Quote:
I have run into some DVDs where the "English" subtitles also ended up being in another language instead.
I've run into some DVDs where the English subs were for completely different movies.
BUYER BEWARE: Really bad DVDs
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 SilentJay32 |
Re: Really Bad DVDs | ||
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Posts: 114 (04/02/06 14:44:41) Sempai |
I've run into some DVDs where the English subs were for completely different movies.
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wongsaurus |
Re: Not that Bad -- Hard Boiled | ||
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Posts: 1240 (04/24/06 07:26:58) Ageless Chinese Serpent |
The new Tai Seng Hard Boiled is labeled as 85 minutes but it actually runs 2 hours , 7 minutes and 15 seconds.
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SoMeTiMeZ PsYcHoTiK |
Re: BUYER BEWARE: Really bad DVDs | ||
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Posts: 269 (04/25/06 18:28:02) Sempai |
Thanks for the info on the new Tai Seng version of Hard Boiled, wongsaurus.
How is the quality of this release? Hopefully it is a hell of a lot better than their last release which I lambasted earlier this thread. If it is the uncut film (the running time you list makes it appear so) and the quality is decent, I may have to pick it up. |
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wongsaurus |
Re: Not That Bad - HARD BOILED --More Comments | ||
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Posts: 1240 (04/26/06 07:20:52) Ageless Chinese Serpent |
The current Hard Boiled is a very clean print but not digitally remastered. Colors, contrast and sharpness look very good. Soundtrack is typical 80's recording technology.
Subtitles are optional in Traditional Chinese, Simplified & English. The translations are actually quite decent. Yesasia currently has it at 8.99US and it has been on sale with them as low as 5.99US. I found this edition of Hard Boiled quite acceptable and have bought several copies as gifts for friends. Oh yes, there is also a DTS Version of Hard Boiled available but I can't recall what is printed as the running time. |
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Unregistered(d) |
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE... | ||
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Posts: 0 (06/14/06 12:57:15) |
I just received the DTS "Re-mastered" edition of IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. I am sooooooooooo disappointed!
 The "Making of..." feature is without English subtitles! And, the subtitles for the film are riddled with INCOMPLETE sentences! For a film, the dialogue of which is actually crucial to the story, this is truly awful!  How good is the "Criterion" edition? |
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wongsaurus |
Re: IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE... | ||
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Posts: 1240 (06/14/06 15:43:33) Ageless Chinese Serpent |
Sorry to hear about your disappointing experience with ITMFL.
Unfortunately it seems like most films "special features" and "making of featurettes" and "cast & crew commentaries" are always a mixed bag of wildly variable quality. HK movies in particular seemed to be plagued by this. I don't have any knowledge about the Criterion edition but I recall it was somewhere on IMDB that someone was able to accurately comment on the content. I'd recommend that you check it out there. |
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SoMeTiMeZ PsYcHoTiK |
Re: BUYER BEWARE: Really bad DVDs | ||
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Posts: 269 (08/17/06 13:02:22) Sempai |
Ground-Zero -- Kung Fu DVDs
This is the same group that produced titles under Xenon Pictures, Hong Kong Connection, and Arena Home Video. aka Wu-Tang Clan. Guess they changed their name when they switched from putting out crappy VHS titles to crappy DVDs. Nearly every release is Pan and Scan, dubbed in English only(have not found any that aren't yet), and appear to be from VHS masters. Thought I could handle the pan and scan after watching so many old school kung fu flicks on late night tv over my life, but after having gotten spoiled by widescreen DVDs, the P&S truly ruins the fight scenes. Way too many people fighting offscreen. "Aha! I shall leap offscreen so you cannot strike me!" -- "Oh yeah? Well, I'll step off the screen too, lets see you find me now! HA HA!" -- "Not good enough, I can still see your ear; you bastard, prepare to not hear so good on your right side!" Ok, I think you get the idea. Picked up six for $3 each with titles like Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (actually widescreen, but with cuts to the cat/cobra fight), Shaolin Drunkard, Dance of Death, Unbeaten 28, Kung Fu of 8 Drunkards, and some film titled Kung Fu Heros (in KFH, all of the titles in the film itself are done in brushed Chinese script and too stylized for me to translate to get the actual title). Cheap discs, but you get what you pay for. Plus the discs labeled "Iron Flag Collection" include embedded looping rap video segments in the menu. And the disc labeled "The Underground Collection" had some low IQ dude come on during the menus and--umm--talk, sorta. If you like Wu Tang Clan, then you will probably enjoy these DVDs as nearly all of the extras deal with the band or their production company. I didn't pick up any of the DVDs which had "The Digital Remix" on their covers, and it appears to have been a wise decision. From the reviews I have found about a couple of these films, it appears that Wu-Tang took a couple of films and spliced them together to make a 'new' movie. |
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SoMeTiMeZ PsYcHoTiK |
Re: BUYER BEWARE: Really bad DVDs | ||
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Posts: 269 (12/26/06 15:05:24) Sempai |
Dead or Alive -- Kino Video (U.S. Release). Rated-R version.
