The JJ Abrams re-imagined Star Trek has finally been released in HD on iTunes, much to the excitement of Star Trek fans and non-fans everywhere. Both Paramount and Apple are touting exclusive content that is available only via iTunes Extras, the new collection of additional content that movie studios can now include with movies sold on the iTunes Store. However, most of the content isn't all that "exclusive," and it seems the physical disc releases offer a much better value.
To give you an idea of the value proposition of buying Star Trek via the iTunes Store, the SD download costs $14.99 and the HD download (at 720p) will run you an additional $5. Both come with the iTunes Extras content, which includes two featurettes—A New Vision, which details JJ Abrams attempt to look at the original crew of the USS Enterprise through a new lens, as well as Score, which shows how composer Michael Giacchino adapted the original themes to create an updated score for the new film.
In addition, there is a collection of the international trailers for the film from Germany, Spain, France, Russia, Hungary, and Thailand, as well as trailers for the US and Canada. There are also two photo galleries of poster art and production stills, links to Web content, three prominent links pimping the soundtrack, and two iPhone apps also available from the iTunes Store.
"None of this content will be on the DVD/BD release," Paramount spokesperson Kristen Tarnol originally told Ars. "This is the key to the iTunes Extras content—it's only available on iTunes. [Production company] Bad Robot and Paramount Digital Entertainment put a lot of time and effort into making the iTunes content exclusive and different from the DVD, which has its own cool stuff!"
However, Ars discovered the content isn't all exclusive after all. Project Manager Clint Ecker, being the Star Trek fan that he is, took the plunge and downloaded the entire 7.3GB HD package from iTunes. The two featurettes included in iTunes Extras aren't, in fact, exclusive—a fact that we were able to later confirm with the Paramount spokesperson. They are on both the two-disc DVD and three-disc Blu-ray versions. Both of these versions can be had for about $20 from various online and brick and mortar retailers, and they both include a "digital copy" that can be transferred to your computer. There is a "secret code that unlocks additional content" in iTunes Extras—but it only gives you additional poster art.
"All in all, pretty lame," Ecker said.
Compared to the offerings on disc—which include hours of additional featurettes, deleted scenes, and other content—buying Star Trek on iTunes just isn't that great a value. Unless you've abandoned optical media altogether (and remember, the discs come with a downloadable digital copy), buying a physical copy just makes more sense. What little content is actually exclusive to iTunes Extras seems little more than an attempt to get serious fans to buy two different copies.
Our advice: If you're looking from something truly extra, both Target and Amazon have special collector's editions that come with different USS Enterprise models—they're like getting a toy and a movie at the same time.http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/11/star-trek-comes-with-itunes-exclusive-extras-but-bilks-fans.ars
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