Region 1 the lowest quality? (1 Viewer)

[CraigL]

Jon, we should chat. I'm going to have a Robocop disc for sale soon. Never used. I'm in NYC as well.

 

[Mason Y]

They're still on the shelves in DVD shops in Japan. A friend of mine picked up a copy for me the other day at a local store.

 

[Paul James]

Mason,

That's great but it doesn't really help me when I am in Australia though.

Paul

 

[Mason Y]

Me neither since I live in Canada

The point is that they are still around so even if retailers are listing them as "out of print" it shouldn't be too hard to find through mail order.

 

[Tom Tsai]

"I have many Japanese films in my collection (mostly Criterions). And of course I love sushi. However, I feel that it's really weird having American movies in Japanese editions. I don't know, maybe it's just me... "

So according to your Criterion collection, you have Japanese movies in American editions...doesn't feel that weird does it?

 

[Paul James]

Never ordered via mail order before, I'll have to keep an eye on eBay and hope I don't buy a bootleg

Paul

 

[Eric Eash]

check on ebay for the jurassic park superbits, just saw like 4 sets going for around $30-$40. why can another region get jurassic park superbits and not region 1. it's just not fair!(in a 2nd grade girls voice,LOL)

eric

 

[Mike_Richardson]

I don't agree with the subject of this thread at all.

Having been purchasing DVDs from all over the world for nearly three years now, I can say that I think many people who automatically assume that international DVDs "often have better transfers" than their R1 counterparts would be for a gigantic surprise.

Yes, there are the ocassional DVDs that show up with DTS and better 16:9 transfers -- but when it's all said and done, I think these are in the minority compared to the large majority of titles that are either similar to, or actually inferior than, their U.S. counterparts. (If I had a nickel for every lousy UK transfer in R2 I've seen, I'd have enough to buy all the MGM Special Editions available outside the US!).

The Special Edition 2-disc of PREDATOR is one of the first things I point to: sure it has all kinds of extras, but the transfer (and this is on the Japanese R2 I have) is nowhere as good as the US 16:9 DTS release, in either color, contrast, or matting (the SE seems to be over-matted).

Again, that doesn't mean some great international DVDs preferrable to US releases aren't worth getting -- just that titling a thread "Region 1 the lowest quality?" is, IMHO, absurd when the great majority of the "top DVDs" I've seen are indeed in R1.