Imports: HD-DVD Import Releases and Guide - Page 3

I second that emotion. It would be nice to have a go-to guide that lists the titles that suffer from the dreaded pitch issue.

sticky

title changed

thanks Mark

yes Steeb, I cannot find any info regarding pitch on Stalingrad or Fog

-Gary

HD DVD Dude,

as this question comes up frequently, maybe add a note as to local sales tax rates (link to individual country sales tax rates)
with an explanation along the lines that the online retailer should automatically deduct the local sales tax when you check out as long as the delivery address is geographically located outside the etailer's sales tax region.

Awesome thread.

I already have Evolution, Total Recal, Equilibrium , Reign Of Fire, HP atGoF, T2 is in transit and once Exploit gets The Island in stock they will be eMailing me and I will get that one as well.

I will also get: Dirty Harry, the other three HP's, K-19, Oceans 11, tGtBatU.

Isn't the shining also to be released here in the fall along with Blade Runner? Maybe a note on if the title is currently available or announced for NA release would be good. Thanks for all the work, this is a great resource.

Cheers,

Richard

I was excited to buy Three Days of the Condor until I found out that the subtitles are forced on the English audio track. Can somebody tell me the logic behind these releases?

this is a awsome thread...im considering buying T2 and Running scared....i do i have question....for anyone that has running scared...is the menu in english?
thanks

So how come The Ghost of Mae Nak is not "good enough" for the list?

Compared The Fog HD DVD to MGM's US Special Edition from 2002 (?), the one with Carpenter's liner notes and 16:9 version on one side of the disc, and 4:3 on the other.

There's no pitch problem in the HD DVD - but the image quality is downright terrible. It's from a different, obviously earlier and non-restored print, it's cropped differently and looks just awful. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

I don't have Enemy at the Gates on DVD at all, so I can't compare the HD DVD audio. I managed to grab a clip from the HD DVD audio, however. Download the clip from

http://www.box.net/shared/vf0alepndf

and compare to NTSC DVD. The clip's from the beginning of the movie.

thanks pteittinen

-Gary

Hello cardiac161,

Japan is still very much DVD territory. Blu-ray and HD DVD have both quite little penetration and visibility in the market so far. Blu-ray seems to be volume leader over HD DVD currently though. I guess it's related to PS3 effect.

It seems that on Blu-ray side most of the available and announced movie releases are from Japanese divisions of U.S. based studios + there's some Anime and Music content, but on HD DVD Toshiba Entertainment and Shochiku Home Video have been putting out some more varied and interesting movie content which is nice On the other hand, Toshiba Ent. and Shochiku Home Video are not releasing anything very frequently on HD DVD so far, would be nice if they released more. They certainly have a lot of interesting titles in their catalogs they could release at some point...

This link shows the upcoming announced Japan releases on HD DVD and Blu-ray (in Japanese):
http://cgi1.watch.impress.co.jp/cgib...hdship/view.pl

The most interesting upcoming HD DVD release is probably "Band of Brothers" on July 27th from Toshiba Entertainment / Amuse Soft Entertainment (on 5 separate discs).

It seems there are contractual reasons behind these decisions to use forced subs.

Some links to comments by MicroSoft's French HD DVD insider specifically related to these new SC releases and forced subtitles:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post9881168

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post10514483

I have Running Scared (German release) and while I can't check it right now, I remember the menu was only in German. It's a very simple menu though so that shouldn't be much of a problem.

These Japanese movie, anime and TV drama releases (that are not English-friendly) have not been listed yet. Not sure if they should be in the top list but here they are anyhow, for anyone who is interested.

