Discuss!
Region One vs. Region Two.
The number of region 1 titles out there still out numbers region 2 quite badly.
When will we ever catch up?
When will we ever catch up?
Hi Mark nice to see a new moderator.
Anyway, region 1 Vs region 2. Well it's obvious DVD buyers who don't get their player chipped are REALLY missing something great. Region one discs on the whole are better by being anamorphic (more transfers anamorphic in R1 than in R2) having extras which are worth watching and some are now even having both DTS and DD5.1 and if you have a DTS amplifier only then will you really appreciate the sound quality! don't rule R2 out though, they are slowly catching up just name The Thomas Crown Affair. It has more extras in the R2 version than the R1 version (i bought the R1 version....damn) but something that will kill region 2 is the increasing prices of discs. First at 15.99 then some 19.99 but now >19.99 such as the fox ones (thank goodness for play DVD www.play247.co.uk) Anyway i'm talking/writing to much, what do others think.
Anyway, region 1 Vs region 2. Well it's obvious DVD buyers who don't get their player chipped are REALLY missing something great. Region one discs on the whole are better by being anamorphic (more transfers anamorphic in R1 than in R2) having extras which are worth watching and some are now even having both DTS and DD5.1 and if you have a DTS amplifier only then will you really appreciate the sound quality! don't rule R2 out though, they are slowly catching up just name The Thomas Crown Affair. It has more extras in the R2 version than the R1 version (i bought the R1 version....damn) but something that will kill region 2 is the increasing prices of discs. First at 15.99 then some 19.99 but now >19.99 such as the fox ones (thank goodness for play DVD www.play247.co.uk) Anyway i'm talking/writing to much, what do others think.
more of the r2 software will have extras the r1 does not as it has to be recoded rehashed the makers have had a chance to rethink what features they want on the discs. however i personally think this region coding nonsense will go on for a few years yet although i notice that even maplins are selling a multiregion machine now so there may less pressure on retailers not to sell and or advertise selling multiregion or chipped machines..
has anyone got a dvps325 and watched deep blue sea on it? i noticed a bit of dropout halfway through the film.. more of a pause than actual drop out is this something anyone else has noticed???
has anyone got a dvps325 and watched deep blue sea on it? i noticed a bit of dropout halfway through the film.. more of a pause than actual drop out is this something anyone else has noticed???
You may find that R2 titles actually have less extras than titles from our R1 cousins.
Why? All extras for the UK titles have to be passed by the BBFC and some studios just can't be bothered or consider it a waste of time or money.
The Matrix, Godzilla and quite a few others are examples.
[This message has been edited by Jose Cardoso (edited 19 March 2000).]
Why? All extras for the UK titles have to be passed by the BBFC and some studios just can't be bothered or consider it a waste of time or money.
The Matrix, Godzilla and quite a few others are examples.
[This message has been edited by Jose Cardoso (edited 19 March 2000).]
"Hi Mark nice to see a new moderator."
Hiya!
"Region one discs on the whole are better by being anamorphic (more transfers anamorphic in R1 than in R2)"
Hmmm. While I agree with most of what you say I have to take exception on this point, on two counts. Firstly the number of anamorphic transfers in region two is FAR higher than in region one - many buena vista titles, all Fox titles except Titanic, all Paramount titles are going to be, many MGM titles, etc.
Second count is that non-anamorphic PAL and anamorphic NTSC are virtually the same resolution anyway.
"something that will kill region 2 is the increasing prices of discs. First at 15.99 then some 19.99 but now >19.99 such as the fox ones"
see our recent Fox Boycott over at DVD News UK (www.dvdnews.co.uk) - we took fox on at the head, got coverage in many magazines, got a number of internet retailers to boycott all Fox products, and as a result, all Fox and Pathe discs are now £19.99 or less, apart from those already released.
Also UK and US RRPs for DVDs are broadly the same - the difference comes in the markups applied by retailers - a lot of the US retailers are running DVDs at less than cost to establish market position - for this reason they are not making any profit and it will not go on for much longer (for e.g. reel.com's parent company are trying to get rid of them as fast as possible due to the financial drain that they are).
So while they ARE more expensive here, it's not because the studios are overcharging anymore. At RRP Fox and Buena Vista DVDs are now CHEAPER than their US counterparts if you take into account VAT.
Hiya!
"Region one discs on the whole are better by being anamorphic (more transfers anamorphic in R1 than in R2)"
Hmmm. While I agree with most of what you say I have to take exception on this point, on two counts. Firstly the number of anamorphic transfers in region two is FAR higher than in region one - many buena vista titles, all Fox titles except Titanic, all Paramount titles are going to be, many MGM titles, etc.
Second count is that non-anamorphic PAL and anamorphic NTSC are virtually the same resolution anyway.
