Finally got arouind to watching this last night. Loved the movie but the Edko disc is the worst transfer I have ever watched. Or more correctly endured. Guess I should have just waited. Live and learn.

I guess you guys didn't see the 2046 dvd then, did you? HOFD is so many miles ahead of 2046 in terms of image quality that it's not even funny. Frankly, I am surprised at all of the negative reaction to the HOFD DVD. It was way more than watchable. There was hardly even a hint of grain, digital noise, or edge enhancement as far as I could see. And for only $12?? You shouldn't be complaining at all...

I saw this in the theatre and i can say that it definitely looked better than what we see in the current DVD releases.

The Edko disc appears to be a port of the Mainland DVD release which is even worse cuz it's only got the dolby 2.0 and non-anamorphic video.

I came across a fake Edko disc yesterday, so beware !
I got a Zoke disc from a video store in Monterey Park ( LA ) the day it came out. The quality was only so so, as reported here. A while later, I got an Edko disc, from Nicheflix. The quality was good, the disc had DD 5.1 and DTS on it. The size of the DVD is about 7.9GB or so . The DTS soundtrack alone was 1.2 GB, while the DD 5.1 soundtrack was 372 MB.
Last weekend, my cousin gave me a Edko disc that he bought from some guy on Ebay. Cardboard box outside, snapcase inside, and the cardboard box had "DTS" in red letters, "House of Flying Daggers" in white letters. The box looks nice. When I opened it, there was a DVD snap case inside, but there was no DVD cover. I thought that was odd. I took a look, and the quality was only so so . The menu looked exactly like the one I got from Nicheflix. DTS option was there too. The DTS logo also came on.
I used my PC to check out the disc, and the DTS soundtrack was missing ! Only the DD 5.1 soundtrack ( 372 MB ) was present.
This might explain why some of you had mentioned that the Edko disc's quality was not that great. May be you came across a bootleg one. The only way to check is to put in in your PC and looked at the files. The Edko disc that I received from Nicheflix was excellent. By the way, here in LA, you can buy the real thing, for about $15.

Great movie (imo) but terrible transfer. Guess this'll be a double dip for me, hopefully they'll release some form of nice boxed set with a new transfer.

Some interesting screen-caps here ---> http://www.avbuzz.com/new_home/w/200...ingdaggers.php

-JR

Hey to see the film for cheap yes its maybe worth getting the real dvd like I did, but I hated the transfer a lot, at times it looked like a digial camcorder job! it moved wrong so much.

I think its easy to spot a pirate mine was real and really it looks like a Pirate still, apart from the nice DTS which worked well, its just a shame HK dvds of this quality come out, but dvds of this quality of BIG films is a joke!

I await the super Dooper Japanese Box set soon, to go with my Hero set.

ahh yes,
the film was very nice as good as Hero for me, it took a while to get going maybe, but once it did it never really stopped, very good film, only spoiled by the transfer a little, I will see this in the cinema on Boxing Day here in UK

Any idea on when to expect a Japanese DVD release?

The Korean release has been out for a while now. Does anybody have that? If so, how about a comparison review?

Are you talking about the Starmax release? It's another three weeks... November 25th is the date.

FYI,

I will now be doing some reviews for DVDTalk. My first is a full review of the Edko disc:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=13227

Quote:

Originally posted by RichardW
Any idea on when to expect a Japanese DVD release?

Here ya go (it's listed as LOVERS)...
Regular edition: http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/...021453-7762741

The BOX: http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/...021453-7762741

The Japanese release is without English subs. Bollocks! That box set looks super neato...
Deluxe Edition
Standard Edition

Japan gives up the stick again what a shame as they are bound to get best picture

That sucks big time. Guess I'll have to wait for the American release sometime next year unless the Korean release is any good.

Doesn't Miramax have the rights to this movie? I just worry what Miramax is going to do with the transfers to this movie and Hero. Their recent DVD releases have been filled with edge enhancement and other video issues. Hope they can deliver the goods.

Nope. Sony/Columbia Tristar. Yimou apparently isn't too keen to have anything to do with anything Disney/Miramax again.

Columbia are bring it out on Boxing day in UK (26th Decemeber) and I guess they will at least do the film proud as they seem to be great latley with films in genral, and there dvds can also be superior in quality, so hey a SuperBIt dvd will be a certainty, but there 1st release definalty wont have the nice DTS track on as Columbia are crap in that department they live to get you to DoubleDip

Well, it is certainly a relief that Miramax won't be bungling House of Flying Daggers. I am still holding off buying Hero to see what they do with it, but I am not holding out much hope.

I picked up a version from 'Zoke' here in San Jose and I got shafted. The entire film is in b&w with burned-in subs. I'm afraid to open the other DVD I got from the same store, "2046."

I'm going to try and return it tomorrow and see what happens. Prices seem to be real low on ebay right now - anyone gone this route?

(Correction on the previous post)

After I posted that message, I decided to try the disc on my computer and it played fine, so the problem seems to be that its a PAL disc. Don't know if the player I'm using can deal with this properly...

anyone know where the Starmax Korean disc can be preordered from?

http://www.dvdasian.com/cgi-bin/dvdasian/18121.html

damn. now dvdasian is saying the starmax release isn't coming out till december 20th.

Pity that the Starmax version has been pushed back. But maybe there's a new Zoke Culture DVD.

Is this the version you have?

http://www.koreandvds.com/dvddetail.html?id=24391

English, Chinese subs--embedded, non-removable; Dolby 2.0 Stereo; PAL; Released Oct 15.

Because there's also this version by Zoke Culture:

http://www.koreandvds.com/dvddetail.html?id=24892

English, Chinese subs--removable; DTS and Dolby 5.1; NTSC; Released Oct 28.

There are lots of these on Ebay. Maybe it's the same as the one above, but this has the real cover art... or maybe the one above is showing a slipcase, and this one is an inside case...?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...344343601&rd=1

By Zoke Culture. English, Chinese, Off; DTS and Dolby; NTSC; No release date mentioned.

Bollocks... well, i've waited this long... perhaps I can see it in a theater, then get the Starmax release a few weeks later.