I managed to grab all nine films off of NZBKing.com yesterday, using UsenetServer.
They’re definitely worth it. First off, from what I can tell, all six original films have a 5.1 track taken from the PAL DVDs, or from the NTSC DVDs and sped up, while the three TNG films have DTS tracks from their DVDs.
While there’s much much less noise reduction and terrible digital enhancements added to the picture, I still feel it’s lacking grain. Not sure if that’s more of an issue with the source or the format these masters were used for, but the image can look a little soft, most notable with the TNG films.
Other than that, fantastic. They’re the Blu-rays with a bit less detail, less vibrant colours, but a much more natural unaltered film look. I wouldn’t say they’re stunning, but for most of the films, they’re the best option out there.
The Motion Picture: Sky HD.
The Wrath of Khan: Director’s Cut Blu-ray. Proper colour grading, proper theatrical presentation with the dark look and improved contrast. Much more detail coming from a 4K scan. Everything looks too bright after seeing this, a very faithful restoration.
The Search for Spock: 35mm LPP scan. You can get this off MySpleen. Depends if you prefer detail over colour grading, but I find it very hard to go back to any of the Blu-ray/DVD/HD TV caps after seeing how the film’s supposed to look. Everything else looks way too bright and extremely vibrant after seeing the 35mm scan. It also comes with its original LD 2.0 PCM track, so it provides a much nicer aural experience.
The Voyage Home - Insurrection: Sky HD.
Nemesis: Blu-ray. It’s the only option you have, but thankfully, it’s far and away the best looking of the bunch (excluding STII) as it was the first film to get a digital intermediate during its production.
There you go. So if you’re planning to get these but don’t have enough HDD space for all of them, skip II and pick up the Blu-ray and get the 35mm scan of III. I’d get them quick, I can’t imagine most of them surviving to next summer.
P. S. Star Trek VI is a strange one. First off, it’s presented in its director’s cut’s 2:1 aspect ratio. The only problem is it’s not the director’s cut, it’s the theatrical version. It’s a weird amalgamation of the two rather than one or the other.
Also, as others pointed out, it seems to be slowed down back to its original 23.976/24 FPS speed, except, the guy who slowed it down didn’t even think to adjust the pitch. Now you’re stuck with audio that sounds like its on helium, but is in its proper speed, giving a very strange overall presentation.
I’d almost argue going for the iTunes Director’s Cut version of this film rather than the Sky HD cap for those two reasons. But if you’re okay with the aspect ratio problem, and the pitch is easy to fix, I’m sure you’d find this version preferable.