"something that will kill region 2 is the increasing prices of discs. First at 15.99 then some 19.99 but now >19.99 such as the fox ones"
see our recent Fox Boycott over at DVD News UK (www.dvdnews.co.uk) - we took fox on at the head, got coverage in many magazines, got a number of internet retailers to boycott all Fox products, and as a result, all Fox and Pathe discs are now £19.99 or less, apart from those already released.
Also UK and US RRPs for DVDs are broadly the same - the difference comes in the markups applied by retailers - a lot of the US retailers are running DVDs at less than cost to establish market position - for this reason they are not making any profit and it will not go on for much longer (for e.g. reel.com's parent company are trying to get rid of them as fast as possible due to the financial drain that they are).
So while they ARE more expensive here, it's not because the studios are overcharging anymore. At RRP Fox and Buena Vista DVDs are now CHEAPER than their US counterparts if you take into account VAT.
Jose, The reason why extras are not put on the R2 discs are because of the BBFC (like you said) but more importantly there isn't that much space for it because on the whole R2 discs carry many more soundtracks and subtitles which all take up space on the disc which r1 discs don't have to deal with (because R2 has to cater for all of europe) If i had my way i would make all R2 discs have extras but you would have a double sided disc. One for the WHOLE film and the other for the MANY (i can hope can't i 
) extras. Bust that's not going to happen is it?
) extras. Bust that's not going to happen is it?
That is another reason. Unfortunately there are a few R2 titles out there without extra language tracks and still suffer from less extras that their R1 versions.
Maybe things will sort themselves out in time when studios target more individual countries, negating the need for the extra language tracks.
Maybe things will sort themselves out in time when studios target more individual countries, negating the need for the extra language tracks.
Another reason is the greater space it takes to encode PAL video - you have around 100 extra lines in each frame which leads to an increased amount of data required per minute.
Hey Mark, you have a very informative site, keep up the good work!
Anyway, on to the topic.
There is two reason's that most of my collection currently is Region 1, these are cost and availability of new titles.
Titles generally appear on region 1 before region 2, a good example of this is Three Kings which will be out on DVD in region 1 next month. With region 2 DVD's being uncompetitive on price compared to region 1 DVD's at the moment, it is very hard to justify waiting the extra few month's for the region 2 releases. As you have said this will probably change over the next few years when the online companies actually try to make a profit. I personally believe if the high street stores can do offer's like 2 for £30 and buy one get one half price, then the UK based internet companies should be able to make an even better deal. As they should have less over heads than a high street store. At the moment I look at the prices at some Internet stores and knocking off just 1 UKP off RRP of many titles is not enough. I use play247 for my region 2 purchases as they have reasonable prices. Although I wonder if the reason they are reasonable is because they are located in Jersey, as the package had a customs stamp similar to items I import from the states. (Maybe indicating that they don't pay VAT?)
Another fact which is likely to make me more likely to buy region 2 DVD’s in the future is that many studio’s are planning to introduce rental window on their region 1 DVD’s. Making them very expensive like VHS videos are when they first come out.
Anyway, if anyone wants to make any more comments on this please feel free to do so.
Anyway, on to the topic.
There is two reason's that most of my collection currently is Region 1, these are cost and availability of new titles.
Titles generally appear on region 1 before region 2, a good example of this is Three Kings which will be out on DVD in region 1 next month. With region 2 DVD's being uncompetitive on price compared to region 1 DVD's at the moment, it is very hard to justify waiting the extra few month's for the region 2 releases. As you have said this will probably change over the next few years when the online companies actually try to make a profit. I personally believe if the high street stores can do offer's like 2 for £30 and buy one get one half price, then the UK based internet companies should be able to make an even better deal. As they should have less over heads than a high street store. At the moment I look at the prices at some Internet stores and knocking off just 1 UKP off RRP of many titles is not enough. I use play247 for my region 2 purchases as they have reasonable prices. Although I wonder if the reason they are reasonable is because they are located in Jersey, as the package had a customs stamp similar to items I import from the states. (Maybe indicating that they don't pay VAT?)
Another fact which is likely to make me more likely to buy region 2 DVD’s in the future is that many studio’s are planning to introduce rental window on their region 1 DVD’s. Making them very expensive like VHS videos are when they first come out.
Anyway, if anyone wants to make any more comments on this please feel free to do so.
If it was announced at the same time as a R1 disc was released that the forthcoming R2 one had the same features
1) would you wait for the R2?
2) how long would you wait?
3) how much would you pay for it?
1) would you wait for the R2?
2) how long would you wait?
3) how much would you pay for it?
>something that will kill region 2 is the
>increasing prices of discs
No, it won't.
