

Re:Region 0?

[JonathanBoyd]

He wasn't talking about Star Trek fans, or at elast if he intended to, this

For people in Europe, it's pretty much irrelevant which region it's encoded for, since the majority of people get their DVD player fixed when they buy the machine.

implies otherwise.

Re:Region 0?

[pla]

No, no. I understand the DVD regioning system (evil though it is), it's the direct correlation between Star Trek fandom and good sense that doesn't logically follow.

Ah, my apologies, I see what you meant now...

I don't know that I'd say "good sense" specifically, but "Trek geeks" seem to have a fairly high overlap with "geeks" in general (explaing why a box-set release of ST:TNG appears on Slashdot's frontpage, while something like Friends or Days of Our Lives does not).

While perhaps not to the extent of them working in the tech industry, I would say that far greater ratio of Trek fans would recognize the problems of DVD region coding than, say, Days of Our Lives fans...

Re:Region 0?

[ConceptJunkie]

Actually, enabling region encoding is like getting the player "fixed" because you are disabling built-in functionality.

At least you won't have a pile of pocket-sized DVD players to unload.

Re:Region 0?

[dnoyeb]

Only if it comes with a certificate or guarantee that only 1000 will ever be released. But I cant see why they would want collectors to get the majority of the profit from their produce.

I would certainly expect more to come trickling out...

Re:Region 0?

[insomaniac]

Well it is not so much about knowing about the specifics, but everyone I know knows they should get a region free player.

Re:Region 0?

[JonathanBoyd]

Knows they should is a little different to actually doing it. And it's a bit of a small sample size. It's scary to think what the country would be like if my friends were a representative group :^)

Re:Region 0?

[insomaniac]

Well I'm not talking about just my friends, but also about my fathers friends and my boss and friends.
No one here would buy a region dependant dvd player

Re:Region 0?

[HTH NE1]

I wonder if it's region encoded.

But of course. They need to use the region encoding to protect against a DVD release in one area cutting into the profits of a theatrical release in anoth--

Waitaminute, this is a television show that ended its run years ago!

Re:Region 0?

[Urox]

I highly doubt I'm ever buying a Sony again with the crap I've had to put up with them in their service department. I got a new CD clock radio for christmas. After 4 months, it stopped working. I took it to a sony certified repair shop and they wouldn't fix it because the sony computers said it was only covered for 3 months parts and labor even though I had a HARD COPY of the waranty (always save thos waranties). Sony said that the repair shop should call them to get an authorization. Shop returns saying that Sony won't cover the repair (~70$) because it is two thirds of the original cost of the product. Eventually, I have to ship it to Sony myself for $25 insured and have been waiting over a month while they MOVE THEIR SERVICE CENTER LOCATION and promised me a 10 day turn around. There has been all sorts of crap from their customer service department talking back and forth and unacceptable turn around times (2 weeks for responses). I have this horrible feeling that they are again going to not find the computer notes that say I have a year waranty rather than the default computer.

My SO also had problems recently with his DVD player from Sony and had to take it in under waranty.

However, my Aiwa stereo of 10 years still runs strong. I guess I just have to buy hidden brand sony products.

Am I the only one ...

[Vanieter]

who thought this would be the next-generation Gamecube ?

:)

Re:Am I the only one ...

[Knights who say 'INT]

Is there already a proper Monty Python box set - including the older pre-MP John Cleese TV comedies and the movies? Also, did someone bother to put up together a Seinfeld boxed set already?

Re:Am I the only one ...

[Knights who say 'INT]

Some pre-MP material illustrates the development of the "MP style". Some of those are just great, judging by the individual sketches that sometimes make it through MP biographies. Oh, come on. Ozzy included more than a couple of Sabbath tracks in his retrospective album. And no, no Ozzy retrospective is complete without "Paranoid" and "War Pigs"

Re:Am I the only one ...

[metroid composite]

Actually, as an amusing coincidence the GameCube was briefly slated to be called the StarCube. Granted, they spent several years calling it the Dolphin, a mere week calling it the StarCube (right around some big developer conference) then switched to GameCube and haven't looked back since.

Re:Oh dear God, yes.

[Loconut1389]

Theyve been selling at roughly $100 / season, so im guessing the box will be ~$700, maybe a little more to have it all in one place, maybe a little less to encourage buying the box set. Though its probably a collectors item, so id expect to see closer to $800 or $900 and some extra features over the regular box sets individually.

Lack Of Continuity Explanation pop-ups...

[FatSean]

I heard that there will be 'pop ups' on the screen. You press 'enter' and text will explain why this episode contradicts other episodes...

Re:Lack Of Continuity Explanation pop-ups...

[Verteiron]

I think this was supposed to be a troll and/or funny, but that would be kind of cool...

Re:Lack Of Continuity Explanation pop-ups...

[fm6]

Nonsense! As Q explains so well in the last episode, really great minds don't need logical consistency!

Regional encoding strikes again

[PoitNarf]

From TrekToday:
"The Borg Megacube is currently scheduled to hit stories in Region 2 (Europe) on November 3, 2003. It is not known whether a Region 1 (North America) version will also be released, but only 1000 copies will be on sale worldwide."

http://www.trektoday.com/news/260903_01.shtml

Re:Regional encoding strikes again

[Sirch]

"The Borg Megacube is currently scheduled to hit stories in Region 2 (Europe) on November 3, 2003..."

Those darn news sites, with their region-encoded text... good thing I cracked my browser so I can read Region 1 stories...

Re:Regional encoding strikes again

[pair-a-noyd]

One word. Linux.

Nuff said?

Re:Regional encoding strikes again

[AJWM]

Three words: built-in region coding. (Or is that four?)

Computer DVD drives built after a certain date (a few years ago) have a region code built into the drive itself. You can change the region through software up to five times, after that further changes are locked out.

Re:Regional encoding strikes again

[really?]

most drives are firmware upgradeable to a region free mode. Also, for Windows users, there is "DVD-region free".
Ultimately, since drives are under US$40, one can have more than one drive.

Re:Regional encoding strikes again

[Jucius Maximus]

" most drives are firmware upgradeable to a region free mode. Also, for Windows users, there is "DVD-region free"."

Just get the Free media player VLC which works on windows, os x, linux and some others as well. It will play all regions even if you don't have a region free DVD drive.

Re:Regional encoding strikes again

[SmittyTheBold]

Most drives (there has been some hubbub lately about certain drives) allow you to read the encrypted data in the encrypted form - and CSS has proven relatively trivial to crack, so that's what some players such as VLC do.

The region-locked drives just prevent you from reading the title key (or...one of the keys. I don't remember which) itself. As I mentioned before, some drives have started showing up that don't allow you to read the encrypted content if you're of the wrong region, but those drives are in the definite minority.

There go my savings.

[SixDimensionalArray]

Considering that in the US each single season goes for ~$100, how much could this cost?

Oh well, there go my savings! And retirement benefits! And computer gadget money! :)

Re:There go my savings.

[Judg3]

Well, if you RTFA you'd of seen that it retails for 449 pounds, which as of right now is about 750$ USD.

