cheap anime dvds

[Rashiir]

I think the reason why these things are so cheap is because they're from Hong Kong, right? Anyways, I ordered the Trigun set from them and it's fine. Both the subs and the dubs seem to be fine.

[EireWolf]

That answer your questions?

Yes! Domo arigato! (sorry if my Japanese/spelling is wrong)

[shooraijin]

CONSPIRACY THEORY WARNING ON

>Regional coding has to do with the tv signals each of the broadcasting companies use. I.e. in america, it's something like NATSC, but in Japan, it's something else. Has to do with compression and the like.

Both Japan and USA/Canada are NTSC, as it happens -- if you have a Region 2 (NTSC) DVD player, or one hacked to play any region, Japanese DVDs will play fine on American televisions.

>Anyway, it also allows the dvd companies to market areas and such.

This is the real reason, IMHO. Region encoding doesn't alter the method in which the video assets are encoded or the DVD is authored; it's simply a set of flags in the DVD's info block(s) that say, if the DVD player isn't in this region, don't play this disc (same as the Macrovision copy-protection flag).

It's a pure and simple method of market isolation. There is no good technical reason why Japanese NTSC DVDs shouldn't play in American/Canadian DVD players, and vice versa. Now, Europe (Region 2 PAL) and Australia (Region 4, I think) and others legitimately are PAL which is a different video standard and not compatible with NTSC. But even this makes no difference to a computer DVD player program which doesn't care what video standard it's displaying.

Region encoding is just another way to make sure the disc you bought with your good money can only be played where "they" (read: MPAA, Hollywood studio rats) say, when "they" say and how "they" say, at the price "they" say.

All right, kids, do you know the word "monopoly?" Nasakenai!

END OF CONSPIRACY THEORY WARNING

[Christianotaku]

Regional coding has to do with the tv signals each of the broadcasting companies use. I.e. in america, it's something like NATSC, but in Japan, it's something else. Has to do with compression and the like.

not ecavtly it has nothing to do with ntsc or pal it has t o do with monopiliation like shooriajin said

[ShiroiHikari]

I thought NTSC had something to do with videotapes. What the heck -is- NTSC anyway??

[shooraijin]

NTSC = Never The Same Colour, I mean, National Television Standards Committee. NTSC is the video system used in the USA, Canada, Japan, and certain other countries (usually in proximity to the USA, or (former) territories of the USA).

PAL = Phase Alternating Line, used just about everywhere else except for France (sigh) and some former French territories which use SECAM. SECAM is infrequently encountered and I won't talk much about it.

Anyway, the difference between PAL and NTSC is in the screen size, how frequently the screen is redrawn, and how the colour signals are created. TV screens are interlaced (half the screen is drawn at a time, first even lines, then odd lines). NTSC has 525 screen lines, and it draws a half-screen every 1/60th of a second. PAL has 625 screen lines, and it draws a half-screen every 1/50th of a second. (Ironically, even though PAL has more lines on the screen, if you compute out how many actual "pixels" (so to speak) it updates over time based on the ITU standards, NTSC is actually higher resolution.)

Additionally, they also display colour differently. PAL makes up for its 50Hz flicker by having excellent colour stability and actually correcting the colour signal on alternate lines (done by reversing the signal phase, hence Phase Alternating Line). NTSC tends to have poorer colour quality and a greater tendency for spectrum drift, which is why it gets called Never The Same Colour since one colour one place on the screen is frequently not the same colour elsewhere, even if it's supposed to be.

Anyway, all this goes to say that NTSC and PAL are dissimilar standards. If you pipe a PAL signal into an NTSC television, besides some picture roll, you'll get a black-and-white picture (no colour since they encode it differently), and vice versa.

One thing that is nice about NTSC is that NTSC is NTSC, no matter where you go. An NTSC American TV will pick up Japanese NTSC channels, and vice versa. Thus, there is no reason other than pure greed why a Japanese DVD can't be played on an American DVD player.

PAL, on the other hand, is a big mess. There are multiple kinds of PAL signals, and most of them are partially or completely incompatible with other varieties. The UK uses PAL I (I think), most of the rest of Europe uses PAL B (except, again, France), Eastern Europe uses something else (PAL K?), most of South America uses PAL N (except Brazil which uses PAL M), Australia uses PAL G, and Red China uses PAL D but Hong Kong uses PAL I too!

The silver lining is that most European and Asian television sets receive and understand multiple television standards, including all the PAL variants, often SECAM too, and usually NTSC to boot. Well worth the investment if you deal a lot in foreign movies (might as well get a foreign DVD player while you're there so you have the right region code).

By the way, HDTV is not going to help. In fact, it's already making things worse. Japan's HDTV is NOT the same as the American HDTV (so long NTSC), for example, but that's a topic for another day.

Sorry you asked?

NB: Note that PAL and NTSC DVDs mean the spatial resolution and refresh rate only -- DVDs use MPEG colour encoding, so the colour signal difference doesn't apply, but the refresh rate and line count will still ruin your day. This makes no difference to your computer, though, which just displays a different sized window, and updates it at the right rate.

[Christianotaku]

actaully south america uses nstc except in brazil. THats the only place they us PAL

[shooraijin]

Well, we're both wrong. The majority of the South American countries are actually NTSC M, but there are a few (not just Brazil) on PAL (Brazil being PAL M and the rest PAL N). I just looked it up; here's one list:

http://www.drakeav.com/samerica.htm

[ShiroiHikari]

Uhhhh...thanks for the info...I think...o_O; Lol

Um. Region coding = not cool.

I'm done.

[EireWolf]

I ordered the Cowboy Bebop Movie and the Studio Ghibli dubbed collection (7 Myazake movies) from Animeniacs.com, and received it very quickly. ( I ordered it July 30 and received it today... that's 5 days including a weekend.) It's only $40 for the whole collection, and only $6 for the CB movie. So far so good! I think I'll be ordering more from them in the future.

[shooraijin]

Was the Cowboy Bebop movie the full American release, or the Japanese release only? Just curious, since I paid $19 for mine (American Sony release with English dub/sub, and Japanese 5.1 on alternate, plus some inane special features). Yours appears a better deal by far

[Mithrandir]

It's not dubbed, so I'm guessing it the later. BTW: The Studio Ghibli collection was not entirely converted properly. It's kinda funny to watch totoro and have to navigate the menus with my horribly small grasp of katakana...

[Bobtheduck]

Luckily DVD Roms can read all regions as well as pal and NTSC which you can then output to TV through a S-Video output and watch all of them on your regular tv (albeit with an almost unnoticable border...)

[MyrrhLynn]

Somone told me that animeniacs onlys sells fandubs. Does anyone know if this is true? Basically I want to order the Kenshin OVAs and i want to make sure it is the right voices.

[Saint]

None of the stuff i have recieved is like that. Most of it is good quality. I am not sure about the Sam X ova's since i didn't get them there. But it should be like the verisions on tv. (anyway it should tell you when you look it up).
You sure you want to see Sam X: Reflections? it is after the tv series, but man does it go from fun to serious.. yeah get it... go kenny.