What is the benefit of CEE Blurays?

[Jetrell Fo]

Hey all,

I'm trying to get a better understanding of CEE Bluray releases. It would seem a fair amount of folks tend to prefer them over others? Would someone kindly lay out the pro's and con's of CEE vs. R1 releases please?

Thank you.

Shawn

[MrBrown]

Uh, sorry, what are CEE BluRays?
And What does R1 standing for? Region 1? that is DVD Region Coding.
Or are that different kinds of BluRay standards?

[Feallan]

CEE - Central and Eastern Europe

[Jetrell Fo]

CEE - Central and Eastern Europe

Thanks for fielding that question.

[MrBrown]

Okay, so my first thought was correct, that it was only a question, what people like in non american releases.

So, I think this is a very complex qustion, becuase it is not a complete technical question, more a personal question, in preferences.

As born, and living in Germany, I mostly prefer German Releases (and with bigger companies european mastered Releases with german audio and/or subtitles) nbecause it is just easier, than watching a movie in english, a language I have to translate myself in my head listening or reading.

But in much cases I also like other region releases, because different companies seem to focus on different things, regarding releases.

In my personal opninion it is not just a question of "region" the movie is release, but a question of "what did the individual releasing company treating it".
So, the answer to this question got quite complex with every single possible different in a release.

i.e.: Remake of "Dawn of the Dead".
Why should I bother with the US (or RC 1) release?
1.: I cannot play it on my Playstation
2.: It is the same censored unrated TC, as the german languaged release
3.: Other CEE Releases got it uncensored unrated in english, but not in german

Than there is this Mediabook wave in Germany/Austria, where (well not really every, but much) every (even sh***y movie gets a limited >$35 Mediabook release, that just has it limitation and mediabook value, because most of the releases are dnr'd and basing on foreign master, without really making a new one.
But I have Romeros "... of the Dead" trilogy in that way, because: Mediabook, limitation and german Audio.

So here for me was the packaging the factor getting the overpriced austrian release.

On blu-ray.com forum members often whine about "not english friendly" releases in not english native countries, but it is the same reason, why most of the US releases are not german friendly. (French and Spanish often enough occur on US releases, due to the use of the same release for Canada and Mexico).

Maybe the question should be asked for every individual release, where much people prefer a non domestic release, and sometimes comparisons give the answer.

Another "bonus" in CEE releases for me: I have to wait not as long as getting postage from USA, and shipping costs are lesser for me getting something from amazon.de.. then getting something from amazon.com

[Jetrell Fo]

It seems to me that "mastering" for CEE discs can be far superior to R1 releases and I guess ultimately this is why I was asking the question. I have downloaded some CEE Blurays and found that clarity, less DNR, and color timing can be a benefit of CEE releases.

I also wonder why only Europe would get such nice releases compared to other regions.

[MrBrown]

It seems to me that "mastering" for CEE discs can be far superior to R1 releases and I guess ultimately this is why I was asking the question.  I have downloaded some CEE Blurays and found that clarity, less DNR, and color timing can be a benefit of CEE releases.

I also wonder why only Europe would get such nice releases compared to other regions.

But for every lesser dnred one, there is a much more dnred, I would say, judging from my experience.

Maybe in the US there are more dnr loving persons in the positions of choosing how a release should look like. And after they messed it up the later releasing companies can use the internet to see what poeple dislike in the former releases...
...being first is not always the better thing. Because the second can learn from mistalkes made.

[Jetrell Fo]

Are there any sites that carry specific comparisons between CEE and other releases?

[MrBrown]

Are there any sites that carry specific comparisons between CEE and other releases?

Besides http://www.caps-a-holic.com and http://www.dvdcompare.net/ and sometimes http://www.dvdbeaver.com/ I don't know any...

[jerryshadoe]

I don't know of any either, but I think I know why some (it's a 50/50 split) of the CEE BDs and some of the Russian BDs have no DNR and "look nicer" and it's because it's cheaper to just throw a straight transfer on BD without processing it at all. Changing the dolor grading, DNR'ing, etc., all cost money and time and a lot of the releases in question come from sources where they just didn't want to "invest" into that... Funny thing is that because of this attitude, some of those releases actually look better because they haven't been tampered with. Or, they are easily fixable in comparison to a DNR'ed mess on a Region A (US market) BD release.

Similarly, there are certain films that have a superior quality BD release in Japan due to the fact that a lot of the transfers there don't suffer from excessive DNR... I learned this by accident when looking at a certain Russian site and noticed that they remux Russian audio tracks with JPN BD releases (and in many cases show screenshots comparing to the US, EU, or Russian releases) because the quality is so superior. A few examples of films on JPN BDs that are superior to all others are: XX2002), Heat(1995), Reservoir Dogs(1992), Sleepy Hollow(1999), The Usual Suspects(1995), The Italian Job(2003), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow(2004) and there are others...