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Posted by Clem Dye on 10/24/52 11:38
Adrian wrote:
> Temsonic wrote:
>
>>"Mik F" <mik.foggin@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>news:1138357931.177107.301080@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>>
>>>Folks,
>>>
>>>As a long time lurker (few lunchtimes are complete without a quick
>>>visit to u.m.d and u.m.h-c,) I've noticed that there's a huge
>>>drop-off
>>>in requests for region comparisons.
>>>
>>>I was curious as to whether this was down to people googling for the
>>>results or whether it was more to do with the studios 'wising up' and
>>>releasing virtually identical discs worldwide in order to 'protect
>>>their territorial markets' hem hem.
>>>
>>>At the risk of reopening a can of worms, if price were the only real
>>>differential between US R1 and UK R2 on any given disc, would you be
>>>prepared to wait a week extra for delivery in order to save a quid or
>>>two?
>>>
>>>This is essentially the situation I'm facing with regard to a few
>>>films and TV series I've been meaning to get for a while now, and
>>>the only thing that keeps nagging at me is the old issue of NTSC vs
>>>PAL.
>>>
>>>Putting aside the 'PAL speedup' and 'NTSC pulldown' arguments, I
>>>think it's true to say that regardless of this NTSC and PAL differ
>>>in the number of scan lines available in the vertical axis of the
>>>screen; NTSC has 480, PAL has 576.
>>>
>>>This would seem to suggest that PAL has more information / detail in
>>>a 'screen' than the equivalent NTSC frame, or is this just true for
>>>broadcast images?
>>>
>>>If the R2 PAL film has better resolution in this respect it would
>>>seem
>>>to be a better bet but I suppose this might also be affected by the
>>>overall compression / bit rate of the disc itself.
>>>
>>>Thoughts and opinions?
>>>
>>>Mik
>>
>>After the initial novelty of extras wore off a few years ago, I now
>>often just go for the best release of the _film_ for my needs and
>>treat the bonus material as just that - a bonus. For example, I buy a
>>lot of world cinema stuff 'blind' just because I like the sound of
>>them from reviews. In these cases I often go for R3 releases because
>>they're cheap and tend to feature DTS, though they often have no
>>extras. This way I don't feel I've blown too much money if the film
>>turns out to be so-so.
>>
>>For films where I actually am interested in the extra material, it'll
>>depend on balancing up price, possible cuts, what the extras actually
>>are, whether the release is anamorphic, has 5.1 sound, DTS etc. The
>>Rewind website is invaluable for checking on this stuff and can save
>>quite a bit of Googling: http://www.dvdcompare.net
>>
>>As to NTSC vs. PAL, I still prefer PAL mainly because 3:2 pulldown
>>annoys me more than PAL speedup. Though technically there _is_ more
>>information and detail in a PAL picture, I find a decent anamorphic
>>NTSC DVD looks as good as PAL one. It's only on non-anamorphic NTSC
>>when you begin to see the scan lines that it really starts to look
>>ropey. Mainly though it comes down to price - if there's a decent
>>presentation of the film with no extras available for £7 vs. an
>>edition with extras for £15, I'll go for the £7 one regardless of
>>what region/standard it is.
>
>
> My main reason for importing these days is release dates, it's still common
> to be able to buy a R1 or R3 disc before the cinema release in the UK. As
> for the difference between PAL & NTSC, I soon don't notice it if I'm
> enjoying what I'm watching.
I tend to be a lot more selective now and will wait for the R2 UK
release of something before buying. I still use the DVDCompare website
and great though it is, it just can't seem to keep up (IMHO) with the
stuff that I'm interested in. Even if the BBFC doesn't have a go at the
titles, things like aspect ratio, audio tracks, etc. still seem to
differ between regional releases. I find really galling that when I see
an R2 UK film that I'd like to buy is offered in 4:3 aspect ratio or has
only DD2.0 audio whilst other regions get the pukka offering. OK, this
does work the other way too, but when I look at my DVD collection
there's an awful lot of R1/R3/R4 stuff that I went for because the R2 UK
release was seriously deficient in some way. Extras and so forth don't
interest me so that's never part of the buying criteria.
I'm awaiting the arrival of the forthcoming high-definition DVD with
keen interest, not because I want to be an early adaptor (certainly not
whilst there are two competing formats) but because of the issues
surrounding multi-region coding. I've seen conflicting articles on the
'Net - some say that it will be enforced even when playing SD media,
some don't. In any event, if the stories are true about players having
to be permanently connected to the 'Net to authorise disc playback, then
it's all academic, because I simply won't bother. I don't like the idea
of being 'held to ransom' when I've paid both for my player and media.
We'll soon see, I suppose .....
Clem
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