New Anime Releases 07/09/2009

[Zin5ki]

...where regional lockout is deemed anticompetitive and illegal.

Quite. It is interesting to note that along with this principle, Australia doesn't impose any taxes on small scale imports, unlike over here. Perhaps the Aussies take a similar stance to such domestic protection.

 

[ayase]

But, I've found this little piece of info, which actually makes me want to buy an Oz Bluray player now:
Region-Free Blu-Ray players (modified or otherwise) have also appeared in the market as of 2007. These players are usually meant for the Hong Kong or Australian markets, where regional lockout is deemed anticompetitive and illegal.

I'm still not sure how accurate this really is, I've heard it in other places but it ceratinly hasn't stopped either country from continuing to lock their discs. If region locking really was illegal then all their releases should be region free, surely?

Doesn't sound like the Aussies have region free Blu-ray players either...

 

[Dracos]

I think most of the so called region free Blu-Ray players I have seen are only region free on DVD play back. I have seen some region free Blu-Ray players around the net but they are either really expensive or need to be reset each time you put a disc in.

 

[ayase]

I watched bits of the Blu-Ray release of Ghost In The Shell: Innocence last night, and I must say I'm extremely disappointed with this release.
While most of the times the film looks ok, I was easily able to see what looks like compression artifacts in the background of dark scenes (and in scenes with white or very light colors), especially in the beginning.

Frankly, of all animation releases I own on BD, this has to be the worse of all of them, and my first disappointment.
The screenshots I saw of the Japanese and US releases seem miles better than this release, with no apparent problems. I know screenshots can "lie", but this release is probably the first BD where I noticed what seems like compression problems.

Additionally, for those who can only watch Region B BDs like me, this is probably the best we will get for the time being: based on the menus and logos at the beginning, this is the same disc that is going to be released in both Spain, and Australia (through Madman Entertainment).

If anyone bought this disc give us your impressions, I'm curious to see what you think of it (and if you noticed the same flaws on the transfer; it can always be a calibration problem on my end or a bad disc, but I highly doubt it).

Okay, a couple of views on this, as promised.

On the downside, it's not good. On the upside, it doesn't appear to be any different to the Japanese or US releases. Changes in colour gradient aren't particularly smooth to begin with. I didn't notice compression artifacts myself, but what you describe could be attributed to something else: The friggin' sharpness. There isn't any. Now I know there's a soft focus look to this film (which Oshii clearly loves) but this is frankly inexcusable. The lines aren't even remotely sharp, blending into the surrounding areas in most scenes and sometimes looking oddly pixelated (but... not.) because of this. Even the film grain is blurred into a constantly moving technicolour mess. One of the big selling points of HD for me was the extra detail present, and Innocence just fails spectacularly on this issue. It's almost as though there isn't really any extra detail because of the soft focus filters.

I am confident though, after looking up screens of the Japanese release, that there is no discernible difference between it and the UK disc. Disappointing to say the least, those bloody US reviewers don't know what they're talking about.