Lots of cuts (Seven Minutes) for violence. Which for this film means -- Why bother? The entire reason to watch this film is due to its over the top violence. The oddest cut was the exploding gut O' noodles scene. This is in the freaking trailer which is included on the same dvd! Yet they cut it from the film itself. For those wishing to avoid it--The cover art for the R-Rated disc has a Purple background color. The UNRATED version has a Peach background color. Previewed copy from Blockbuster. Price sticker and another cover sticker blocked me from seeing the R-Rating on the case, and I was unaware at the time of there being two different Kino DVD releases or I would not have purchased this. A good example of an impulse buy gone all wrong. As soon as I noticed the first cut take place, I checked and found out that I had accidentally purchased the damn R-Rated version. ------------------------------------------------------------ Beyond Hypothermia -- Dej (Ingram) (U.S. Release) Rated-R Cut by Five minutes for violence / nudity. ENGLISH DUB ONLY! No Chinese soundtrack whatsoever. Not only is it dubbed, it is dubbed badly. Received this as a gift. Had no idea this film had a U.S. Release. Stick to the Mei Ah DVD, this one is pathetic. |
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Hong Kong Dave |
Re: BUYER BEWARE: Really bad DVDs | ||
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Posts: 316 (03/22/07 04:59:39) Fresh-faced Pop Idol |
I've got to add the HK DVD release of "Crazy N' The City"!
 I love the film and I've had two different DVD's but they've both had the same fault. Around 22 minutes in (when Francis Ng's character is being bugged to have a shower) the English subs suddenly cut out never to return  The really weird thing though is that if you skip a chapter at this point the English subs return..... I've got the VCD now but it's not the same (obviously) - anyone else have bad experiences with this DVD? |
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SoMeTiMeZ PsYcHoTiK |
Re: BUYER BEWARE: Really bad DVDs | ||
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Posts: 269 (03/26/07 15:27:37) Sempai |
HK Dave, Have you tried the disc in another player or the DVD rom drive in your computer? Usually glitches like you describe tend to be caused by player incompatibility.
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Hong Kong Dave |
Re: BUYER BEWARE: Really bad DVDs | ||
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Posts: 316 (03/27/07 05:13:05) Fresh-faced Pop Idol |
It's not a fault I've ever had before and the player isn't new to HK discs.....
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SoMeTiMeZ PsYcHoTiK |
Re: BUYER BEWARE: Really bad DVDs | ||
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Posts: 269 (03/29/07 01:19:37) Sempai |
My meaning is that it could be just THAT particular disc's mastering that gives your player problems. I have discs that play fine in one player but screw up badly in another. Even have one that plays perfectly in my stand-alone player but isnt even recognized as a viable disc by the dvd rom drive in my computer, and another that plays fine in the dvd rom drive but skips badly in both of my stand-alone players (all HK films).
That is why I asked if you tried it in another player, since you have already tried a second disc and had the same issue repeat, it could be either a bad mastering or just a specific disc that your player doesn't like. |
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AlHaru |
The Banquet (Hong Kong Version) | ||
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Posts: 204 (11/14/07 10:55:52) Sempai |
The Banquet (Hong Kong Version)
It looks almost like 10 years ago when the movies were pressed on DVDs from non-progressive VHS sources. In the case of The Banquet, one of the most unfavourably criticized movies of 2006, you get the Media Asia piece of crap that has a wonderful, 1.4GB full of DTS 96/24 soundtrack, but what the heck happened to the picture quality? Say hello to VCD pq again. If you own a large-screen display (say 40"+), you'd wish you're drunk when watching this DVD. Intense compression artifects, murky colours (and colours play a tremendous role in the film too), an overall disrespectful presentation of the film and the works put behind. Once you pop the disc into your computer, expect to see a DVD-5 (single-layered) capacity of the film itself (while the disc is 8GB, the rest is dedicated to bonus features). With 4.7GB, the unnecessary DTS 96/24 takes up 1.4GB of the space, and that means only +/- 3.2GB for a two-hour movie. Thanks Media Asia. My 7-year-old niece can do better compression than this. |
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SoMeTiMeZ PsYcHoTiK |
BUYER BEWARE: Really bad DVDs | ||
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Posts: 186 (08/29/08 01:02:23) Sempai |
The Circle (Korea) 2000 -- Tai Seng What's worse than watching a foreign movie dubbed into English? Why, watching a foreign movie dubbed into another foreign language and then subtitled in English of course. That's right, no Korean language track--just Cantonese or Mandarin dubs. The movie itself is rather entertaining, but DAMN, Tai Seng, what's wrong with leaving the original language track intact? They don't do this to
all of their Korean releases, but there are a couple of others I have which are nearly as bad: Truth or Dare --aka-- The Truth Game and their first
release of Please Teach Me English. Both had the original Korean soundtrack, but the English subs were only available with the Chinese soundtrack.
