I just finished watching the first disc, which includes "Encounter at Farpoint", "The Naked Now", and "Code of Honor". My overall opinion is that this is the best thing that could've happened to TNG. I'm extremely pleased.
I'll get the negative stuff out of way so I can start gushing. If you haven't heard already, there are some reported audio problems that I can verify. On a few of the episodes, the center channel of the 7.1 soundtrack has been duplicated in the right channel, causing dialog to be anchored to the right. Even though it was fine on the sampler disc, "Encounter at Farpoint" has this problem and it's definitely noticeable and distracting. The lossy 2-channel mix doesn't have this issue, and while it is lossy, I compared it to the 2-channel soundtrack on the DVD and the Blu-ray's lossy 2-channel is noticeably superior. However, the 2-channel audio is out of sync by several seconds during the intro to "Encounter at Farpoint". It's fine once the second chapter starts though. I haven't watched all the extras yet, but there have also been reports that some of the extras have audio sync problems as well. According to Bill Hunt, CBS is looking into these issues. Kind of embarrassing on such a high profile release, but it's a massive project and mistakes do happen. Paramount is the distributor, and based on their handling of other defective Blu-ray releases, I'm sure we'll see a disc replacement program before too long.
That said, I did make use of the 7.1 tracks on "The Naked Now" and "Code of Honor" since they're among the unaffected episodes. I only have a 2-channel setup, so my receiver downmixes the 7.1 track to stereo and I can't comment on the quality and presence of the surround mix. I can say that the fidelity of the lossless track is quite a bit better than the lossy track with a clearly wider dynamic range. Dialog is strong and intelligible, sound effects make their presence known without being overbearing, and the music is much more dynamic than the DVD or the Blu-ray's lossy track.
As for the video...it's everything you've heard. The quality of the visuals is outstanding. Lots of detail and an amazing color palette. It's like seeing the series for the first time. Like many here, I had some concerns regarding the effects shots and just how far they'd take any potential changes. I think the best way to preface that discussion is to talk about "Energized", which is the brief documentary on disc one that describes the process CBS went through in figuring out how to bring TNG to HD. I initially thought most of the effects were going to be replaced with CG that was faithful to the original elements. I couldn't have been more wrong.
After a brief intro showing some SD/HD comparisons, "Energized" showcases some of the research and testing CBS performed to figure out how best to bring TNG to Blu-ray. At first, they considered upconverting the source tapes, some samples of which they provide in the documentary, but the quality was deemed unacceptable (and they were right). After a lot of deliberation, they realized the only way to do it properly was to go back to the beginning and rescan everything and reassemble it from scratch. I knew it was a significant effort, but the documentary makes it clear just how significant; the work required to catalog every shot and re-edit all that film without missing anything is staggering. And while they could have recreated all the effects using only CG like they did with TOS, CBS went back to the original film and digitally recomposited everything that they could--not just the sweeping shots of the Enterprise model that made use of multiple camera passes, but all the matte paintings of planets, cities, and more. From what I've seen so far, they've been judicious in "upgrading" the quality of the effects shots, replacing only what they had to and remaining faithful to the original effects. Okuda makes a comment at one point about how they left a lot of stuff alone despite a strong urge to "fix" it.
"Energized" makes it clear that this entire project is a labor of love performed by people who are true Trek fans themselves, and they took a very reserved approach to the new effects that pays great respect to the original effects. Audio issues aside, I've seen everything I need to see to know that I'm in for the remaining seasons.
