Japanese UFO DVD Set 1 Arrives!

Hi all,

My Japanese UFO DVD set 1 arrived this morning, right before I left for
work. I didn't have time to check it out, but I did notice that it had
the nicest booklet of all the DVD releases, and I also liked that each
disc had its own case...

More when I get a chance to take a closer look!

Marc

>More when I get a chance to take a closer look!

Okay, I've spent a few more minutes looking at the Japanese UFO DVD set 1.

There are 3 Amaray cases. Each has its own unique design, which is
nice. The first two cases contain 2 discs, each with 3 episodes per
disc (2 cases x 2 discs x 3 episodes = 12 episodes total). The third
case contains one episode and all the special features. The
advertising was correct when it said that the English is in 5.1
surround. Unfortunately, this seems to be a rather cheesy/annoying
heavily processed fake stereo, which makes the whole episode sound
like its taking place in a tunnel. The original English mono
soundtrack is not an option. The picture is the newly remastered
version which is on the other DVD releases. There is an option for
Japanese audio, which I think is the same track that was used on the
old Japanese laserdiscs.

The booklet that comes with the set is small, but nice. Sort of a
mini Town Mook guidebook. :-) There is also a UFO mousepad, which
has a thin layer of liquid and little cutouts of SHADO vehicles which
move around as the mouse moves around on the pad.

The special features are largely familiar, but there are some
significant omissions from what the other sets have. In my quick
look, I see no commentary tracks, no publicity photos, and no behind
the scenes photos. I do see the extended scene from the opening of
IDENTIFIED (no shortened closing though), the 2 extended scenes from
EXPOSED, the 3 takes of SID singing, the 2 original audio tracks from
KILL STRAKER with Ed Bishop and Mike Billington (not the one with the
guards though). It also has the closing title sequence without words
over it, which I've only seen hidden away on the French release and
nowhere else. It also features the "SHADO Secret File", a Japanese
language documentary on the series. This is plainly taken from the
Japanese laserdisc release, as the quality of the episode video is
significantly worse than what's on these DVDs, and match the quality
I remember from the laserdiscs.

The episode order is in the original Japanese order, which is
significantly different than the order all the other discs use.

The quality of the menus is okay -- not as sophisticated as the
Carlton ones, but clearly based on them. Better than the A&E menus
though!

Overall, I'd say that the so far the Italian set is winning the
battle for "Best UFO DVD set". I'd have to give A&E 2nd place, due
to the 2 extra commentaries and extra video features that the Carlton
set doesn't have. Carlton with 3rd, this new Japanese set is 4th,
and the TF1 set 5th.

Marc

Marc,

thanks for the first impressions!
Do you think it is possible to put some
screenshots to the temporary file section
of yours? (Of course, when you've got the
time for it :-)

Christian