If you’re a fan of J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the original Star Trek films you can now enjoy Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) in 4k Ultra HD on Blu-ray. What’s more, both UHD BD releases include HDR specifications for further enhancements in color depth and detail in light and dark areas.
Some say HDR is a more significant enhancement to video than 4k (which increases video resolution to 3840 × 2160), but not many 4k TVs support the format and tend to be a lot more expensive than TVs that don’t.
But regardless of the HDR enhancement, both Star Trek films feature video resolution with 8.3 megapixels — that’s four-times greater than conventional Blu-ray. And, each Ultra HD Blu-ray release includes a Dolby Atmos soundtrack — the newest immersive sound format that goes hand-in-hand with Dolby Vision (Dolby’s HDR format).
Let’s take a look at the details for these two editions. It should be noted that the UHD BD format does require an Ultra HD Blu-ray player, but for those waiting to purchase a player the editions also include Blu-ray and Digital HD copies.
Video
Both Star Trek (labelled Star Trek XI on Amazon) and Star Trek Into Darkness include an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc formatted with H.265 video compression at 2160p and 2.40:1 widescreen aspect ratio. And, both films are encoded with High Dynamic Range (HDR) content that requires a TV that supports HDR and HDMI 2.0a connection.
Audio
Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness provide audio in English24-bit Dolby TrueHD 7.1 encoded with the Dolby Atmos substream. However, the higher level audio formats are backwards compatible with legacy formats if your audio or home theater system doesn’t support them. The editions also include Dolby Digital 5.1 in French, Spanish, and Portuguese languages.
Copies
Both combo editions from Paramount Pictures Home Media include an Ultra HD Blu-ray copy, Blu-ray copy, and Digital HD copy that can be redeemed with either UltraViolet or iTunes.
Want to purchase an Ultra HD Blu-ray player? Right now the only UHD BD player in the US is the Samsung UBD-K8500. But, Philips is expected to start shipping their BDP750 & BDP7301 models this month, and Panasonic will hopefully drop the price of their expensive UB900 before it starts shipping in the US.
