R2 DVD rip, presented in anamorphic widescreen. The bitrate is low. Around 1 - 3 Mbps most of the time, going up to 4 - 5 Mbps during fast motion scenes. Too low for this release. There´s some pixelation visible in scenes with CGI animation involved. Also, dark backgrounds seem blocky at times. But what´s most annoying are the camera pans which look pretty jerky throughout the whole show, leaving the impression of heavy ghosting going on. Colours, contrast and brightness seem okay though. No company logos and no email spam on this release.

Presented in DD 5.1 and 2.0, the original japanese track sounds excellent. No comment on the surround effects since I listened to the 5.1 track only in stereo downmix.

Presented in DD 5.1 and 2.0, the original japanese track sounds excellent. No comment on the surround effects since I listened to the 5.1 track only in stereo downmix.

Extras: There is an extras section included with commercials for Macross CDs, videogames and model kits as well as trailers for Earth Defense Family, Spring and Chaos, Arjuna, Yukikaze, Heat Guy J, Overman, GitS Standalone Complex, Witch Hunter Robin, .hack//Sign, G Gundam and Patlabor 3 WXIII. All in japanese without subs. Misc: The first 2 episodes are both stored in title 1. The other episodes each have their own title numbers. Problem here is that if you used your player´s remote for subtitle and audio selection it will reset to chinese subs and DD 5.1 every time you reach the next title. Instead, just use the disc´s subtitle menu for choosing english subs, not your player´s remote. Same goes for audio; all audio options are hidden in the chapter menu. This way, your player remains in the desired audio track with english subs. Another problem: my disc hangs up during episode 3. Everytime my player reaches the 00.12.08 mark the picture freezes and I have to skip 10 seconds forward to continue with playback. Same symptom on my Xbox which uses video caching to ensure smooth playback even during layer changes. So propably it´s rather a bad disc than some issue with the layer change. EDIT: Just tried it on a friend´s player (Sony DVP-NS330) and it worked without any hang-up in eps 3. This is strange because Sony players aren´t known for best error correction at all. Only good thing about Sonys is their layer indicator, showing there´s a layer change going on in this scene. So it depends on the player you use. Well, this doesn´t change the fact you still have to deal with overcompressed video here. (testing equipment: Panasonic S75 multiregion DVD player, M$ Xbox, Sony DVP-N330 DVD player, Sony Wega flat screen TV, Kenwood & JBL stereo setup)