Video:

nice rip this... clean, no pixellation at all. Some series just don't need to be superbit discs, and this is definitely one of them.

Audio:

Would love to get ahold of the company's audio guy and teach him how to make audio tracks which don't use dynamic compression. . . then all the wierd fading problems would just go away. Audio fades down really (yiffing) quiet throughout the series, but slams back to full volume at the most inopportune moments. Apart from that, at least it's a clean source. Additional note : Backed up this series to DiVX 5.1.1 PRO w/mp3 soundtrack and the fading dissappeared. Is it possible that maybe the problem is my player software? (I only use WinDVD 4.x, as powerDVD has/had issues with my TVout, and I don't have a standalone player... playback for divx was done with BSPlayer)

Subtitle:

Drifty. Really drifty... and missing what's probably some quite meaningful chunks of the dialog. Translation is from chinese to english via OCR software and a universal translator package, i'm quite sure. Also, subtitle font is pathetically small. Additional : I fixed the subs on my backup copy by extracting them to text via Subrip's OCR and then re-timed them using Subtitle Workshop. This seems to be the way to go these days, as my player (BSPlayer) handles subrip scripts flawlessly (pity it doesn't support mpeg2 video/ac3 audio) AND allows you to choose subtitle font/color/etc.

Comment:

This is the box-set I have of this series (SKU#D0648). However, it is NOT a MI release as noted here, but is an AV release. If you load the discs from this series in DVDShrink, you will notice that one of the "extras" is an AV logo. Or maybe they're just on crack over at MI these days... I'm just not sure anymore. Excellent series if you like drama-type anime as opposed to blood, nudity, big mechas, etc. Apart from the audio flaws (again, maybe it's my software as opposed to crap mastering) and the subtitle drift, this is well worth the asking price, and goes on the top of my reccommended list.

Video:

The video was great overall. No pixelation or anything. However, there were times when it was too light and then there were times when it was too dark (particulary the last episode). Other than that, it was great! It was presented in a nice widescreen format. Way to go, MI!

Audio:

Only one language available: Japanese. But I'm not complaining. It sounded great on my television speakers.

Subtitle:

For the most part, they were good. But, there were times when the subtitles displayed were out and out stupid mistakes. Mainly just spelling mistakes on these two DVDs. But there were cases of Engrish. Names were also messed up a bit, but nothing you won't understand.

Comment:

A great series. Although the beginning is a bit boring, the end is definitely worth waiting.

Video:

No problems at all. Due to the slow moving nature of this anime, there were no compression type problems that are usually manifested on rips (eg, the breakup you see on titles such as Cowboy Bebop with fast moving hyperspace scenes with the many diagonal lines). 16:9 enhanced also. See images.

Audio:

No problems. No noise.

Subtitle:

Well above average, but some major timing issues every so often (to the point where you would have to have a pretty good memory to actually remember what had been said by the time the line was actually spoken). Also, a few timing issues on the subs for the episode titles - if you used next chapter to skip the intro, you would see the title screen, but not the translation, and would have to rewind a couple of second into the previous chapter. Title translations were pretty hard to understand in a lot of cases. Translation wise, other than the titles, there were a few bits in latter episodes where it was hard to understand. In Episode 11 (I believe) where at the start they were in the kitchen and Nemu had a cold and the conversation was just so mistimed and translated so oddly it was incoherent. Another thing I am not sure if deliberate by the makers or translation induced but the gender of many of the characters was "confused". Only one or two instances of chinese names being used instead of the japanese names.

Comment:

A touching series. From the final episode I think I have an idea what the whole "world" was about, but I could be wrong. I'll be pondering this for some time.

Video:

great, no pixellation, but colour is not rich enough, so i add some from my normal TV settings (it may be my TV, just tweak it yourself). Its not superbit (high bitrate)(would be nice if it got higher bitrate....hehe. its all good. don't be bother about my bitrate remark.

Audio:

sounds good

Subtitle:

timing ran off a bit for a few scene. a bit of typos. almost perfect English

Comment:

those who want to watch a lot of shooting, fighting, brawling, blow stuff up, mecha will need to avoid it like the plague. Those who think Serial Experiment Lain was the most brilliant anime ever will love this, as most of the staff is the same people.

Video:

No problems. I have watched every episode of this anime, and it is simply beautiful. The rip is top notch, and the anime itself has a very unique look to it. Some of the scenery is amazing to look at.

Audio:

Awesome soundtrack, im going to order this one from the site. The shows audio levels all seem fine to me, no pops or hisses, or anything like that. I don't have surround sound yet so I can't comment on that, but on a standard stereo setup it sounded great.

Subtitle:

Minor timing issues and a few misspellings. Most of the episodes were dead-on timing wise, just a few spots at the beginning and the next to last episode had any noticable timing issues. The misspellings were minor, and I never had a problem telling what was going on. The subtitles are fansubs from what I can tell, howver there was one point in an episode where things got engrishy for about thirty seconds. It wasn't too bad, but I felt like I should mention it.

Comment:

I love everything about this set. This series is awesome, and different. It manages to grab a hold of you without the use of big action scenes or mechs. I really recommend it. The episodes only have one chapter break so that you can skip the intro, and there are no eyecatches in the middle of the episodes. This set is good enough not to have to wait for an R1 rip.