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Q. about Canada B5 S1 DVD...

C

Capt. Neville

Regular
To anyone who can answer (i.e. JoeD):

OK, so I finally scraped up enough money to buy the Season 1 boxed set and ordered it last night. However, I ordered it from Total Action Universe without thinking about whether it'll be region 1, region 2, etc., and I'm fairly certain my DVD player only plays region 1.

So my quick question is: am I screwed? Do I need to cancel and re-order from a US site (which means scraping up more money)? A coworker told me Canada is region 1 but they usually have different distributions of DVDs anyway. Is this true? Does it apply to the S1 boxed set?

OK, so that was a whole slew of questions. Oops. :~)

Thx,
--mcn
 
North America = Region 1

If not, a large portion of DVD players (even those sold in Region 1) can be made region-free. Suitable maintenance options may be difficult to find, but they exist on a fairly large percentage of devices.
 
OK, so that's one question down. Thanks Lennier. However, what about what my coworker said about some of the Canadian DVDs being different? Is this true? And if so, does it apply to the S1 boxed set as well?

Thx,
--mcn
 
It might truly be that some studios release different versions for the US and Canada (including subtitles and soundtracks in French only on the Canadian edition).

However, both are bound to contain English soundtrack and subtitles. With extras, it is alltogether doubtful if they are available in anything else but English (not sure).
 
I don't think Warner Bros. is one of the studios that has different distribution arrangements in Canada than in the U.S. There were a handful of early semi-indy titles that were distributed by different countries in the two countries, and I think Disney/Buena Vista has a separate division north of the border. As a result a few discs have Canadian editions that are anamorphic while their U.S. counterparts aren't, and (rarely) there can be differences in the extras, but as far as I can tell the same version of B5 is shipping to both the U.S. and Canada. I can't recall any other WB films being on the "different in Canada" list either. Fox titles are also the same in both countries, which is why I bought my X-Files sets from TAU. (This is the main reason that U.S. titles almost always have both English and French language tracks, while only a handful have a Spanish sound track in addition to the Spanish subtitles. Spanish is spoken far more widely in the U.S. than French is, and by more people who don't also speak English. But devoting the space to the French track saves them having to do a separate release for Canada.)

Regards,

Joe
 
Of the DVDs I have, there is usually English, French languages and half the time spanish subtitles. i guess it is a compromise for the NA market.
can not wait until tuesday.

EntilSedai
 
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
can not wait until tuesday.

[/quote]

Then I have bad news for you. Looks like WHV has delayed the R1 release by a week, just as they did the R2. New release date is November 12th according to an e-mail I just got from my dealer and a report I saw elsewhere on the 'net earlier today. Sorry to be the bearer of ill tidings.

Regards,

Joe
 
Every bad news has good sides. Perhaps this means they noticed the alleged picture flaws in "And The Sky, Full of Stars" and decided to correct?

In this case, one might hope the R1 version would be fault free.
 
It would take longer than a week or two to make a new master for "And The Sky,...", replicate all of the replacement disks, and stick them in the old packaging. Besides, the warehouses (and probably the retailers) should have the disks stocked now if a fault was only just found. Also, the R1 review disks are supposedly fine according to The Cinema Laser. My best guess is that WHV's replicator could not meet the demand and need a little more time to make disks.
 
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
My best guess is that WHV's replicator could not meet the demand and need a little more time to make disks.

[/quote]

Which is the best of all possible reasons for a week's delay. Certainly hope that's the case. You are, of course, correct about a week not being enough time to fix a problem, and Derek reporting that the R1 discs are OK. I actually posted almost exactly the same thing, word for word, to the newsgroup immediately before coming here when someone also speculated that this had something to do with fixing problems. I guess great minds do think alike. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Regards,

Joe

P.S.

Useless technical information dept: Warner Bros. doesn't use a replicator - they are one. Warner Advanced Media Operations (WAMO) was one of the first companies set up to mass-produce DVDs and they manufacture discs for a number of Hollywood studios. WHV does sometimes go to an outside replicator for big titles if WAMO is running at capacity. (I believe they did this for Harry Potter and for Fellowship of the Rings - a New Line picture, but WHV distributes New Line, HBO Pictures and one or two other lines of DVDs.)
 
Delayed by a week? Not nearly enough to take care of problems - unless Joe, Kribu, AntonyF and I were in a basement playing with the initial video feed. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

My guess is that there has been a bigger demand than expected. I thought S1B5 would be on Amazon's top-100 for the 14 day period after first announced... then disappear. I thought it would appear again during the period 1-week previous to shipping, 1 week after. It has far surpassed what I thought to be a good expectation - its been there non-stop!

My guess is that they're pressing more copies, with no more features, enhancements, or anything - just trying to meet the demand, which is much higher than I could have possibly imagined.

We'll all get our DVDs in time. We'll all enjoy it. Now that R2 people have told us about the glitch in Soul Hunter, we'll all see it. Nonetheless, lets all take a deep breath and remember...

B5 is finally coming out on DVD!

-Tim
 
Glitch in "Soul Hunter"? Is this something new?

As noted above, reports from critics who got advanced copies of the R1 set indicate that there were none of the major effects glitches reported by R2 fans. So it sounds like the PAL and NTSC final discs were mastered separately. Maybe we'll get our own glitch.

UPDATE::

It appears that the delay may only affect Canadian DVD dealers. If Warner Bros. did encounter unexpected demand in R1 their solution may have been to ship all available copies to U.S. dealers to meet the original domestic release date, and push back the Canadian release date to give them time to send the discs they're cranking out now up there.

Regards,

Joe
 
Hey Joe,

I was referring to the lip-syncing glitch in Soul Hunter which has been discussed on the boards... apparently, its just for a few seconds about 8 minutes in if I remember correctly.

-Tim
 
While I understand the reasoning behind pushing back the Canadian date in order to placate the more important/larger US market, it still disappoints me, being a Canadian and all. I am guessing that the US market has higher profits per set. As in, all costs being equal, an 80USD american disc brings in more profit than any Canadian set up to a price of about 130CAD. Nov 12 is actually better for me, as I will be able to cash a scholarship cheque that weekend when I go home. It is 2500 and I have only 2300 in tuition to pay, giving a "surplus" of 200 dollars, to spend on two sets - B5S1 and 24S1.

CR
 
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