You have to remember that within the next few years, the huge majority of DVD owners will be your average punters who really don't care about extras or BBFC censorship - and they will look at the price of the discs as the price they have to pay, just as they now do with CDs.
The people who will be importing discs from overseas will be the enthusiasts like us - and we will always be in the minority.
>has anyone got a dvps325 and watched deep
>blue sea on it? i noticed a bit of dropout
>halfway through the film.. more of a pause
>than actual drop
Sounds a lot like the layer change - it's perfectly normal.
>increasing prices of discs
No, it won't.
You have to remember that within the next few years, the huge majority of DVD owners will be your average punters who really don't care about extras or BBFC censorship - and they will look at the price of the discs as the price they have to pay, just as they now do with CDs.
The people who will be importing discs from overseas will be the enthusiasts like us - and we will always be in the minority.
>has anyone got a dvps325 and watched deep
>blue sea on it? i noticed a bit of dropout
>halfway through the film.. more of a pause
>than actual drop
Sounds a lot like the layer change - it's perfectly normal.
Apologies if this is old hat, but is Region 1 and Region 2 the same difference as NTSC and PAL.
My brother in law bought a portable player when in the far east. It can output both PAL and NTSC to a TV, but the LCD screen can only play back NTSC discs. Does this mean that he should only buy Region 1 discs. If so where is the best place for him to get them - he lives in France, but spends a lot of time in the UK.
My brother in law bought a portable player when in the far east. It can output both PAL and NTSC to a TV, but the LCD screen can only play back NTSC discs. Does this mean that he should only buy Region 1 discs. If so where is the best place for him to get them - he lives in France, but spends a lot of time in the UK.
You're not wrong but you're not right. Sure, Region 1 are NTSC and Region 2 are both PAL and NTSC (Usually the far eastern e.g. japanese dvds are NTSC and the european are PAL) Region coding is something that the major film manufacturers agreed with electronics companies when they were formulating DVD's to make sure that they could control where their DVD's were distributed and could play. They did this becuase films are usually out months in america than they are out in england so when the DVD comes out in america the same film will probably only just be in the cinema in UK. If people just bought the DVD the film companies would lose a lot of revenue. At first this worked and only a few people got their players "chipped" so they could play all region DVD's (there are 5 in all) but it was expensive. Nowadays though chipped DVD players are common place and incredibly cheap. (Approx £30)
Coming back to your question if your brother has a region free player (multi region) i would recommend you buy region 1 disc becuase on the whole they have more features, are better and are NTSC. But if you got it from Japan etc it might be Region 2 only which in that case you'd have to buy region 2 NTSC discs.
For buying discs your brother is best off buying from mail order/internet or telephone. To find out the latest retailers pick up a DVD review at WHSmith or do a search on Yahoo. Personally i use www.play247.co.uk Try them!
I hope that helps!
Nikhil
Coming back to your question if your brother has a region free player (multi region) i would recommend you buy region 1 disc becuase on the whole they have more features, are better and are NTSC. But if you got it from Japan etc it might be Region 2 only which in that case you'd have to buy region 2 NTSC discs.
For buying discs your brother is best off buying from mail order/internet or telephone. To find out the latest retailers pick up a DVD review at WHSmith or do a search on Yahoo. Personally i use www.play247.co.uk Try them!
I hope that helps!
Nikhil
Personally, I would buy R1 if I had to wait for R2 for in excess of three months.
I think 14.99 should be the RRP for DVD's, 19.99 for SE versions.
I think 14.99 should be the RRP for DVD's, 19.99 for SE versions.
Originally Posted by Nikhil:
“Jose, The reason why extras are not put on the R2 discs are because of the BBFC (like you said) but more importantly there isn't that much space for it because on the whole R2 discs carry many more soundtracks and subtitles which all take up space on the disc which r1 discs don't have to deal with (because R2 has to cater for all of europe) If i had my way i would make all R2 discs have extras but you would have a double sided disc. One for the WHOLE film and the other for the MANY (i can hope can't i ) extras. Bust that's not going to happen is it?”
“Jose, The reason why extras are not put on the R2 discs are because of the BBFC (like you said) but more importantly there isn't that much space for it because on the whole R2 discs carry many more soundtracks and subtitles which all take up space on the disc which r1 discs don't have to deal with (because R2 has to cater for all of europe) If i had my way i would make all R2 discs have extras but you would have a double sided disc. One for the WHOLE film and the other for the MANY (i can hope can't i
) extras. Bust that's not going to happen is it?”
I know that this is going off the topic of DVD regions, but your comment I've just quoted reminds me of a Playstation game known as Spyro Year Of The Dragon where one of the NTSC versions had extra soundtrack music available, whereas the PAL version reused a lot of the soundtrack music throughout the game due to the space being needed for all of the languages for all of the different PAL regions!
