Region 4 Winners and Losers

    Region 1 has just received Season 6 — Season 7 is announced as being released in October. Region 2 got this season about a month earlier than we did. To my surprise, the UK Region 2 discs are different from ours: they get nothing but English. The Region 4 has more options. However, apart from that, the transfers seem identical — it seems likely that they are using the same video transfer.

    I've changed my mind about the packaging. I used to like the R2 packaging (which packs all 6 DVDs in an album, with the discs in cardboard sleeves), but I've found that the discs are more easily damaged in sliding them in and out. The R4 packaging is much bulkier, but it is both more robust, and offers better protection for the discs, even if Fox has opted for the cheaper "Push" cases, rather than spending the extra few cents to get real Amarays. The R1 packaging for earlier seasons has been a classic digipack design, with plastic panels on cardboard, which protects the discs better than the R2 album, but it's not all that robust.

    We expect to see some bigger differences in the R1 (when it arrives...). The R1 discs will be full-screen (1.33:1) rather than widescreen. If you want to get Buffy in full-screen, then you'll have to wait for the Region 1. They may also get an extra extra or two, but note that they miss out on the "Previously..." segments, which is not nice (apparently this even cut off part of a commentary in Season 6). If you are an uncontrolled fan, you may feel the need to get both the R1 and the R4 (and possibly even the R2 as well). Of course, I got them all in the interest of doing a detailed comparison — at least that's what I tell myself...