Hey the picture from them grabs does look a little better
not sure if the darkness problem has been cleared up, but certain parts of his face do look brighter and you can see more in the shadows like his eyes.

Wow, that R2 cap looks a lot better! Can't afford $50 double-dips though

I gave in and bought it, hey may as well get the best I can, even if it is double the price but its a film I think is worth it.

It's definitely worth it. You won't be sorry!

I think I'll be picking this up.

My Japanese reading ability is so-so, but the second option definitely says "commentary" in katakana characters followed by some hard to read (for me) kanji characters. This is a guess, but maybe this option allows you to play the commentary track with Japanese subtitles. (obviously not neccessary for us, but since the commentary track is in English, I'm sure the Japanese audience would appreciate a translation of the track)

Went ahead and ordered it, only $37 shipped at amazon.jp. Now to decide on whether to keep the current release or not.

I ordered it, too. DTS was the deal maker for me. I should have known Amazon would have saved me a few bucks, but it's too late. I got it from CD Japan. Hopefully they'll get it to me a little quicker, too. I guess Express Shipping cost me some extra too. Cost me $53

OK, that definitely makes sense. Those characters all look the same to me!

I think it's a lovely set and I'm so glad I went for it over the R1 or UK R2 editions. Great packaging a presentation all round!

Found a review here

Dawn of The Dead: Director's Cut - Premium Edition

I dont agree with that at all, as the R3 versions were crap, the darkness was not suposed to be like that as I saw it a few times in the cinema and you could acctually see faces and details and other things! basically the dvd is wayyyyy too dark and it ruined the film for me on my TV as I cannot ajust anything without ruining the picture, so I have to just have the picture severly dark
at times I would pause and pump up the contrast to see what I was missing, and I was missing a lot

shame indeed, and I pray the Japanese dvd has done something with this severe probelem as my set arrives the end of this week.

there are specific shots when they are in the mall, that seem to have very little detail in the background, with too much of a green tint. i'll try to find an exact time on it.

There was a severe scene where you couldnt even see Vings face at all, it was just a mess of darkness, I pumped uo my Contrast to silly levels and saw everything but doing that isnt a way to watch a film as all the blacks where then grey, but I did this a lot to check out overly dark parts and saw a load of detail so I guess they just darkened it somehow for the dvd as theres soo much hidden away

Are you sure your television itself isn't the problem? I have the r3 DVD and it looks just fine. Or maybe I just don't pay as much attention to the picture quality as you do.

I guess I am one of them people who want the best

I am pretty sure its not just me as many people seemed to comment on the darkness as a problem too, as the detail if you pump it up at certain points does get better.

I will check out the Japanese dvd soon and compare it with the R3 version and see if I see anything new, and try to compare and post some pics at the points which shocked me how dark the picture really was

all I can say for now is I dont remember it that dark in cinemas either, wish it was still showing in cinemas as it maybe the film of the year for me

Hello all,

I just wanted to add some comments to the mix as I just watched my R2 Dawn of the Dead last night:

Slipcase - Extremely classy. As most of you have seen from the pictures above it looks nice but in person it REALLY looks nice. (I kinda just stared at it while the DVD cycled through all the warning crap). For some reason I just like the look.

DVD wrap - I agree with others not the best key art but still better than the R1 and R3 (IMHO)

Insert - Would be nice if I could read Japanese but nice to see a double sided insert included.

Video - At first I thought I saw an incredible amount of difference in pic quality. Much more detail in some scenes and brighter picture. Once the film was done I put in the R3 disc and noticed much of the same detail. I would have to say that this release would be comparable to a Superbit release. If you have a big screen you will notice a slight improvement in picture quality. If anyone notices a bigger differnence in quality let me know...maybe it's time to calibrate my Pioneer!
Audio - Gulp! This is what I have been waiting for ladies and gentlemen. I thought there was a HUGE difference in the DTS track over the Dolby Digital track on the R3. I'm not an audio expert so I will just say that it sounded much cleaner. I'm sure others will expand much more eloquently than I can at this point.

I guess I just want to say that I highly recommend this movie and this DVD. Funny thing about this film, I was so set against a remake but then I read the script and thought it was good. I went to the theater with an open mind and I liked the film but thought it was missing some of the character development from the script. With the release of the Unrated Director's Cut I have come to really enjoy this film.

Get this version...don't hesitate...

A

I didn't detect much difference at all between the the DTS and Dolby track on the Japanese disc though. What did you find?

The margin is definitley not as wide but I did notice the following:

In the action sequences the sound is much more aggressive. It really engulfed the entire viewing area during the bathroom scene, the garage sequence, the Andy Gun Store rescue and the climax.
In the quieter scenes subtle noises could be heard from every speaker. I believe the directional effects (if that is the term) are helped greatly by the DTS track.

I really believe the clearness the DTS track offers is above the dolby digital track.

I could be full of it though...

Did I mention how much I enjoy this movie!!!

It could also be that the HK disc has an inferior Dolby Digital track. They may have cut the bit-rate to 384kb/s or something in order to save bits for the DTS.

The DD track on the R1 copy is one of the best I've ever heard.

Yes, the DD track was really good, but the DTS will be excellent
I can't wait my dvd from yesasia.com (42$ ~ 32€!! (which is the normal price for a collector dvd in France)

++ Mat

Hey for a Japanese dvd its cheap anyway it could have been a lot more, and it also could have been a super Dooper Limited Edition with packaging to salivate over.

The Japanese disc features a 448kbps DD track, and the pic has an average bitrate of 8.39mb, which is as high as it gets really. Almost like a non official superbit release.

Yep, I'm very happy that they seperated the extras. I wish all DVD's were like this.

YIKES!!!

the japanese disc blows the R1 disc away if those screenshots are to be believed (which i absolutely do)

i thought the R1 dvd looked quite soft on my projector. glad my eyes (or my projector) weren't failing me.

oleus

ps - i went to amazon.jp to order but can't make sense of anything there as i cannot speak japanese. is there any way to navigate that site in english?

Yep, those screenshots are real, taken off my HTPC. There were plenty of other comparison shots I could've put up but didn't want to clutter the thread. There is a marked improvement in sharpness and color rendition. As previously mentioned the bitrate is much higher for the picture and DD track since the movie is on one disk, while the extras have moved onto their own. A Japanese Superbit Deluxe, if you will.

Unfortunately there is no way to read the main section of the site in English (unless you want to get some REALLY general translations with altavista's Babelfish). However, once you place an item in your shopping cart the checkout procedure and account information can be viewed in English.