Customer Reviews

COMPLETE SEASONS 1-7

5 star:		(97)
4 star:		(51)
3 star:		(36)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(58)

 

 

There are several important inadequacies you should know about this set before you buy:

1) The discs are in cheap, brittle trays -- easily subject to breakage -- rather than in well-built cases.

2) These trays are not labeled, and amazingly, there is no insert describing -- or even listing -- the episodes, or which discs they are on. Episode titles are printed on the disc labels, but that's all the info you get, so after spending $300, a buyer has to flip through the 49 discs like file cards, to find the episode s/he wants.

3) The discs are stuck into three unweildy clumps -- of either eight or nine trays, each -- that are held together by inexpensive adhesive tape. This tape seems likely to decay, and the result will be 26 individual, unlabled trays scattered around your living room. (Most trays have two discs).

4) The tray configuration leaves some discs uncovered, unless the whole awkward mess is stored together...a problem which will get worse when the trays inevitably separate.

The lone advantage is the bonus disc. Most of the features on the disc appear to have been meant for, and for some reason never made it onto, the original releases of seasons 4 - 7. That doesn't mean they're not worth watching; some of them are quite good. Of the three new features, the best offers interviews with several of the series' writers and producers. (However, it only tangentally deals with its supposed subject -- introduced by John DeLancie -- about Star Trek's cultural impact.) Less successful is the roundtable of visual effects wizards; it has interesting moments, but it did not explain enough for a layman, nor did it go into enough detail for an expert. The Will Wheaton-hosted "Legacy" looks at how Star Trek ideas have shown up at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but it's pretty vapid (not Wheaton's fault).

To be honest, I'm torn. I'm glad to have the bonus disc (the features on Q and Lwaxana were touching) but part of me wishes I'd purchased the previously released conglomeration of individual seasons, "Star Trek The Next Generation - The Complete Seasons 1-7". The price of that set has decreased to compete with this new, and somewhat inconsiderate, release...and the packaging of the old set is far easier to deal with.

This TV series is excellent as many reviewers will tell you. I have the "silver box" set of all seven seasons, so I was curious what this new set had that was different. Per my review of the details at www.startrek.com the only differences are: (1)the new green slimmer packaging for the 7 seasons, and (2)one more disk (#49) with new features. All the other disks #1-48 are the same as the "silver" boxes---ie. all the episodes and all the same extra features for each season. This new set is still fullscreen and has the same audio options. It is not HD as some may have hoped. Therefore, if you already have the 7 seasons, at least for me, it makes no sense to buy this set just to get one extra disk!

This complete series is not well organized. The disks are packaged all together--ie. not by Season, and there is NOT a synopsis of each episode. If you are looking for a particular episode, you will never find it the way this compilation is organized. Look for a Complete Series where the dvds are better organized physically, and have a summary of EACH episode.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Aside from the actual packaging, most of the people who commented here, obviously did not get the REAL box set, they got a BOOTLEG from Asia. Many of the newer DVD knock-offs have packaging that is nearly identical or better than the original. Most of it is copied and scanned directly off the American release. Many sellers even proudly proclaim "still in shrinkwrap" or similar, but the bootlegs are shrink-wrapped just like any other DVD is, and this is no guarantee that the item is authentic or even new (I can buy a shrink-wrap machine for less than four-hundred, with shrink-wrap included).

How to identify if you have a bootleg:
1. Insert the first disc, "Encounter at Farpoint," labeled "1," into a computer with a DVD drive. Right-click or ctrl-click on the disc's icon and select "Get Info" or "Properties." The disc size should be far greater than 4.38GB, somewhere around 7GB (nearly 8). If it's around 4.36GB... YOU HAVE A BOOTLEG, not even worth $100.
2. Your set did not come with a large fold out insert. At least to date (Spring 2011) all the bootlegs did not come with the insert (what most people here seem to be complaining about). If you have a fold-out paper insert, you probably have the real thing.
3. The printing/silkscreening on the discs are inconsistently blurry... the registration is not off, but the image is actually blurry. (If you don't know what this means don't attempt to use this as a method to figure it out. For those that care, most of the bootlegs had the disc graphic "descreened" to avoid moire-ing, and this blurs the image slightly.
4. The discs are "region-0" or regionless. If you can play these in any player specified for a region other than region-1, YOU HAVE A BOOTLEG. Since the printed "cover" on the bootleg is copied exactly from the real thing, it does clearly state "region-1." However, the BOOTLEG discs were copied without region coding, and therefore will play in any region. There are many Macintosh and Windows applications that can tell you what region an inserted disc is, so if you have these apps, use them... Almost all, with very few exceptions, modern films from the US are only region-1, or region-1 and a single other region (this does not hold with many old films and non-fiction/documentary films.).
5. Even though the Bootlegs look almost exactly like the real thing, they are made with severely substandard materials. That includes both the discs themselves, and the disc holders. Granted, the original packaging on this sucked, but the cheaper materials make the bootleg even worse (the plastic is more brittle). There is also NO quality control with the bootlegs, and you will find many of the following issues: cracked discs, often starting at the hub; fingerprints on the discs; glue on the shiny side of the discs, scratches, scrapes and burnishes on the shiny side; chunks out of the actual disc, usually near the hub; dirt and large amounts of dust on the disc. This quality control issue is a major problem with bootlegs, and it is not unheard of to have more than 1 out of 4 discs that are bad, unreadable, and that can crash a DVD-Player.
6. One of the obvious things... The picture quality is actually substandard to broadcast quality! The quality is less than 50% of the real thing! If you saw ST:TNG back when it first ran, the DVDs should actually look BETTER.

