Lead a pre-emptive strike against the Empire!

[Zwinmar]

It could also be, as far as cloaking technology goes, that SW sensors would easily see through the ST style cloaking devices. From what I remember ST cloaks do nothing to stop various forms of radiation from seeping out which should be detectible.

The Remans seemed to have found a way around this. From Memory Alpha:

The Scimitar's cloaking technology was, in the words of Geordi La Forge, "perfect." It emitted no tachyons and left no residual anti-protons, the two ways that a cloaked ship could be tracked and located. Thus, when cloaked, the Scimitar was virtually impossible to find.

"...in the words of Geordi La Forge..." the problem with that is it is subjective. From an in universe character. Remember before radar ships, et. al., could not be tracked. Or before sonar.

They could still leave a signature, not to mention a possible visual lensing effect. On the other hand SW sensors could just have the raw power to burn right through the cloak.

[Crazedwraith]

'Could' is the operative word there. Do you have any proof of this beyond 'because I think SW is better'?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Your username reminded me of something from Stargate Atlantis, where the ZPM-powered hive ship's sensors were sufficiently enhanced to be able to detect a cloaked puddle-jumper. Of course, since we have no real idea about how Wraith sensors or Stargate cloaks work it's impossible to draw any conclusions.

[Batman]

'Could' is the operative word there. Do you have any proof of this beyond 'because I think SW is better'?

If he had he probably wouldn't have phrased it as a maybe, don't you think? 'Could' indicates a possibility, nothing more.

And I think technically, 'the data is not sufficient to tell one way or the other' is a conclusion, it's just not a particularly useful one.

[the atom]

They could still leave a signature, not to mention a possible visual lensing effect. On the other hand SW sensors could just have the raw power to burn right through the cloak.

I love how an argument about sensors still can still end up boiling down to FIREPOWER OH YEAH.

[Simonoz]

Numerical evidence please?

[Captain Seafort]

"...in the words of Geordi La Forge..." the problem with that is it is subjective. From an in universe character.

It was also directly contradicted by the battle - the Scimitar was visible as she dropped out of warp, something we've never seen before, and which the frequent surprise shown when a ship decloaks near a vessel that's beaten it to a location (the BoP at Genesis, the Klingon fleet at DS9) indicates doesn't happen. It's possible that the Scimitar's cloak was no better than any other, and Shinzon had simply shut down all the usual tell-tales.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

"...in the words of Geordi La Forge..." the problem with that is it is subjective. From an in universe character.

It was also directly contradicted by the battle - the Scimitar was visible as she dropped out of warp, something we've never seen before, and which the frequent surprise shown when a ship decloaks near a vessel that's beaten it to a location (the BoP at Genesis, the Klingon fleet at DS9) indicates doesn't happen. It's possible that the Scimitar's cloak was no better than any other, and Shinzon had simply shut down all the usual tell-tales.

Except the small matter of weapons and shields being unaffected by cloaking

[Captain Seafort]

Except the small matter of weapons and shields being unaffected by cloaking

Old news - that was doable ninety years earlier.

[Batman]

Weapons was, and it was done once, so yes, I'd say being able to fire and raise/maintain shields while cloaked does mean the Scimitar's was better than the usual cloaks. Which has absolutely nothing to do with the core of your point which (as I understand it) is that there's no reason to assume it is any more absolutely positively undetectable than the standard TNG cloak just because Geordi called it 'perfect'. It's more flexible certainly-I don't think we've seen partial decloaking before-but there's plenty of evidence for the telltales that give away the presence of a cloaked ship being both well known and avoidable at need. So no, the Scimitar not being detectable while cloaked does not necessarily mean it was any better at cloaking than your run of the mill Klingon/Romulan cloak.

One does wonder what happened to the cloak from TUC. Sure, there was the neutron radiation spike, but that's STL. 'Yep, there definitely was a cloaked ship there 5 minutes ago' isn't particularly useful information in most situations, and that's assuming it's even detectable at those distances. The BoP in TUC had to sit right next to the E-A so it looked like she fired that photon torpedo. Not a requirement in general space combat.