Originally Posted by Josh Z

I didn't realize that the slipcover even has an obi strip. Kind of cool for anyone who's ever collected Japanese DVDs or laserdiscs.

Originally Posted by WepaMan

"Obie Trice, real name no gimmicks."

Uhhh, what's a obi strip?

Originally Posted by Yavin

Does anyone know if this has been delayed in Canada?

I could have sworn HMV had it listed as releasing on 2/24. It was listed as $47.99 but there was no stock anywhere. I went to an HMV store yesterday to inquire about it, and they showed several copies on order at all stores, with a promo price of $39.99.

This morning I check the HMV website again and it's listed at $39.99, but the release date is showing as 03/24!

Neither Future Shop nor Best Buy have it listed on their website, at all.

I am ready to plunk down $39.99 for it (believe it or not), if I can get the first run pressing ... but I just have a disturbing feeling, if the 3/24 release date is true, that we'll be getting the second pressing up here ... >:-(

Originally Posted by TylerDurden_73

Any one compare the two trueHD soundtracks? They English language sounds like a typical TrueHD track. The Japanese language sounds more immersive, with all these little sounds in the backround. My question is on my receiver's display the english trueHD track show's up as trueHD in big letters. The Japanese track shows up as DVD stereo on the display....but in small letters on the top of the display the dolby logo is lit up and next to it in red letters trueHD is on highlighted. MY receiver is a Onkyo 606. I checked all my settings on the Blu disc and I had all the right settings. I even checked the 2.0 japanese pcm track to see if it was mislabeled. Anyone else have this weird setting?

Originally Posted by naitram

Does yours play right? The Japanese TrueHD track has no center channel sound on mine.

Originally Posted by BuckNaked2k

Mine seems to be working OK. I have a Panasonic BD-35 bitstreaming to a Denon 3808. The receiver correctly displayed 192kz, and the Japanese Dolby TruHD soundtrack was clearly audible on all six channels.

(One oddity I did notice what that the image appears to be window-boxed. My display does not overscan, so I am used to a 1.85:1 image not filling up the screen top & bottom, but this Blu-ray appears to have small "bars" on all four sides.....anyone else notice this?)

Originally Posted by kevin_y

Why would the viewer confuse "Kaneda" with "Canada" when (a) the name is shown as "Kaneda" in the subtitles, and (b) the film has nothing whatsoever to do with Canada the country?

Regarding your preference for localization for American viewers' benefit, maybe you assume the English dub is only for American viewers. Well, it's not. The old dub was, with its bravado over the top voice acting, mispronunciations of Japanese names just so they sounded "natural" to American viewers, and other cringe-inducing attempt to "Americanize" it. Maybe they should make another localized English dub with British accents and lingo for British viewers, another one with Aussie accents and lingo for Aussie viewers... LOL.

The new dub is immensely better because it is more ACCURATE on all counts in depicting what the original Japanese film is all about. Kei's voice is lower-pitched, and less annoyingly girly like in the old dub). Masaru no longer sounds like an old man, but like a child. Japanese names are pronounced correctly: AH-kee-ra, KAH-nee-dah, KAH-oh-ri. All these things were done according to how they were done the original Japanese soundtrack, and this is how a foreign language dub SHOULD be done. The 2001 Pioneer DVD includes interviews of the voice actors for the new dub, who certainly deserve to be mentioned.

Many of those who like the old dub because they prefer it for nostalgic reasons, similar to their preference of those cringe-inducing Shaw Brothers English dubs made in the 70s, which to this day westerners are still using to make mock of Asian films and actors. We are now living in a more enlightened era so it's time to retire these outdated practices.

Originally Posted by Yavin

Regarding the window-boxing ... yes, this is what I read as well. Can't remember if it was in a Blu-ray.com, DVDBeaver, or highdefdigest review. Probably the DVDBeaver review. Unnecessary, yes.

Originally Posted by tonymontana313

Ok somebody dropped the ball on this. Either Honnemaise didn't make many of these or Best Buy didn't order a bunch, most BBs in Houston were sold out of these. I was lucky to have done in store pick up on this on Sunday so mine was already at Customer Service but most stores were sold out by around noon.

Originally Posted by Cosmic Bus

Picked up the Blu-ray as a blind buy tonight at Best Buy for $17.99 as part of their 50%-off anime clearance. I'm not too big on anime, but there are a few series I admire and this is considered such an essential that I figured it was worth a try.

Originally Posted by DthRdrX

Does anyone have any more info on this 50% off anime sale? Is it applied at the register or do you have to ask for it?

Originally Posted by JimHigh

And I'll put this out there as well for those having issues with the 2 speakers only on the 192khz track. My Onkyo 705 defaulted to stereo when I first turned on the movie, then I clicked one of the surround buttons on my remote, and I got multichannel (5.1) and direct (5.1). I can't beleive theres so many folks having issues. All the decoding is done by the PS3 and MOST blu ray players. All your receiver has to do is be compatible with 192khz pcm, and be able to split it up to speakers from the PCM sent through hdmi. There's alot of receivers capable of this.

Another thing my 705 Onkyo manual said is that when receiving a bitstream of true-hd Dolby, the max is 96khz/24 bit, and not to mention my PS3 wont output bitstream via hdmi. The only thing my receiver can do with 192khz audio is receive it as PCM. So I think the folks who are having issues need to check their player's settings and switch to PCM, not bitstream.

Originally Posted by tonymontana313

Taking the percentage off Blu-ray is extremely YMMV as it will not take it off automatically. You could have a manager override it or they could end up saying that the 50% off only applies to DVDs.