Tell-tale signs you have a REMASTERED DVD of Die Hard 3 from Roadshow

1) Watch the movie and see if it shimmers badly (eg. ch 17 - stadium sequence)
2)  The Music Video is missing (look in menu under clips)
3) The file creation date is listed as being 29-05-98 (DVD-ROM users only)
4) There is an additional slip of paper on "how to" view a 16:9 DVD..
5) There is a red sticker on the back cover (of course my new copy was stickerless...hmmm)

They have definitely done something to this transfer...somehow I doubt they redid the whole movie, it seems as thought they have simply lowered the brightness and contrast levels (leaving the colour too saturated for some stupid reason), and played with the encoding for the DVD master.  With lowering the black level, the amount of detail has been somewhat sacrificed, and this makes the image look flat.  I increased the brightness, but this made the picture look pretty nasty, so I went back to the settings I use for all other PAL titles, and just dropped the Colour level back a bit.  The Music video that was on the original has been omitted from this version, perhaps in an effort to increase the bit rate of some sequences. 

Overall, this is a big improvement over their previous effort, even though the image is a tad too dark and the colour a bit much.    Still, the image is razor sharp, and pretty much free of dirt and grit (just the odd speck), and the soundtrack is fully intact throughout the credits this time.   I still have the pausing problem though, and this time around I picked up on a few more, totalling over 23 now (while this happens on all the PAL DVD's playing the Dolby Digital track, it only happens a few times on the other DVD, still no idea why, I can only guess it's a syncing problem)..anyways....

With a nip and tuck this DVD has come up lookin' much prettier...I'd say it's on par with the other titles from Roadshow and is 16:9 Enhanced with a multi-channel soundtrack, so I'm keepin' this copy...  

I am still waiting for details on the exact nature of this "new master" (whether the entire movie was redone or just the bad bits)..and hopefully this won't be too far off. 

I am very pleased to see that as Early Adopters of this new format (for Australia) we aren't being ignored by the powers that be.  Let's just hope that something good comes out of something so bad and future Roadshow releases on DVD won't be plagued with the problems associated with DH3.

Was in Myer yesterday at Pacific Fair on the Gold Coast and was quite impressed by the array of DVD players on display which included Sony, Panasonic and Pioneer. They now also have a separate area albeit small of DVD titles. Also happened to be at David Jones at Robina the other day and saw that they had a 'dual' DVD player, Gold in colour from Sony I think. Very nice indeed, makes my Toshiba SD2170 look plain.

The entry was strictly ticket only and to enforce that a security guard stood watch. Once your name was crossed off the list you were given two promotional 'show' bags that contained discount passes, DVD brochures and other DVD orientated promotional material, but after vigorous searching NO free DVD's Doh!

Toombul music had gone to considerable lengths to impress the 'early adopter' Australian audience by setting up a series of about 6-8 Pioneer televisions, (the majority rear projection widescreen) accompanied by an impressive audio setup with an array of DVD players. The televisions were set up on the centre stage with about 200 seats in front of the stage and two huge rear channel speakers behind the seating.

The evening was attended by about 200-250 people with representatives from Pioneer and Panasonic present. Also milling around the place were a few local Home Theatre shop owners from Brisbane and the Gold Coast probably eager to get their hooks in first. The evening commenced at about 7.00pm with an introductory speech from the owner of Toombul music who stated that he had recently come back from a two week trip around the USA to study DVD and it's impact on the American consumer, he was suitably impressed and was more than keen about the impact of DVD in Australia.

Next to speak was the European Managing Director of Warner Home Video who had flown up from Sydney or Melbourne I think to attend the night. He then gave a more detailed speech about the DVD format itself including DVD specifications, aspect ratios, subtitles and it's capability compared to the humble video tape. BUT the interesting news that he did give was that Warner intend to release about 100 titles on the Australian market by Christmas with and wait for it 'DATE & DAY VHS RELEASE' which in lamens terms means that when the movie appears for rental on VHS in your local video store it will also be available to buy on DVD. This is quite common in the USA and it was excellent to hear that this will happen in Australia, no more waiting about 12 months after the movie has screened in your local cinema before you can own a copy. This has been especially for me a MAJOR factor in importing DVD's from the USA. Just think Tomorrow Never Dies and Starship Troopers, both available in the USA on DVD but not even in our local video rental store.

After his speech which was a little hard to understand as he is French a few questions were fielded by the audience to which we were then given a further more comprehensive speech by the Managing Director of Pioneer Australia. He also seemed extremely enthusiastic about the future of DVD in this country and it's good to see that major hardware retailers are embracing DVD with open arms. During this speech we were then given a DVD display of the USA release of 'Tomorrow Never Dies' which looked and sounded fantastic. Wonder why he didn't use a Roadshow release like Die Hard 3 Hmmm.......maybe because the quality is crap.

After that display which seemed to impress everyone including myself, everyone was offered a 10% discount on C.D's at Toombul music (Wow!!!) and for those who purchased a DVD player would also be given a free DVD of their choice (Bigger Wow!!!) the evening drew to a close with the audience invited to stay and get warm and fuzzy with the various big wigs in Home Entertainment. Myself and Matt passed up on this opportunity and left shortly after.

So there you have it, good positive signs all around about the future of DVD in Australia, movie software is still unfortunately slow but if you haven't bought a DVD player yet, consider strongly one that will be able to play all regions via the remote (Pioneer DV505 is a good example) so you can cover all bases.

According to http://www.customs.gov.au/bizlink/imports/general/index.htm and a conversation I just had with customs......

"From 1 April 1998, the value for goods imported through the post for which a Customs import entry is required will reduce to $250 per consignment in line with non-postal importations."

"If goods are free of duty then the sales tax is calculated on the customs value uplifted by 20 per cent."

customs told me that they WILL collect 20% sales tax on DVDs if the amount of sales tax is more than $50 or in their words, "if the value of the DVDs is more than $AU 185.-"

so general rule : STAY UNDER $AU 185.- when importing DVDs

-rudy"