Djangoman

Is it true that there's a HUGE difference of quality between R1 DVD and R3 DVD? What we mean as quality here is audio and video, not lack of special features, which I'm sure all of us have realized and tolerated this.

So, is it true that R3 DVD quality (legitimate, not bootleg or pirated) either from Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, are always inferior in quality compared with R1 DVD? Let's limit the titles to the major ones, the titles listed by major studios.

If it's for me, R3 is more advantageous due to my location, and of course, price-wise.

What do you think?

cultshock

It completely depends on the title. Sometimes, an R3 release is a direct port of an R1 or R2 release and is practically identical, or sometimes an R3 release is superior to the R1 release (ie. the Korean PULP FICTION, or the HK ARMY OF DARKNESS). You have to look at each film on a case by case basis, and do your homework to determine which region has the best version.

fnordboy

Can't really beat that, so I will just second that it totally depends on the release. I like most of the R3s I have bought, but if a film is availabel R1 I wil generally stick with that. Exceptions of course being the likes of Army of Darkness...

Djangoman

Well, I live in Indonesia, and some members of DVD collector comunity claims that some of Indonesian and Hong Kong R3 DVD qulaity is terrible, specially in audio. The video is quite good, though. He mentioned Matrix as example. I don't know this because my hardware is not high-end, and I usually collect only one version of a movie, except if the extra features are very different, like John Woo's the killer, for instance.

Now, for R3 HK DVD and Korea, I believe they have their own facility for mastering? Can anyone give enlightment how DVD is distributed? Well, say Columbia Pictures releases Bad Boys movie for several regions. They got the master film (not DVD). Do they give the master to the distributors in different region where they manufacture their own version (based on certain limitations of course)? Or Columbia USA manufacture all DVDs for all regions (1,2,4,5, etc) in USA then distribute the master DVD or the DVDs to the respective region?

Djangoman

I believe many members here also bought their Hollywood DVD from R3 either HK, Korea, or even Thailand. I just want to hear your opinion, aren't you worried with the issue I mentioned above - that generally R3 is very much inferior compared to R1 release? Is this actually true or not?

Please note that what I mean here is not DVDs of different edition. I call Army of Darkness R3 is different edition from R1 Anchor Bay. I refer to 'DIRECT PORTS" DVDs such as Matrix or Bad Boys or Master and Commander ... well, all of them are SE, similar in each region ... but is it true, for instance, R1 DVD Bad Boys SE is always better than R3 SE edition?

D-Ball

It's still on a case by case basis. A R3 release will not automatically be inferior to the R1 release. Many times, an R3 release is just as good as the R1 release.

marty888

Several months ago I bought the R3 I, ROBOT (rather than wait for the SE to appear in R1) and it's about as good as a DVD can get - fantastic picture, etc.

I've also bought many Japanese and Korean titles in their R3 Hong Kong editions, and have never felt that I'm getting anything that is an inferior product.

Are there some really lousy R3 DVDs? Of course, but we could also list many R1 releases that are crap without making any general assumptions about R1 DVDs.

splattii

I does vary, but it's not as often as people think. Most of the time the quality is the same, some times it's a little worse, some times it's actually better. My City of God R3 for example *BLOWS* the R1 out of the water. Well, any version of a Mirimax film blows away a Mirimax R1 release. lol. My Kill Bill R3 has different extra's also. I usually buy the R3's over the R1's just because of the fact I don't trust North American censoring or editing. I'm a fan of Asian film more so than hollywood, so buying an R1 Asian dvd over an R3 doesn't make much sense to me. They cost more and usually take longer to come out.

Jay G.

I've bought a number of major studio R3 DVDs from Hong Kong, Tawain, and Korea. As far as I can tell, they are all identical in quality to their R1 counterparts. Some of them may even be considered better on the audio front, since they may have a DTS track while the R1 does not.

Djangoman

Ahh, I'm quite relieved now. Thanks for your info guys. So many of you have actually compare some titles between R1 & R3 of the same dedition?

Bokasmo

You are going off about R3's quality over R1's, but are completely forgetting about R2's

Not Europe or Britain R2's which are PAL, but Japan R2's (NTSC).

They are prolly the best quality DVDs you are going to get. For the money? Prolly not. If you are looking for budget prices, but quality, stick w/ R3's (korea/Thai/HK).

For those special films, I prefer a Japanese cut above the rest, especially if on Superbit.

Djangoman

Guess you're right chap. R2 Japan is too expensive for me, but I also heard it's the best quality. My problem is actually, as I may have stated above, is that I'm Indonesia. DVDs here are start growing (despite the heavy rate of piracy) - and I'm collecting local releases (R3). Some DVD collectors here claimed that local R3 release are crap, but as far as I'm concern there's nothing wrong with them and they're definitley affordable. And based on its physical appearance especially menu and languange / subtitles option I think Indonesian R3 release are direct port of Thailand or HK or Korea DVDs.

At the moment I think it can be concluded that in terms of audio-video quality, in general, there should be nothing wrong with R3 releases, incl. for Holywood titles. Right?

Jay G.

