I've noticed on many blu-rays that the Trailers and Deleted Scenes have better picture quality than the actual movie. Just recently I just re-watched Star Trek (2009) and while the movie looked great, it just wasn't as "crisp" as the picture quality of the Deleted Scenes. Even the documentary looked better than the movie.

I've also noticed this on many recent movies. Does anyone know what the issue is? Are they trying to make the movie look more "film-like" by adding grain? Or is the bit rate of the movie lower than the special features? Or am I crazy?

1. This should've been put in HD Talk
2. I don't have the blu-ray of Star Trek so can't comment, but I'm sure others will.
3. Any other movies you found this on? I'd like to check this out myself.
4. You might be crazy... but that is okay around here

Try Sherlock Holmes - also very noticeable.

Many things go into the final look of a film on Blu-ray. Often the filmmakers purposely tweak the film in postproduction to create a certain look, to set a mood or tone. Unfortunately that occasionally degrades the picture quality in comparison to the original elements you likely saw on the deleted scenes.

There are other causes, like studios who apply unnecessary digital processing like filtering on the transfer of the film.

Film naturally has grain, so it is going to have a slightly gritter look to it as opposed to most of the EPK and behind the scenes material, which is usually shot on digital video (also in HD for more recent stuff like Star Trek), so it won't have any of that grittiness to it. As for deleted scenes and trailers, most times they aren't color corrected or post processed like the movie is, so they tend to be a cleaner version of what finally ends up in the movie.