Some Questions for those who own the Korean Astroboy 2003 Boxset.

[ChibiGoku]

Currently, I've become a bit more interested in ordering the korean boxsets (With the, less then steller english dub release not being something I enjoy...) but I do need to know somethings about it.

1) Out of curiosity, on the boxsets, are the credits in Japanese, or have they been replaced? (As in, Credits on screen)

2) As for the Extra's, are the Textless Opening and Endding included on the DVD by chance?

3) For the Video Quality, Did Columbia Tri-Star re-encode the video or did they basically do a Direct Stream from the original Japanese DVD?

4) More importantly, the subtitles. How exactly are the english subtitles for the release, like font wise and translation, grammar and such? Also, are the opening and Ending songs included in the subtitle track?

Anywho, thanks in advance.

[ObiKenobi]

[ QUOTE ]
ChibiGoku said:
3) For the Video Quality, Did Columbia Tri-Star re-encode the video or did they basically do a Direct Stream from the original Japanese DVD?

[/ QUOTE ]

Huh? What do you mean re-encode? Re-encode what?

[Legion]

[ QUOTE ]
ChibiGoku said:
Currently, I've become a bit more interested in ordering the korean boxsets (With the, less then steller english dub release not being something I enjoy...) but I do need to know somethings about it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I own what's been released so far, I'd be happy to help. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[ QUOTE ]
ChibiGoku said:
1) Out of curiosity, on the boxsets, are the credits in Japanese, or have they been replaced? (As in, Credits on screen)

[/ QUOTE ]

Credits, logos and title cards are all exactly the same as the Japanese saw.

[ QUOTE ]
ChibiGoku said:
2) As for the Extra's, are the Textless Opening and Endding included on the DVD by chance?

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately, the discs are completely bare-bones. No extras.

[ QUOTE ]
ChibiGoku said:
3) For the Video Quality, Did Columbia Tri-Star re-encode the video or did they basically do a Direct Stream from the original Japanese DVD?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't have the Japanese discs and I'm not a videophile, but I can only imagine CTS's Korean arm re-encoded the video since the release has a Korean dub. The specs are the same as the R2Js though (widescreen/anamorphic, Japanese 5.1 audio). The only exception is a missing episode (20 or 21 I think) on the fifth disc. Biggest flaw of the release. The video looks very nice to me. I'm not using a high-end setup or anything but the colors look great and the video is solid with no noticeable compression issues or video artifacts. I have a 5.1 sound system so I can say with confidence that the audio is very well done. Korean dub is only in 2.0.

[ QUOTE ]
ChibiGoku said:
4) More importantly, the subtitles. How exactly are the english subtitles for the release, like font wise and translation, grammar and such? Also, are the opening and Ending songs included in the subtitle track?

[/ QUOTE ]

The subtitles are undoubtably the best English subtitles I've seen on a foreign release. They in a white font but are big enough to be easily seen without being intrusive. I don't know Japanese, but the translation didn't raise any huge suspicions from me. Short phrases and words that I know were translated fine. The subtitles during the previes on the first three discs are a little weird, they felt a little limited, but that was fixed on the second set (discs 4-6). The only other small quibble is the subtitles seemed a bit wordy at times. For example, in the third episode (I think) one of the characters says "nani" in Japanese and it's translated as "Who do you think you are?!"

Grammar-wise, not bad at all. The subtitle script is surprisingly well-written for the most part, I didn't note any awkwardly worded lines. Obviously someone(s) that speaks English as a first language worked on these subtitles. There's a couple errors in an episode, if that, and they're usually small things like missing spaces or small typos. For example "Captain" is consistently misspelled as "Capitan" in one episode, though it's spelled correctly in another. Unfortunately, the songs are only subtitled on the Japanese and Korean subtitle tracks, not the English.

[ QUOTE ]
ChibiGoku said:
Anywho, thanks in advance.

