> From: "Derek Sherman" <doppleganger@pipeline.com>
>On  2 Jan 99 at 21:06, David D. Rogers wrote:
>
>> The folks at the Pioneer pannel seemed kind of heistant about releasing
>> DVDs at AX 98. Understandable, because of the high cost of remastering,
 and
>> the uncertainty (greater 6 months ago than now) of the DVD market's
>> expansion. It's good to know that they have confidence in the DVD
 market's
>> expansion--or the market gave them the confidence to expand.
>
>Have they said anything about whether or not the first 3-4 episodes
>will be properly subtitled, rather than dubtitled, on this one?

I guess I don't know the difference. (What do you mean by "dubtitled"?)

They were very noncommittal about future releases on DVD. I think they had
a few titles in mind (I can only remember the Viz Ranma release, but
planned releases didn't include any Tenchi). They did seem to indicate that
they were prepared to spend the amount of money and time required to make
high-quality DVD releases (including multimedia features, like the Tenchi
encyclopedia on movie 2), but only on a few select releases, initially.
They wanted a return on investment. (I personally don't think this is
necessary; the Green Legend Ran DVD doesn't even have a menu! It's
inconvinent of course, and you have to know how to switch to subtitles
manually on your player.)

It's also possible that Pioneer brought out DVDs a little early because
they stopped selling new LDs a little early--that they entered a little
prematurely than they would have if they were still supporting LD. Pioneer
had also been selling anime LDs for years, and I'm sure they didn't bring
the return on investment that VHS brings. (Of course, LD sales were good
for Pioneer in more ways than one: having exciting LDs available helps to
sell more LD players, of which Pioneer is/was the top manufactuer.) They
didn't want to make their LD customers more angry than they were
already--at least LD customers are more likely to move to DVD than the
average VHS customer, with or without Pioneer anime titles. I really doubt
that Pioneer is going to be disappointed with the return on their DVD
investments, though.

Among other suggestions, one fan suggested that Pioneer start putting
English "subtitles" (closed captioning) on their Japanese LDs, and
officially sell them in the U.S. Don't hold your breath. :)

>Aside from the Dolby mastering, that is the next most important thing
>in my eyes.

Hopefully they'll also use yellow subtitles (it is possible to do this with
DVD!). Did they finally change those awful (ALL CAPS) subtitles from the
first OVAs on VHS?

>Derek


Peace,


<> David

http://www.lightlink.com/drogers/
-------------
"People, who eat people, are the loneliest people in the world!"
=96Barbara Streisand, slightly skewed