Asian Movies in HD!

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tom2681
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Post by tom2681 »

Yep, seems to be as uncut as it can get. :)
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Post by eon »

The Australian Kung Fu Hustle Blu-ray release is uncut compared to the US version.
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bradavon
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Post by bradavon »

Welcome Eon.

I presume you mean it's uncut unlike the USA version?
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Post by eon »

That means the same thing doesn't it? :P (maybe you don't understand my 'funny' (aussie) english :wink: ).

Actually, I guess my sentence is directly comparing the Aussie release to the US release, whereas there might be other stages of Uncut-ness I'm not aware of (someone mentioned there might be a third uncut version earlier in the thread).
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Post by Godzooki »

tom2681 wrote:Now THAT is a surprise:

Flashpoint on Blu-Ray.

Region A, apparently.
I hope someone will crack Blu-Ray's region coding soon.
Got mine earlier this weekend. Really enjoyed the film and the BD disc.
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Post by bradavon »

Tigercage: Is it Region A or Region Free?
eon wrote:That means the same thing doesn't it? :P (maybe you don't understand my 'funny' (aussie) english :wink: ).
Probably but it could also mean:

"The Australian Kung Fu Hustle Blu-ray release is uncut compared along with the US version."

Actually re-reading it I probably misunderstand what you meant though.

You guys do speak some strange English at times :D. I was watching one of those awful TV shows the other month where a British and Australian family swap, you know the sort.

The Aussie family kept saying "That's grouse". I figured it was a good thing but had to look on the web to see what it meant :D . Which is odd when most Aussie and British (plus Kiwi) slang is the same.

It is fun confusing Americans with it though :D
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Post by saltysam »

i've ordered Flash Point blu-ray from yesasia.be a week or so before i get it.can't wait to see the great climax in HD :D
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Post by bradavon »

Please post what region it is, if you can?
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Post by eon »

Pretty sure Flash Point has been confirmed Region A only (unfortunately :| )
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Post by Godzooki »

I have a US ps3 but can check on a mates uk system later for ya
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Post by bradavon »

Thanks Tigercage. It would definitely be worth knowing.
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Post by saltysam »

Initial D coming to blu-ray.pity the movie's not much cop.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/ ... ial_D/1197
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Post by tom2681 »

Thanks.

*Adding to the list*

Tai Seng's DVDs have always been crap.
Maybe HD will change all that. :)
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Post by saltysam »

eon wrote:Pretty sure Flash Point has been confirmed Region A only (unfortunately :| )
got my copy today,tested on my son's uk ps3-i can confirm it is region-free :) stunning av by the looks of it as well.
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Post by bradavon »

Awesome! :D
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Post by eon »

I got my copy of the Australian release of Kung Fu Hustle this week, and another thing that is different from the US reviews I've read, is that it contains a Dolby Digital Chinese track - the US release only comes with a PCM 5.1 Chinese track, making those who don't have the hardware to play it (HDMI multi-channel pcm), only able to get a Stereo Chinese track.
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Post by tom2681 »

When you say "chinese", you mean "cantonese", right ?

Anyway I'm confused with those new HD audio formats.
As far as I know, Toshiba HD-DVD players can convert Dolby TrueHD signals to full-rate DTS so you can get 5.1 sound through optical/coaxial outputs.

Why can't Blu-Ray players do the same with PCM 5.1 tracks ?
How hard can it be to just grab the PCM soundtrack, encode it on the fly and send it through a digital output ?
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Post by bradavon »

eon wrote:is that it contains a Dolby Digital Chinese track - the US release only comes with a PCM 5.1 Chinese track, making those who don't have the hardware to play it (HDMI multi-channel pcm), only able to get a Stereo Chinese track.
The USA BD also has Cantonese DD5.1. DD5.1 is mandatory on BD for the reason you mention. HD 5.1 Audio isn't backwards compatible on BD unlike HD-DVD where it is to Legacy 5.1.

You don't have to have HDMI to use PCM in 5.1.
tom2681 wrote:As far as I know, Toshiba HD-DVD players can convert Dolby TrueHD signals to full-rate DTS so you can get 5.1 sound through optical/coaxial outputs.
On 1st and 2nd generation players yes but on third generation and onwards it's downmixed to 640Kbps DD5.1 when used through Optical or Coaxial.
tom2681 wrote:Why can't Blu-Ray players do the same with PCM 5.1 tracks ?
I'm not sure why but Eon is right through Optical/Coaxial it will come out in Stereo. It's why they always include a DD5.1 soundtrack too.

