MangaUK license announcements ...

Joshawott said:
According to further comments on their Facebook, moving to NTSC would cut out around 50% of the production costs:
This isn't just an issue of timings between UK and ROW releases. It's about cost. If we have convert HD to PAL it also means we have to author the discs from scratch and create the subs from scratch adding an extra 50% to our costs. If we are able to use a US NTSC rep master for DVD and code it to REGION 2 we are saving a lot of money. This means I can acquire and release more new shows to be honest with you in a very challenging retail environment.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Considering I prefer NTSC anyway and have no problems playing NTSC anyway (since HDTVs can handle both signals anyway) I approve of this
 
Most anime fans in the UK use PS3 to play anime DVD? Or why do they even consider this as a problem? Not like it would cost much to buy a DVD player anyway, I can find a cheap DVD player in Tesco for 15-20 GBP almost every time I am there.

If they would go with NTSC format and could save up a lot of money, I would be happier if they could make the release quality a bit better...like let's say, for the price we pay currently, would be better if they would drop the cheap DVD cases and we could get the anime in cardboard box (like Funimation Limited Editions) and with more extras (post-card, poster, music cd, etc).

Less anime with A+ quality release >> Tons of animes with trash quality release

At least in my opinion...
 
Didn't we ask about this ages ago and get shot down because they have to redo the discs to add a BBFC logo or something?

If that was untrue, then by all means Manga, please switch to NTSC! Cutting your costs so you moan less and make more profit, while avoiding all of the terrible bugs and conversion issues traditionally introduced when unnecessarily redoing the work; it would be wonderful!

R
 
Rui said:
Didn't we ask about this ages ago and get shot down because they have to redo the discs to add a BBFC logo or something?

If that was untrue, then by all means Manga, please switch to NTSC! Cutting your costs so you moan less and make more profit, while avoiding all of the terrible bugs and conversion issues traditionally introduced when unnecessarily redoing the work; it would be wonderful!

R
Click to expand...

The shot down suggestion was Manga taking BDs from US print runs to reduce the number of copies they had to purchase.

If they use NTSC masters they will still be getting their own UK print runs done.
 
Ah, so still creating the discs here but not having to change anything other than some static logos. Makes a lot of sense.

R
 
Rui said:
Didn't we ask about this ages ago and get shot down because they have to redo the discs to add a BBFC logo or something?

R
Click to expand...
The MVM "Love Hina Spring Special" disc doesn't have the BBFC logo on it (although the certificate for specials collection is on the case). Watch out we got a badass over here?
 
MikeP said:
Shiroi Hane said:
..but they do. I can play R2 NTSC DVDs on a UK PS3.

NTSC PS3 don't do PAL, but the reverse is not true.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that's true? I find it very unlikely that the playback software would be different.
I can understand most non-HDTVs in the US not supporting PAL, it isn't a useful feature when your country gets almost every possible English release.
Click to expand...
Yes.

When I looked into getting a PS3 I wanted one, ideally, that would play DVDs and BDs from the UK, US and Japan.

The UK PS3 will play UK and Japanese DVDs and UK BDs
The US PS3 will play US DVDs and US and Japanese BDs.
The JP PS3 will play JP DVDs and US and Japanese BDs.

I discovered I'd need at least two, three if I also wanted to play Japanese and US PS2 games.

While the Japanese PS3 will play region 2 discs, it is intentionally locked so it will not play PAL discs. The UK will play NTSC discs, presumably because there are legitimate NTSC discs available here.

I cannot confirm that the slim model stills plays R2 NTSC since I don't have one, but I cannot see why not since they run the same firmware.
 
Shiroi Hane said:
Yes.

When I looked into getting a PS3 I wanted one, ideally, that would play DVDs and BDs from the UK, US and Japan.

The UK PS3 will play UK and Japanese DVDs and UK BDs
The US PS3 will play US DVDs and US and Japanese BDs.
The JP PS3 will play JP DVDs and US and Japanese BDs.

I discovered I'd need at least two, three if I also wanted to play Japanese and US PS2 games.

While the Japanese PS3 will play region 2 discs, it is intentionally locked so it will not play PAL discs. The UK will play NTSC discs, presumably because there are legitimate NTSC discs available here.

I cannot confirm that the slim model stills plays R2 NTSC since I don't have one, but I cannot see why not since they run the same firmware.
Click to expand...

