Subtitle NTSC DVD R1
The Universal edition is slightly sharper than the Chinese disc, which is a PAL-to-NTSC transfer and as such has 4% speed-up. The Chinese disc has a distinctly warmer color cast, which is usually a good thing, but I'm not certain it's preferable in this instance. Both DVDs display identical prominant digital artifacting in the form of chroma and blocky pixilation, especially in scenes with low light (which is much of the film). See the door and tub in the third set of captures. This is no doubt inherent in the original digital video master. It's very odd that the trailer on the R1 DVD displays a much sharper and more pleasing image than is seen in the full film. The Chinese disc's audio is an artificial surround mix, which while not awful, also does nothing to improve on the original two-channel sound. The subtitle translation on both DVDs seems identical, with the Asian disc featuring fully optional subs, while the US edition has ugly burned-in English subs at the bottom, with optional French and Spanish subs displayed at the top of the image, causing quite a clutter. I believe this Chinese DVD of The Celebration was released in 2000, and was possibly the first edition of the film in the world with English subs, but I haven't seen it offered anywhere recently. There are other editions released in the Asian market, but I'm not sure how they compare to the mostly decent version seen here.
subtitle NTSC DVD R1
Images from 3 episodes of season 1 are compared below. Both releases suffer with ghosting and digital artifacts, but the R2/4 has a lot more of them and the picture is a little washed out. The Region 2/4 has slight cropping on the top and bottom. The Region 1 includes the original stereo soundtrack which the R2/4 has omitted. The only reason to choose the R2/4 must be if you really want the Nordic subtitles otherwise the Region 1 is the way to go.
If a DVD/Blu-ray has English subtitles or any other language, it will state "Subtitles: English" in the Product Details.If not, then the DVD/Blu-ray does not have any subtitles in English.Similarly, the audio track is available only in the language listed.We do not manufacture DVD and Blu-ray and very few Japanese manufacturers provide audio and subtitles other than Japanese language. However some movies and anime series such as Ghibli's masterpieces used to come with subtitles and audio in English.Please narrow your research using our tool on the left column on the bottom.Censorship of some contents may appear as Japanese manufacturers must respect the Japanese legislation.
As suggested by ThatArtGuy, who also provided me with srt files, I have created a DVD with the Backstroke of the West subtitles. It has four subtitle options: 1. Original. 2. Backstroke V1 (F words) 3. Backstroke V2 (no F words). 4. a surprise subtitle track. There are menus with scene selections and one more surprise easter egg.
The Jailhouse 41 dvd is the most interesting for the first four dvds, due to the poor treatement the film has received from most other companies. Pathe uses the same source material as the old French dvd by Studio Canal. The progressive transfer has however been newly remastered. The burnt in subs, which appeared on the old disc a few times, have been removed and replaced with removable subtitles. The image is clear, but has a slight blue tint. This is also a Native Pal transfer, unlike the rest in the box set.
LG DP132 is perhaps the cheapest region free DVD player from LG among our list but is suitable for most of the DVD playback needs. It is preferred by many foreign language learners since LG DP132 supports multiple language audio and subtitle outputs, with the great compatibility with Dolby Digital audio. Except for the availability of USB 2.0 port for playing audio, video and image files, there is also one unique feature which cannot be found in other region free DVD players - the USB Direct Recording, available for you to rip audio CDs to USB device directly (you can try DVD ripper to rip DVD to USB here). 041b061a72