It's a shame that there's only 1000 copies released. I'm not the biggest Trek fan, but I used to watch TNG fairly religously (still catch it now and then) and a whole set like this would of been real nice to have. But, like others have said, I'm going to guess that about 900 of those 1000 copies will be bought by die hard trekkies, never opened, and either safely tucked away in a nitrogen filled, cooled, tungsten safe or immediately put up on ebay with a starting bid of $10,000.

Re:There go my savings.

[xenoweeno]

If you're paying $100 per season, you may not be looking in the right place.

Re:There go my savings.

[SixDimensionalArray]

I did actually RTFA, but the price was quoted as "449.99 RRP". RRP is Australian currency, so I didn't know if it was the same as the Australian AUD or pounds (anybody from Australia?), etc. The exact conversion probably doesn't matter.

My point was exactly the same as your own - you'd have to get a second mortgage to be able to afford one (especially since there are only 1000 copies).

Re:There go my savings.

[SixDimensionalArray]

Ah. I found the answer to my own question: "RRP" denotes the full recommended retail price in the UK with 17.5% VAT tax (sorry, I wasn't aware).

That means the price in USD would be 747.250-130.77 (tax) or an actual price of $616.48 USD (minus an US tax).

Re:There go my savings.

[cybaea]

Considering that in the US each single season goes for ~$100, how much could this cost?

Amazon.co.uk has it on pre-order for 338.23 which currently is US $561.66 (excluding exchange costs).

Obligatory affiliate link to item here.

Re:There go my savings.

[InSpiteOf]

AUD is Australian Dollar.
RRP is Recommended Retail Price

Re:There go my savings.

[fr0dicus]

You could just buy each series seperately. From the picture it just looks like each individual series in a (fairly crap looking) cardboard box.

More ST stuff!

[mr.henry]

Paramount should market some 'Starfleet Lube' that fans can buy to ease the pain of merchandise-related anal rape. Berman personally tested it out on Brannon Braga.

Re:More ST stuff!

[fm6]

Star Trek has always been about merchandising. Leonard Nimoy's famous falling out with Saint Gene started when he wouldn't wear some Junior Star Fleet item they were merchandising. Even all that fancy philosophising is just marketing -- Roddenbery wanted to be studio mogul, not a Great Thinker. Alas, he had no talent for either.

Re:More ST stuff!

[bluethundr]

Star Trek has always been about merchandising. Leonard Nimoy's famous falling out with Saint Gene started when he wouldn't wear some Junior Star Fleet item they were merchandising. Even all that fancy philosophising is just marketing -- Roddenbery wanted to be studio mogul, not a Great Thinker. Alas, he had no talent for either.

I remember reading this story in Shatner's ST:Memories autobiog. The item in question was the IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infitite Combinations), and Nimoy and Shatner ultimately caved and went with it. If I remember correctly both Shatner and Nimoy threatened to walk off the set over this, but Roddenberry refused to back down. Roddenberry was just beginning to realize that there was money to be made at these Sci-Fi cons and saw it as a cheesy way to make a fast buck which both Shatner and Nimoy saw through immediately. It happened on the 3rd and last season of trek when G.R. had almost no involvement in trek anymore and had moved his offices off the paramount lot over to another studio (Fox?) where he was working on a non sci-fi movie project that was supposed to have some big stars in it. But the movie never went anywhere, and died quietly without many people notcicing.

It was nothing more than a cynical marketing ploy.But the IDIC has turned up in every incarnation of Trek ever since.

Somewhere in the night

[Exiler]

the nerd's collective personal hygine screams

Resistance is Futile

[Anonymous Coward]

You will be Slashdotted.

Storage...

[SharpFang]

I guess if they used full DVD capacity (4-sided recording, 16G/disk) and some decent compression, they could fit it maybe in a typical 4 CD case.

But then it wouldn't have such a marketing impact. 4 DVD set? What's so special about that?

Re:Storage...

[herko_cl]

" full DVD capacity (4-sided recording..."(Emphasis mine)
No wonder it's called The Next Generation! <grin />

Re:Storage...

[SlamMan]

True, but most people don't like to deal with dual sided dvds. Easier to damage when there's data on both sides instead of a label on one, plus they just seem cheaper.

Re:Storage...

[shepd]

Mmmhmmm...

There's 168 star trek: TNG episodes total.

Each episode is about 45 - 50 minutes long, IIRC.

A "well encoded" DVD will fit not much more than 2 hours per layer. Since a layer change would be acceptable, but not a side change, during an episode, that's no more than about 5 episodes a side, or about 10 episodes a disc.

That leaves us with a 17 disc _minimum_ requirement, which doesn't leave much room for enhacements. I agree, 48 is a bit much, but perhaps they want art on each disc for readability purposes? That leaves only 14 "extra" discs.

Either way, since a pressed DVD costs less than $5 CDN to produce (evidenced by WalMart crap movies sales) even at 48 discs, that's a hefty premium for an already paid-up show.

Re:Storage...

[16K Ram Pack]

Surely that should be 6-sided?

Re:Storage...

[PhoenixFlare]

There's 168 star trek: TNG episodes total.

No, there's 178.

I'm guessing that number on Everything2 counts all the two-part episodes as being one, which they're really not, especially in terms of how they'd fit on a DVD.

Re:Storage...

[Jeremy Erwin]

The Complete nth season issues were each composed of 7 dvds, except for the second season, which came on 6 dvds. Thus, 48 dvds.

Re:Storage...

[ameoba]

Actually, not having a label would make the disk -less- prone to damage. The label side is the one that, if damaged, causes a loss of information. If you look at a CD/DVD, you'll notice that the 'shiney side' is a fairly thick slab of clear plastic; the reflective surface is just a thin foil layer on the label side, which is poorly protected (you may notice that video rental places have been putting thick stickers over the labels for extra protection).

Scratches to the media side can often be buffed/polished out without losing anything; scrathes through the label are uncorrectable, as the material carying the data is lost.

Re:Storage...

[xkenny13]

Actually, not having a label would make the disk -less- prone to damage. The label side is the one that, if damaged, causes a loss of information. If you look at a CD/DVD, you'll notice that the 'shiney side' is a fairly thick slab of clear plastic; the reflective surface is just a thin foil layer on the label side, which is poorly protected (you may notice that video rental places have been putting thick stickers over the labels for extra protection).

This is true for CDs, but not for DVDs. DVDs have the data layer sandwiched between two clear polycarbonate layers. Here's a few links on the subject.

In other words, having a label or not having a label does not truly affect the "safety" of your data layer, when it comes to DVDs. Apparently, all it affects is your overall capacity.

Re:Storage...

[Have Blue]

I don't know if you can answer this, but: Why don't they just put the extra layer of plastic over the data layer anyway (and the label on top of that) even if it's just a single-sided DVD? This would also make every single DVD the same dimensions and weight.

I sense a slashdotting in the works...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Borg MegaCube
The Complete Star Trek: Next Generation Seasons
1-7DVD Collection

Captain's Log 3rd November 2003

By order of Starfleet Command, The Borg MegaCube, a DVD Box Set Collection unlike any other is to be released to commemorate the legendary voyages of the Starship USS Enterprise-D.

