Princess Mononoke: R1US vs R3K

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 07 Aug 2007, 10:46

Note: there are two different prints with different colour schemes for Mononoke Hime. Another comparison can be found here.
Needless to say I disagree with DVDBeaver on what the film is supposed to look like.

All caps are taken with VirtualDub and bicubically resized to 1024x576.

US top.
Korean bottom.

Korean version is heavily cropped, window-boxed and edge-enhanced.
On the plus side, compression artefacts are non-existent and it's a bit sharper than its american counterpart.
Can't comment on the colour scheme... yet.

Grass is supposed to be green. Sky is supposed to be blue.
This is one of the many shots that make me think that the R1's print has the correct colour scheme.
The korean version just looks washed-out. For such a colourful film, that doesn't seem right.

And now for a closer look:
(caps are upscaled to 1920x1080 and then cropped to 1024x576)

In the end, it's just a matter of preference.
If edge-enhancement doesn't bother you, and if your TV suffers from overscan, then the korean disc is fine.
If you've got a big screen and you want to have the full picture, get the R1. It might be an old disc, but it's still the best version out there IMHO.

The subtitles are identical.
R1 has yellow subs.
R3K has smaller white subs.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 07 Aug 2007, 13:08

Is the R1 on a DVD9?

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 07 Aug 2007, 13:14

EvaUnit02 wrote:Is the R1 on a DVD9?

I believe so. And it also has actual subtitles, instead of the old region 2's dubtitles.

I dont know how the newer region 2 fares against the old r1.
There was criticism about the colorscheme, but it appears the r2 UK version does have the correct color. Also, it's a NTSC-Pal transfer or something. Personally, I dont really seem to notice that stuff. It didnt bother me with Laputa and Nausicaa...

Anyway, I still have the old region 1. I'll upgrade when I've moved on to HD... so that will be at least a few more years I think...

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 07 Aug 2007, 13:29

Yi-Long wrote:Personally, I dont really seem to notice that stuff. It didnt bother me with Laputa and Nausicaa...

Try watching a conversion in progressive scan, it's not as noticeable in 480i/576i.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 07 Aug 2007, 13:34

I have the old R1 and am happy with it

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 07 Aug 2007, 14:21

The R3K is an R2J port (just checked my discs). I much prefer its colors they are so much more natural and closer to how I've seen it theatrically on a few occasions. The R1 has clearly been messed about with, its almsot painful to see what they've done to the colour. The EE on the R2J is bad but I can't stand the R1 colours.

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 07 Aug 2007, 16:32

Indeed, the R1 most certainly does not have the correct colour scheme Tom me old mucker. Just like Spirited Away this is one Ghibli title that doesn't have a definitive release.

Kris · Post by **Kris** » 07 Aug 2007, 16:34

I always preferred the R1 colours, the R2/R3 looks too brown/yellow to me, like it's been calibrated for a completely different colour temperature (not to mention the horrid EE and bleeding). Despite its age the R1 is still a very good-looking disc.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 07 Aug 2007, 23:49

Does the R3K have literal English subs? Ta.

It looks to be a nice alternative to the R2J without the needless 3rd disc and book.

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 08 Aug 2007, 00:22

The r3k will have the exact same subs as the r2j, so yes.

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 08 Aug 2007, 06:05

EvaUnit02 wrote:
Yi-Long wrote:Personally, I dont really seem to notice that stuff. It didnt bother me with Laputa and Nausicaa...
Try watching a conversion in progressive scan, it's not as noticeable in 480i/576i.

Uhmmm... I have no clue as to what you just said