On HD-DVD: DD Plus and True-HD are backwards compatible to DD5.1 but on BD they're not, why? Who knows. Again they have to include a DD5.1 soundtrack.

Further information:

DD Plus and True-HD - http://www.dolby.com/promo/hd/connector_diagrams.html
Dolby on HD-DVD and BD - http://www.bigscreen.com/about/help.php?id=44

They're both worth a read as they give slightly different information.
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Post by eon »

bradavon wrote:
eon wrote:is that it contains a Dolby Digital Chinese track - the US release only comes with a PCM 5.1 Chinese track, making those who don't have the hardware to play it (HDMI multi-channel pcm), only able to get a Stereo Chinese track.
The USA BD also has Cantonese DD5.1. DD5.1 is mandatory on BD for the reason you mention. HD 5.1 Audio isn't backwards compatible on BD unlike HD-DVD where it is to Legacy 5.1.
Are you sure about that? Both the High Def Digest and DVD Talk reviews mention list only a Chinese PCM 5.1 track, and no DD track. There is an English DD 5.1 track though, and this is why I held of purchasing it (as I didn't have any hardware capaable of playing the Chinese track)

Here's a quote from the DVD Talk review specifically:
The movie's Cantonese language soundtrack is provided only in uncompressed PCM 5.1 format. There are standard Dolby Digital options on the disc for the English and French dub tracks, but not the original language. This will be problematic for viewers who rely on getting their 5.1 audio through a Toslink or coaxial digital connection, because Blu-ray players downconvert PCM tracks to 2-channel stereo over the S/PDIF connection. If your player isn't connected to an audio receiver by HDMI or multi-channel analog, you won't be able to listen to the Cantonese track in full 5.1. For example, owners of the Playstation 3 (which doesn't offer a 5.1 analog output) who don't have an HDMI receiver are forced to choose between the original language in basic stereo or the dub in 5.1. This is a stupid oversight.
Optical/coaxial digital connections can only playback 2-channel PCM as there is not enough bandwidth on the connection.
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Post by bradavon »

eon wrote:Are you sure about that? Both the High Def Digest and DVD Talk reviews mention list only a Chinese PCM 5.1 track, and no DD track. There is an English DD 5.1 track though, and this is why I held of purchasing it (as I didn't have any hardware capaable of playing the Chinese track)
My mistake. I misread it. You're right unless you can playback PCM you're stuck with English :shock:

The USA is cut anyway so no huge loss I guess.
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Post by eon »

Yeah.. quite happy with the non-USA release, quality looks very good, and it's got some extras I never got on my original R3 HK DVD release!

Also got my House of Flying Daggers blu-ray, and the reviews are right, the quality is quite poor, but it's definitely no worse than the DVD release. It's cut as well apparently, which sucks a bit.
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Post by bradavon »

eon wrote:Also got my House of Flying Daggers blu-ray, and the reviews are right, the quality is quite poor, but it's definitely no worse than the DVD release. It's cut as well apparently, which sucks a bit.
Not only is it mostly SD quality from what I hear it's quite badly cut to make it fit into a PG-13 :shock:

Which is absolutely insane. How many 13 year olds are going to watch a Chinese film anyway? Not bloody many. Why Sony didn't release it as an R is beyond me. I guess because they could snip it and widen the audience.

It's cut way more than even the UK DVD. It's a pity as I'd love HOFD in HD. It's definitely the best of Yimou's martial arts(esque) trilogy.
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Post by eon »

Hmm.. I wonder if there's a chance a HK company will do a decent release in HD for HOFD... I'll give my Blu-ray a watch, but may offload it on ebay if the cuts bother me too much. (I've got the 2 disc R3 release).
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Post by EvaUnit02 »

The folks over at avsforums refer to the yank Bluray of HoFD as "House of Flying Artefacts".
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Post by bradavon »

:D
Hmm.. I wonder if there's a chance a HK company will do a decent release in HD for HOFD...
I hope they will. It's owned by Edko Video who haven't started releasing on HD yet. They also own Hero, Fearless and Curse of the Golden Flower in HK.

"Curse of the Golden Flower" already has an excellent USA BD though. I'd be happy enough with UK HD-DVD/BD of House of Flying Daggers. It's cut but nowhere near as much. I own that version on DVD.

Pathe UK haven't started releasing on HD yet.
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