Due South U.S. release vs. Canadian release (1 Viewer)

[troy evans]

If this has been covered somewhere on the forum before please forgive and direct me to the thread, please. I'm looking to buy this series finally and am concerned about the video quality of the U.S. release vs. the Canadian release. Anyone here own either and would like to chime in I would be grateful. I don't mind paying more for the Canadian release if the video quality is superior. In the U.S. it's distributed by Echo Bridge and some have claimed that the masters used in the release are VHS.

 

[Gord Lacey]

I've heard bad things about the Echo Bridge/Platinum Disc Corp stuff from people that have both releases. I haven't seen either set myself, but I wouldn't touch the Echo Bridge stuff - I've never heard good reviews on their products.

Gord

 

[troy evans]

Thanks Gord for getting back to me on this. I trust your experience and will get the Canadian releases. They also have nicer packaging. Well, I'm off to amazon.ca. Thanks again.

 

[Justin Boggan]

I found this review on Amazon.com for the U.S. "Ultimate collection" set:



Is the Canadian release any better, or are there any plans for a better set? If it's as bad as the review says, I'll stick with free YouTube and other sites, rather than pay for really bad qaulity.

 

[Garysb]

To be fair here is a review of Season 3 of the set from Canada.

By Courtois Vincent "courtois_vincent" (La Baule) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
I am since the very beginning of this TV SHOW a big fan. In the past I bought in United Kingdom all first & second seasons episodes (including the pilot) on VHS PAL tapes. Okay!

When Due South was released on DVD, I jumped on this offer because I wanted so much to see it in crystal clear picture quality with an oustanding sound (the soundtrack including musics is wonderful).

I do not know how they did this disaster but the distributors produced a "so worst" DVD compression solution that you can see big visual artifacts on all episodes. I do accept that I watch my DVD on a 50" LCD TV Set which displays more technical issue than a small TV Set, but I get perfect picture display with the Avengers 1965 episodes! Not really funny...

This is my most disappointing purchase from Amazon (.com .ca, .fr, .co.uk). A so bad picture quality that I can get better picture quality playing the VHS tapes! Can you believe that! Shame on such greedy distributors that do not care of people who plainly love this outstanding TV Show.

I nevertheless bought the third season on DVD. As I never bought it on VHS Tape, I shall not be able to compare the disaster and will be certainly less deceived. Last but not the least: the pilot is published on this last DVD set! I am not sure that such distributors watched this TV Show one time in their life... (grin ))

Best regards.

 

[troy evans]

I recently purchased all the seasons from Canada. In the U.S. the show is released by Echo Bridge. In Canada the show is released through Universal/Alliance. To answer the question of which is better, the Canadian Uni/Alliance version is far superior in PQ. I assume they had better source masters available to them. A friend of mine bought the "Due South" dvd sets at Best Buy in the U.S. these sets were also released by Echo Bridge. Basically, the complete series collection is made up of these individual releases from Echo. So, me and my friend did a little A-B comparison of simular episodes from the different sets. It wasn't even close. On the Echo Bridge releases there were blue lines, video drop outs, pixelation and so on. That is ridiculous for a dvd release. These defects are not on the Uni/Alliance releases, regardless of what the reviewer says from Amazon.ca. Keep in mind the reviewer praises how good his VHS tapes look by comparison. Funny thing is the Echo release is mastered from VHS sources. He has the right to his opinion, but, I strongly disagree. To sum it up, Universal has put out many great tv dvd sets as far as PQ. Among them are Knight Rider, Magnum P.I., Miami Vice, Incredible Hulk, etc. etc. etc. The Canadian release is on par with those picture quality presentations. Echo Bridge is on par with years old VHS tapes. Choose Wisely.

 

[Justin Boggan]

Thanks for the answers. I'll hold out or one day get a region free DVD player and get the Canadian releases.

 

[Nick Martin]

Holy shit you're on here too, Justin?


Umm....you are aware that the U.S. and Canada (where I am) are both NTSC Region 1, right?

 

[Timothy E]

You do not need a region free player to see the Canadian releases. All Canadian DVDs are Region 1 just like in the USA and will play without any problem on American DVD players.