Speaking of Tai Seng Korean releases, if you are thinking of picking up their US release of The Quiet Family, be sure to acquire a copy of the last
batch (Black & White photo cover--still available some places), as, from what information I have discovered, the new version (Color photo cover--Modern
dist.) eliminates all of the extras (other than some trailers) from the disc, as well as, it appears, the English Dub for those of you who are into such
things. Also the "new" (actually older) release is shown to be five minutes shorter in length. But, hey, it's region free this time around!
She's on Duty (Korea) 2005 -- Cuangdong Jie Le Mass Media Fun film, Anamorphic video, DTS, DVD-9, Cool embossed slipcase -- what's not to like? How about the worst PAL to NTSC conversion I have ever seen in my
life. Whenever the camera pans, or something moves side to side, you get horrid stuttering and ghosting effects. Avoid this release at all costs.
Last Edited By: SoMeTiMeZ PsYcHoTiK
08/29/08 01:05:29.
Edited 1 times.
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lobo67.thelatarniaforums |
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Posts: 3 (10/14/08 04:54:51) |
I guess we all know about Videoasia DVDs. I recently bought their Dragon 4 Pack, and I was getting into The Clones of Bruce Lee, and about half way in, it
started sticking really bad, and then pixilating, untill it was just frozen. I tried it on another player, and it messed up on that one too. I then later
flipped the disc over to watch Bruce Lee's Deadly Kung Fu, and this movie was great, but then about 10 mins to the end, it started sticking and pixilating!
I also bought a newer Videoasia set called the Ultimate Dragon Collection, I have only watched 1 movie off that, and it played ok. I hope their newer stuff if better made, as they have a few sets I wouldn't mind having. I do have a few of their older sets(Shaw Legends set, Super Kung Fu box), and they seem to play OK, but Rickshaw Man pixilated on an old DVD player I had, I haven't tried it recently, it may have been the player. The absolute worst set I bought was a Videoasia called Martial Arts 10 Pack. I wanted this because it had some Godfrey Ho Ninja movies on it. But this set was so mechanically defective, it wouldn't hardly play at all. Then one movie was way out of synch. I did get one full Ninja movie, and Burger Cop(which I haven't watched yet). But while I have had these issues with Videoasia, I also have many of their discs that do play. So, I guess one just takes a chance. Carl |
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Scholar Li |
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Posts: 4 (11/09/08 17:37:03) |
I have a problem with Battle Royal 2 from the Set at Yesasia.com. It stops about 5 min into the film and the skips about 2mins.
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Bomby |
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Posts: 6 (06/28/09 22:16:55) |
The Tai Seng DVD of Il Mare:
-Incorrect aspect ratio. While the full frame of the film is on the DVD, it's been stretched out from 1.85:1 to 2.35:1 -No original language soundtrack. World Video release of Ashes of Time: -Pan & scan to 4:3, with the bottom covered to make the picture look widescreen. -Subtitles have numerous errors, and are often 20 seconds or more out of sync with the film. Tai Seng release of The Mission: -Simply is not read by most DVD players or computers. |
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AlHaru |
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Posts: 171 (06/29/09 16:28:37) Sempai |
Bomby wrote:The HK release of Il Mare, which I think is the one you watched, is one of the early 2000s transfer with tons of typical artifacts. The DVD was a DVD-5 authored with a (fake) DTS soundtrack, that explains how wonderful the picture quality has turned out. Get the Korean edition that has real Korean DTS if it's still available and if you're so serious about the film. Ashes of Time: most earlier HK discs were authored as 4:3 with black bars on top and bottom, occasionally on the sides too so you get an "overscan" picture with 4 black bars surrounding it. It's not uncommon. This disc is definitely the most loathed in the history of DVD 
The Mission: that's weird. Try cleaning the disc and ripping it on the computer. It's not CSS protected so feel free to rip. If everything fails, it's probably a lemon. |
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Bomby |
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Posts: 7 (06/29/09 19:01:57) |
The Tai Seng DVD of Il Mare is actually the "authorized" version for sale in the United States. As far as the Mission goes, I've already tried
that.
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SoMeTiMeZ PsYcHoTiK |
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Posts: 247 (06/30/09 05:09:06) Sempai |
Just For Fun -- Hong Kong -- Deltamac/Fortune Star release. (Region 3/6). Early Sally Yeh film is marred by horrible image quality. It appears the
film was projected onto a textured editor screen and then captured from the resulting image. This being a non-anamorphic, letterbox release, the heavy texture
shows up badly (turns into mostly vertical lines, with solid areas of color showing diamond pattern) when upscaled and zoomed to fit onto an HDTV. Small
details are completely obliterated by the texture lines. Avoid this release at all costs. Even though I only paid 95ยข, that is about how much this disc is
worth.
Self-Deprecation -- not to be confused with Self-Defecation, as the latter tends to be quite messy and has a rather unpleasant odor.
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