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Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

This category contains articles related to the release of Star Trek on various home media video formats.

Note to MA editors: It has been observed that video home media entertainment formats have different run times for releases that were produced for those regions employing the NTSC television format (typically North-America, Central-America, and Japan for example), and those that employ the PAL/SECAM television formats, (typically Europe, Southern-Asia, South-America, Oceania, and Africa). This is related to the different frame rate in which the source production is transferred onto its respective format – to wit 24 frames per second (fps, and the motion picture and television standard in which productions are filmed) vs. 25 fps respectively – and translates itself in practice to an approximately 4% shorter run time of the PAL/SECAM formats due to their higher fps rate, especially the VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, and early generations of Blu-ray formats (the so-called "1080i" versions), and might lead uninitiated editors to erroneously conclude that scenes are omitted or curtailed, which is not the case.
When referring to a specific time-frame in a production, MA editors are therefore advised to indicate whether it concerns a NTSC production, or a PAL/SECAM production as a courtesy to other MA users. For a more detailed treatise on the in the analog era pertinent phenomenon, please refer to PAL's 4% Speedup.
It appears that this phenomenon no longer applies to the newer generations of Blu-ray releases (the so-called "1080p" versions – see: Remaster footnotes) – and their counterpart digital download formats for that matter – as the sharply increased picture quality with the advent of High Definition (television) has made the 25 fps format increasingly redundant, also meaning that the phenomenon is no longer relevant for aired television productions which are digitally produced in HD, regardless in which region they are broadcast. The newer generation Blu-ray releases adhere to the standard 24 fps format, likewise regardless of which television format a territory employs. In the case of Star Trek, the synchronization appeared to have come into being around mid-2009, as the Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Blu-ray still featured the different run times for its first (1080i) pressing, whereas the next release that year, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, was synchronized. Prior films in originally 1080i were eventually synchronized in 1080p for subsequent re-releases.

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