[JP] Bandai Visual (Jp) Blu-Ray/HD DVD release schedule PDF

[Buster Darkwings]

Downloaded from: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=823131

July 27
Akira
Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise
Patlabor Mobile Police movie 1

August 24
Ghost In The Shell
Patlabor 2
Steam Boy

Sep 25
Jin-Roh
Avalon

Honneamise and Patlabor 1 and 2 are on both formats, the rest are BD only. All will retail for 10,290 yen.

Edit:
All versions will also come with a DVD version of the movie on a separate disc.

[Purple_X]

Great news on the releases; no so much on the price.... over 10,000 is insane even with normal japanese pricing.

Do they not want anyone to actually buy these?

For reference Innocence is 7,800 (the most expensive single disc release to date) and the current Akira DVD (DTS edition) is 3800.

[Buster Darkwings]

Well, they're the same price as WoH's R2, at any rate.

I guess they'll use the included DVD version as an excuse. Hopefully the A/V quality is reflective of the premium price, and that they don't just dump the same video encode from the HD DVD onto the BD (for the titles being released on both formats) like what Warner Brothers does for BD releases in the US.

[Chris Beveridge]

There are obvious ones that will be part of the Honneamise label in the US, but the others are quite enticing as well even at that price point.

Suffice to say, Honneamise will be mine no matter what.

[Skywise]

Wings of Honneamise is also getting a US HD-DVD release in August with a price of $79.99.

[callman]

While specs are not yet announced, all BD discs are Region A and will play in all US decks.

How do you know it's Region A, and not region free? I know it doesn't make a difference in the US, but it does a lot for us in Europe. Damn, I would have bought a BD player already, if any had a confirmed BD region hack.

[Chris Beveridge]

While specs are not yet announced, all BD discs are Region A and will play in all US decks.

How do you know it's Region A, and not region free? I know it doesn't make a difference in the US, but it does a lot for us in Europe. Damn, I would have bought a BD player already, if any had a confirmed BD region hack.

They're all region A as a minimum. There's a safety in being able to say that. We don't know if they'll be all-region coded or AB or some other combination yet.

For the readership of AoD, which is primarily North American, we frame it in that context.

[Buster Darkwings]

While specs are not yet announced, all BD discs are Region A and will play in all US decks.

How do you know it's Region A, and not region free? I know it doesn't make a difference in the US, but it does a lot for us in Europe. Damn, I would have bought a BD player already, if any had a confirmed BD region hack.

Historically, Japan has been more anal about region coding than the US. Innocence isn't region free (and neither is any other Japanese BD title from a Japanese studio AFAIK), so there's little reason to think that BV's next titles would be different.

[gundamseed]

Great to see more HD anime, not to happy about price but i will be buying it any way .

Go blu ray .

[Garma Zabi]

Hopefully the A/V quality is reflective of the premium price, and that they don't just dump the same video encode from the HD DVD onto the BD (for the titles being released on both formats) like what Warner Brothers does for BD releases in the US.

I've never heard of any complaints regarding Warner's decision to use the same encode for both formats. Care to elaborate?

[Buster Darkwings]

I haven't heard anything specific about Warner's releases, but I've seen complaints about low-bitrate VC1 encodes, and comparisons to Mission Impossible with its VC1 encode on HD DVD and MPEG2 encode for BD have shown that the HD DVD version had more compression artifacts.

It won't be a deal-breaker, but I'd much rather they make an encode optimized for the higher bitrate and storage capability of Blu-Ray, even with their new VC-1 encoding tweaks.

[ZenAmako]

As much as I'd like to have Akira, Honneamise, and Avalon in HD, those are crazy prices. My days of paying $100 for a single anime movie are over, let alone $100 for a movie I already own on standard DVD. It's a shame, because I would be interested in these titles if they were reasonably priced.

[Sensuifu]

As much as I'd like to have Akira, Honneamise, and Avalon in HD, those are crazy prices. My days of paying $100 for a single anime movie are over, let alone $100 for a movie I already own on standard DVD. It's a shame, because I would be interested in these titles if they were reasonably priced.


They're a little more than R2 DVD prices, but R2 DVDs aren't necessarily cheap to begin with either. Granted HD discs are expensive, but as small as the market for HD anime is right now, studios can't help but release them as uber-niche items i.e.- collectors/HD aficianados. Similar to the way how LE releases are done for DVD (i.e. DTS versions of movies that were sold at absurd prices).

Which is a shame as HD hardware is relatively inexpensive compared to the time when DVD was first available.

[Buster Darkwings]

Indeed. I'd rather have expensive anime BDs than now anime BDs at all.

[isamu]

Innocence isn't region free

Huh? Surely you're mistaken? Innocence plays on US PS3s.

[Chris Beveridge]

Innocence is Region A, of which the US and Japan are a part of. Region Free, or more specifically, all region, would be listed as ABC. This is just A.

[DeadlyMessiah]

10,000 yen is way too much, even for me. I'm sorry, but if I'm buying the BR edition, I have no need for a DVD version to be packed in. Not just that, but I doubt these would have their dubs on it, correct? I only care about the dubs to GitS, as I find them superior to the Jp versions.

So any word on when Escaflowne or Gundam Wing will be making their way to BR? If they are subbed (don't care for the dubs on those series), I'll definitely pick them up depending on the price and episode count.