Region 4 Winners and Losers

    I have owned four versions of this disc now. I started with the Region 1 standard disc, which I gave away when the Region 1 Superbit arrived; that was a mistake, so I bought the Region 4 Collector's Edition (I wanted the extras, you see). Now I have the Region 4 Superbit, and, to put you out of your misery, it is the best of all.

    The Region 1 Superbit disc only has the Mandarin soundtrack in Dolby Digital and dts. It has several subtitle tracks: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai. The big problem with this disc is that it is far too dark (that was a major disappointment, believe me!). The picture is somewhat harsher, with less shadow detail, and colour is subtly off (the reds in the wedding procession seem just a little wrong).

    The Region 4 Collector's Edition has an excellent transfer (easily better than the Region 1 Superbit), but only Dolby Digital sound. It has the extras, which are well worth seeing.

    The Region 1 Superbit disc uses 7 257 946 112 bytes of space for a movie running 120:08 minutes. The Region 4 Superbit uses 6 965 458 944 bytes for a movie running 115:06. Ignoring overheads, that gives 8.06 megabits per second for the Region 1, and 8.07 megabits per second for the R4. That's not quite the possible 10 megabits per second, but bear in mind that the movie is 2.35:1, so there are black bands above and below the movie that need not be compressed, and there are some moments that compress well — all up, this is a high average bit rate, and one which is borne out by the bit meter while viewing. (For completeness, the R4 Collector's Edition runs to 7 042 660 352 bytes, but that includes all of the extras...)

    My recommendations run like this: if you don't have a copy of this movie, and you want the best possible quality (and you have the equipment to display it), and you don't care about extras, then this Region 4 Superbit disc is an excellent choice. If you want the extras, or you already have the Region 4 Collector's Edition, then the Collector's Edition is a good choice, and you won't see a huge improvement going to this disc. If you have the R1 Superbit version, then I strongly urge you to ditch it and get this one (assuming your system can display PAL) — this one is far superior.