Underworld Questions??

[SoupRKnowva]

I was wondering a few things about underworld...first off, has anyone seent he japanese release from GAGA studios? cause its got the TrueHD soundtrack and a different AVC encode? who could compare it to the german version which i have...secondly, i was watching it tonight and on my XA2 it says that the english track is standard dts, it said dts hd MSTR for the german track but it did not say dts HD for the english, which other dts HD tracks do say...so has anyone bitstreamed this to a receiver capable to see if it is actually hd? and third i was wondering what the actual difference in sound quality is between the german and dutch versions? cause if it warrants it, im not too attached to the extended cut and would be willing re buy it? any suggestions...and on a side note, i would assume it does, but has anyone compared the TrueHD gaga track to the hd master audio track on the dutch version? thats alot of underworld talk for me, but its one of my favorite movies and i want the best version i can get thanks guys

[kannisto]

I have the Japanese and the German versions. I don't have an audio setup for lossless though so the best I can actually utilize is 1.5 Mbps via optical output. I watched the Japanese version in full and was very happy with the PQ and AQ. I then watched parts of the German version. I didn't really do a side by side comparison as I have only one TV screen in my living room... There wasn't any obvious image quality difference that I would have been able to spot in that kind of a test... They looked pretty close to each other in terms of PQ.

[tormond]

Kannisto has the Japanese version. His impressions are here

Any reviews on Japanese Underworld?

I have the German version (for the extended cut) and the Dutch version (for the extras) is on the way. The German version to me looks and sounds wonderful. I can't imagine that the TrueHD track adds all that much to the overall movie (and yes I am an Underworld fanatic as well). At least I can't justift spending $50 on the Japanese version JUST for the TrueHD track (although it is supposed to look slightly better as well)

[SoupRKnowva]

thanks for your guys's quick responses, yeah i didnt think that the trueHD or the DTS MA would add too much, but the reviews on here were starting to make me think otherwise....tormond, do you have the equipment for lossless audio by chance? just so you can compare the dts ma to the dts on the german, which i still cant figure out if its actually DTS HD or just DTS like my player said

[tormond]

Umm not sure if the PC will do it or not. I can't bitsream the audio yet (no HDMI receiver) but I will check the disc on the PC for you in just a sec and let you know if it will tell me. I suspect that it is just DTS 1.5 however. Will report back in a few minutes

Just checked and the German track is DTS-MA but the English track is plain old Vanilla DTS at 1.5. The audio sampling rate on the German tarck is all over the place but the English track on the German disc hits 1509 and never moves

[SoupRKnowva]

yeah thats what im worried about, in the reveiw and on the box it says dts hd for english....but i guess they've made mistakes before....like on renaissance, they said only the german track was DTS MA and that the english was DTS HD, but they both ended up being MA

[Blacklac]

I own the Japanese disc and it is a fantastic release. It's one of the best disc' I own. The TrueHD sounds incredible, too.

[SoupRKnowva]

hey blacklac, does the japanese version have all the extras that the dutch one does?

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by SoupRKnowva

hey blacklac, does the japanese version have all the extras that the dutch one does?

I think there is only a trailer as an extra on the Japanese disc, GAGA releases haven't had much extras.

[SoupRKnowva]

well..thanks all you guys for the great info, since im guessing the TrueHD lossless track is probably no better than the DTS MA lossless audio, and the video encodes seem to be similar in all the different versions....if i do decide to upgrade because of the audio, which i might i think ill go for the dutch version since its so much cheaper than the japanese version and it has the extras...unless of course someone else pops on here and tells me the video on the japanese version is better lol

though i guess in the end untill i heard the lossless track i wouldnt know i what i was missing :P but i like knowing that ive got the best

[timego]

The track is absolute best. I bought 2 copies of them...and the price (thinking about them now still make me shiver!!!) was damn expensive! Both german and Japanese are comparable...say if Japanese was a $10, then german would've been an 8 - 9? In french grading system, that's an A for both!!!!

[SoupRKnowva]

a little hard to follow your logic timego, but are you saying that the japanese versions video is better than the germans? though it is damn expensive....

[timego]

depends on your eyes and your reference...my references were TrueHD....and will always be so...so I just notch it to a 10 because of that...but as far as quality goes they both are very comparable IMO. If you were to give an 8 for quality for German, then Japanese would also be an 8 - 8.5 (scale out of ten)....It's not that much different at all!!! (IMO, the .5 doesn't make that much different).

[SoupRKnowva]

alright, so i think im getting as an overwhelming consensus here is that i shouldn't bother wasting my money buying another copy lol

[kannisto]

I like the Japanese version best but maybe $50 is a bit much for it if you already have the German version as they are pretty close, except if TrueHD is very important for you. I didn't regret buying both though I'm not sure why I need more than one version...