I got the copy of Star Trek: The Original Series (season 1) on HD DVD that I had ordered from DeepDiscount.com during their recent 20% off sale. I'm enjoying some episodes of it as I type. My one real complaint is in the packaging, with a couple of nits to pick.

First, I would note that I passed on buying the individual episode (or multiple episodes) DVDs when they were first released, and then passed on buying the DVD sets that were released, but when this HD DVD set was released, I knew I was going to have a hard time passing.  For those individual episode (or multiple episodes) DVDs, the prices seemed too high for the few episodes you'd get per disc.  Over time, the prices came down, but I still resisted buying because I felt there just wasn't enough value there for me.  When full season sets were available, there was the problem of the high cost per set.  The return for the investment just didn't feel right to me, so I passed still.

Now that the set is available on HD DVD, it is still expensive, but there are so many extras added, and a ton of work that shows through in the beautifully and lovingly restored episodes on these discs.  Cleaned up images, touched up (but not ruined or destroyed as Lucas did with Star Wars) special effects and prop images, and so many extras that a Trek fan could be busy for weeks watching all of the content on these discs.  What really sold me on the package was DeepDiscount.com's 20% off sale on top of their already discounted prices.  (Sorry, sale ended a few weeks ago folks).  Thanks to the 20% discount, the set price came down to a level that was just outside of the affordable range, and only barely in the slightly ridiculous range.  Close enough that I could swing the purchase as one of the presents of the holiday season and/or for my birthday.  Besides, if you do the math and divvy up the 10 discs that are included in the set, the price per disc isn't too bad.

Now, on to the nits -- the packaging for the set.  First, since the discs are combo discs (HD DVD on one side, DVD on the other), there's no 'face' to the discs with episodes noted on that face. Instead there's a set of plastic cards that fit into the neat-o Trek type case. Ummm, ok. I can buy that, but... the cards all came in one little sealed plastic package that was inside the bigger package. I guess it is assumed that the cards will not slide around that way. The buyer must open the set of plastic cards themselves and then insert those cards back into the neat-o Trek type case.

The discs themselves are kept in a book type clear plastic casing with a binding on one edge. The plastic book that holds the disc folds open for access to the discs in the set. Unfortunately there's no plastic cover over the top most disc (disc 1). That means if you aren't careful, as you take the book type case out of the bigger package you'll be fingerprinting the DVD side of disc 1. D'oh! The back of the inside plastic case does have a plastic cover so you won't be touching the HD DVD side of disc 10. I wish that the 'pages' of the inside plastic case each had a copy of the plastic cards discussed above, or at least had some documentation about what is on the discs in those slots of the case. Again, something that would be much bigger and more visible to show me what episodes are on which disc.

One final nit -- while the menu system is fairly intuitive and doesn't really require a manual or user guide, I am somewhat disappointed that there's no written notes in the package that tell the buyer of the various extras and options that are available. There are some fairly cool extras there, and I fear I might miss something I'd want to see just from not knowing it's there. Poor job of marketing the final product for customers.

On the actual images of the episodes on the HD DVD sides of these discs, beautiful. Simply beautiful. Nice clean images that are bright and sharp. Nice use of the pillar bar areas for showing icons noting extras that are available at various points while watching the episodes. Nice picture-and-picture splits for showing commentary information alongside the original episodes. About the only thing missing that I could speak of is the commercials that used to pop-up at the moments of maximum drama while watching these episodes. Expensive HD DVD set, but well worth it for this Trek fan.