Star Trek TNG Asian releases

Peter Parker

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I've tried a search, but can't find anything, so hopefully this isn't a repeat..

Any ideas what Asian on-line DVD sellers are seling the complete TNG set of 5 or more seasons? They'll probably be a lot cheaper than the Borg set, even when adding customs. Any ideas?

Gary.
 
Cheers for that.

I found a few others there too, and a bit cheaper, but they all seem to want paypal only. I didn't want to use PP, just cheques, but it looks like I might have to.

Thanks for the info.

Gary.
 
Be carefull that they are not bootlegs mate as they could be DVD9s taken from the US or UK releases.
 
I've found cheap Asian ones, and I'll take a chance - I'll update the thread if/when I get them. :)

It could be a good deal if it's kosha, though normaly if things are too good to be true, they aren't...

Gary.
 
how cheap?
 
Hi Fordy,

Sorry for the delay - £75 plus £15 delivery for seasons 1 - 7. There are a few different places selling them, and at varying prices (up to £300), but I'll let you know what they're like. Try ebay and see what turns up (one set of seasons 1 to 5 went for about £40 IIRC). Asia Bay is the name of the seller I ordered mine from. I have the R2 season 3 set to compare them with, so if I get the chance, I'll pick an episode and see what differences (if any) there are and let you know.

Gary.
 
Picked them up today, and unless the official Asian releases are genuinly only single layered, they look like pressed rather than burned bootleg copies - only 4.35 gig instead of 7.39 (compared the Best of Both Worlds UK R2 original with the Asian copy). DD 5.1 etc so were probably copied directly from an original disk unless, like I mentioned, the Asian releases are only single layered - they look identical with all the menus etc. Some R3 disks are single layer or letterbox instead of dual or ananmorphic like their Western counterparts for instance.

On the tv I can't say there's a lot of difference, so if you're after the complete set then it's not a bad price at £12.86 a season all in. If you can find a UK supply with cheaper postage (mine were shipped direct from China), then better still. The quality difference may be more noticable on a projector set-up though - I'll try mine at some time and see how they look.

I'm quite happy with them, but some are selling for £20+ a season, with complete sets going for considerably more, so look around. Not as cheap as getting a mate to 'make you a back-up', but being pressed, are more likely to play on any DVD player - I'll try them on my old Samsung 709 which is very picky and only plays +RW burnt disks (as well as pressed disks).

Bottom line though - these are single layer disks and possibly bootlegs, so beware when buying if you want the dual layer versions.

HTH

Gary.
 
That is what I suspected they would be, DVD9s taken from the UK or US releases, they might be tempting at such a low prices but they are still bootlegs and should be avoided.
 
Indiana Jones said:
That is what I suspected they would be, DVD9s taken from the UK or US releases, they might be tempting at such a low prices but they are still bootlegs and should be avoided.

DVD9 = dual layer
Gary said these were single layer, therefore they're DVD5s not 9s.
 
Will K said:
DVD9 = dual layer
Gary said these were single layer, therefore they're DVD5s not 9s.

My mistake, only quickly read the post yesterday so thought they were DVD9s but I can see now they are DVD5 bootlegs.

Also, as they are pressed copies they will work just like an original DVD and should work in all DVD Players but as they are about 3Gb less in size than the originals the quality is going to suffer and if you are a Trek fan you would want them in the best possible quality.
 
Indiana Jones said:
and if you are a Trek fan you would want them in the best possible quality.

I've used DVD Shrink to compress some movies like Lord of the Rings which are reduced by approx 40%, and you'd still be lucky to see any difference, and that's even on a 7ft screen. Strange really I know, but it's true. You'll generaly only notice it on fast motion sequences anyway, and I hear a lot of people are hard pressed to see any noticable improvement in Superbit releases, so you have to wonder how much compression is required before artefacts become visible.

I guess the knowledge of having reduced quality can be more of an issue than the reality of not being able to see it, but fortunately I'm not bothered by that. If the disks were poor quality, I would have sent them back of course. The 5.1 sound is as it should be, and visualy there appears to be no difference (on my 32" tv anyway), so the cost then is the issue - I wouldn't have bought the series at current prices, though £35 or less is probably acceptable to most people when the official versions are available at those prices. Considering how often you'll watch them, is the lower bitrate really an issue? Each to his own, of course.

I spose I should mention I've been a trek fan since I was a kid in the late 60s, I have about 25 DVDs of TOS BTW.

Out of curiosity, what are your feelings of DS9 and Voyager, and particularly Enterprise?


Gary.
 
I guess it all depends on what was used to convert the originals to DVD5's. I have used DVD Shrink a few times to convert some episodes of TNG and DS9 and I have always been able to tell the difference between them and the originals, its harder to tell on a TV but whenever I played them back through my computer I could see the difference in picture quality but then what do you expect for a 30min conversion program. If the people who made the bootleg DVD5's used a program like CCE then the quality could be identical to the original as that program takes alot of time encoding and produces the best possible quality.

As for my feelings on the other series, I started to get into DS9 from about Season 3 onwards when they got the Defiant but lost track of it when Season 7 started and didnt actually get to watch all the episodes until I bought the DVD Boxsets. I have to admit that I didnt really like much of Voyager and that is why I am not going to pick them up on DVD until the price has dropped abit but they had their good episodes and when they introduced the Borg it was great but I feel they used them a little too much but they must have done something right if they lasted 7 years. When it comes to Enterprise I dont really know how I feel, it is quite different to any of the past shows which is a good thing but some of their story lines are lifted straight out of episodes of TNG or VOY which doesnt make for very good viewing but the last season has been really good and after seeing the cliff hanger of Season 3 I have to admit I am looking forward to Season 4.
 
Thanks for you opinion. :)

I was exactly the same with DS9, though lost interest around season 5 and stopped buying the videos as they were released at 5.8) The same happened with Voyager at 3.8, and I don't think I've watched an episode on tv since.

I was appalled with Enterprise, as it seems totaly out of continuety with Trek historicaly, so I stopped watching it. The first ep had Klingons in it, and it had been long established that they weren't seen/met until Kirks time with Errand Of Mercy IIRC.

I was so dissapointed as I thought it had so many possiblities, yet none of them were used. I guess they have to pander to the demographic rather than the old farts. :)

Gary.
 

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