skokefoe

This is tricky business figuring out what the deal with this movie is. From what I've pieced together, we don't know whether the HK release on/around April 1 will be the extended version. I'm sure they'll release the extended version at some point, but they may do an initial theatrical release, like the mainland.

Supposedly the HK disc will have DTS and I've also seen people say it's expected to be a 2-disc set. The current legit mainland disc doesn't have DTS; if you see one with it, it's a bootleg. I'm not sure about the mainland extended version though, I haven't seen a report from anyone that actually has it, although I've seen rumors supposedly it's available in B&M stores in China..just nowhere has it online for sale yet).

There is no expected R1 release date yet, since there are rumors it won't play theatrically in NA till November, an R1 DVD is quite a ways off (way to capitalize on Oscar publicity, Miramax ). This is just total speculation on my part, but I'd say it's likely the HK release will be R3 (at least labelled as such- hopefully it'll turn out to be R1-6, like the mainland disc).

Hopefully that clears things up, this movie actually lived up to the years (seemingly) of hype I've been building in my head. It's definitely worth it for the visuals alone, imo. Hopefully the plot is improved even further in the extended version (I liked it in the theatrical release, but it was a little weaker than it could have been.)

skokefoe.

A-Ming

ya...me either

Rypro 525

Maybe this has been awnsered but are any stores using pre orders for the extended version? And what is a reliable dvd source for this version.

MassaCure

are you serious? they are just sending them? well better late then never, i havent recieved an email yet though

chucky7

According to my sources, the extended cut of Hero was supposedly released in late February. As opposed to using D5 for the current available R0 Hero, the extended cut will be using D9

R3 HK release will have dts too and 2 discs

mrwilson

Do you mean the source was D5 or the disc is a DVD-5? If the former then that sucks for the extended cut but if the later then its a good thing.

Raxel

Most info about extended version floating on the net is not accurate. It wasn't released on Feb 27th. and the chance of being released on Apr 1st is also very low. As written in the contract between director and the two companies in China, extended version must be released in China first, so don't expect it's on the Mar 28th. HK release. Also the first print run of R6 theatrical version is 3,000,000 copies. The company will only release the extended version when the 98min version is mostly sold. So there's no firm release date yet.

This info is from reliable source, not from net, TV news or newspaper.

I just wish current R6 version can be sold as fast as possible.

the_dude8

a friend of mine bought a copy of hero from ebay. instead the cover is black, a dts digital surround sound widescreen version on the cover. on the dvd spine, there is a 20th century fox on it. , the running time is 136mins. i have a scan of the pix of the hero and i think it's bootleg. anyone want to host the pix. please post in this thread.

A-Ming

i know Hero movie released by 20th century fox in few Asia countrys (ex: Taiwan), but i don't see any DVD release date out from Asia's 20th century fox yet .........

CuriousGeorge

any HERO that does not have THIS COVER is a boot.

I just picked up the real thing from DDDHouse.com (who by the way just got it back in stock today) for a modest $7.69 US dollars. I ordered 8 other DVDS to alleviate the $20 US Dollars shipping. All 9 dvds turned out to be about $9 each shipped.

Anyone know how long DDDHouse usually takes to ship to the states? NY in particular?

chucks888

Anyone in the L.A./Socal area know where I can get this locally? I know there is a huge asian population around San Gabriel etc. I would rather just pop on over and pick it up instead of interneting it, but I'm not familar with local vid stores that sell asian imports. Any help appreciated!

-Chuck

skokefoe

In my experience with them, it's taken about a week to get to me (Boston, MA). Pretty good, considering the stuff I've ordered from Canada took like 2+

skokefoe.

Beowulf99

I don't see the DVD of Hero on DDDHouse, just the VCD...

http://www.dddhouse.com/cms/dddhouse...productID=2792

I searched on both "Jet Li" and "Hero" and that's all I came up with. Got a link?


Dave

joelgee

Y'know, not only do I not see the Hero DVD in stock at DDDHouse, I don't see it listed in the "Back in stock" section. Also, the VCD goes for six bucks and change American.
J

dlew308

It was up for sale, then it sells out pretty fast

CuriousGeorge

Yea, stock of HERO fluctuates by the hour. I was up really late one night this past Friday and got my order in at about 4 or 5 AM eastern time. Then the following afternoon it was OOS again. Does anybody know if they set aside a copy when you order it? I ask because I ordered friday, and by the time I get home from work to email a copy of my credit card face to them I'm pretty sure it will be out of stock today. I would rather cancel my order and wait till all the titles I want are in stock at the same time rather than place multiple orders taking a $20 US hit on shipping each time.

Schuyler

Just to let everyone know, the VCD is probably the best-looking VCD I've ever seen. It is almost DVD quality except for some MPEG artifacting in the scenes with the army troops cheering and, sadly, the Zhang Ziyi/Maggie Cheung fight in the yellow leaves. I would highly recommend the VCD set from DDDhouse to tide everyone over until this whole mess clears up and we can all get our nice copies of both the theatrical and extended editions without going nuts.

buckee1

I got my copy today from Poker Industries and the image, audio and subs are all first rate. I haven't finished watching it but what I've seen so far is just awesome!

indycohiba

Well, I bought my copy from you the other day and watched it over the weekend. Hopefully, you can sell some more copies so we can get that extended cut soon. Thanks for the dvd!

CuriousGeorge

That's pretty good news! I was just about to modify my order when I saw your post but then I realized the DVD is only priced $1 US dollar higher than the VCD. If the VCD was cheaper, I would get it and wait for the extended dvd. So now I'll just get the DVD, double-dip whenever the extended version comes out, and give away my old copy.

Just out of curiousity since I've never bought real VCDs before, are the subtitles burned in? The movie is on 2 cds, right? Is it OAR/Widescreen? 5.1 audio? or DD2.0? Real VCDs should work in older dvd players like mine which don't read CD-Rs, correct? Thanks.

Raxel

I'm glad you like the DVD, personally I like this movie very much and I'm waiting for the extended version too.

chucks888

I just picked up this one today, and the image quality looked a little soft to me. I thought for sure this was a bootleg until I saw curiousgeorges post. My cover looks exactly like that. Do I pretty much have the official version? I was surprised by the shrinkwrap too which looks professional. Edit: also the clear plastic film on the box has a 'bumpy' texture rather than the usual smooth film on DVDs I'm accustomed to.

-Chuck

indycohiba

Could still be a bootleg. My picture was colorful and vibrant, not soft at all.

chucks888

Yeah I'm definitely confused. I've done some research and my cover slip is most likely "official". It has the silver hologram circle stick thing, and the sticker with the blue strip. It all looks good.

About the image quality I was skipping around just to see (I didn't watch the whole movie). From what I saw everything just looked 'soft'. I noticed the part where the widescreen black matte goes against the image is kinda soft too. Basically I saw bits that looked surprisingly good for a supposed bootleg, then again I saw bits that look surprisingly bad for what many people in this thread say is "clean, sharp, vibrant" etc. I'm confused!

When people say something has a great transfer I'm just thinking "LOTR" quality, maybe I just shouldn't have that mindset with this particular DVD?

-Chuck

indycohiba

I would not say its of LOTR's quality. But it is definitely very good for a dvd from Mainland China. It looked as good as most R1 dvds being released on average.