Tales of Phantasia DVD is here

[StarCreator]

I didn't see anyone talking about it, but I have the Tales of Phantasia OVA DVD in my hands now.  I don't have time to open and watch it today (or this week, for that matter).

If you haven't picked it up yet, the DVD is currently on sale at RightStuf for $13.99.  Great value for four episodes!

[Kajitani-Eizan]

anyone know how the dub, image quality, etc. are? sounds like a not bad deal for like $17 shipped.

[Carnivol]

If that's the same release as the R1 I've got, then it contains all 4 episodes + credit less OP/ED sequences + a couple of trailers for other junk. All on a single layer DVD5 (I think)

I haven't checked it recently, but I seem to recall image quality being pretty much good throughout the entire thing.

If someone cares to bother me about it later, I can probably bring it down from the shelf and see if I can refresh my mind on it and evt. compare to some other stuff that's on my shelf.  I don't have the Japanese DVDs, so I can't comment on whether or not there's any loss between the two releases, but I'd say it's "unlikely" that it's anything really noticeable if they even had to re-encode the episodes to make them all fit on one disc.

[Cless]

I was pretty sure the Japanese single discs were 2GB each, max bitrate. To put all four episodes a single layer with dual audio sounds a little scary to me. I don't have the official R1 though, so I can't have a look for myself.

[StarCreator]

The disc is definitely dual-layer - I haven't popped it in yet, but both sets of serial numbers are visible.  It would be absolutely insane to try and squash that much content on a single layer anyway.

It'll be hard to disappoint me though, considering I paid a fraction of the price for one R2 volume to get the entire series.  Even sight-unseen, I don't think this kind of deal should be passed up - I don't know how much longer the product link in my original post will remain discounted.

[Craymel]

I was pretty sure the Japanese single discs were 2GB each, max bitrate. To put all four episodes a single layer with dual audio sounds a little scary to me. I don't have the official R1 though, so I can't have a look for myself.

That's the main reason I never buy R2 dvds from japan. They put each individual episode in one disc  which makes  it about twice as expensive to buy then getting the R1. As long as the R1 companies aren't stupid about it and degrade the quality.

[throughhim413]

Just to note, they did release a second edition of the OVA in Japan on a single disc. Well, actually there were two discs, but the second one just contained the dubbed version and extras. It wasn't too expensive either, $30 if I remember right.

[Carnivol]

I was just cleaning up some stuff and noticed the disc and remembered this topic.

Just checked it, it's a dual layer, but that's just barely.

The four episodes (2 hours) take up about 5gb, and that's with both AC3 audio tracks (English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0).

So about 1,25gb pr. episode.

Almost strange that they've got a dual layer disc, but obviously went with a lowered bitrate. 'cause I can certainly say that I too have a bunch of R2 anime DVDs (single episode type) where the episodes are something like 1,5~2gb-ish for 30min of video w/LPCM 2.0 audio.
So at the end of the day, I guess the sizes are pretty much the same, the only real difference being the audio track being used.
Probably converted to AC3 to lower the overall bitrate or something.