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Answerman - Are UK and Australian Anime DVDs & BDs Any Different?


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wonderwomanhero





PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 12:44 pm Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:
Regarding good UK dubs, there's Xenoblade Chronicles. It's not an anime, but it's one of Nintendo of Europe's rare attempts at an English dub, and they did it with flying colors.


Absolutely! Jenna Louise-Coleman, Adam Howden, Jo Wyatt, etc. Its honestly one of the best dubs for a Nintendo game that I have ever heard (second to Tales of Symphonia of course)

There was an announcement that Wendee Lee and Cup of Tea productions is working on the American dub for Xenoblade Chronicles X, so it looks like it won't be the same as the brilliant UK dub from the first game.... Sad
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 1:38 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, I heard about that--I'd bet the UK dub of Xenoblade Chronicles was only because Nintendo of America showed no interest in the game, so Nintendo of Europe, which did, made a UK dub for European audiences. And since Xenoblade Chronicles turned out to have huge demand in the United States, Nintendo of America is taking over for Xenoblade Chronicles X. It's a shame; the UK dub had quite a unique charm to it (that Adam Howden then brought over to Smash Bros. as Shulk).

I hear a lot of stories about how bad UK dubs are in general (though I've seen very few of them myself), but Xenobade Chronicles showed that the talent is there--they just need good direction by a team that cares.
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wonderwomanhero





PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:49 pm Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:
Yeah, I heard about that--I'd bet the UK dub of Xenoblade Chronicles was only because Nintendo of America showed no interest in the game, so Nintendo of Europe, which did, made a UK dub for European audiences. And since Xenoblade Chronicles turned out to have huge demand in the United States, Nintendo of America is taking over for Xenoblade Chronicles X. It's a shame; the UK dub had quite a unique charm to it (that Adam Howden then brought over to Smash Bros. as Shulk).

I hear a lot of stories about how bad UK dubs are in general (though I've seen very few of them myself), but Xenobade Chronicles showed that the talent is there--they just need good direction by a team that cares.


The Last Story is also a good example of good British VA's. Same with the Fable series and Dragon Age.

(Its a shame Adam Howden stirred controversy with his transphobic comments in twitter though....eek.)
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Usagi-kun



Joined: 03 Jul 2013
Posts: 877
Location: Nashville, TN
PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 8:19 pm Reply with quote
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Region-Free-DVD-Player/dp/B004BI6MVS/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1415363341&sr=1-4&keywords=region+2+player <--- Link here

Finding a region-free player is a problem. I have heard that one of the reasons major manufacturers like Sony, Samsung, or Toshiba do not make a region-free model because it can hurt sales namely within a buyer's home country. I personally have never found an original manufacturer listing a region-free option, and when I asked about 3rd party modification, I was told that most of these 'adjustments' are made individually and automactically void any type of warrenty from the original manufacturer. Thus, individual units vary in quality and performance and are notoriously faulty. And if it breaks, Sony won't fix it and the guy who moded it in his garage may not feel very obligated either.

In the end, it is a bit of a gamble. The best thing to do is research a great deal before making an online purchase. Read as much as you can about the hardware, and if on Amazon, pay close attention to feedback and comments sections. But remember to be smart about what you take away from them.

I ended up going for a dvd player instead of bluray, and I have had it for almost two years with no problems. Australian import dvds number in my collection, but I haven't had any problem importing blurays from Japan because they share my region A letter.

The link above is the Phillips upconverter model I ended up purchasing. Several users posted in the comments with instructions how to setup, but when I opened mine I found out that they did not work and had to figure out another way. A universal remote and plug adaptor might be a good investment too.
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consignia



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 394
PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 12:51 am Reply with quote
Usagi-kun wrote:
, but I haven't had any problem importing blurays from Japan because they share my region A letter.


You probably wouldn't have any problem anyway, since most Japanese anime Blurays aren't region coded in the first place.
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 7580
Location: Wales
PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 9:12 am Reply with quote
consignia wrote:
No mention of the PAL/NTSC difference? UK and Aus DVDs are PAL encoded converts from NTSC source. And they are frequently not done well.

It's been years since a new DVD was converted from NTSC. Everything comes on 24fps HD masters now so rather than having to convert to 25fps PAL from 30fps NTSC, they just have to speed up by 4% (and usually pitch correct).

consignia wrote:
PAL equipment has been able to play NTSC since pretty much the birth of DVD, but anime DVDs have been PAL until the last couple of years. I think Manga and at least one of the Aus distros are still PAL only.

Playing is one thing. Prior to HD, the problem was displaying since some TVs would not handle 60Hz (hence all the games with the 60Hz test screen) or the NTSC colour standard, and connections were commonly composite (if an SD set could do 60Hz and had RGB SCART then it would work, but there were a lot of people watching DVDs on a PS2 with the bundled cables).

Just Passing Through wrote:
I think the last UK commissioned dub was for Musashi: Dream of the Last Samurai, although that was a voiceover for a documentary more than a dub. Manga commissioned a dub for Welcome to the Space Show, and Anime Limited have commissioned dubs for stuff like Patema, but they're usually recorded in the US for eventual US distribution too.

You've just named more recent UK-commissioned dubs. If you mean recorded in the UK, then I believe you are correct (the prior examples being Arrietty and Millennium Actress IIRC)

Quote:
Sentai have started geo-locking their discs, Hanabee have started re-authoring in house, which gives us the advantage of discrete white subtitles instead of Sentai's mega-yellow subs.

There have been at least a couple of discs like the ones Justin mentioned which boot to a Sentai logo in the US and a Hanabee logo in Australia and the UK.

Quote:
Anime Limited are quite unique at this time in that they tend to author their discs, DVD and Blu-ray for the UK market, rather than use someone elses's masters. The one time they used Siren's masters resulted in Durarara!! LE. I think they've used US masters once, Sentai's for Garden of Words, but generally they commission their own, often using the services of a certain Answerman. Nice discs. DVDs they release in NTSC format.

HAL used FUNimation's masters.
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