IF YOU ACTUALLY GET ONE OF THESE BOOTLEGS, IMMEDIATELY REPORT THE VENDOR TO AMAZON (OR WHOEVER YOU PURCHASED IT THROUGH), AND GET YOUR MONEY BACK!

If any mods/amazon employees see this, this should be pinned at the top of the reviews for all to see, as it is very clear that a very large number of the reviewers here, got the bootlegs, and didn't even realize it!

Granted, this set is cheaper than the other full set that was released a couple years ago, and cheaper than buying each season separately.

But still - come on, Paramount, stop (expletiving) the fans! If you're going to re-re-release ST:TNG, then DO SOMETHING with it!

I had hoped that they would release a set that might have commentary. Dear Sirs of Paramount: a great many TV shows are released on DVD with commentary on every episode. Even TOS DVDs come with a few text commentaries by Michael Okuda. For the love of humanity, why can't TNG get this?

By this point in the game, EVERY episode of TNG should come with an audio commentary by cast and producers AND Okuda's wonderful text comentaries he's done for other shows.

Until Paramount ponies up for some special features that are actually special, and actually show at least an iota of respect for the fans that have made Paramount fabulously wealthy, I ain't buying.

I really hoped this one would be the magic set, but it's just the same old, same old, repackaged, in the hopes that the fans will empty their wallets yet again for a fancier box and a stupid extra DVD that Paramount most likely will never, ever release anywhere or in any way except in this overpriced fan-(expletiving) box set.

Shame on you, Paramount.

It is Star Trek, fantastic.

My main reason for reviewing is to get the word out that nobody should go cheap on the price and get the asian release. Although advertised as the exact same thing, many episodes are cut off, AT THE END!! So you'll miss the ending of every few episodes, unless you use an online review site.

I highly suggest for any trek fan, to give out the extra cash, and purchase the american release. From amazon.com or one of the used ones, make sure it is the american release!

Dont buy from MEDIAMANNC there bad! boot leg dvds !!!!!!!! B ALERT!

I was so excited when I ordered this, couldn't wait to get it. I watched Season 1, then almost all of Season 2. My disc player couldn't read the last disc. I received the replacement and had a problem with jumping images on season 1 even thought the disc was clean. I checked the disc, cleaned my player and tried again. Same problem. Amazon refunded my money promptly. In reading the reviews I noticed someone else had problems with their original purchase and their replacement. Apparently, Paramount has either a problem with quality control, or no quality control at all. I also agree that the packaging is shoddy (holding the disc holders together with tape--what's up with that?) I would strongly advise against purchasing this item until Paramount fixes their disc issues. And I hope Amazon notifies everyone who was forced to get refunds due to Paramount's incompetance when this issue is resolved.

I own all seven series. Purchased them all about a year ago, when they first came out. I had to wait months for the seasons to be released after each other. It took around 9 months for them to finally release all 7 seasons on DVD. Here you have them all in one set. The picture looks great for all seasons, aside from a few in the first season. The 5.1 is what I've been waitng for. And i wasn't let down eiher. These DVD's serve as the trophy of my DVD collection. If I were to lose them somehow, I would buy the complete seasons 1-7, because I could not be left to watch spike. Who annoy me with their logo and commercial interruptions. The specials are wonderful, but the seasons lack commentary. This i was hoping for. But i live on with behind the scene footage. Interviews from as early as the beginning of the show to 2002. Jonathan Frakes still looks like yesterday in his interviews. I learned how dearly Patrick Stewert still feels towards the cast members. Another bonus are the uncut episodes. Such as "all good things", where you get perhaps 5 or 7 additional scenes. My favorite episode is genesis on the seventh season, or perhaps "the inner light" on the 5th season.

While I love the show, my wife loves it even more. So when her birthday came around I decided to go ahead and buy the whole thing for her. Great Idea! She LOVED it!

Then she opened the package. The packaging is cheap brittle plastic and half of the disc holders broke in shipping. The poster that was advertised on the page and even on the packaging was not included at all. That's not even the bad part. The discs are made with some kind of special copy protection, or they are made with some bad format that makes them unplayable in almost any DVD player. My computer, laptop, XBOX, and DVD player all refuse to play the discs, and most of them don't even see the disc as a DVD. So I thought maybe it was my equipment. I took the discs around, not at my friends houses, not at work, nowhere do they play correctly except ONE player. My PS3 actually plays them. I checked and they are legit, straight from paramount with their fancy name and logo on the back of the disc on the center track so I know they aren't some kind of Korean burned copies.

I am truly disgusted here. In an attempt to prevent people from making copies of something that has been already freely available on the internet for years before the product was released, these brainiacs at Paramount have made the product nearly worthless to LEGAL customers. This makes me just want to go download the free copies off the web. At least those will play on a standard DVD player...