View Full Version : Why do people buy R4 DVDs?
Just wondering really.
I know that Mummy Returns has a DTS soundtrack, but generally I thought the R1 versions were likely to be the best versions?
People have been ordering R4 SWTPM and waiting. Why?
Am I missing something?
because they're pal, are a lot cheaper because of the exchange rate and in some cases like the mummy returns-better.
For instance I got the first 5 series of friends this morning for £150 and that was including a £21.00 customs charge plus no snapper cases.
robbiejm
23-10-2001, 10:42
Cheap + quick delivery.
And PAL (especially good on titles filmed in PAL originally!)
Michael Brooke
23-10-2001, 10:52
You can't make blanket "R1 is better than R4" statements like that - it's down to the individual discs.
In some cases the R1 is the best, in others the R2, and in others (<I>The Dish, Natural Born Killers</I>) it's clearly the R4 - and thanks to the exchange rate the R4 is often worth going for even if the specs are identical. For instance, I buy virtually all Paramount titles in R4 because they're something like half the price over there!
I wouldn't call waiting until friday 19th October for TPM to drop through my letterbox much of an inconvenience. Cost approx £14 too. :)
Check out www.ezydvd.com.au if you don't believe us all. I think you'll be pleasently suprised. ;)
Try Devoted.com.au and you'll be even more pleasantly surprised than visiting EzyDVD as the formers prices are generally cheaper.
:D
Very Quick delivery, very cheap, good packaging, uncut films, good extras must I go on.
R4 Rules.
:cool:
HybridMATRiX
23-10-2001, 12:02
I buy R4 because I am an Australian living in Australia :)
But we don't have Farscape :(
HybridMATRiX
puddleduck
23-10-2001, 12:15
People have been ordering R4 SWTPM and waiting. Why?
People have only been waiting if they ordered from a UK DVD importer.
Those of us who ordered directly from Oz will have got our disks in the week of the launch.
You (Ono) also buy your DVD's from discemporium, suggesting you don't care about saving money, another VERY good reason to go R4.
Delivery from ezydvd only takes about 4 days, which is about the same as from www.play247.com
Yeah, students like me have to go with R4 :D
daveyboy19
23-10-2001, 13:35
I'm thinking aout getting some R4s, but the age ratings look really distracting on the covers, are they peel away like old kiwi video ones where?
William Shatners Wig
23-10-2001, 13:36
I just bought Matrix R4 (Uncut and in an Amaray case - not a snapper) and the new release of Enter The Dragon for a bargain price of £21 inclusive of delivery from DVD Crave.
That's why I buy R4. :)
feverpitch96
23-10-2001, 13:49
Originally posted by daveyboy19
I'm thinking aout getting some R4s, but the age ratings look really distracting on the covers, are they peel away like old kiwi video ones where?
It varies. Sometimes they're an integral and ugly part of the printed cover. Other times, as in the case of almost every WarnerVision music title, they peel off the front cover...
:)
jonathan.e
23-10-2001, 13:58
Originally posted by daveyboy19
I'm thinking aout getting some R4s, but the age ratings look really distracting on the covers, are they peel away like old kiwi video ones where?
Totally agree. R4 covers remind me for some reason of large print books in libraries. As a graphic designer of packaging myself I find dealing with the absurdity of the BBFC certificates bad enough but the full width certification the Aussies use is totally unecessary and destroys in one stroke any attempt at having an attractive cover. For instance I ordered up the R4 cloth package for Lawrence of Arabia as it appeared that R1 would not be getting it. When I received it to my horror it had the bloody great PG cert across the striking cover image. I spent an hour with Photoshop retouching a good size scan, whipped off the R4 insert and glued the retouched artwork in it’s place so it is identical to the R1 (except for the PG cert printed on the cloth spine).
I loathe R4 packaging and will happily pay a couple of quid more if it means I don’t have to look at their awful covers (all features being equal obviously).
BTW, no they’re not removable.
It's cheaper, it's usually better picture quality, it arrives quick, and the companies are nice and friendly.
Now, give me some DVDs! :)
feverpitch96
23-10-2001, 14:07
Originally posted by jonathan.e
I loathe R4 packaging and will happily pay a couple of quid more if it means I don’t have to look at their awful covers (all features being equal obviously).
I say, steady on old bean....no, on second thoughts, don't hold back, say what you really think! :)
BTW, no they’re not removable.
Hey, read above! Some are....
jonathan.e
23-10-2001, 14:40
Originally posted by feverpitch96
I say, steady on old bean....no, on second thoughts, don't hold back, say what you really think! :)
Hey, read above! Some are....
It’s my job therefore I suppose I take it more seriously than most - they are an eyesore though. To date I’ve not had any that have removable certification pver approx 30 titles.
who actually watches the cover. Watch the film and ignore the big rating logo on the cover unless you sit looking at that for 2 hours instead of watching the film.
For me it's because they are a lot cheaper plus very quick delivery(always under a week).A month ago I bought the Aliens box set,it came to just under £35 with postage.How much is it here in the uk?!!!
CraigKORE
23-10-2001, 15:58
I started my Reg 4 buying when I seen that the Friends - TV Series came in the Amary cases. And then, when I realised that a complete season was working out at around 27 quid, I ordered all seven seasons! Well, I only have a few of season 7 still to get. :)
Originally posted by urruri
A month ago I bought the Aliens box set,it came to just under £35 with postage.How much is it here in the uk?!!!
