Star Trek - the DVD's

[Dr Mordrid]

There will be 3 DVD releases of the Star Trek movie;

North America only

Release date: November 17th, 2009

MSRP pricing

1-disk DVD: $29.99 (gag reel + A New Vision video depicting the changes)
2-disk DVD: $39.99 (digital copy + gag reel + Nero backstory + deleted scenes ++)
3-disk Blu-Ray: $39.99 (digital copy + gag reel + Nero backstory + deleted scenes ++++++)

[Jammrock]

$40...

I really want to move to Blu-ray, but even though the player prices have finally dropped into a respectable range, the discs are just too expensive still. Though I really liked the new Star Trek movie, so I'll look for it on clearance in early 2009 at half the price Damn I've grown cheap in my old age.

The full details on the Blu-ray collection:

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3142

Highlights:

Disc 1
Commentary:By director J.J. Abrams, writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Bryan Burk.
NASA News (BD-exclusive): This BD-Live feature gives viewers access to the latest NASA news about real space exploration. Learn about new mission developments and check out featured imagery from around the universe.
...
Disc 2
Nine deleted scenes with optional commentary
Starfleet Vessel Simulator (BD-exclusive):Explore extensive data on the U.S.S. Enterprise and the Romulan ship, the Narada. Submerse yourself in breathtaking 360 views and close-ups and review detailed tech information.
Gag Reel: Bloopers featuring the entire principal cast.
Disc 3
Digital Copy
Star Trek D-A-C Free Trial Game for XBOX 360
Weblink to the Star Trek D-A-C free trial game for PC
Weblink to the Star Trek D-A-C free trial game for PlayStation Network

[Kruzin]

I don't know what you concider a 'respectable price', but around here blue-ray players will still run you at least a couple hundred bux, 400-500 for a nice one.
Disposable progressive DVD players that generally last a year are 30 bux.
At that rate, I can buy 10 years worth of DVD players....or a blue ray that will likeley konk out in 2 years or less.
Don't see me moving to blue-ray any time soon.

[Dr Mordrid]

IMO there's no need to as technology is catching up to Blu-Ray before it really catches on.

Already coming are little boxes that will "tune" streaming video, which is now available in HD on several sites, and record or play it using flash cards of various types, each box having several slots. Some of the TV's in development will have this built in.

New is SDXC - 64 gigs now, 2 terabytes in a couple of years - enough to hold many HD flicks and faster than many SATA drives.

Before long streaming, both SD and HD, and using SDXC or something like it for storage and kiosk purchases and rentals, will supplant discs for video. Some of the tech press think it'll overtake broadcast, cable and satellite within 5 years. I think sooner if someone makes an easy to use box at <$200, especially if it's in the TV.

Some content will remain free, TV shows for example, but with the major movie studios doing this now and some sites licensing content from several studios subscription services are inevitable.

They finally found a way to end run the middlemen; Comcast etc.

Then there is the rumored merger coming between Amazon.com and Netflix, who along with Hulu etc., have been licensing content left and right from the major studios.

[Jammrock]

Streaming true HD in the US will not work any time soon. The reason ... ISPs. They are putting too many caps on bandwidth and the average US throughput blows. Meaning, streaming real 1080p in HD from the internet just won't happen unless you can get/afford FIOS. Which is a very small percentage of the population. Not even with reduced quality and the best compression available can the average US broadband account handle real time streaming of anything more than 480p (and 480p pushes most connections).

Then there is the backbone issue. In order for the US to be able to support "mass acceptance" of true HD streamed content the internet backbone of the US will have to be overhauled. Most of the dark fiber has been bought out by private buyers (like Google for their WAN) leaving less and less growth for the public internet. Mass acceptance would bring the US backbone to its knees. It just won't happen in the US any time soon. That's multiple billions of dollars of infrastructure that no one wants to, or can, put in.

That said, you can get the movie from your cable/satellite provider, but then you have no ownership. Or at least less ownership than with DVD/Blu-ray. You either have to pay a monthly fee for the right (as Penny Arcade calls it, the infinite dollar plan) or pay for it over and over again from your cable/sat provider. It will work for "renter" movies, but not for good movies you want to own.

