Bill Geiger

I ordered The Ronin Ultimate Edition from Amazon Japan. Of course, since I waited for the coupon to expire, I got stuck with paying 36 instead of 32. However, in about 1 months time (since it is traveling by boat!) I will have it in my hands. Anyone else order this? I have to say, I am very much looking forward to this. This there really any way this DVD could disappoint?

DonnachaOne

Might disappoint if the dts isn't up to snuff. If it's just like the present soundtrack, I'll stay with the R1 for a quarter of the price.

Josh Z

I expect that the disc will not have a way to watch the French dialogue scenes with English subtitles, unless you turn the subs on for the whole movie. That would be kind of annoying.

Brett C

I should of ordered this, but I got The Terminator Ultimate Edition in DTS instead.

DonnachaOne

The one that doesn't have the original soundtrack but instead has the 'enhanced' 5.1 with added/replaced sound effects, but in all other ways identical to the R1?

Brett C

Thats right and I don't care if the mono track is there or not. I personally prefer the remix, one of the best of its type. I ordered the Japanese disc for the DTS track alone, to see if it improves upon the DD track. Which it should because, the R1 has a high dialnorm offset compared to the same track on the R4 counterpart of this release. Same mix but the difference is like night and day with the R4 blowing R1 out of the water. I'm a collector so another purchase of the same film is nothing to me, and paying higher prices for Japanese DVD's doesn't bother me either, I payed royal prices for Laserdiscs for years before DVD hit the scene.

Dean Walsh

Well I for one have an open mind about these things and look forward to hearing what you both have to say on the quality of these releases.

BrunnenMatt

The Terminator (DTS)
I can't wait to get my hands on this title. ...DTS-ES 5.1

I forgot to order Ronin Ultimate Edition when I purchased T1 & Blade (DTS). Being a limited DVD it is probably already Out Of Print.

Brett C

Thanks for the feedback on the T1 disc, mine is in shipment and I can't wait to check it out. What were your thoughts on Blade? I'm curious, as Ive heard a lot of divided opinions on that one.

Josh Z

I have both the R4 and R1 copies of The Terminator as well, and did not notice any night-and-day difference between them other than your standard PAL speedup issues.

You have a specific scene you think sounds dramatically better on one copy? I'll check it out.

Bill Geiger

Don't believe everything you read on CDJapan. Amazon & HMV.co.jp have it as well as many others.

Looks like Amazon Japan raised their price back up to the regular Yen3,980 with no discount.

Brett C

The whole disc actually, Stick region 1 in player, listen to opening war scene at a set volume(reference level) on your gear, take it out then play exact same scene at the very same volume setting. You could do it for entire DVD and the difference in level will show, only will be noticable if you do a direct A-B though...

Josh Z

A difference in volume level is not necessarily very telling if the discrepancy is consistent for the whole movie. It could just be that the R4 disc was mastered to be a decibel or two louder as a whole, and if you adjust your receiver between discs the R1 can be made to sound identical. That doesn't make the R1 inferior, it just means that it is mastered for a different reference level.

There is also the pitch shift due to PAL speedup to take into account.

Brett C

Points taken,though I'm not a newbie to this stuff and its apparent to me, that the R1 sounds attenuated compared to the R4, I'm not just talking about the volume level, I'm saying the R1 sounds clearly almost veiled by comparison specially the lowend. And these are common side effects of dialnorm offsets on DD tracks. To use the typical lamo net expression, you could say the R4 sounds almost cooked in comparison to the R1. Regardless I personally think the R4 is the better of the two, audiowise. Like I said do the A to B and judge it for yourself. If not we have to agree to disagree on this one...

candyrocket786

Broke down....and bought through yesasia.

I used the following coupon.
$5 off $30+ code: GOODBUY2 EXPIRE: 7/26/03

Bill Geiger

Wish I waited a couple days...could have had the Ronin UE DTS from yesasia for a couple bucks less instead of ordering through amazon japan. Their mailing list (yesasia) sucks for being notified of an item being in stock. Oh well.

Josh Z

Brett, I'll give both discs a listen when I have some free time.

Back to the topic at hand, when someone does receive their Ronin disc could you check out the subtitle issue I mention above? If there is no English subtitle option for just those scenes, how does the movie play without them? It's been a while since I've seen the movie and I don't remember if any important information is relayed in French, but I seem to recall most of the opening scene was not in English.

Brett C

Ok no worries, I wasn't trying to debate who is right and who is wrong. I was just giving an opinion on it, and I am interested in yours, specially after checking them out. Because I do think besides this fact, the R1 is a superior disc in every way(Extras, Mono for purists and correct opening without player generated subs) besides the higher resolution on the R4, but that is a non issue to people who can't display Pal res properly, and have to rely on PAL to NTSC conversion.

On to Ronin though, I too am curious about the sub issue, and how the 754kbps DTS track compares to the DD. The DTS laserdisc was incredible and I hope the track on the DVD delivers...

Bill Geiger

I mentioned this before. The opening scene is Denerio speaking in French asking for a quick drink. Then the girl says something to him in english, and he response in french pretty much saying he doesn't understand. That is it!

Josh Z

There are other bits and pieces as well, as I recall. When all of the team are assembled for the first time, a couple of members talk to each other in French so that the others won't understand them. Something like that.

Brett C

Heres a review,

http://www.electronicreality.co.uk/r.../ronin_dts.php