What imports are "better" than the US releases?

[dfms23]

Originally Posted by DrMaustus

Do it Horsemeat! If you buy it and don't like it, I'll take it off your hands.

Feel free to bring us back some Media Markt exclusives, too. Selling them to us at your cost, of course

[Penthouse]

Punisher: War Zone U.S. vs. U.K.

Both are MPEG-4

U.S.
Lionsgate - Region A Locked
Audio -
English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 Surround
French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surorund
Subs -
English, Spanish

U.K.
Sony - Region-free
Audio -
English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Spanish Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Russian Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English Audio Descriptive Service DD5.1
Subs -
English, Spanish, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Hindi, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Portugese, Swedish, Ukrainian

[Horsemeat Discoer]

Originally Posted by dfms23

Feel free to bring us back some Media Markt exclusives, too. Selling them to us at your cost, of course

Urgh, 300 steelbook 30Euro at the current stupid £/Euro rate, plus another SE release updated with BD live capability late Juli.

Shame the Iron Man steelbook's were long gone. I noticed loads of them last Winter. And they now command upwards of 45Euro on the Bay.

[amigou]

Here are some specs update:

Man on Fire
UK (Fox) 2.40:1, AVC, DTS-MA 5.1, Region Free

Mr and Mrs. Smith
French (Warner) 2.35:1, AVC, DTS-MA 5.1, Region Free

Is there a French Fox release?

The Punisher
UK (Sony) 2.35:1, AVC, TrueHD 5.1, more extras, Region Free.

In order to save some storage space, I'm looking into buying an Underworld Trilogy box. Best PQ/Uncut/Extended releases is what I'm looking for rather than better packaging, following the objective of this thread.

After reviewing the Underworld and Underworld Evolution specs, it seems to me that my best bet is in the French M6 (or is it Warner?) Trilogy release.

Will this be true or which one of the other US, UK or German releases may be better suited to fulfill my requirement?

[Penthouse]

From DVDActive.com, looks like the UK release of Nikita (La Femme Nikita) will actually have extras!

* 2.35:1 Widescreen Transfer (1080p)
* PCM 2.0 French
* Making of Nikita
* Karyo on Besson
* The Sound of Nikita
* The Bedroom
* Training Room
* Vanity Fair
* Trailer

[Blacklac]

I got Jumper (German) last week, 7.1 DTS-HR. Just wanted to say, IMO, it's not worth the import if you can get the US cheaper. It doesn't benefit much at all from the extra surrounds. I was hoping the "Jump" sequences would have surround action, but they don't.

PQ still looks good, should be able to compare directly with the US in a few days. Nothing scientific, just watching a couple scenes from each disc on my setup. Check the bitrates...

[Blacklac]

I also got the UK Disturbia in today.

It has 5.1 TrueHD, around 3Mbps, and high bitrate AVC, around 33Mbps. Unfortunetly my info bar will not show up for PDVD 7.3 so I cannot compare that to my US HD DVD copy. I have a feeling even the video got a bitrate boost over the US version. Maybe I will rent the US BD one day and find out for sure.

Either way, it looks good and sounds great.

[ahsoka]

The Nordic release of Slumdog Millionaire has a DTS-HD MA 7.1 track (according to the back cover).

[VincentVinyl]

Watchmen: US/GER/CND (Warner) - VC1, English DTS-HD MA 5.1 (24bit), Director's Cut, Lower Bitrate, Extras (Exclusive), Filtered/DNR

This is wrong. I am from Germany and Germany does not have the Director´s Cut. The domestic release is from Paramount and just contains the Theatrical Cut.

[Blacklac]

Originally Posted by VincentVinyl

This is wrong. I am from Germany and Germany does not have the Director´s Cut. The domestic release is from Paramount and just contains the Theatrical Cut.

Thank you for the info. If you have any more info (on this release of others), I'd appreciate it.

[VincentVinyl]

Thanks :-). Right now I just see that the DC of Watchmen will soon also be available in the UK as well. Released by Paramount:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Watchmen-Dir...4937697&sr=8-7

But the specs remain a mystery up to now :-(. Will be interesting if they do another transfer or encode yet again.

[Penthouse]

Does anyone know if the UK "Good Night and Good Luck" has an HD audio track? I see that the Italian one has DTS-MA. Unfortunately, the US release has just standard DD 5.1.

[amigou]

Here are some spec updates for the list:

10000 B.C | Japan/NL/MEX (Warner) - 2.4:1, VC-1, TrueHD 5.1, Includes History Channel's Journey to 10,000 BC (VC-1, 480i, 90 min). Region Free
Aeon Flux | Japan (Geneon) - 2.35:1, AVC, TrueHD 5.1, Region Free
Equilibrium | Japan (Sony) - 2.35:1, AVC, TrueHD 5.1, Region Free
Sin City | Japan (Geneon) - 1.85:1, high bitrate AVC, 16bit TrueHD 5.1. Region Free
Sleepy Hollow | Japan (Kadokawa) - 1080i30, 1.78:1, AVC, TrueHD 5.1, Region Free. Better PQ
U-571 | Japan (GAGA) - Open-matte 1.78:1, AVC, TrueHD 5.1, Region Free. No English subs.
Ultraviolet | Japan (Sony) - 1.85:1, MPEG2, PCM 5.1, Extended Cut, Region A/B locked.

[Dack]

Is the AQ/PQ of the Japanese Ultraviolet the same as the US release?

[VincentVinyl]

Infos about The Fall (2006):

US:
BD-50 /AVC MPEG-4 / Dolby TrueHD 5.1

UK:
BD-25 / VC1 / DTS HD Master Audio 5.1

GER:
BD-25 / VC1 / DTS HD Master Audio 5.1

There is a 3-Disc Edition in Germany with the Blu-ray and 2 DVDS (one containing the movie and a bonus DVD containing worldwide exklusive extras such as the full dream sequence). The set is packaged as a media-book.