Japanese movies:

Ashura-jô no hitomi (Ashura, Blood Gets in Your Eyes) (Japanese release)
Audio: Japanese DD+ 5.1, Japanese DTS 5.1
Subtitles: Optional Japanese
Note: No English Audio/Subtitles

Kamata koshin-kyoku (Fall Guy) (Japanese release)
Audio: Japanese DD+ mono
Subtitles: None
Note: No English Audio/Subtitles

Keitaideka The Movie ... (Japanese release)
Audio: Japanese DD+ 2.0
Subtitles: None
Note: No English Audio/Subtitles

Shiawase no kiiroi hankachi (The Yellow Handkerchief of Happiness) (Japanese release)
Audio: Japanese PCM mono
Subtitles: Optional Japanese
Note: No English Audio/Subtitles

Suna no utsuwa (The Castle of Sand) (Japanese release)
Audio: Japanese DD+ 5.1, Japanese DD+ 2.0, Japanese DTS 5.1
Subtitles: None
Note: No English Audio/Subtitles

Pacchigi! (Japanese release)
Audo: Japanese/Korean Dolby HD 2.0
Subtitles: Optional: Original theatrical, Japanese
Note: No English Audio/Subtitles

TV drama:

Unfair - The Special [Code Breaking - Cryptanalysis] (Japanese release)
Audio: Japanese PCM 2.0
Subtitles: None
Note: http://www.ktv.co.jp/unfair/drama.html

Anime releases:

Brave Story (Japanese release)
Audio: Japanese DD+ 5.1 Surround EX
Subtitles: Optional Japanese
Menu: Japanese
Extras: Japanese audio, no subtitles (Making of, lots of trailers, tv spots etc.)
(In case of Brave Story I was able to check the menu and extras, since I borrowed it from a colleague at work.)

Project PAPO (Japanese release)
Audio: Japanese PCM 5.1 and 2.0
Subtitles: None

==========================
Upcoming Japanese releases:

- Band of Brothers (5 discs) from Toshiba Entertainment 7/27 (English audio)

Anime:
- Wings of Honneamise (English audio) from Bandai Visual 7/27
- Patlabor the Movie (English subs) from Bandai Visual 7/27
- Patlabor the Movie 2 (English subs) from Bandai Visual 8/24

^^ Excellent post, thank you!

All the info was in an earlier post of mine. More specifically, here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&#post10693628

Thanks so much for your reply, Kannisto.

I visit my mom who lives in Takayama every year and drop by Tokyo whenever I get the chance. I was there last March and it was just so tough to find any HD dvds there. Still hoping to get more Japanese films in HD in the future.

This site is a good resource for release dates of upcoming HD DVD imports:
http://hdworld.iforumer.com/viewtopi...mforum=hdworld

And this site is always useful.

According to this site Studio Canal announced HD DVD versions of the french film "Truands" and a version of "Babel" with DTS HD MA.

Some info on German releases incl. "Bali - Isle of a Thousand Stories":
http://hddvdformat.blogspot.com/2007...ing-71-ch.html

Ghost Rider Hd-DVD sept 5th.

http://www4.fnac.com/Shelf/article.a...2bec288b1&Fr=2

Réalisation Mark Steven Johnson
Acteur Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Sam Elliot, Wes Bentley, Peter Fonda, Donal Logue
Musique de Christopher Young
Langue 1 anglais
Langue 2 français
Sous-titrage français
Durée 114 minutes

I picked up "GOAL" on HDDVD from amazon.jp that's another title available in Bluray in the US and not HDDVD. The 1080p trailer from Apple.com looked great.

Dunno if this has been reported, but the English language DTS-HD MA track on the European Total Recall is a total fake. It sounds like it's been created artificially from a stereo track, by using a reverb effect during some scenes, running the effect through a low-pass filter and having the result play in surrounds. The difference to Lionsgate's BD release is nothing less than night and day, unfortunately.

I didn't pay much attention to "Goal" before.

The basic specs are listed on Toshiba's HD DVD promotion site (in Japanese):
http://www.hddvd-toshiba.jp/hdd-dvd/...che-50002.html

Audio: English DD+ 5.1, Japanese DD+ 5.1
Subtitles: Optional Japanese (3 types)

By the way, Toshiba Entertainment is now operating under a new name "Showgate", since the beginning of June.
http://www.showgate.jp/top.html

I suppose their future releases will be released under this new brand name, starting with Band of Brothers.

I bought Shochiku Home Video's "Ashura-jô no hitomi" today on an impulse though it has no English subs. Hopefully I can follow the story well enough anyhow with my level of Japanese. Haven't checked it out yet though.
http://www.hddvd-toshiba.jp/hdd-dvd/...g/hdb-003.html