The Borg MegaCube, the ultimate DVD collection, contains the Complete Star Trek: The Next Generation series 1- 7 across 48 discs and is strictly limited to just 1000 numbered copies worldwide. This collection is presented in the shape of a Borg Cube - both in recognition of the crew's struggles against one of mankind's greatest threats - The Borg - and in remembrance of the thousands of Starfleet lives lost at the battle of Wolf 359.

A collective intelligence, formed of organic beings with cybernetic enhancements, the Borg wander the galaxy, seeking out cultures to assimilate. The Enterprise Crew are first introduced to the Borg in the second season episode 'Q - Who' and the Cyborgs have since become the single greatest threat facing the Federation......

In 'The Best of Both Worlds', voted as the best ever TNG episode by the US public in a recent poll, the Borg arrive in Federation space to assimilate their people and technology. They capture Picard, turning him into 'Locutus of Borg' in an attempt to conquer the human race and set course for Earth. Acting Captain Riker must find a way to stop them before the Enterprise has to break off the pursuit.

In 'I-Borg', the Enterprise discovers a crashed Borg scout ship with an injured survivor. Dr Crusher insists on saving his life, despite the concerns of the others. She is shocked when she discovers that Picard intends to use him to spread a virus that would destroy the Borg completely.

'Descent' sees the Borg return to do battle with the Federation, boasting a new individuality. Things become complicated when they enable Data to feel his first emotion and an injured Borg starts to show individualistic tendencies.

This Star Trek Next Generation box set collection also includes an individually numbered certificate of purchase commissioned by Starfleet Command and holds a special limited edition Star Trek Next Generation Clock, specifically designed for this exclusive release.

The Borg MegaCube Box Set, with digitally re-mastered picture quality and Dolby surround sound, is available from Paramount Home Entertainment on 3rd November and costs 449.99 from major DVD retailers.

Live Long and Prosper

The Story of the Borg Ship

At the time of the filming of 'Q-Who', there were two visual supervisors: Dan Curry and Rob Legato. They each had their own specifications for the design of the Borg ship:

Rob Legato - The Borg ship should be a ball with a trench of detail around the middle.
Dan Curry - The Borg ship should be a cube that looked smooth at a distance. As you got closer and closer, more detail would be revealed. (Dan had hired Special Effects for this job).

The Rob Legato team experienced problems and the job of building the Borg Ship went to Special Effects. It took 14 modellers two weeks to finish the job. That is nothing short of amazing when you consider that while the specifications called for only one side finished, Special Effects supplied a Borg ship that was finished on all sides. In order to achieve that level of detail, F/X put everything in they could find, including R2-D2, toy soldiers, plastic model "rails", and the F/X logo.

Highlights of Next Generation Seasons

Season One includes the very first Next Generation episode, 'Encounter At Farpoint' which introduces us to the Crew of the Enterprise. Episode Guide - Q challenges the crew to prove the humanity of the human race through a series of tests on Farpoint - if they fail, they face certain death! When an unidentified ship begins firing on the old Bandi city, they learn that the people of Deneb IV have captured its mate and are holding it against its will. Will the crew of the Enterpris

Re:I sense a slashdotting in the works...

[whereiswaldo]

Only MySQL is hosed... here is a link to the Borg Cube graphic:

Cube

Lots of Currency

[CGP314]

With 48 discs I'm sure it would take the combined financial resources of the collective to purchase the set.

Re:Lots of Currency

[r00zky]

No, more probably they will use p2p to get all the disks' content.

Re:Lots of Currency

[Saeger]

A complete season of ST:TNG goes for about $120 on DVD from Amazon, so I'd imagine this Borg Cube "value-pack" would retail for close to 1,000 god-damn-dollars.

--

Re:Lots of Currency

[oolon]

List price is 450 pounds, thats 675 dollars to you.

Amazon.co.uk has it for 338.23 pounds thats 507 dollars to you
That gives a series price of 48 pounds or 72 dollars...

So its a bargin ;-)

James

Resistance is futile

[rf0]

watching all these will ruin your eyesite...

Rus

Let me know

[Anonymous Coward]

when I can get it on Kazaa. Preferably as a single zip.

Re:Let me know

[brainthought]

"...when I can get it on Kazaa..."

This would make it the Orion Pirate edition I believe...

Re:Let me know

[mutewinter]

Forget DDoS, just "share" a zip file of 48 DVDs on Kazaa!

Re:Let me know

[FrozenDownload]

when I can get it on Kazaa. Preferably as a single zip.

doubtfull you will find it on Kazaa, more likely as a torrent. If it were on kazaa, there would be so much attenuation, your queue would say done in 300 days.

Perfect Story

[CGP314]

What a perfect story for those reading slashdot on a Saturday night instead of going out.

Err...

Excluding myself.

Re:Perfect Story

[Dunark]

What a perfect story for those reading slashdot on a Saturday night instead of going out.

There's a whole hemisphere of the planet where it ain't Saturday night yet.

Re:Perfect Story

[Saeger]

There's a whole hemisphere of the planet where it ain't Saturday night yet.

You're right, so get busy making my Nike's, kid! :)

--

Slashdotted already...

[metlin]

However, I found this link.

And this site says that just 1000 copies worldwide would be released. :-/ Hope they got their facts wrong.

How long?

[Ceadda]

So, its making its appearance in Europe.. so that means it'll take what... 3? 4 hours for the bit-torrent links to start popping up to fresh encoded episodes in dvd quality with surround sound? They might be making a HUGE mistake not putting it out in more than one market. And you know they're gonna throw a fit when everone in the rest of the world gets pirate versions.

Re:How long?

[Kufat]

All of the DVDs have already been released by season; only the packaging and pack-in items are unique to this set.

And yes, pirated copies did start appearing when each season of ST:TNG was released, but they've all been out for quite some time now.

Re:How long?

[drinkypoo]

Plenty of warez groups do distribution from sites with bandwidth in excess of 100 megabits/sec. Combined with bittorrent, I'd say it's entirely likely that we will all be able to download this shit shortly after release.

Re:How long?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

You could re-encode it to some other format, it doesn't need to stay in MPEG-2, Dolby Digital format (or are the R2s MPEG audio?).

But you are right, there are a lot of episodes.

Re:How long?

[Ceadda]

Half a Terrabite? What are you, a moron? Each full dvd is gonna compress down to less than a GB total for the resolution of an ordinary 1 hour tv series, its certainly not going to be a 500 DVD SET! And so your dsl connection sucks ass, the rest of us are on nice, unlimited, 2-5 mbps, cable internet. Which is nicely free of upload and download restrictions if you shop around the competition. So, I, and many others, will happily be downloading dvd sets of Star Trek, freshly ripped in the latest divx codecs.

/.ed already

[phalse phace]

Warning: Too many connections in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/dvddebate.com/httpdocs/ mainfile.php on line 17

Unable to select database

Since the site is already /.ed, does anyone know:

1. If the box set will include extras
2. How much the box set will retail for

Oh, and I, personally, welcome our new Borg overlords.

Re:/.ed already

[DarkEdgeX]

If the box set will include extras

Seems to include that Borg-ship shaped cube and a wall clock. Spiffy!

How much the box set will retail for

The linked-to site lists it as 449.99 pound RRP (recommended retail price? - as opposed to 'suggested retail price' here in the US?), which just off the top of my head, is a whole heckuva lot of money.

