Wow, Mill Creek's Ultraman DVD sucks in quality control!

[klen7]

Tsuburaya takes care of its Japanese fans. The international community is stuck with Chaiyo for the first 5 series and Jumborg Ace

[Dr Kain]

On the subject of Chaiyo, why did they have to not allow Shout! to put episode 12 on their discs when they don't have to listen to Tsuburaya? Hell, from my understanding TNT even aired that episode for years but then suddenly Shout! brings the whole series out to DVD and Chaiyo gets cold feet about it? That's kind of lame.

[Specium Ray]

[O.Supreme]

[jellydonut25]

Mill Creek's Ultraman DVD pretty much sucks in general. Quality so bad it borders on unwatchable. I had a hard time getting into any of it due to the quality of the release.

Mill Creek's done some good stuff in RECENT years (their Gamera releases in particular are to be commended) but prior to that, a Mill Creek release was synonymous with garbage.

[Dr Kain]

I wouldn't say the quality is unwatchable and it's not like there is anything better at the moment, but yeah, I would tell someone to hunt down BCI's expensive releases instead.

[Dr Kain]

My Ultraman review:

[jellydonut25]

I guess I'm a bit of a Philistine in that I mostly stock with dubs, and the dub tracks are putrid... and I mean in terms of their quality. I've actually heard a little about WHY that is, but it's a shame and really hurt my overall enjoyment

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

Mill Creek sourced their dub tracks from VHS rips of the later runs of the show.
So there are actually several minutes of each episode on the DVDs that switch to Japanese because the sources Mill Creek chose to use in order to pump this out as fast and cheap as possible were from the days when there were more commercials and stuff was cut for time. Every episode actually has full length dubbing but Mill Creek never bothered to seek it out. They just went the cheapest easiest route. The dub tracks sound like hot rancid garbage, and occasionally switch to unsubbed Japanese. It's a joke.

[lhb412]

^The BCI releases also had the edited dubs. I thought that was because Chaiyo only has access to those (via, as you say, VHS recordings of the show when it was still in syndication in the US), while Tsuburaya has the entire, unedited dubs.

The Mill Creek release is exactly the same as BCI, only smooshed onto less discs and with the timing off on the subs for two episodes.

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

Meh, they're dubs, so I couldn't give a crap if they are uncut or not. What does sound annoying though is the audio track switching randomly. I want to say I've never heard of such laziness before, but the Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex BDs that came out today suffer from the same issue.

[O.Supreme]

[canofhumdingers]

So I'm gonna guess the actual Japanese DVD or bluray (if there is one...?) don't include any English subs or dubs? Seems like it'd be awesome of Tsuburaya (and a way to stick it to Chaiyo) to just include the English versions on their official domestic releases for any fans who are willing to go to the trouble/expense of importing them. I know I'd look into getting them.

[Dr Kain]

[O.Supreme]

[Shin Godzilla]

I'm not gonna reveal the name, but a certain website (famous to kaiju fans in-the-know) sells blu-ray bootlegs of the first 5 Ultraman shows with English subtitles. I'm fairly certain they're using Mill Creek's subs, but the picture quality is sourced from the Japanese blu-rays and let me tell you, I am never going back to the Mill Creek DVDs. Worth the money for dedicated fans, I think.

[RichCo]

[Dr Kain]

[Kaiju_Ultra_Fan]

[RichCo]

[RichCo]

[Dr Kain]

That still to me is pure laziness. Don't put the dub on there if you aren't going to edit the episodes to match the dub. They should have just used seemless branching for the versions.

[RichCo]