DVD's - Region 1 Vs Region 2
 

Lots on here have Multi-region DVD players so lets start a list of which movies are better as R1 or R2.

For starters...

Region 1.
Terminator 2 Ultimate Edition - you get a 3rd "secret" option to get the extended - extended edition
Leon - 25 extra minutes where Matilda goes on her first cleaning job.

Region 2.
James Bond series - more extras.

Undecided.
The Abyss SE - You get the unedited "rat" scene but the picture quality is apalling.

but do R1s look any good, the ones(new&legit) ive seen are very grainy. though i think thats ntsc for you...

Is the censorship different?

Compared side by side, almost every region 2 dvd I've seen looks better than its region 1 counterpart. I only ever buy region 2 now for that reason.

fyi, PAL is 720x576 and NTSC is 720x480, so when viewed on a pal telly, ntsc does tend not to look as good because of the lower resolution...

i think the international versions are less cut than whats released in the us depending on the subject & distributor

Most of the dvds i buy are R2, mainly because depending on the film im not too fussed about the differances. If the films something special ill compare and buy accordingly.

Fight Club - i went R1 because the R2 was single disc at the time. Although i think the R2 is uncut funnily enough.

Fast & The Furious i went R1 as it had more extras.

Leon again R1 is better.

Highlander 1 & 2 ive gone R1 as theres better extras/sound transfers and Highlander 2 is the Renegade Version.

R2 of Momento is 3 disc where R1 is 2.

Dune R1 has the extended version where the R2 just has the special edition.

Hellboy R1 is 3 disc directors cut R2 is just 2 disc regular version.

I think weve got 2 disc star wars before us though.

Most of time ive found theyre both pretty much the same, with the exception of a few like above.

As far as im aware, submitting a film for classifacation in the us is upto the film distributer. Most R1 dvds have no certificate.

(might be wrong) but R1s are just english so can have DTS where as international dont always have DTS because of the extra lanuages we have to have, which in turn means less extras (subject to rights over extras which is why R1 & R2s are different) though we do more 2-disc SEs to compensate.

Theres also a company "superbit" doing their own transfer with dts. Only seen picks of these & not in the flesh to compare.

Superbit dont contain extras though, due to the extra space needed for the higher rate transfer.

no they dont do extras so utilize more disc space to get a better picture & they are supposed to be much better. Anyone got one of these?

I watched some Superbit discs in the US the other week. Couldn't tell the difference, probably because my friend was running a 100" screen from a poxy little projector. The sound was great though.

if you have a ntsc / pal dual support tv's the r1 dvd's arent actually to bad what you are seeing is ntsc resolution at 50hz instead of the 60hz it is supposed to be viewed with.

I've got a couple of SuperBit dics, one being The Fifth Element (a fave film of mine). It's a little better, both in visual and audio, but not that much different.

I've not yet got an R2 player over here, but do want one. They do change some of the Brit flicks in US. For example, Spooks is known as MI-5, even the DVD release, though obviously all the interviews mention spooks, so they have to put a little note on the case, otherwise thick americans would think they were duped.

Mean Machine is another example. In the regular version some of the audio is changed, for example, Mr Sykes comment about "each way" is changed to, umm, whatever the Yank is for an each way bet. Thankfully there is a R1 version which has the 'domestic' and 'English' audio on it :)

Some of the R1's I have do have a few extras over the R2 versions, but these days it's getting that they are more or less the same.

I'm still narked off that we don't get the DC of Lock Stock :( At least my local vid shop stocks R2 DVD's :) When I get a player I'll be grabbing that box-set of Spaced that they have :)

well i've only 1 r1 dvd and bought purely because at the time scareface was'nt avaliable at the time, the bonus is its a ltd edition. i would tend to go for the r1 disc if it was a longer verion, as i'm into horror films as the uk versions tend to be butchered

mike

How many times do I have to post this link. http://www.dvdcompare.net/