I sure wish Paramount would stop abusing Star Trek fans with this overpriced shit, it's amazing how you can buy whole seasons of The X-Files for like $20-30 USD a season IIRC, but for Star Trek TNG? Oh, our price is $100 USD per season (or more!). So ridiculous.

Re:/.ed already

[VertigoAce]

The X-Files seasons I've seen at Best Buy seemed to be a fair amount more than $30. Part of it might be that the show has hour long episodes, so it comes on more DVD's than, say, the Simpsons (which tend to be around $30 per season).

Re:/.ed already

[xkenny13]

I sure wish Paramount would stop abusing Star Trek fans with this overpriced shit, it's amazing how you can buy whole seasons of The X-Files for like $20-30 USD a season IIRC, but for Star Trek TNG? Oh, our price is $100 USD per season (or more!). So ridiculous.

No you can't. Any given full season of the X-Files on DVD runs $100 - $140, depending on where you buy. Amazon lists them at $134.98 (per season), DVDPlanet has 'em for $112.49 (per season) and Buy.com wants $134.97 per season.

If you can find any place selling real copies for $30/season, please provide a link...

Re:/.ed already

[DarkEdgeX]

Wow, how weird, I could have sworn I saw them at Costco for $30-40 a season. Either way, it's a rip off even if they're not the only ones doing it. The episodes were paid for long ago with advertising fees and syndication fees. All they've done here is pay some firm to clean up the video for DVD, make some menus, and thrown together a few documentaries (which may have already existed in other regions), paid someone to make a box design and pushed the whole thing out to a pressing facility to have the discs made for pennies, if that, per disc.

At least with a feature length movie I'm getting some value. This is just a rip off through and through.

Re:/.ed already

[xkenny13]

Wow, how weird, I could have sworn I saw them at Costco for $30-40 a season. Either way, it's a rip off even if they're not the only ones doing it.

Can't say I disagree with you there. I'll actually shell out the $500+ for all seven seasons of TNG on DVD at some point, just because I'm a big enough fan to want to do it. As for X-Files, I was never a *huge* fan of the show, and would never shell out $120 per season for the show. If it were more like $50 or even $60 a season, I'd probably do it a season at a time ... because I can at least agree that it's a damn good show. At this price point, though, they've placed it out of my "want" reach.

Re:Oh dear God, yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

> im guessing the box will be ~$700,

I'm guessing you didn't read the article, where the price was given.

This is excellent

[borius]

As a big Star Trek fan I can only like this. How much it will cost though? As a piss poor high school student (spends all money on music instruments) my budget is limited for stuff that can be... er.. acquired for free if need be.

Btw, where are all the usual jokes? "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Borg cubes?, "SCO has prior art", "CowboyNeal lives in my Borg cube", "In Soviet Russia Star Trek episodes watch you" etc etc.

Re:This is excellent

[syrinx]

Btw, where are all the usual jokes? "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Borg cubes?, "SCO has prior art", "CowboyNeal lives in my Borg cube", "In Soviet Russia Star Trek episodes watch you" etc etc.

Natalie Portman pours hot Borg cubes down my pants?

One problem..

[RonnyJ]

The people who are likely to buy this probably already have the previous DVD sets.

Borg Overlords

[Detritus]

The Borg may have drones and state-of-the-art technology, but we have lawyers, millions of lawyers.

Re:Borg Overlords

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

The Borg may have drones and state-of-the-art technology, but we have lawyers, millions of lawyers.

[Dramatic speech voice] We don't need lawyers. The Borg are a foul hybrid, an affront to nature! We can defeat them with just our heart and soul, our compassionate perspective, our art, our very humanity! All we need is... an android that can survive without organic parts!

Aren't the series out already?

[Kjella]

If you're getting the DivX versions, I don't think you care if they come from the separate sets or the Megacube...

Kjella

All I can say is

[Lord Kano]

Mr Data, Make it so!

Engage!

Amazon link

[RonnyJ]

This has been listed on the Amazon UK site for at least a week now. Unfortunately, their site is currently down, but Amazon.de have a link for a UK import(although in German, but has a picture) here

cbb

[meeotch]

Mod me down (or up) for typical Slashdot carping, but the packaging looks pretty weak. I was expecting some sort of detailed plasitc model, not just a painted box. For 750 bucks I think I'd rather have a hooker.

o.k. o.k., fine - a hooker dressed up as Seven of Nine. Sheesh!

mitch

Re:cbb

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

If you're going to that level, I think I'd rather have Seven of Nine dressed as a hooker...

Re:cbb

[brainthought]

Your missing the point. It's a Star Trek: The Next Generation boxed set. Not a Star Trek: Voyager boxed set... You'd want a hooker dressed like Councilor Troi... Or maybe a Klingon female... If your into that sort of thing...

Not Quite....

[Cyno01]

I know the cheap Apex DVD players will convert PAL to NTSC output(at least they will with VCDs, i assume they would for DVDs too).

Re:Not Quite....

[Black Hitler]

I know the cheap Apex DVD players will convert PAL to NTSC output(at least they will with VCDs, i assume they would for DVDs too).

A huge number of DVD players can convert PAL to NTSC -- in fact I wouldn't be surprised if most of them do. The problem is most of them (including the Apex models) don't do it right; they don't compensate correctly for the resolution difference between the two (PAL being higher resolution than NTSC) and the result is a picture that appears vertically stretched. Fortunately more and more DVD players can do the conversion properly -- on the lower end there's the Cyberhome 402 (which can be found for as low as $35 and can be easily made region-free with a remote hack) and on the higher end is the Malata DVP-520 (which is region-free out of the box and goes for $200-300, depending on how lucky you get).

Yet another way to turn the nickle

[cyberlok2003]

I personally own all 7 seasons on DVD and yes I dropped roughly $100 USD on each to do so. However this cube collection I probably will never buy unless they have some very good addons or something else other then what I already have.
For example I actually own both versions of LOTR dvd sets. One of the main reasons for this is that both have enough differences to warrant another buy.
I read also someone said they could fit STNG on 4 DVD's of 16gig each. I highly doubt this as I have the whole collection and each binder contains roughly 8 DVD's and there are 7 binders.

One interesting thing to try is playing all the episodes starting from the last one. Try it out sometime.

Re:Yet another way to turn the nickle

[Lux]

A big reason why there are so many discs for each season is that consumers are more willing to shell out $$$ for DVD compilations if the disc count is high. It has nothing to do with how much content you're buying anymore beyond an ever-eroding threshold of credibility.

-Lux

Re:Yet another way to turn the nickle

[WoTG]

Yeah, besides, pressed DVD's are cheap. Probably less than $1 each?

That, and the fact that a Borg Cube wouldn't quite be right if it wasn't a cube...

Re:Yet another way to turn the nickle

[An Onerous Coward]

Could you please enlighten the curious: Given that you already own copies of all seven seasons, what possible add-ons could they stuff in this cube that would make it worth $500-$1000 to you? How many hours of "never-before-heard commentaries"--that you'll never listen to--add up to $1000 in value? How many hours of "never-before-seen-deleted-scenes"--which were too crappy to make the first batch of "never-before-seen-deleted-scenes"--will satisfy your lust for Trek arcana? How many hours of blooper footage--mostly consisting of "Dr. Crusher flubbing her lines and everyone laughing" and "Worf running into the door that should have opened"--can you have before another hour of same adds no value?