£29.99 if, like me, you got it from the Woolies sale! :p
jonathan.e
23-10-2001, 17:25
Originally posted by ajm
who actually watches the cover. Watch the film and ignore the big rating logo on the cover unless you sit looking at that for 2 hours instead of watching the film.
err...didn’t I say that’s what I do for a living so it’d be kind of hard to ignore sloppy, slipshod design. I’m sure everyone’s the same who sees something they themselves do as a job - if you see it done badly it irritates.
The amount of whining people do over snapper covers on these forums you’d think that good design would be just as important on the packaging but apparently not.
Mark.Anderson
23-10-2001, 18:11
I'm currently living in Australia :D so it makes it even cheaper than when I was living in the UK (no shipping charges!), but why should we pay more for our DVD's? Isn't it insane that we have DVD's shipped half way around the world, and occasionally get hit for customs, and they STILL end up being cheaper than in the UK.:rolleyes:
Because they are cheaper than R2 and better picture quality than R1 (Pal vs NTSC) and because sometimes they are less cut than R2.
Originally posted by Grumpy
Because they are cheaper than R2 and better picture quality than R1 (Pal vs NTSC) and because sometimes they are less cut than R2.
What is it with this PAL is better than NTSC? Having watched TV in the US recently for the first time I couldn't detect any discernable difference between the two formats. A good anamorphic print is no different to me whether it's NTSC or PAL.
Concentrate on watching the movie and not this obsession some people have with getting a damned PAL print!
Gary Couzens
23-10-2001, 23:02
To service my long-standing specialist interest in Australian and New Zealander cinema, especially titles that aren't available elsewhere.
I didn't think movies could be 'filmed' in PAL. They are filmed at 24fps on 35mm film usually.
The difference between PAL and NTSC is probably not noticeable to the majority of people here, and a number of R1 titles are transferred with superior quality to R2, I can't comment on R4 only owning two titles.
I buy R1 because PAL speeds up the movie changing the pitch of the soundtrack. I generally avoid PAL discs unless there's no option, or it was a UK video release.
But each to their own. Lots of people must love PAL and R4 discs get from the other side of the world very quickly, so if thats what they want, why worry?
feverpitch96
24-10-2001, 07:59
Originally posted by jonathan.e
It’s my job therefore I suppose I take it more seriously than most - they are an eyesore though. To date I’ve not had any that have removable certification pver approx 30 titles.
Well, I did say my examples were primarily WarnerVision Music titles, right? And most of this list is just that:
Eurythmics Greatest Hits
Pretenders Greatest Hits
A-ha - Headlines & Deadlines
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells II & III
Mike Oldfield - Millennium Bell
The Smiths - The Complete Picture
2001 A Space Odyssey - Collector's Box (though I haven't tried it with this one, in case it takes some of the silver paint with it!)
They're just the ones I own. All with removeable ratings stickers. But why listen to me? I only live here. :)
Yes, the cover-printed non-removeable notices are a drag sometimes, but if they're so unbearable, what are you doing with 30 of them? :D
jonathan.e
24-10-2001, 08:27
Originally posted by feverpitch96
Yes, the cover-printed non-removeable notices are a drag sometimes, but if they're so unbearable, what are you doing with 30 of them? :D
I only buy them when it doesn’t make sense not to. As with Lawrence, for a while it seemd as if Oz was the only place doing the cloth cover and to add insult to injury, the pack shot on every site I saw it on did not have the huge PG cert on it. Also as with Gary above, things like Newsfront are only available in Oz and for a while it was the only place to get The Dish. I also buy the Neon Genesis DVDs from there as the US prices are ridiculous for the running time of the individual discs. And finally if it’s anamorphic and uncut where it’s not in the rest of the world then Australia gets my dollars but it’s under protest.
As witnessed by your post above it seems to be largely only music titles that have removable certs but that begs the question of why in God’s name does an A-Ha compilation need to be viewed and passed by the censor in the first place? Even here in Nazi-England, unless we’re talking about Eminem or Marilyn Manson, the vast majority of music videos are "E", exempt from classification as a matter of course and as such do not need a cert on the front, just a small sign on the back.
It’s once again the implication that others know what’s best for us that continually grates along with the destruction of perfectly good graphic design. If you’d ever slaved over designing these things, you’d realise how painfull it is to have to slap on half a dozen ugly logos, with each having to be as big as possible. There’s no resons why good design cannot extend to the size and placement of company logos and certification but instead they are slapped on like huge rubber stamps with no regard for the time and effort of the designers who put together the images underneath.
feverpitch96
24-10-2001, 08:40
Originally posted by jonathan.e
As witnessed by your post above it seems to be largely only music titles that have removable certs but that begs the question of why in God’s name does an A-Ha compilation need to be viewed and passed by the censor in the first place? Even here in Nazi-England, unless we’re talking about Eminem or Marilyn Manson, the vast majority of music videos are "E", exempt from classification as a matter of course and as such do not need a cert on the front, just a small sign on the back.
These are local releases of their identical R2 versions. I think it must just be some ruling that all material released here has to have SOME kind of certificate on it. Mind you, a G certificate for the doco on the Pretenders disc is a little...novel.
It’s once again the implication that others know what’s best for us that continually grates along with the destruction of perfectly good graphic design. If you’d ever slaved over designing these things, you’d realise how painfull it is to have to slap on half a dozen ugly logos, with each having to be as big as possible. There’s no resons why good design cannot extend to the size and placement of company logos and certification but instead they are slapped on like huge rubber stamps with no regard for the time and effort of the designers who put together the images underneath.
:confused:
Nobody's disagreeing with any of that, you know. But you've already pointed out that sometimes it's still worth it, protesting all the way.
:)
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