Info on import Blu-ray titles

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Kimba1970

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..)

I guess I'll wait for an English subtitled version from somewhere - not sure if the eventual Italian version would have them though.

I'll probably rent this Japanese Cinema Paradiso release once Sony/Asmik titles start appearing in my local Tsutaya rental shop (currently the titles available for rental are still quite limited here but the selection is expanding, the whole BD rental service system only started a couple of months ago).

[kannisto]

Finished scanning Japanese releases until end of 2008

I also spent a lot of time tuning the SW that I use to generate the title listings from an Excel sheet based output...

I'll move to Nordic titles next but not today.

[Kimba1970]

Originally Posted by kannisto

Finished scanning Japanese releases until end of 2008

I also spent a lot of time tuning the SW that I use to generate the title listings from an Excel sheet based output...

I'll move to Nordic titles next but not today.

Thanks a LOT Kannisto, wonderful work!

If I may ask you for a guess... do you see any of Miyazaki movies coming to Blu ray in the near future ? I would be the happiest person on the planet if "Nausicaa" or "My Neighbor Totoro" would be seen in Hi Def !!!

Have you seen "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" ? I got glimpses of it on tv and I know it won an award at the "Venice Film Festival" and i must say I cannot wait to see it in a cinema...

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Kimba1970

Thanks a LOT Kannisto, wonderful work!

If I may ask you for a guess... do you see any of Miyazaki movies coming to Blu ray in the near future ? I would be the happiest person on the planet if "Nausicaa" or "My Neighbor Totoro" would be seen in Hi Def !!!

Have you seen "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" ? I got glimpses of it on tv and I know it won an award at the "Venice Film Festival" and i must say I cannot wait to see it in a cinema...

There are already some Studio Ghibli releases on Blu-ray but none of the Miyazaki classics. This documentary seems to be the closest thing to Miyazaki animations available on BD so far:

http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com/2007/1...kazuo-oga.html

I should actually include it in the import list, I failed to notice earlier that it has English subs (and appears to be region free too).

I'm guessing Studio Ghibli might release "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" on BD at the same time they release it on DVD, maybe in time for Christmas this year at the earliest. I don't know when they see fit to release the older Miyazaki movies, probably they are thinking about the best timing with regards to Blu-ray market size in Japan... Probably they'd release them very gradually and wait a bit longer.

I haven't seen "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" because I don't have much opportunities to go and see movies in theatre nowadays and I'd like to see it with English subs. A colleague of mine saw it with his daughter and said it's pretty good but a bit more suited for children and less for adults than some of the other Miyazaki movies. I'm waiting for a BD release, I think my son would enjoy it too.

[ahsoka]

Originally Posted by kannisto

There are already some Studio Ghibli releases on Blu-ray but none of the Miyazaki classics. This documentary seems to be the closest thing to Miyazaki animations available on BD so far:

http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com/2007/1...kazuo-oga.html

I should actually include it in the import list, I failed to notice earlier that it has English subs (and appears to be region free too).

I have this documentary BD about Kazuo Oga who painted the backgrounds for Totoro and other anime. It's region free and English subtitled.
It gives you a great insight on how the movies were made. I think it should be on the list.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by ahsoka

I have this documentary BD about Kazuo Oga who painted the backgrounds for Totoro and other anime. It's region free and English subtitled.
It gives you a great insight on how the movies were made. I think it should be on the list.

It'll be added in the next update, soon I need to buy it sometime too. I hadn't much looked into it before but it seems quite interesting based on your comments and based on that web page that describes it.

[kannisto]

Adding the following Japanese releases:

Iblard Jikan (Japan - Disney / Studio Ghibli) (4-Jul-2007)
Amazon JP HMV JP Yesasia
Audio: Japanese
Region: A | Free ?
Notes: No English. Studio Ghibli short. spec@kakaku.com

Oga Kazuo Exhibition: Ghibli no Eshokunin (Japan - Disney / Studio Ghibli) (19-Dec-2007)
Amazon JP HMV JP Yesasia
Audio: Japanese
Subtitles: English, Japanese
Region: Free
Notes: Studio Ghibli animation related documentary. spec@kakaku.com

Serenity (Japan - Universal) (19-Dec-2008)
Amazon JP
Audio: English, Japanese
Subtitles: Japanese
Region: A | Free ?
Notes: Specs info not completely available yet.

Sweeney Todd (Japan - Warner) (11-Jun-2008)
Amazon JP HMV JP Yesasia
Audio: English
Subtitles: English, Japanese
Region: Free
Notes: Includes hidden European language options. U.S. release 21-Oct-2008. spec@kakaku.com

[ahsoka]

Originally Posted by kannisto

Adding the following Japanese releases:

Iblard Jikan (Japan - Disney / Studio Ghibli) (4-Jul-2007)
Amazon JP HMV JP Yesasia
Audio: Japanese
Region: A | Free ?
Notes: No English. Studio Ghibli short. spec@kakaku.com[/url]

The Iblard Jikan BD is region A coded.
There's no dialogue in the 30 minute film itself. English subs would have been nice for the commentary track though.

[Menaceuk]

I see the list is starting to take off now

Thanks Kannisto,i loved your HD DVD version and it helped me alot and i am sure this will too.

[DCSholtis]

Does anyone have any experience with 1Advd.ch. Seems to be a Swiss store. I had pre ordered a BD there but cancelled it as it seems you have to provide a copy front/back of your credit card and I'm not cool with that. Question is do they REALLY enforce that?!! How is anyones experience with them.

Thanks.

[Jester217300]

^ I'm fairly certain CochiseGuy has purchased from them in the past but I don't have any personal experience with them.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by DCSholtis

Does anyone have any experience with 1Advd.ch. Seems to be a Swiss store. I had pre ordered a BD there but cancelled it as it seems you have to provide a copy front/back of your credit card and I'm not cool with that. Question is do they REALLY enforce that?!! How is anyones experience with them.

Thanks.

I also read in AVS forum that they required first time purchasers to fax a scan of their credit card's front and back and that basically kept me off from ordering anything from there + there hasn't been anything I could have only got from there. I think they are a solid store but that credit card scanning thing doesn't seem very sensible or secure...

[DCSholtis]

Agreed. That's why I canceled the pre order of There's Something About Mary.

[kannisto]

I received "Iskariot" from megastore.se yesterday. It's some kind of a drama/thriller that takes place in Stockholm. It's not English friendly (original audio in Swedish and subtitles in Nordic languages). It was released by Scanbox.

Anyway, I was surprised to find out that it didn't work in my Japanese PS3 beyond the menu, the movie just doesn't start playing. It's region free like all the previous Scanbox releases I have. Upon checking it on my PC I found out that it's encoded in 1080i / 25 fps and that seems to be incompatible with region A PS3 hardware I can still play it on my PC though (but on my first try with WinDVD9 Plus my PC froze). Seems to work fine with PowerDVD 7.3 and sometimes fine with WinDVD9, but it's quite disappointing that I can't play it on my main setup. I'll have to watch it on the computer then.

Previous Scanbox releases that I have are all 1080p/24 and work fine on my PS3. I guess this film is a kind of low budget local Swedish production and maybe the source materials somehow made it easier for them to use 1080i / 25 fps... It seems Scanbox only released it on BD in Sweden.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by ahsoka

The Iblard Jikan BD is region A coded.
There's no dialogue in the 30 minute film itself. English subs would have been nice for the commentary track though.

Thanks for the info and I updated it to the titles list

...

Not much progress with other countries' import titles yet, I've been quite busy with work this week.