When I finish TOS I plan to dive right into the film series but I made sure to track down all six lds first. I had gotten the bds bundled with TOS and popped some in to see for myself…oh dear…
From my research notes it appears the initial DVDs were ports of the ld masters: some with 5.1 remixes of the 2.0 and the sequels were non anamorphic. The SE reissues cleaned all of these up and some may have 70mm derived 5.1 tracks but this is unconfirmed. Also the contrast may have been tweaked on some but without seeing for myself I can’t say for sure.
Anybody have both DVD runs?
As I remember it, the initial dvd releases of Final Frontier, TUC and Generations weren’t anamorphic but Wrath of Khan (theatrical), SFS and Voyage Home were. Then Paramount released the two-disc collector’s editions one at a time (I collected all of them before eventually selling them off in anticipation of the oh so disappointing blu-rays) starting with the TMP director’s edition. The MPAA actually changed the rating from G to PG simply because of the new sound mix, if you could believe it.
The DE of Khan followed shortly after. For SFS and Voyage Home they simply reused the existing transfers, this time putting them on dual-layered discs with a higher bitrate. Final Frontier, TUC and Generations were obviously remastered. Final Frontier looked very natural from what I remember, there was even some dirt and dust in certain shots but I certainly didn’t mind. TUC looked great, like it was from a brand new hd transfer, nice Super 35 grain and everything. Then there was Generations, which looked “overly crisp” as one review put it, but still much better than before thanks to its new anamorphic transfer.
First Contact had come out in '98 and was anamorphic from the get-go. I’m not sure if the collector’s dvd reused the existing transfer or not. Same goes for Insurrection and Nemesis.
Anyway, a little long-winded but I hope that helps!