Unless you are really rich and plan on giving your old collection away as Christmas gifts, or are expecting that one of the "add-ons" is a coupon for sexual favors from the crew members of your choice, then I'm saddened that you would consider buying it under any circumstances.

I don't mean to be blasting you in particular. It's your money, not mine. It's just that I see this as the as-yet-most-absurd example of the already absurd "special edition DVD" craze. It reminds me of the re-release of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". At the beginning, the director stands up in front of an audience to explain how wonderful it is to have all these deleted scenes back in. One audience member shoots back, "If they were so wonderful, why did you delete them in the first place?"

My brother managed to snag "The Fellowship of the Ring" for $10 the first day the DVD was available. Nevertheless, when the "full six-DVD collection" came out, with its hours upon hours of deleted scenes and other goodies, he went out and bought it again. To this day, he's only watched about an hour's worth of all those "goodies," which makes for damned expensive entertainment.

It's all a ploy to get the maximum amount of money from fans with a minimum of actual effort. I'd bet good money that, when George Lucas finally allows Episodes 4-6 out on DVD, there will be a "Special Edition" release (they never start with just a "regular edition"), then a "Director's Cut" edition, then throw in a "Directors Cut Gold," and so on up to "Director's Cut Gold Alpha Turbo Xtreme Edition" ($109.95, and includes deleted extended sequences and cameos by Jar-Jar).

All these releases and re-releases don't add anything of value to the economy. It's all plastic and cardboard. At least with normal DVDs, you're paying for the content, but with re-releases, they've found a way to turn worthless behind-the-scenes footage into gold by using it as an excuse to sell us the same thing over again.

In the end, it's up to the individual to decide whether or not the re-release adds enough value to warrant a separate purchase. But please think about the game they're asking you to play before you get roped into playing it.

Note: The dude who was talking about putting seven seasons on four discs probably meant using some sort of DivX encoding.

Re:Yet another way to turn the nickle

[xA40D]

Whereas I agree with almost everything you say, I have to note that the watching some of the "goodies" included with "The Fellowship of the Ring", it's clear that Peter Jackson was intending to produce an extended DVD right from the start, and that DVD was to be the definative version of the film. Indeed several times you hear people commenting that certain scenes are being filmed for the DVD, not for the theatrical release.

As far as the film goes the extended DVD is my preferred version.

As for the "goodies"... well I can take them or leave them. For most films, however, the "goodies" are only there to stop us from questioning how come DVDs cost more when they are supposed to be cheaper to produce than Videos.

Re:Yet another way to turn the nickle

[Have Blue]

In the end, it's up to the individual to decide whether or not the re-release adds enough value to warrant a separate purchase.

So where's the problem? If it sells well, that means people wanted it. Nobody's forcing you to buy one.

Re:Yet another way to turn the nickle

[An Onerous Coward]

I was going to respond with a fairly long treatise about the limits and pitfalls of free-market capitalism. Then I saw your user number. Holy crap!

The Greeks had the right idea: Don't mess with the minor deities, or they'll mess you up in a bad way.

Re:Yet another way to turn the nickle

[Bitmanhome]

To this day, he's only watched about an hour's worth of all those "goodies"

But which hour worth of goodies? This is actually a very efficient way to distribute all the extras, as it lets you chose which extras are worth watching. Much more efficient than having 700 different releases with all the combinations of movies, interview, and extras.

Re:Yet another way to turn the nickle

[stanmann]

Then why are my 8 disk seasons of buffy available as low as $35 each??

You all can thank me...

[Shaheen]

See, they announced this box set right after I completed my collection of the single season releases.

ebay item

[corgicorgi]

Whatever the selling price is, I'm sure it will be marked up on Ebay since they are releasing limited copies.

Re:ebay item

[Quarters]

You've single handedly cracked the mystery that is collectable item reselling!!!

Take a rare item and sell it for more than you purchased it. Exploit the supply/demand factor to your own gain!!

You sir, are a genius!

Re:article text in case of /.ing

[Alien54]

Imagine the poor guys running or hosting www.dvddebate.com - probably out enjoying the sunshine. What could possible go wrong, especially on the weekend? Suddenly the pager rings...

"Did you notice the smoke pouring out of the server?"

"What smoke pouring out of the server?"

[insert blood curdling scream here]

Actually their content seems half decent

Let's see the last bit of that tracer route:

16 213.206.159.146 148.576 ms sle-rack-1-0.sprintlink.net
17 212.100.227.18 148.589 ms vl130.aggr1.lon.rackspace.net (DNS error) [AS15395] Rackspace UK
18 212.100.226.100 148.547 ms server2.architec.co.uk [AS15395] Rackspace UK

Well, the server page claims they are doing fine ... ;-)

Re:Site Slashdotted

[AndreyF]

Unable to select database mysql_close() anyone?

Re:Too many connections!

[Idolatre]

We, for one, welcome our new Slashdot overlords

gaah! no edit feature

[Trikenstein]

1) forget to html format
2) forget to spell check
3) post the mess on /.
4) priceless :p

Re:Cost?

[RonnyJ]

According to Amazon.de here, it costs EUR 643,99 for a UK import (the Amazon UK site is down at the moment, so can't get price from there). So that makes it 445 pounds, or about $740. However, when I saw it on the UK site earlier this week, I'm sure it was nearer 350 pounds.

Re:article text in case of /.ing

[Alien54]

let's face it. the site just got vaporized, with the little electrons running around in stark terror. What's left of the site can be found in a pile of smoke trembling in the bottom of the server cage. and screaming: "You can't make me go back in there!")

google cache....

[zippity8]

Why does everyone complain about a /.-ing, when a perfectly good Google Cache is here?
http://216.239.41.104/search?sourceid=navcl ient&ie =UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dvddebate .com%2Farticle.php%3Fsid%3D3574

Wrong way to think about

[lavalyn]

Your 300MB number is coming from where? Most probably from sizes you can get with DivX - that is to say, MPEG4. DVDs are MPEG2, using slightly different algorithms and definitely a different quantization matrix... one that emphasizes sharpness instead of the H.264 used in MPEG4 that emphasizes low frequencies.

Re:Wrong way to think about

[fireboy1919]

It's coming from empirical evidence of the mpeg2 files I've gotten.

I get clips from various places, and have reencoded them in mpeg2 format. Specifically, I have encoded them at 30FPS, 320x240 resolution, and between 6000 and 9000 KBps depending upon the quality of the clip. I'm also using 44khz stereo for all audio.

The average I'm getting is about 300 MB an hour.

It's possible that's low for Star Trek. Maybe Star Trek episodes are particularly hard to compress. I'm willing to concede that it might take more than six disks.

But I can't see how it could possibly take 48.

Re:Wrong way to think about

[be-fan]

The problem is that your reencoding them. Since a lot of the data has already been thrown away in the first encoding, you probably get much better compression when you get to the mpeg2 step.

Re:Wrong way to think about

[mOdQuArK!]

Really? When I reencode 30-minute animation episodes for NTSC/DVD, I end up with files about 500Mb each - and animation probably compresses better than most live-action. You must be losing a LOT of resolution in order to fit an hour-long live-action episode into a 300Mb file.