[/ QUOTE ]
You're welcome. /images/graemlins/happy.gif I recommend this release since, like me, you're not interested in the edited R1's. My only hesitation is it's been a long time since the second set was released and there's no absolutely no word about possible release dates. /images/graemlins/depresse.gif Granted the wait between the first and second set was fairly long, but at this point I think the wait for the third set has exceeded that.

Hope this helps!

[Legion]

[ QUOTE ]
ObiKenobi said:
[ QUOTE ]
ChibiGoku said:
3) For the Video Quality, Did Columbia Tri-Star re-encode the video or did they basically do a Direct Stream from the original Japanese DVD?

[/ QUOTE ]

Huh? What do you mean re-encode? Re-encode what?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think he's wondering if they basically ripped the Japanese encode for their release, which several R3K companies are known to do. As I mentioned I don't think that's the case for this particular release.

[ObiKenobi]

[ QUOTE ]
Legion said:
I think he's wondering if they basically ripped the Japanese encode for their release, which several R3K companies are known to do. As I mentioned I don't think that's the case for this particular release.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I understood that. But the usage of "re-encode" is very odd in this context. When authoring a disc you aren't re-encoding anything. It sounded like he was asking if they had re-encoded the video on the Japanese discs so that's why I was asking. But yes, from watching the discs I'm pretty sure that Columbia Tristar in Korea authored their own discs and didn't rip the video from the Japanese discs.

[ObiKenobi]

Just to add, even if the South Korean branch of Columbia Tristar did use the same video as the R2s, I'm sure its because they were given permission to. I seriously doubt one branch of Columbia Tristar is going to steal content from another branch. Especially considering that for the R1 release, the US branch of Columbia Tristar gave us that wonderfully cropped release... /images/graemlins/stunned1.gif

[Legion]

[ QUOTE ]
ObiKenobi said:
[ QUOTE ]
Legion said:
I think he's wondering if they basically ripped the Japanese encode for their release, which several R3K companies are known to do. As I mentioned I don't think that's the case for this particular release.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I understood that. But the usage of "re-encode" is very odd in this context. When authoring a disc you aren't re-encoding anything. It sounded like he was asking if they had re-encoded the video on the Japanese discs so that's why I was asking. But yes, from watching the discs I'm pretty sure that Columbia Tristar in Korea authored their own discs and didn't rip the video from the Japanese discs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ahhh. Well, as I mentioned I'm no videophile so I don't know what all terms are correct in what contexts. When it comes to DVD video I've noticed there can be as many as three terms to describe the same thing so it gets a bit confusing. /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif

[ChibiGoku]

[ QUOTE ]
Legion said:
[ QUOTE ]
ObiKenobi said:
[ QUOTE ]
Legion said:
I think he's wondering if they basically ripped the Japanese encode for their release, which several R3K companies are known to do. As I mentioned I don't think that's the case for this particular release.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I understood that. But the usage of "re-encode" is very odd in this context. When authoring a disc you aren't re-encoding anything. It sounded like he was asking if they had re-encoded the video on the Japanese discs so that's why I was asking. But yes, from watching the discs I'm pretty sure that Columbia Tristar in Korea authored their own discs and didn't rip the video from the Japanese discs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ahhh. Well, as I mentioned I'm no videophile so I don't know what all terms are correct in what contexts. When it comes to DVD video I've noticed there can be as many as three terms to describe the same thing so it gets a bit confusing. /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, my question was a bit, unusual for that. I did mean use their own encode for the DVD. Though it wouldn't of been a big issue either way.

At anyrate, Thanks Legion.

EDIT: Also, as for the missing episode, this episode is also missing on the American Release. This episode was omitted from the Korean set (and possibly, korean airing) due to a possible licensing issue with disney owning the "Peter Pan" license, as this episode is heavily based off Peter Pan.

[AUSTIN316]

The first boxset is definately encoded outside Japan because the first Korean boxset's discs are only single layer, the second box are double so I am not sure about the second box.