SDHC/SDXC is a nice thought but I don't see it catching on. There is even more of a chance of stealing the content from SD than there is on a disc. The media owners will never buy into it. Pre-loading media on SD will never work either. Producing flash memory is significantly more expensive than pressing a disk, making profits significantly lower on SD-based media and the consumer price higher.

Do you have a link to any articles about this "box" you mention?

[Dr Mordrid]

Firstly SDXC is going into just about everyone's devices in the next year so get used to it. Copy protection for them is part of "the deal" and the SD Association is pushing it hard. 100 to eventually 300 megs/sec makes it HD recordable....with a 2TB capacity holding a lot of it.

H.264 via some very fast codex chips are the method.

Device specifics? NDA. What I can say in general is look for boxes with an embedded browser and the ability to connect to several streaming services with password support and HDMI. That's where things are going, and then some.

Some internet TV devices will be embedded in the next generation of HDTV's....and I believe one or two have already been announced....not to mention net providers are already setting up internet video on demand - AT&T UVerse, Dish, Verison etc. but other providers are signing deals with the free net providers too.

What I can tell you is that even with just 720p on his X360 our son is viewing most of his content on his HDTV by way of streaming Netflix, Hulu etc. and it doesn't look bad at all.

BTW: we have AT&T DSL and it streams this content perfectly.

Understand that while some of us techies can tell the difference between SD, 720p and 1080 a whole lot of people (I think the majority) can't, especially if viewing on an HDTV of 42 inches or less and that's most of them. These folks look at YouTube all day then when they sit down to a streamed 720p it's more than acceptable.

Hell....BR has been slow being accepted not only because of the price but because most people can't tell the difference between HD on it and a 16:9 regular DVD sent through a good up-converting DVD player.

[Evildead666]

I'm pretty happy with my Bluray player...the quality is great....
Just waiting for a good soundcard to playback DTS HD and TrueHD...

My local video store has stared on Bluray, they have two !!!!!! lol
I showed him one of the blurays I bought at the supermarket, with "for sale or rental" written on them, and he was pissed, since he pays a lot more for them as rental disks than I did in the shop.
I paid like 20euros for V for Vendetta....he pays 60+euros per disk....

So he's off to the supermarket to see what he can find...

SDXC will probably come along pretty quick, but the copy protection will not work if its not physical. BR protection is killed 24hrs after introduction...

[Jammrock]

I'm still not convinced about SDXC. Even at 300 MB/s a 30GB movie will take nearly two minutes to download from a kiosk. I hate waiting 30 seconds to get a DVD from RedBox. Assuming the kiosk and the disk can read/write at maximum speed. But I guess we'll see.

Personally I'm all for an expanded backbone and 100Mb/s to every house and I'd just stream it to a media server.

Evil, check out the Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 line of audio cards. Full Blu-ray audio codec support, including DTS HD and TrueHD.

http://www.asus.com/ProductGroup2.aspx?PG_ID=deBXUzMkKnQuGLGK

[Elie]

Here we go again, I thought the streaming Internet discussion back when Jerry was around was put to bed hehe.

I for one will buy Star trek on Blu-Ray because I want quality (1080p) + the extra content you don't get when you stream. Internet bandwidth is not going to magically increase, it will take years to be able to give me 1080p streamed to my TV box. And what about viewing the second or third time, what about taking that disc to a friends house and watching it? The point is...Blu-ray or physical media will never be replaced by streaming content. Not sure about SDXC, it's in the hands of studios, they can make or break a format. Since Blu-ray to a certain extent has taken off, I don't see the studios moving to another format just yet.

[High_Jumbllama]

One via Bestbuy for $100 though no mention of HDCP.

[Jammrock]

I'm pretty sure HDCP is a Blu-ray requirement for stand alone players.

[Evildead666]

Evil, check out the Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 line of audio cards. Full Blu-ray audio codec support, including DTS HD and TrueHD.
http://www.asus.com/ProductGroup2.as...BXUzMkKnQuGLGK

Yup, thats the one, but the deluxe version with the analog outs for my amp.
Just waiting until I have put enough aside for it...its nearly 300 euros here...

[Technoid]

This reminds me I should maybe get a HD tv, I'm still using a 6 year old 28 inch crt