The Borg MegaCube 303
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..."
Region 0? (Score:5, Insightful)
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? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Region 0? (Score:2)
Sony and Pioneer Players can be made codefree too (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Region 0? (Score:3, Insightful)
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 member
Re:Region 0? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Region 0? (Score:4, Informative)
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? (Score:3, Informative)
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? (Score:2, Informative)
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)=14
Wrong way to think about (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wrong way to think about (Score:2)
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 ta
Re:Wrong way to think about (Score:2)
Re:Wrong way to think about (Score:5, Informative)
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 (Score:2)
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:Region 0? (Score:2)
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.
Re:Region 0? (Score:2)
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? (Score:2)
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 [michaeldvd.com.au] what you're on about.
Re:Region 0? (Score:3, Informative)
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
Re:Region 0? (Score:2)
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-f
Re:Region 0? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Region 0? (Score:2)
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
Re:Region 0? (Score:2)
Re:Region 0? (Score:2, Informative)
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 [blackstar.co.uk] and the PAL [blackstar.co.uk]
Re:Region 0? (Score:2)
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...
Lack Of Continuity Explanation pop-ups... (Score:3, Funny)
Even The Good Book Has This Issue (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Lack Of Continuity Explanation pop-ups... (Score:2)
Regional encoding strikes again (Score:5, Informative)
"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 (Score:3, Funny)
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 (Score:2)
Nuff said?
Re:Regional encoding strikes again (Score:2)
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 (Score:4, Informative)
Just get the Free media player VLC [videolan.org] 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 (Score:3, Informative)
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
There go my savings. (Score:4, Informative)
Oh well, there go my savings! And retirement benefits! And computer gadget money!
Re:There go my savings. (Score:3, Insightful)
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,
Re:There go my savings. (Score:2)
Re:There go my savings. (Score:2)
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 [amazon.co.uk].
More ST stuff! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:More ST stuff! (Score:2)
Re:More ST stuff! (Score:2)
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 c
My last Star Trek rant. (Score:2)
Funny? (Score:2)
One person's worthwhile purchase is another's rip-off.
Somewhere in the night (Score:3, Funny)
Resistance is Futile (Score:2, Funny)
Storage... (Score:4, Interesting)
But then it wouldn't have such a marketing impact. 4 DVD set? What's so special about that?
Re:Storage... (Score:2, Funny)
No wonder it's called The Next Generation! <grin
Re:Storage... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Storage... (Score:5, Informative)
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... (Score:5, Informative)
This is true for CDs, but not for DVDs. DVDs have the data layer sandwiched between two clear polycarbonate layers. Here's [cdplayright.com] a [lastfactory.com] few [cdrecordingsoftware.com] links [gadgetsexpress.com] 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... (Score:2)
Re:Storage... (Score:4, Informative)
There's 168 [everything2.com] 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... (Score:2)
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... (Score:2)
Re:Storage... (Score:2)
I sense a slashdotting in the works... (Score:5, Informative)
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... (Score:2)
Cube [pipex.com]
Lots of Currency (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Lots of Currency (Score:2)
--
Resistance is futile (Score:2)
Rus
Perfect Story (Score:5, Funny)
Err...
Excluding myself.
Re:Perfect Story (Score:2)
There's a whole hemisphere of the planet where it ain't Saturday night yet.
Slashdotted already... (Score:2)
And this site [dvdtimes.co.uk] says that just 1000 copies worldwide would be released.
How long? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How long? (Score:2, Informative)
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.
Aren't the series out already? (Score:2)
Kjella
Re:How long? (Score:2)
Re:How long? (Score:2)
But you are right, there are a lot of episodes.
This is excellent (Score:2, Funny)
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: (Score:2)
The usual jokes? (Score:2)
Humour is irrelevant. You will be moderated.
All I can say is (Score:2)
Engage!
cbb (Score:3, Funny)
o.k. o.k., fine - a hooker dressed up as Seven of Nine. Sheesh!
mitch
Re:cbb (Score:2)
If you're going to that level, I think I'd rather have Seven of Nine dressed as a hooker...
You all can thank me... (Score:3, Funny)
Packaging!! (Score:5, Insightful)
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!!!
Symbolic Gesture. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Symbolic Gesture. (Score:2)
Re:Symbolic Gesture. (Score:2, Funny)
"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.
TOS (Score:2)
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 (Score:2)
I bet the 1000 boxes are already sold, just ont hat site alone, never mind everyone else who seems to be selling it.
The Power of Marketing (Score:2)
Megacube = 450.99 = $748.50 (Score:2)
Borg Overlords (Score:2)
Re:Borg Overlords (Score:2)
[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!
Re:/.ed already (Score:2)
Seems to include that Borg-ship shaped cube and a wall clock. Spiffy!
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
Re:/.ed already (Score:2)
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 [amazon.com] (per season), DVDPlanet has 'em for $112.49 [dvdplanet.com] (per season) and Buy.com wants $134.97 [buy.com] per season.
If you can find a
Not Quite.... (Score:2)
Re:article text in case of /.ing (Score:3, Funny)
"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
Re:article text in case of /.ing (Score:2)
Re:Yet another way to turn the nickle (Score:2)
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 (Score:2)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:2)
As far as the film goes the extended DVD is my preferred version.
As for the "good
Re:Yet another way to turn the nickle (Score:2)
Re:Oh dear God, yes. (Score:2)
Re:that stupid analog clock collectors item (Score:2)
Re:why does it matter? (Score:3, Insightful)
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 d
Re:Let me know (Score:2, Funny)
This would make it the Orion Pirate edition I believe...
Re:ebay item (Score:2)
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:real money (Score:2)
US, aussie, or canuck?