UK Anime Blu-ray & DVD Bargains

Reviewers on Amazon have mentioned the 5.1 audio, so I assume these are the old discs with the Rhino masters.

Dave1988 said:
To be honest I'm not sure I've never watched them myself so don't know what quality is like...take it that's it's bad?
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Rhino sourced the episodes from pre-broadcast prints with unfinished animation and errors. They also had a new 5.1 soundtrack made with terrible sound effects. I believe the original audio was also included on the Rhino DVDs, but not on every episode. The Shout Factory DVDs is also sourced from the same master, but with inserts from the broadcast tape and the original mono audio is present on every episode.

Here's a video showing the difference between the pre-broadcast and broadcast version of the episode S.O.S. Dinobots:

sniper_samurai said:
Only season 1 iirc. This was caused by Rhino using incomplete materials instead of the broadcast masters.
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Rhino also sourced S2 from pre-broadcast prints. Don't know about S3 and Rebirth.
 
I was perfectly happy with the UK Metrodome DVDs based off the Rhino source - The increased clarity of the picture more than makes up for any of the errors imo (and I didn't notice the 5.1 sound since I only have stereo speakers). Transformers was always a QUALITY show anyway. I'd say for £12.85 (which is about what I paid for the singles in HMV - £2.99 each for four or £29.99 for the box. Hmm. Tough decision) it's fine. I probably wouldn't have paid £30 though, you can import the fixed US set for about that.
 
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ayase said:
(and I didn't notice the 5.1 sound since I only have stereo speakers)
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The problem with the 5.1 track is that many new inappropriate sound effects have been added. The 2.0 tracks on many episodes are downmixed from 5.1.

Even the sound effects in the opening theme have been altered:

Original season 1 opening:

Rhino season 1 opening:
 
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