Re:Wrong way to think about

[fireboy1919]

Actually, as I said, I'm setting the resolution to 320x240, which is what the televisions are at.

A lot of DVD videos are at four times that (twice in width and twice in height), which would account for the increase in size. HOWEVER, this does not increase the quality of the output unless you're using HDTV for your output because NTSC can't handle more.

Re:Wrong way to think about

[technix4beos]

Your empirical evidence is bogus.

I'm staring at a Star Trek The Next Generation DVD in my hand now. It contains 4 episodes, with each one being ripped to the hard drive producing 1.8 GIG files in size.

The very first DVD contains Encounter at Farpoint (both parts), making it one of the exceptions. Each season ends with 3 episodes, and a "features" video. There are 48 DVD's in total, spread across the series so that there are on average 4 episodes on each (roughly, some have 3 and a feature).

One more thing. Each episode on the DVD has approximately 42 minutes running time, since there are no commercials, and that's what the show's airtime was given.

Just thought you might like to know some facts. ;)

Re:Wrong way to think about

[LamerX]

I don't get it. TV's are ROUGHLY 320x240. Most TVs, even standard TVs are capable of much much more than that. The whole deal is that they are analog, and you don't ever get a single fixed resolution unless you're recieving a digital signal. I noticed that most DVD's run at 720x480 (widescreen). Now say a 3:4 TV is playing the DVD in letterbox on the screen. Typically, the black bars take up about half of the TV screen. That means that the DVD is cramming 480 lines of resolution into a screen that as you say should only be displaying about 120 lines (half of 240).

I seriously doubt that when I watch my TV at home, I'm watching 120 lines of video (losing over 300 lines of resolution). It seems obvious that DVD manufacutrers aren't going to encode video as low quality as 320x240. I seriously think it's stupid to rip any DVD into a resolution that low or else you're going to lose quality, AND you're going to reduce the file size to about half of what it should be for the original resolution.

Re:Wrong way to think about

[iantri]

NTSC is roughly 720 (this is the number people will argue over)x480 interlaced. I don't know what either of you are smoking, but any standard CRT TV will display 480 lines vertically. It has to, or do something else with the 480 lines of picture it is recieving (240 lines each field or half-frame). Therefore, on a full-screen DVD you are guaranteed to see 480 interlaced lines of vertical resolution, and a varying number horizontally, depending on the quality of the set.

Now, the widescreen DVDs are normally anamorphic, meaning the DVD player decides how to output the image. This image may vary well be 200-300 lines tall (not counting black bars) when output from the DVD player, as it is reducing the resolution vertically to show the movie at the correct ratio.

If you have a set capable of showing it, however, you will be able to see the full 480 lines of resolution (or close to it.. the DVD player will still have to reduce the vertical resolution slightly because the two film formats are slightly to a fair bit narrower than 16:9).

I've noticed a lot of newer 4:3 sets have a "16:9" feature (my JVC TV has this). This is how it works: You set your DVD player as if you have a 16:9 TV. The image you will get out of the DVD player will be less compressed vertically (higher resolution), but will look stretched on a 4:3 TV. Activating the 16:9 mode will adjust the TV so that it only scans in the area a 16:9 image takes up and squeezes the 480 lines of resolution into that space by reducing the distance between each line. This way, you get a higher quality picture.

That's why DVDs are encoded that way. (Sorry if that was a bit of a tangent.. my main point is above).

Re:Wrong way to think about

[lavalyn]

320x240 resolution

Well... let's thus more than QUADRUPLE the amount of data to fit the 720x480 data that a DVD contains?

Sure, it may not all be necessary. And there are gains in increased correlation. But that's still a lot more data to fit on, to meet the standard that is DVD.

Re:Wrong way to think about

[Clockwork Apple]

Hey man, brain washing takes time.

Re:Wrong way to think about

[Trepalium]

Even on a fairly crappy TV, you can see the different between something encoded 320x240 (even with lossless compression) versus broadcast TV. Even if we start with the fact that NTSC televisions show 525 interlaced lines at 60Hz (of which, about 470-490 tend to be visible). Horizontal resolution is trickier since TVs are analogue, but it's fairly safe to say that it's more than 320 pixels wide. On some TVs, you can see the difference between 500, 600, and 700 pixels per line, others appear roughly indistinguishable.

Now, perhaps you're confused because of the fact most gaming consoles in the past never output more than about 320x240. However, the difference was, many of them could output images at 60 frames per second, whereas TV broadcasts are only 30 frames per second. The console games were able to treat each field as a frame, which is why if you try hooking them up to a TV tuner card that can only do 320x240@30fps, you end up with things that should be blinking that are either solid, or invisible -- the card is discarding what would be the second field.

Re:Wrong way to think about

[LamerX]

You sound more correct. I think you explained better what I was trying to say. What I was mostly trying to say is that people are morons because they all think that TVs are FIXED at 320x240. I argue with people all the time that the TV is not 320x240. Most TVs are capable of much more. And they do it without changing resolutions like a monitor.

Packaging!!

[GrouchoMarx]

Good grief, look at the image of the packaging. It's awful. Rather than a binder-esque design, they've taken all seven of the horribly over-engineered boxes for the individual seasons that are an absolute pain to use or transport (my parents have the full set, naturally), and cramed them all into one over-sighed padded cardboard box.

Come on, people! I want the movie, not lots and lots of plastic and foam and "collector's edition" space wasting. JUST GIVE ME THE BLOODY DISK!!!

Uhhh, right...

[yoshi1013]

I'm sure this will fit right next to my other DVDs on my TV cart.

My DVD Player will probably run away in fear of the cube.

Seriously, the idea is cool and all but for the serious collector how the hell do they think that we're going to store all these irregularly shaped boxes? The freakin' Warner Bros. snap cases are annoying enough as it is and they're the same essential shape of most DVD cases.

Re:My moneys safe

[shepd]

If you watched that much of TNG, you must be masochistic! :-)

Re:Oh dear God, yes.

[ebbomega]

Don't worry. It's slashdotted anyways so you won't be able to read it for another 12 hours or so anyways. =)

why does it matter?

[mantera]

maybe i'm not a true geek/nerd, but please explain to me the startrek thing with geeks/nerds.

Re:why does it matter?

[DeathPenguin]

I'm not sure, either. I guess some people just like science-oriented nature of the program.

I personally like Star Trek because it is very much different from other sci-fi shows which concentrate mostly on solving conflict with aliens by killing them. In Star Trek, the crew's mission is not to use violence unless absolutely necessary. In I-Borg, for example, the crew nurses to health an injured Borg, a mortal enemy of the Federation, while the Borg begins to understand what individuality is.

Many episodes deal more with the social evolution of humanity rather than shooting 'phasers' at everything that doesn't look human. The very first one, Encounter at Farpoint, is probably the best example of this. After referring to humanity as a "dangerous, savage child-race," Q taunts the Enterprise crew hoping to make them fire upon an unidentified vessal attacking a planet. Rather than attacking it, they investigate the situation further to discover that another alien being is being held captive and forced into labor by the inhabitants of the planet. Of course, they make the right decision in the end and prevent the destruction of mankind at the hands of the Q.

