US vs UK

[Lagu]

Has anyone else here compared the quality of DVD's from the US and the UK.

Example 1: 3 Weeks ago I bought The Matrix from a US retailer. As far as I know it still hasn't been released in Britain yet.

Example 2: Has anyone tried to get hold of a copy of Terminator 2 in UK. Only seen one site selling it and that was a US import (way over-priced as well).

Now I'm willing to give Gameplay a chance but I can't see them matching any of the deals that are available over the internet from the US.

These remarks can be ignored by anyone out there who is unfortunate enought to have a region locked DVD drive.

There, at last I'm the first message on this forum. Hehehe(inane giggles).

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Lagu

Rules to live by:
'If its stupid but it works, it ain't stupid!'
'Professional soldiers are predictable; the world is full of dangerous amateurs.'
'Don't ever be first, don't ever be last, and don't ever voluteer to do anything.'
'Teamwork is essential; it gives the enemy other people to shoot at.'

[[BR] ScuD]

Ahhh the old story :)
I know nothing about DVD-ROM drives but anyone with an ounce of sense that has a standalone player should get it modified to play R1 discs fullstop. R2 discs in most cases get released far later than the US (Shawshank Redemption being one of the few exceptions) and have far less extras aswell as unforgivable ommisions like Pro-Logic sound only and non-anamorphic transfers, and we have yet to see any DTS discs here aswell :(

I get my R1 discs from a computer show once a month in Bristol and have picked up some cracking deals such as the Alien Legacy box-set for a measly £55 and paid £15-£20 for Texas Chainsaw massacre collectors edition, Taxi Driver CE, BladeRunner, full uncut versions of Zombie Flesh eaters and Dawn of the dead (which are still cut on R2 :( ) and I've had John Carpenters Vampires for months now and it's just been at the cinema here.

All in all you must have a modified player and totally avoid R2 discs and go for the R1 equivalents (R2 Starship Troopers anyone? hehe didn't think so).

ScuD

[This message has been edited by [BR] ScuD (edited 26-11-1999).]

[Pogue]

Wot's wrong with R2 Starship Troopers then???? or am I being thick???

Perfect example, I have Enter the Dragon on both R2 and R1.

R2 has the film...

R1 has the film, about 8 trailers from the cinema and TV, a documentary, an interview and introduction with linda lee cadwell, an interview with brucey, some miscellaneous footage of him beating some things up and last but not least an audio commentary from one of the producers and writers.

That is generally the same thing I have found with them all, go region 1 all the way :)

[[BR] ScuD]

R1 Starship Troopers has loads of extra's inc, Deleted scenes, Biographies, making of's, commentary, trailers etc

R2 disc has nothing except the film, and it's a flipper meaning you have to turn the disc over half way through, how cr4p is that?!!!!
:(

ScuD

[StealthBuda]

how you know if you pc can take R1 dvd's short of buying one to try?

[Lagu]

Try this site www.visualdomain.com (http://www.visualdomain.com)

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Lagu

Rules to live by:
'If its stupid but it works, it ain't stupid!'
'Professional soldiers are predictable; the world is full of dangerous amateurs.'
'Don't ever be first, don't ever be last, and don't ever voluteer to do anything.'
'Teamwork is essential; it gives the enemy other people to shoot at.'

[StealthBuda]

ta

[pob0000]

what are the colours like for the US discs?...I've got a laserdisc player (yes, old stuff, etc) that would play ntsc and pal discs...NTSC 3.54 or whatever always looked a bit "interesting" on the colour. Some film's would survive fine, but others would be, er, a bit pants. I ended up mod'ing the player to give the pure NTSC output (er, is that ntsc 3.54?) as before it was transcoded to pal and you couldn't control the hue.

about 95% of my discs are ntsc. Its not quite as bad as that with dvd.

[[BR] ScuD]

I'm not sure what is pure ntsc but my tv supports ntsc3.58 and ntsc4.43 both with hue adjustment, but when i use a ntsc dvd using a pure output the tv goes into 'auto' mode.
I get no probs with any of my 13 R1 titles regarding colour although i find that Aliens: special edition looks a little blueish in some scenes but adjusting the hue sorts it.

btw Laserdisc players where (and still are) so cool and there are still loads of titles which are unavailable on DVD like the Str Wars trilogy and Jurassic Park, Lucas and Speilberg r clearly mad :(

ScuD

[Blade]

Anybodys The Matrix a bit greyish in colour? Region1 rocks though,some cool films out not on Region2 yet.I got Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me,best laugh in ages,20 mins of uncut stuff too which is ace.


Blade

[pob0000]

yeah, ntsc 3.58, thats the "pure" chappie. not 3.54, ahem. when i was modding the player i think i read that 4.thingy was NTSC encoded for pal, which got rid of the hue control, and things looked a bit gray and stuff.

hehhe, i was one of those peeps that paid 250 dollars for the mega star wars box set, cav, etc, only to find that, er, 2 years later they re-do the films. heeh, cheers.


thing i like the most about dvds is the interactiveness. On lds you'll get chapters, etc, and special ones will have a page of text/pictures per frame, and you'll step through...but you dont get the up/down business.

[pob0000]

oh, and another bonus of dvd is that pal titles come with dolby digi/dts. only ntsc lds come with that...the pal ones, are, er, gay for that.

oh yeah, a good reason to get region 2 flicks:

I bought Sonatine on vhs a while ago after someone said i should see it. smart film. I then find it on laserdisc at Kencranes. Subtitles, widescreen, everything.

um, it turns up, I stick it on..

okkkaaaaay, American subtitling: er, funny. The uk vhs tape is soo much better at portraying the story with subtitles, the subtlety of it you dont notice until you watch the american and read....

"Buzz off, numbnuts".

so wrong.

[This message has been edited by pob0000 (edited 29-11-1999).]

[Phished]

[list]
[1] The Matrix is Now out in Britain as of 29-11-1999 (British date)
[2] Why is it That American TV has "Commercial" Breaks every 10mins which is about 5 or 6 breaks in a normal 1hr program and I have heard that even the movies over there on Cable have about 3 breaks in them.
[3] R1 disks are actually better as they are cheaper than over here. but I also think that it depends on what film you are actually watching as I can't actually see the Americans allowing themselves to be equal in quality to us so they would try to put the better quality on the R1 titles.

[pob0000]

there's also the slight issue of its-a-bigger-market. Not only is it a big domestic market, but as you can see, they also get sales worldwide to (i'd expect) a much bigger degree than any other country.

a bigger market will have more people willing to pay more for something. i guess.