iRewind Talk: DVD's region 1 VS region 2

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Topic: DVD's region 1 VS region 2

Smayt Shatner
Rewind Shaft -Can u dig it?
Member # 1500

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Has anybody else wondered why region 1 dvd's seem to be better value than region 2. I say this 'cos of the 'extras' that region 1's always seem to have.For example..I recently bought The Virgin Suicides (r.2) and all it came with was the theatrical trailer.Then I spotted a r.1 copy of the same film on a market stall,this version contained the trailer again plus a making of documentary,music video,stills gallery and other stuff like that.I love watching all the extra stuff,so why don't r.2's include them on all releases and not just 'special editions'. Anybody else find it annoying??

McFly
Rewind Jedi
Member # 354

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What I'll NEVER understand is why they are not released at the same time. Like Back to the Future came out in the UK in August 2002, but not until December in the states. Don't know what the point is to excluding extras and the release date thing. I guess it has to do with how it's sold foreign(???).

The Wizard
The 80s Hero you've been holding out for....
Member # 533

posted

Region 1 has a much much bigger market and hence any investment they put into making the DVD can easily be recouped, UK R2 is tiny in comparison but that doesn't mean all R1 titles are better than their R2 counterparts. For example two of my R1's are probably considered obselete due to the R2's being better in quality; Ladyhawke & The Black Hole both have anamorphic releases in the UK whilst the old R1's are letterboxed. Also an increasing number of R2's have DTS when their R1 counterpart don't (Finding Nemo is one of the most recent exmaples)

The biggest reason there are different release dates is because different companies own the rights to distribution in different countries.

deathbystereo80
Rewind Guru
Member # 2005

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quote:
Originally posted by The Wizard:
Region 1 has a much much bigger market and hence any investment they put into making the DVD can easily be recouped, UK R2 is tiny in comparison

Nah, this explanation doesn't make any sence, because R2 is not just UK but the whole of Europe plus Japan and South Africa. Europe alone as about 370 million people, whereas USA have about 270.

Smayt Shatner
Rewind Shaft -Can u dig it?
Member # 1500

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One thing I have noticed wuth Region 1 movies (and I have a multi-region player so i'm able to compare the two),is that occasionally with a scene that involves movement by a vehicle etc or a wide camera pan shot,the image seems to shudder a little.Whereas with a R.2 I have never experienced this...all movements appear nice and smooth.Anyone know why this is?

The Wizard
The 80s Hero you've been holding out for....
Member # 533

posted

Individual R1 releases have a bigger market than indivitual R2 releases because R1 only covers 2 countries yet R2 covers many many more with lots of different languages to contend with. A lot of UK R2 releases have subtitles and foreign languages, the average being about half a dozen on the subtitles and 3 or so on the languages meaning those particular releases don't cover the entire R2 spectrum.
Japan can be left out of this argument because their R2 is NTSC.

The reason you see juddery movement when watching R1's is that they store the film on the DVD at film framerate (well 23.976fps, film is 24fps) so to get the 30fps of NTSC (29.97 to be exact) the DVD player employs something called 3:2 pulldown in which some frames are repeated. 3:2 pulldown kills smooth motion - I personally hate it.
To avoid the 3:2 pulldown effect you need to play it on a progressive output - either on a PC or using a specific DVD player and screen (ie plasma) that are progressive compatable.

There are a few main ways that DVD players in the UK deal with outputting the video of NTSC DVDs;
- pure NTSC video signal which your tv must be capable of handling otherwise it'll go b/w or the picture will roll (pure NTSC is quite common amongst DVD players)
- PAL60, a hybrid signal which has the framerate and resolution of NTSC but the colour signal of PAL (not many players do this)
- convert to true PAL, a lot of players can output NTSC DVDs to PAL but not all can do it very well and will produce really bad juddery motion
- output progressive or RGB, the video signal isn't combined into one (composite) or two (s-video) streams but sent direct to the tv as red, green and blue just like monitors (progressive output on DVD players is much less common but the number of those that do is growing)

PAL runs at 25fps so when they encode a film to PAL format they (99.9% of the time) just make the film play back at 25fps and speed up the audio to synchronize it with the video.

[ 25. November 2003, 19:35: Message edited by: The Wizard ]

McFly
Rewind Jedi
Member # 354

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Huh, I noticed that too. Except backward, my region 2's play with a bit of a stall when the camera is panning.

As for black and white or loss of horizontal, neither one of my players will even get past the DVD brand screen. Just says wrong region and stops.

And here's one I gotta ask: is it just me, or do the R2's seem to be played at a faster rate? I've watched the same movie with different codings and on R2 the actors voices seem higher. [Confused]

Smayt Shatner
Rewind Shaft -Can u dig it?
Member # 1500

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WOW... you guy's certainly know alot about DVD's. Thanx for the info you shared with me (and everyone else).
I've only had the dvd player for a week and to be honest I thought there was something wrong with it 'cos of the difference in picture quality with certain films.But you've put my mind at ease.
I'm afraid McFLY (hellooo McFly)I have'nt noticed what you described.But if I ever do i'll get back to ya.Thanx again guys. [Big Grin]

Riptide
Rewind Idol
Member # 457

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Maybe Wizard can help me on this. Usually you say region 1 is better, but I just picked up the North American version of 24 Hour Party People, there were some deleted scenes and extras, but the British edition is a double DVD's with a lot more extras and footage. So it doesn't seem like it in this case.

The Wizard
The 80s Hero you've been holding out for....
Member # 533

posted

If you have a multiregion player and want to buy the best version of a film, always look it up on this site to see which release comes out tops:

http://www.dvdcompare.org.uk

They also tell you if the UK release is cut or not (BBFC hate headbutts, flick knives etc., some films are butchered to pieces like Eraser, so annoyed I bought the UK DVD of that)

The site proves that for extras/quality etc., region 1 doesn't always 'win', for example search for "Donnie Darko".

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