Canadien DVDs - Are they different from US DVDs? (1 Viewer)

[Brian O]

I just bought some DVDs online from a Canadien seller and they are all Region 1, but have a Canadien logo on the back of the case with the Canadien rating system.

My question is am I missing out on anything compared to US releases. Anything edited from Canadien movies? Or is the logo the only difference typically? Thanks

 

[Marc Colella]

It all depends on the title.

Most are identical in content to the U.S. release, but there are some that are different.
Which DVDs did you recently purchase?

BTW, it's "Canadian".

 

[Johnny G]

if there is a difference, it's "usually" an additional French language track which just reduces the bitrate of the rest of the disc.

 

[Kami]

A lot of the time they just replace the spanish track (US versions), with the French track I think.

 

[Chris M]

BTW, it's "Canadian".

Depends on if you're from Quebec or not! HAHA.
Chris.
PS, here's a thread for DVDs that are better from Canada:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=81774
and here's a thread for DVDs that are not available, or are worse in Canada:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=82723

 

[Karen Maraj]

Depends on if you're from Quebec or not! HAHA.

But this is an English speaking forum, not french!

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

In my experience, the words "Alliance Atlantic" on the cover (or the DVD retailers homepage) is a major warning signal. Those are the Canadian-created discs that sometimes vary substantially with what people in the US get.

For instance, there was an Alliance Atlantic release of Johnny Mnemonic that was pan&scan while the US release was widescreen, and the AA version of The Art of War was faulty (only worked right on widescreen TV's), etc.

Unfortunately, the only online retailers I've found that include the cost of shipping in their products, ship through a european intermediary somehow and send all movies as singles in padded envelopes are in Canada. I'd switch to a US-based retailer who could match that immediately, but so far have found none.

All three of those things add up to a painless importation of movies, as one movie has too low a value to be worth processing through customs and the european point of origin makes customs not want to bother in the first place...

 

[Eugene Hsieh]

In my experience, the words "Alliance Atlantic" on the cover (or the DVD retailers homepage) is a major warning signal. Those are the Canadian-created discs that sometimes vary substantially with what people in the US get.

Yes, it's often different, but sometimes it's better.

eg. Pulp Fiction & Trainspotting.

The Canadian versions are much better than the US version.

 

[Chris M]

I believe that the AA versions of "Life As A House" and "Lord of the Rings" are exactly the same... except LotR doesn't have the $10 gift certificate for the big 5 disc box set :frowning:
My question is... New Line used to release titles in Canada... why is AA doing it now? And will Blade II be an AA or NL title?
Chris.

 

[Johnny G]

Blade 2 is an Alliance release

 

[Rob Gillespie]

As an Englander, a lot of the DVDs I get are imported from Canada.

The only real issue I have, is that some of them come with dual english/french language covers. They proclaim that there's a two-sided insert - and they're right, but BOTH sides have english and french language when it really should be one lingo per side. A really stupid idea. I can't believe someone actually got paid money to make that decision.

 

[Brian O]

Hey, thanks for all the replies. It has been enlightening. Sorry to all the Canadians on the spelling miscue.

The DVDs I received recently from dvdmode.com are:

Royal Tenenbaums
Men of Honor
Bicentennial Man
The Blue Planet: Seas of Life
America's Sweethearts
Slap Shot SE
City of Angels - Is this one Anamorphic? It doesnt say on the box. The US version is.

I got them all for about US $66 delivered. Good deal! Any of these have any issues. I am not concerned with the alternate soundtrack or subtitles, I hope. Or am I? Thanks for the help!

 

[jacob w k]

That might be do to language laws which might force the cover to have both french and english but that is just a guess.

 

[Gui A]

Chris M:
Alliance has always handled New Lines releases...
If you remember happier times, they would just add a white sticker to the back that said Manufactured By Alliance Atlantis, and had a Quebec address.
It was a pain to remove, leaving sticky residue... but it was a lot better than the cluttered crap we get now.
They also handle Universal and Miramax releases.

The language laws really only should affect Quebec, as far as I'm aware. Alliance is just too cheap to ship French covers to Quebec, and English to the rest of Canada. They save a tiny bit of money by having both languages on both sides.

 

[Mark_Wilson]

BTW, it's "Canadian".

Funny you should say that...I was stuck waiting for a train to pass yesterday. It was a long one with a bunch of 'Canadian National' cars. Right in the middle was one that said 'Canadien National'! My wife and I couldn't figure out if it was a misprint or what.

 

[Daniel J]

Mark, the lettering style must have confused you. CN is one of the oldest and largest corporations in Canada!
The French language tracks are a bummer(I'd actually prefer spanish, as it's a language I know something of), but what's a Canuck to do? At least they havn't started replacing commentaries or isolated scores with french tracks.

 

[Mark_Wilson]

No confusion, they were painted in a large san serif font.
btw, I found this so perhaps both are correct:
http://pages.infinit.net/cperras/

 

[Enrique B Chamorro]

Beyond the French language tracks,
I thought the English tracks have a hard accent
on the vowels? a?


:b

 

[BradG]

Yes, that's true...all movies distributed here in Canada will often have an "eh" dubbed to the end of many lines.
It makes it so we can understand it...eh?

 

[Eugene Hsieh]

"Canadien" is correct in French.
In fact, Montréal's NHL hockey team is the Canadiens, in both English and French.