Info on import Blu-ray titles

[noodles_are_food]

thanks for the detailed reply. Regarding the question about the releases being the same for major studios, I would have assumed as much; after all, why take the time to encode something more than once within the same studio(?). My hesitation came after reading the review of Starship Troopers on this site where they compared the US and UK versions, which DID use a different encode/codec; however they said the images were virtually identical. And in line with what you said, Starship Troopers was release by Sony in the USA, but by the smaller Buena Vista in the UK. So I will assume that you are absolutely correct for now and buy some damn Blu-Rays!

As per my suggestion of a thread, I did manage to start one. I am going to follow this up and contact the home video distribs of SONY and WARNER and maybe a couple of others and report what I find out (though again I am sure your explanation is correct). One can never be too informed.

I have to ask: How are you so well-informed about such a specific question? Anyway, glad I asked on this post...

Cheers!

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by noodles_are_food

...
I have to ask: How are you so well-informed about such a specific question? Anyway, glad I asked on this post...

Cheers!

Glad to have helped I've just been importing quite many discs myself from various countries and reading and contributing to the topic related info in various forums and I was maintaining a HD DVD import titles thread here in HDD for about a year earlier on as well. I enjoy it as a hobby. I did import 28 HD DVDs from Australia too as the prices there were particularly attractive at some point.

[Arkadin]

looks great Kannisto!
thanks so much.
you're the best!

[DCSholtis]

kannisto when you become aware of In Bruges pre order info going up anywhere could you please let me know. That's one title I'm anxiously waiting for. Thanks!

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by DCSholtis

kannisto when you become aware of In Bruges pre order info going up anywhere could you please let me know. That's one title I'm anxiously waiting for. Thanks!

Sure, I will. I've been checking up on it in axelmusic.dk and megastore.se every now and then but no pre-orders available yet. I guess those shops don't list it yet because the release date is still about 3 months ahead. I'll list the links as soon as I find them anyway.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

looks great Kannisto!
thanks so much.
you're the best!

Thanks Arkadin! I hope it will be pretty good by the time I've scanned and entered all relevant import countries' titles I think after Japanese titles I'll work on a list for Nordic countries next (shouldn't take too long), and then I'll do a French list.

[DCSholtis]

Thanks kannisto and to echo Arkadin it is looking great and you are indeed the best at it.

[kannisto]

I got Rendition from UK (BlahDVD) last Friday and watched it last night. I liked the movie pretty much.

Unfortunately it's region B locked (a Newline release). It's pretty cheap at BlahDVD (£9.85 + £1 for international shipping).

Although the shop is based in Jersey to my knowlege, they shipped my disc from Switzerland. My previous packages from there have been shipped from Jersey. Anyway it arrived in 4 days from shipping.

The PQ and AQ were pretty solid, very strong saturated colors. There might have been some very light filtering, There were quite many extras, most of them in full HD too and none in SD PAL. A pretty solid purchase at that price except for the region B lock...

[ahsoka]

These titles on the Japanese BD list are region free.

White Mexico
Cherry Pie
Onpu to Conpu
Tokyo no Uso
Shin SOS dai Tokyo tankentai

[Kimba1970]

I got today "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso" and "Trainspotting": just some quick observations:

1) VM Japan, HMV service is really great : they delivered to Italy from Japan in a week with more time wasted in Italy from my local post office to my mail box than anything else . Reasonable prices and good service ... I could get use to that !

2) I have taken a quick look at the movies, which both work flawlessly on my European PS3 : both PQ are so and so (3,5 , grain and noise especially "Trainspotting", some low contrast scenes again in "Transpotting", good colors and wavering detail level). Then again I bought them blind because I love both movies so for me it's not a big deal. No judgment about AQ as usual since my audio system .. well .. sucks...

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by ahsoka

These titles on the Japanese BD list are region free.

White Mexico
Cherry Pie
Onpu to Conpu
Tokyo no Uso
Shin SOS dai Tokyo tankentai

Thanks for the info! I updated the list again and added more titles (now including releases until 7th of November). Also updated the region coding info on these + some more.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Kimba1970

I got today "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso" and "Trainspotting": just some quick observations:

1) VM Japan, HMV service is really great : they delivered to Italy from Japan in a week with more time wasted in Italy from my local post office to my mail box than anything else . Reasonable prices and good service ... I could get use to that !

2) I have taken a quick look at the movies, which both work flawlessly on my European PS3 : both AQ are so and so (3,5 , grain and noise especially "Trainspotting", some low contrast scenes again in "Transpotting", good colors and wavering detail level). Then again I bought them blind because I love both movies so for me it's not a big deal. No judgment about AQ as usual since my audio system .. well .. sucks...

HMV Japan uses EMS which is pretty fast and cost-effective, even more so to the U.S. than Europe. They also seem to charge exactly the actual shipping cost and nothing more. I think they are probably the best source for Japanese discs when ordering from outside of Japan, especially because their shipping is cheaper than Amazon JP's.

I think Trainspotting's look and sound is pretty much limited by the source materials, I've seen it on HDTV too and I think the Japanese BD release is pretty much as good as it's going to get unless there's some very extensive restoration work.

Thanks for sharing your impressions! Too bad that Cinema Paradiso doesn't look very impressive in terms of PQ as I'm still thinking about getting that.

[Clueless_Monkey]

Thanks a lot for this thread, kannisto.
I'm gonna add the region code informations to my guide asap.

[Kimba1970]

Originally Posted by kannisto

Thanks for sharing your impressions! Too bad that Cinema Paradiso doesn't look very impressive in terms of PQ as I'm still thinking about getting that.

Well I am Tornatore fan so for me was a easy decision (I can't find my original DVD!) : anyway after seeing the complete movie I would advice it only to fans that cannot wait for an eventual Italian version (which I can tell you as Italian is not going to happen soon considering the awful state of Hi-Def in my country..)

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Clueless_Monkey

Thanks a lot for this thread, kannisto.
I'm gonna add the region code informations to my guide asap.

Thanks! Your guide is one of my sources for region code informations as well and I often look at it to find out about new upcoming Asian movie releases