It seems the idea was that a much more evoloved society would investigate threats and come up with peaceful solutions whenever possible rather than taking a course of violent action like Q had expected of them in that first episode.

Re:why does it matter?

[jeorgen]

Many episodes deal more with the social evolution of humanity rather than shooting 'phasers' at everything that doesn't look human.

Thanks DeathPenguin for your posting. Star Trek shows that SciFi can be relationship oriented instead of just tech (killing and such stuff is just an extension of simplistic logic, ie dead, not dead). I don't say this is better but for everyone but I believe humnanity is fundamentally split into two groups, and Star Trek caters more to us feelers than to thinkers.

/jeorgen

Even The Good Book Has This Issue

[horati0]

Flanders: Why me, Lord? Where have I gone wrong? I've always been nice to people. I don't drink or dance or swear. I've even kept Kosher just to be on the safe side. I've done everything the bible says, even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff!

that stupid analog clock collectors item

[rogerborn]

Anyone ever notice that all the collector's item clocks for Trek in any series are analog?

Somebody please explain to me why they are not all cutting edge DIGITAL?!!

yeah, this Borg Cube collection is great, but give me a futuristic time piece that looks like it came off the bridge or out of engineering.

Collector's Item, indeed!

Re:that stupid analog clock collectors item

[happyhippy]

For more profit returns. Its cheaper to buy in crapy generic wall clocks, print out some ST guff, stick it on the clock and charge a shitload for it then to make digital versions.

Re:that stupid analog clock collectors item

[ScrewMaster]

Yes, but by the 23rd century, any Cubes that survive will be early twenty-first century antiques, and thus genuine collector's items. At that point, the primitive-looking analog clock will actually increase the value of the Cube. Rather than complaining you should thank Paramount for such foresightful design.

Thes should sell everything on a single hard disk

[Anonymous Coward]

I purchased the whole collection, 7 seasons - one time purchase, for $450+$40 tax. I ripped all episodes with linux Dvd rip to 330-350MB ogm files. About 13 episodes fit one DVD+-R. I put the whole collectiom
on a 80 GB 2.5 inch pocket firewire drive ($80 the box+$250 the drive). I also backed everything up on 14 DVD-Rs but I never use them, dvds are only for backup, the firewire disk is much more compact and easy to carry around. I can put it in my pocket, try that with the original 49 dvds or with the 14 backup dvds containing the ogm files!

The total cost of the project
$490+$80+$250=$820

The ripping lasted about one month. AND NO, I DONT SHARE THE EPS WITH ANYONE, THEY ARE EXCLUSIVELY FOR MY PERSONAL USE.

real money

[jxliv7]

at the official exchange rate, pound for dollars, 449.99 British pounds is right at $829...

add in the VAT, shipping, the only 1,000 copies produced, and whatever else, and you can be sure the price will be higher.

however, i'm betting that within 1 month the entire collection will be available via bit torrent from some 3rd world server...

Re:real money

[YetAnotherDave]

whose dollars?

US, aussie, or canuck?

Case available separaely?

[CyberDave]

Is there anyone besides me who would like to see Paramount release the case separately for collectors who bought each season as it was released (or otherwise own all 7 seasons right now)?

Even though I have my box sets in 6- and 7-disc Alpha DVD cases (see http://www.inetdvd.com) using Ric Easton's excellent replacement cover art (see http://www.dvdcoverart.com), the novelty of having a Borg cube to hold the 48 discs is appealing to this Star Trek geek.

CyberDave

Re:Case available separaely?

[ScrewMaster]

Sure it is, real appealing, right up until the time it sprouts little metal feelers and begins to assimilate all of your technology.

Symbolic Gesture.

[Executive Override]

Someone should buy one, set it on a metal plate or in a trash can, set it on fire, tape it while it burns, and put it on the Internet so Trekkies can feel the horror people who like good sci-fi feel when they watch Star Trek, specially Next Generation.

Re:Symbolic Gesture.

[gaudior]

It must be very nice for you, to be so superior. As someone who enjoys Star Trek for what it is, AND many other forms of science fiction for what they are, I take offense at your attitude. Purists in art and literature are like dry cleaner bags. Sure they keep things nice and clean, but they strangle small children when not kept out of the way by adults.

Re:Symbolic Gesture.

[BRSQUIRRL]

I suspect that your comment was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, by in all seriousness: if ST:TNG was bad sci-fi, what the HELL was Voyager? ;)

Re:Symbolic Gesture.

[Executive Override]

Good point! Let me just say that if they ever make a Voyager box such as this one, burning it wouldn't only be a symbolic gesture, it would be a service to mankind.

"The ship has been miniaturized by Q and now we're being attacked by electrons! Send some positrons to avert impact!" God, I didn't think anything could suck that bad.

Re:Symbolic Gesture.

[Jerf]

if ST:TNG was bad sci-fi, what the HELL was Voyager?

The only romance series on television to successfully promote cross-species romance. I mean, hell, one of the babies born in the series had freaken' horns on its head! What soap opera can claim that?

Take that, Danielle Steele!

Sony and Pioneer Players can be made codefree too

[tempmpi]

Sony and Pioneer Player can made codefree with a new firmware. The codefree Sony firmware also disables User Prohibitions, so you can skip to the next chapter whenever you want and you can always change subtitels, audio etc.
Many recent Pioneer Players also can be made codefree with a code entered with the remote control. Sony and Pioneer are both manufacturing really nice dvd players and many retailers here(Germany) are offering them preloaded with a codefree firmware, so there is really no reason to avoid these players. You can get almost every player in a codefree version here, no matter which brand.

TOS

[scovetta]

How about a DVD box-set of TOS?

I would sure like to purchase legal videos of this series.

I still have crappy copies I made from the SCI-FI channel, I want good quality ones on DVD.

buy cheap from play.com

[jkcity]

play.com have been selling this for a few days for 338.23 (including delivery), actually probably longer but a few days I have known about it.

I bet the 1000 boxes are already sold, just ont hat site alone, never mind everyone else who seems to be selling it.

Re:Too many connections!

[Hackie_Chan]

1. Release huge DVD set of all episodes only in 1000 copies.
2. ????
3. Profit!

Funny?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

My gosh, if you don't like the price, don't buy it. I'm tired of people making comparisons to sexual violence when it simply doesn't apply. It's not as if people are being tracked down in some back alley and molested. I think it dilutes the meaning of the act.

One person's worthwhile purchase is another's rip-off.

Re:Thes should sell everything on a single hard di

[Snake_Plisken]

Hate to agree with an AC, but his last sentence does sound like a whiny, selfish 3 year old. Why was that last sentence necessary?

The usual jokes?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Humour is irrelevant. You will be moderated.

My last Star Trek rant.

[fm6]

It's astonishing how many strange projects Roddenberry was involved in. I remember seeing a pilot for a half-hour lawyer drama he made, starring DeForest Kelley. Then there was this weird movie, populated by some major stars, some recycled Star Trek actors, and an unlikely number of miniskirted teenage girls. Then he came to UC Riverside to make a movie/tv pilot called Genesis II. (I was there at the time. Ever since, I can't look at a certain kind of campus architecture without wondering if it's specifically designed for making bad SF movies.) Then..., oh never mind.

