Tai-Seng
 

I've been wondering about this studio. It seem to be based in the States but run by Hong Kongers. The coverart and specifications seem to be identical to the counterparts in HK. Sometimes the titles are listed as R1, sometimes R0 - which one is correct? Are these Tai Seng discs produced and printed in the States? Are they actually identical items to the HK ones except for the region coding?

Tai Seng is an importer/distributor, but they also produce their own product. They're based in San Francisco. I think all their releases are R0/R1.

Tai Seng has been ripping off Hong Kong movie lovers for a long time. In the past they would charge $50 or more for Hong Kong DVD's that cost them a few dollars to import.

Now that there is plenty of competition, their pricing is more competitive, but most of the time all they do is take Hong Kong titles, slap a Tai Seng sticker on them and double the price. The quality of their own releases is almost always very poor, although they occasionaly put out something good.

I would personally stay far away from them, as you will spend more money for the same product you can buy elsewhere.

I agree, stay away. They were big in releasing Hong Kong cinema movies on laserdisc but just about all of the transfers were about as bad as you can get. It was almost like VHS transferred to laserdisc. I had rented God Of Gamblers and Drunken Master 2 and more than half of the subtitles were off the screen. I did find a copy of Iron Monkey 2 for $2.99 and it was not worth it.

thank you for all the infomation. i do not intend to buy any of the tai-seng prints and i do know their quality sucks. being in singapore, i've nearer access to both hk and korean prints.

i just like to know if korean titles such as bichunmoo are printed as R1 from within USA or are imported from hk with an extra stamp. are they identical products in terms of region code and dvd contents? cos as far as i can see the coverart is exactly the same and many times interchangeable, only that the price is really different.

I'd particularly stay away from those titles that Tai Seng gets from Ocean Shore. In my experience, most Ocean Shore DVDs are of poor quality. You can often tell if Tai Seng got the DVD from Ocean Shore by examining the fine print on the back.