DVD Talk review of 'Delicatessen: Special Edition'
 

I read Jamie S. Rich's DVD review of Delicatessen: Special Edition at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=34331 and...

Besides the fact that it incorrectly states Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD back cover, does your home theater system recognize a DD 5.1 signal? My home theater system only lists the audio as 2.0, not 5.1. For anyone else who has already purchased this NTSC DVD, did anyone else notice this on their systems? I have the UK PAL DVD also which did have an excellent 2.0 audio which could be confused as a DD 5.1, but I would definitely confirm that this DVD has DD 5.1 before posting that the Dolby Digital 5.1 is in face there.

If I had known that this DVD didn't upgrade to a DD 5.1, I would have stuck with my UK PAL DVD and I would indicate in your review that this DVD is actually not DD 5.1 as listed on the back cover. There is no indication on the DVD menu as well what kind of audio this is...

Son of a--!!

Thanks for pointing this out, Todd. I never even thought to toggle my audio button to check this, since there were only the two tracks and no need for comparison between the main soundtrack and the commentary. I just loaded it up and sure enough, no indication on the menu of a 5.1 mix and when I double-check the audio track as the movie plays, my system indicates that it reads the track as 2.0. Knock me upside the head for actually trusting the packaging...

Jamie,
I knew I should have just kept my UK PAL since I was happy with the audio on that dvd. So basically the UK PAL and the USA NTSC versions actually have the best 2.0 audio mixes that I have ever heard - I've heard many DVDs with worse DD 5.1s than Delicatessan's 2.0 audio...I think that the video quality is slightly better than the UK PAL version at least...but still I wouldn't have upgraded. This will once again teach me to not double-dip even if I'm happy with previous dvd versions of movies released over and over....

Surely you can still return this version, unless you've already dropped the old one. Incorrect specs is a valid reason for refund.

Rest assured, I will be more careful from now on, too. From my days as an editor/proofreader, I hold on to my belief that once you learn how an error was made, you have the tool to keep it from happening again.