I avoided Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict for years because I'd been Roddenberried out. When I finally got round to it, it was much better than I expected. So I was unsuprised to discover that Saint Gene's sole contribution to this project was a short memo describing in general terms a series that only vaguely resembles the show that actually got made.

Perhaps its childish for me to slam GR as much as I do. It's not so much that he was an overrated, shallow opportunist. But the way he is given all the credit for the original Star Trek blots out the story of all the minor players who did such a good job of rethinking the basic assumptions of movie/tv SF. I wish I could remember a name or two. When I have time, I'll have to re-read the original Star Trek book, which has a lot about how Star Fleet invented the paperless office, and how you make surgical tools out of salt shakers.

And this was why I never had any love for later iterations of Star Trek. All of which have lacked these little technical details, or had them done by people who were scientific and technical illiterates. So now we have hundreds of new Star Trek stories (movies, tv episodes, and those insufferable paperback tie-ins), all of them done by people out to recreate the original Star Trek, almost always without the least understanding of why the original Star Trek worked.

Re:My last Star Trek rant.

[Lars T.]

The lead character in Genesis II is named Dylan Hunt. So is the one in Planet Earth, which seems to be the same script with a different cast (apart from Majel of course). Good ol' Gene Recycleberry ;-)

Re:My last Star Trek rant.

[fm6]

I think it was always acknowledged that Planet Earth was just a remake of Genesis II. But you're right, GR was shameless when it came to recycling material. Did he think nobody would notice?

Although this habit actually served him well in TOS. Any fan of WW II movies will notice that Balance of Terror was an unabashed ripoff of The Enemy Below. But it's a different audience, so what the heck.

Re:My last Star Trek rant.

[Lars T.]

I was actually going for this, which you probably never even considered watching ;-)

Re:My last Star Trek rant.

[fm6]

I've seen a little of this show. It does seem to be mostly pretty bad, but I don't quite see how we can blame GR for it. Yeah, they put his name on it, but that's just an example of using the name of a retired or dead SF person as a kind of brand name. One of SF's more depressing trends.

I Agree

[metroid composite]

While I don't really mind the occasional light sexual joke (mostly since they show up everywhere on the internet making me acclimatized) that was still a bit too descriptive for my tastes.

F-ing the early adopter...

[Astart�]

How nice.

So why did I patiently wait for each successive installment to come out then run to go buy it? Why did I buy all 7 already -- when a better collection is coming out now?

Picture me the sucker -- early adopters always get screwed.

The Power of Marketing

[Qrlx]

This is a good example of marketing. The episodes themselves are pretty much freely available in "IP-space" but the slick packaging means people will buy this. Oooh! Shiny Ones!

Re:nice troll...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but you can't explain that to some people.

Let's also not forget that almost all major electrical components are manufactured by, or with permission from, Matsushita. Think of them as the quiet, Illuminati of Electronic devices.

Even the things they don't own outright, they own major stakes in.

Megacube = 450.99 = $748.50

[WCityMike]

I don't know if the price will be comparable, but Amazon has a list price of 450.99 pounds, which would be the equivalent of $748.50.

Oh My God

[Jack Auf]

Nerdvana

STOP! DON'T BUY THIS!

[Quasar1999]

Don't buy this!!! Paramount is trying to find a way to keep Enterprise alive... they'll be using revenues from the re-re-re-release of actually good Star Trek (yes even DS9 and Voyager are 'good' compared to the current Enterprise Crap) to keep their shows and UPN afloat... It's all a ploy... I say we have them by the nuts... Let the franchise die...

I'm a huge fan of Star Trek... but the last 3 years have made it so bad that even I can't watch the crap... Make it stop... don't support these bastards! (and as a side note, if I wanted to watch a porn actress, I'd watch a damn porn, when I'm watching Star Trek, I'd at least expect some level of acting ability, and maybe, just maybe, a decent script like there was 10 years ago... get rid of the porn bitch)

Re:STOP! DON'T BUY THIS!

[ScrewMaster]

You're just upset because Seven of Nine was better endowed than T'Pol.

Re:STOP! DON'T BUY THIS!

[tqft]

who is the porn bitch? what "movies" has she been in?

That would be so freakin' down, dude!

[rice_burners_suck]

What I'd like to see is a boxed set of all Mission Impossble episodes, from the very first one in the 60's to the very last one in the early 90's. That show changed my life.

I already have 5 seasons.

[EnterpriseNCC-1701]

Well, I have 5 of the season already so unless I can get someone to buy them off me for a reasonably price, it looks like I will not be buying the cube anytime soon.

Deana Troy Interviewed

[Lord of the Fries]

I sense......that the price will be very high Captain

Caution: Borg Cubes, next 100 lightyears

[Mulletproof]

Europe was already assimalated by the Euro, so do we really need to give the Borg another crack at it?

Bittorrent Watermark

[Databass]

With only 1,000 limited sets, they could watermark each set with a specific number or pattern- then when the Bittorrent streams start popping up, they can see check the watermark on the P2Ped filesand find out which person leaked the data onto the net.

Re:Bittorrent Watermark

[stanmann]

Ok, so with 1k limit on production they will appreciate in value. I manage to acquire one at the local collectables shop. Carefully open, rip and divx, then replace the foil seals, reshrinkwrap and sell on e-bay as MIB. Assuming I paid cash for the one acquired locally, and the person who gets it from e-bay re-sells it, again for a profit. how do they trace it, and second how do they trace who ripped it.

Fake product picture

[Josh Mast]

Has anyone actually noticed that the picture of the packaging itself looks really really faked? The border of the clock is especially noticable, along with the messed up perspective angle of the sticker on the box. This looks like a simple 3d cube render with some texture on it, and a clock that was halfassed in photoshop. What's the deal with that?

Re:Oh dear God, yes.

[Loconut1389]

How much is 449 pounds, roughly twice that in us or something?

Also, people dont always go by MSRP. Places like wally world sell below cost to be lowest price others sell way above cost due to conveniance.

Re:Sony and Pioneer Players can be made codefree t

[garbs]

Well, I recently got a new DVD player myself (in Australia), a Pioneer 355.

It had a sticker label, saying "Opened by Pioneer Australia to be modified to suit Australian Standards", didn't think much of it at the time.

Put in a region 1 dvd in it for shits and giggles, and lo behold, it would play it. So obviously the modifications Pioneer Australia did to it was to make it Multi-Region.

But I am waiting for...

[Hub1]

The special extended edition, webmasters cut, 600 disk boxed set of seasons 1 to 99 of Slashdot.. I have a lot of catching up to do! ;)

Buying the episodes seperately

[makkverk]

...will cost you (amazon.co.uk) a total of 405.93 GBP. Buying the Borg Megacube from this site will cost you 338.23 GBP. 1 GBP = 1.6 USD.

not true

[onShore_Jake]

I think this could be a hoax. The boxes look fake, there is no good reason to only release 1000 copies, and why would only dvddebate.com know abnout this and not, say amazon or paramounts own site.

Re:not true

[onShore_Jake]

OK, I'm wrong. Found it on http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000C668 U/ref=ase_trektoday-21/026-7802787-4604442

Re:Gay Porn Alert! Lol

[Ceadda]

Why am I flamebait? I WARNED EVERYONE... sheesh