I wasn't questioning the UK one playing NTSC discs, I know for a fact it does as I own the US Dragonball Z DVDs and they've worked perfectly on both PS3 models I've owned.

I was questioning the claim of non-PAL territories being unable to play PAL discs. As it makes no sense to me for the DVD software in certain regions to be worse than the UK one which supports both.
 
Unless something has changed recently, that is exactly how it is. You get an error message on screen that PAL discs are not supported, both on US and Japanese consoles. It is in the FAQs, and apparently also on the back of the box:

"When outputting DVD content or PS3 system format software in SD resolution, only discs recorded in the NTSC standard can be played."
http://us.playstation.com/support/answe ... ?a_id=1194

Are there any legitimate PAL releases in the US/Japan? I imagine not, since they get nearly everything before us anyway and are a lot less likely to have compatible equipment. Yes they can import stuff the same as we can, but that falls under the same logic as region codes.
 
Shiroi Hane said:
Unless something has changed recently, that is exactly how it is. You get an error message on screen that PAL discs are not supported, both on US and Japanese consoles. It is in the FAQs, and apparently also on the back of the box:

"When outputting DVD content or PS3 system format software in SD resolution, only discs recorded in the NTSC standard can be played."
http://us.playstation.com/support/answe ... ?a_id=1194

Are there any legitimate PAL releases in the US/Japan? I imagine not, since they get nearly everything before us anyway and are a lot less likely to have compatible equipment. Yes they can import stuff the same as we can, but that falls under the same logic as region codes.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, actually.

Btw, that means it only cannot play PAL discs in normal mode. E.g. not upscaled.

It's talking about if you tried to play PAL format (720x576i) video out of a SCART onto a NTSC SD TV, which has a max resolution of 480i.


..but that's just my guess. Could be something else that's the problem.
 
It's not a technical issue but built into the firmware. It will not allow you to play PAL content, either DVDs or SD content on a BD (including menus apparently). There's no such thing as PAL HD.
 
"When outputting ... in SD only discs recorded in NTSC standard can be played"

That sounds pretty clear to me that as long as you're outputting in HD you can play whatever you want.
 
Shiroi Hane said:
It's not a technical issue but built into the firmware. It will not allow you to play PAL content, either DVDs or SD content on a BD (including menus apparently). There's no such thing as PAL HD.
Click to expand...

I meant by "upscaled" as the PS3 doing the upscaling.
 
Kinda surprised nobody picked up on / mentioned this yet:

Manga Entertainment said:
- Looking towards possibly releasing further Toei shows as soon as next year. Relationship has been 5 years in the making.
Click to expand...

If that means there's a possibility of Mazinger Z or Captain Harlock...

Dare I get my hopes up?
 
How about opening up the streams for Harlock, FoTNS and 999?

They can still lock Digimon zero two and probably go about retroactively locking Digimon Hunters though.
 
Does anyone peradventure have a copy of the U.S. standard edition Madoka Blu-ray? I've got a very odd question: how thick is the Blu-ray case? Is it as thick as typical U.K. cases--around 12mm--or is it as thick as the U.S. cases, the 7mm ones? Thanks in advance, whatever the response.
 
Manga gain nothing from streaming and probably see it as detrimental to sales (if anything), so until they get directly involved in the process I doubt they'll be actively unlocking anything for us. Some of the ideas in the AoD thread a while back included incentives for purchasing the DVD version for subscribers, which would likely be the kind of thing to get Manga interested.

It will be interesting seeing how Kaze's DVD versions do once they trickle down from AoD, as it will give them some solid data.

R
 
Rui said:
Manga gain nothing from streaming and probably see it as detrimental to sales (if anything), so until they get directly involved in the process I doubt they'll be actively unlocking anything for us. Some of the ideas in the AoD thread a while back included incentives for purchasing the DVD version for subscribers, which would likely be the kind of thing to get Manga interested.

It will be interesting seeing how Kaze's DVD versions do once they trickle down from AoD, as it will give them some solid data.

R
Click to expand...

We're actually working on a few initiatives with them now. But then again too - simulcasting independently makes little sense for the UK vs one system coordinated by the whole UK industry.

Got some cool stuff on the go there which is why I have been so quiet re AoD of late...

Andrew
 
Back
Top