I've compared R3 to R1 DVDs for Spiderman 2 and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and the only difference I noticed was the inclusion of Chinese subtitles. Same for an R3 Korean DVD of Ice Age. Granted, I don't have the best equipment to view them on, but the quality difference, if there at all, isn't that big.

Sometimes the R3 DVDs are exaclty identical. Sony's Superbits fit into this category, as the DVD is coded for both R1 and R3. And of course the R3 DVD of the Director's Cut of Army of Darkness blows the R1 DVD out of the water in video and audio quality.

Josh Z

If you're talking about major releases from American studios who do their own distribution abroad (Sony, Warner Bros, etc.), the quality should be nearly identical. Most of the time the discs are all pressed in the same facility but just authored with different subtitle options and region coding.

The really poor-quality R3 discs tend to be the home-grown variety, Asian movies (especially catalog titles) from Asian studios.

Djangoman

Umm wait a minute Josh... but I think if it's region 3 or maybe other region far from U.S. the disc should be pressed / manufactured in that respective country or nearest region, right? If Region 3 Korea then it's pressed in Korea, R3 HK in HK, and so on... am I right?

If that so, this might be the point that is alleged, that HK & Korea agents / distributors facility are not of the same calibre than US. This is not my opinion - this is what my fellow collector in Indonesia claimed.

Jay G.

It's true that most R3 discs are going to be pressing in or near the country they are sold in.

However, pressing doesn't affect video/audio quality. At worst, a bad pressing would be unplayable because the data wouldn't be readable. At best, it'd be bit perfect. Of the questionable quality issues that I've had with imported DVDs (mostly early DVD releases of Hong Kong films), I haven't had any issue with the pressing.

In fact, the only issue that's possibly due to pressing is that the 2nd layer of the Hong Kong Shaolin Soccer DVD is unreadable on many PS2 systems. However, that could also be some odd mastering issue as well. That particular DVD has played fine on all the DVD players I've tried it on though.

Your friend just sounds biased against the particular region's output. I'm not sure why you still give it credence when every opinion voiced in this thread says otherwise.

tmy727

It varies depending on the release. When in doubt, I usually hit up dvdcompare.net or dvdbeaver.com to get some feedbacks. You can judge the pictures for yourself. You'll be surprise of how many non-Region 1 were recommended as the idea version to pick up.

Keep in mind that (your) equipment and i/o in use will always come into play. [ie. RCA vs. Component vs. HDMI --- CRT vs. Projector vs. DLP/Plasma --- Walmart DVD Player vs. Denon 2910/3910 --- etc...

Josh Z

If a disc is distributed by the same studio, Warner Bros for example, in all territories, the studio masters all of the disc content at the same time and farms it out to their various international branches. The physical discs themselves may be pressed in different countries (bad wording in my last post; I meant to say "mastered" instead of "pressed"), but as Jay G. states, the pressing is not going to have a discernable impact on picture quality. If the pressing is bad, the disc won't play at all. But if the pressing is adequate, the other aspects of picture quality (color transfer, compression, etc.) will be the same no matter what.

This may be complicated, however, by certain movies that are distributed by different studios in different countries. A Warner title in the U.S. may be distributed by Sony in Asia (Terminator 3, for instance). In these cases, sometimes each studio may do a separate transfer (which is why the Asian copies of T3 have DTS but the U.S. version doesn't), or other times they simply license the American studio's transfer.

Djangoman

I think I get the point. Well, to verify this then I have to find out where exactly DVDs in my country Indonesia are manufactured. I don't know, but maybe anyone here knows? Based on the menu appearance and language choice / subtitles I assume they may come from HK, Korea, or Thailand.

Jay G.

Informational codes are imprinted on the inner rim of the disc onn the reflective side, presumably identifying the disc, the batch it came from, and even the manufacturer. Damned if I know what the codes mean though.

tinlunlau

let me clarify this with everybody here but R3Hk editions of all Warner Brothers titles, are completely identical to the R1 editions. maybe with the addition with chinese (taiwanese) subtitles and a Thai dub track. but otherwise, it's the same in quality.

Columbia Tri-Star Home Video varies. they're still very good but lest not forget; they released Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in DTS for the R3HK market.

some co-production movies like "Something's gotta give" (Warner Bros & Columbia) or "The Rundown" (Universal/Columbia) would go to the opposite company from which the american version is released by (eg. T3 was released by Warner Home Video in the US, while in Hong Kong and the rest of the word, is released by Columbia)

eedoon

From what I know, they still import most Warner and Disney (including Touchstone) DVD. The quality has little or no difference to the R1 counterpart, apart from the missing special feature. I know someone who bought both the R3 and R1 version of Finding Nemo and he swear by his R1 DVD, saying that it has a much better quality. Since I don't have CRT projector like he did (I'm watching my DVD on my PC), I can't really tell.

MGM and 20th Century Fox also an imported disc.

Older CTHE title also being imported, the newer one is a piece of shit, being full screen only and no special features. Fuck them.

There are other distributor & manufacturer out there, I've tried some of the cheaper one but they're mostly have mediocre or even inferior quality.