Region 4 Winners and Losers

    The Region 1 DVD was released at the beginning of 2004 (I picked up a copy in February 2004). It's one of those double-sided single layered discs, with a pan-and-scan transfer on one side, and widescreen on the other. The commentary is on both sides. The full-screen side has the making of, and the trailer (2:26 — full of spoilers). The widescreen side has the deleted scenes. The menu is animated with music — it's clear that the menu on the Region 4 disc was derived from the Region 1.

    The Region 1 transfer is quite similar to the Region 4, but it looks a little grainier (probably due to the reduced resolution of NTSC, plus the extra compression needed to fit it into a single layer). I prefer the R4 transfer.

    If you can't live without the full-screen transfer, or the trailer, get the Region 1. Otherwise I recommend getting the Region 4 disc.