UK Anime Distributor Universal Pictures Discussion Thread

Wait until HMV list it. Recently, HMV have not been screwing around with high prices, so Amazon has cut theirs to price match.

I believe Seraph part 1 hit £39.99, because HMV did it and everyone else price matched. I think they're also responsible for Assassination Classroom Part 2 hitting £24.99.
 
(A double post how scandalous!)

Please stop using icons on menus instead of text (e g. Play, chapters etc). I get that it means you can use the same menu for more languages but it's rubbish compared to having simple text that says what the menu item actually is.

It's something that always annoys me with universal releases. (That and the stupid timeout screensaver that comes up & doesn't use play to unpause, not sure if that's on the anime releases though.)
 
serpantino said:
(A double post how scandalous!)

Please stop using icons on menus instead of text (e g. Play, chapters etc). I get that it means you can use the same menu for more languages but it's rubbish compared to having simple text that says what the menu item actually is.

It's something that always annoys me with universal releases. (That and the stupid timeout screensaver that comes up & doesn't use play to unpause, not sure if that's on the anime releases though.)
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Unfortunately, it sounds like those menus are unlikely to change, according to this quote from earlier in the thread.

johnnythm said:
Re: [UK Anime Distributor] Universal Pictures Discussion Thr

Interesting discussion on the subs. As for the menus, they are Universal standard and are unlikely to change I'm afraid but I will pass your comments along. Arlslan releasing next week, am sending out review copies today!
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I personally like to think of it as divine punishment for all the ranting people did about those perfectly fine JoJo's Bizarre Adventure menus everybody hated on Warner Bros.' release.
 
You have to admit, the JoJo menus did look cheap. Sure, they were functional, but they could have been a bit more professional looking. It was the least of that release's worries anyway, considering the PAL speedup, dubtitles and the less than brilliant image quality...
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
You have to admit, the JoJo menus did look cheap. Sure, they were functional, but they could have been a bit more professional looking. It was the least of that release's worries anyway, considering the PAL speedup, dubtitles and the less than brilliant image quality...
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No, I don't. I don't think they do look cheap, I think they look standardised and professional, but I recognise I'm in the minority on that one.

That was my point at the time. If Warner Bros. were to get other series, we'd want them to fix the PAL speed up and/or the dubtitles over the menus, but people would not shut up about the goddamn menus. (Somehow the menus got more ranting than the dubtitles.) It drove me insane.
 
I'd take cheap and functional over fancy rubbish anyday. Static menus and background are fine by me. The time between putting the disk in and being able to actually watch the content you paid for should be as short as possible. I don't care if menu animators/artists want to make their mark, it's not their art I am paying to watch so reign them in.

The worst offender in my recently watched is the Beez release of Wolf's Rain. It had an identical 1 minute unskippable intro to the main menu on every disk. I hope whichever genius thought that was a good idea is long gone from the industry.


Universal does have the worst blu-ray framework though and I groan everytime I put a disk in and realise it's Universal. I'm used to their stupid menu system & screensaver now but I'm sure we've all had to fiddle with our remotes to find out which button removes the screensaver and resumes play and decipher their stupid menu icons (even worse when stylised ala Arslan). Why mess with something that isn't broken? I know this isn't the anime division of Universal's fault but it deserves a rant!
 
serpantino said:
Universal does have the worst blu-ray framework though and I groan everytime I put a disk in and realise it's Universal. I'm used to their stupid menu system & screensaver now but I'm sure we've all had to fiddle with our remotes to find out which button removes the screensaver and resumes play and decipher their stupid menu icons (even worse when stylised ala Arslan). Why mess with something that isn't broken? I know this isn't the anime division of Universal's fault but it deserves a rant!
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I believe it's OK (or Enter) on the old Universal discs, I'd assume it's the same on the new ones.

Surely, that has to be the second button you press? I think you're overegging this slightly.
 
Buzz201 said:
I believe it's OK (or Enter), it's really not that hard to get out of the screensaver...

Surely, that has to be the second button you press?
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Ok doesn't work on my sony bd remote; I press down on the dpad but I think any direction works. That's not the point though, why not just use the industry standard?

Edit: I don't see how it's overegging to complain about something that's an unnecessary annoyance. It has no benefit to the person viewing whatsoever.
 
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I'm just saying "the standardised menu system your company has been using for at least three years now is wrong" is perhaps not a great thing to be going on a rant about? I've had Spring Breakers paused on my PlayStation for about 10 minutes now and it hasn't even triggered the sccreensaver that offends you so...

I'd be far more upset about Universal's apparent desire for pre-order bonuses and convention exclusives. I didn't like it when Anime Limited/Sunrise do it, and I especially don't like it when a company that can probably afford not to, does it.
 
Buzz201 said:
I'm just saying "the standardised menu system your company has been using for at least three years now is wrong" is perhaps not a great thing to be going on a rant about? I've had Spring Breakers paused on my PlayStation for about 10 minutes now and it hasn't even triggered the sccreensaver that offends you so...
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I was using the word rant lightheartedly as it's not something I rage over or lose sleep over but why not complain about it? People go on about Kaze releases all the time and they've been standardised for years, that still doesn't make their choice of framework good.

The screensaver is generally set to appear 30seconds>1 minute but I wasn't specifically complaining about the screensaver (which I don't think is present on anime releases.) so I'm not sure why you've latched onto that so strongly, it was just an example. Universal have the worst company standardised interface I've seen and a lot of the Universal blurays I own don't even support resuming playback which means you have to go back through the menus again and find the nearest chapter marker to where you were, that bugs me a lot more than the screensaver ;).
 
I actually like Universal's menus. Considering that their releases support multiple languages and are released in many different regions, using recognisable pictographs makes sense. They also look pretty; unlike Warner Bros. Jojo.
 
Joshawott said:
I actually like Universal's menus. Considering that their releases support multiple languages and are released in many different regions, using recognisable pictographs makes sense. They also look pretty; unlike Warner Bros. Jojo.
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But half of the symbols are too vague so you have no idea what they do.
 
I'm fine with the menus, but Universal really need to look at the contrast on them, as it's often difficult to tell which symbol you have selected before you press enter.
 
For those interested, Seraph of the end Part 2 has been listed on zoom.co.uk. Using the discount code SIGNUP10 it costs 36 on Blu-Ray and 31.50 on DVD. Payment is taken on dispatch unless you pay via PayPal. Hope this helps :)
 
PilibO said:
For those interested, Seraph of the end Part 2 has been listed on zoom.co.uk. Using the discount code SIGNUP10 it costs 36 on Blu-Ray and 31.50 on DVD. Payment is taken on dispatch unless you pay via PayPal. Hope this helps :)
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Never heard of zoom. What are they like to use?
 
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