Are the Region 1 DVDs better?

[on:]

I'm just wondering, all the non-region 1 DVDs have been released, but the US hasn't even seen season 3 yet! So are the US ones better produced or just the same?

[Reply #1 on:]

As far as i know the packaging is all that's changed, but i've seen some mentioning of differences in the S3 DVDs somewhere, but nothing major.

[Reply #2 on:]

isnt the menus going to be cooler for r1?

[Reply #3 on:]

I think some additional character dialogue on the menus will be included on the Region 1, Season 3 DVD’s, which wasn’t on the Region 2 release. So I guess that means the Region 1 set could well be better, but not by much...

[Reply #4 on:]

All the above is correct ... slightly altered box art and packaging from Region 2, extra dialogue clips on the menus for Region 1's Season 3, only 4x3 menus for all of Region 1 (Region 2 had 16x9 menus on the last 2 seasons) and a few missing special features (trailers) on Region 1 ... these are the only differences between Region 1 and 2 (well, besides the various language selection/subtitles differences, of course).

[Reply #5 on:]

Of course the Region 1 discs are better! That's why they're taking longer to come out!
Or at least that's what we like to tell ourselves...

Seriously though, I think they're 99.8% the same.

[Reply #6 on:]

bump, what is the verdict on the region 1 superiority now?

personaly it seems chalk full of extra crap, but i havent witnessed region 2 or however many regions there are to compare.

[Reply #7 on:]

Did the region 2 DVDs have characters introducing the episodes? Because if the only changes are 8 new lines on the menu screens, region 2 doesn't miss much.

[Reply #8 on:]

Characters introducing the episodes?
They have animated menus with some talking in the background...

I really hate this whole region system...

[Reply #9 on:]

i agree

[Reply #10 on:]

Buy all four seasons in Australia(region 4). Season 2 & 3 can be found for as low as $36 Aud, Season 4 still at about $80 Aud. ($1 Aud = $0.75 US, so it's about 3/4 i.e. $24 US). Postage is cheap from Australia. If you have an all region player that is(my sony plays all). If not, burning them to make a back up copy with DVD Shrink (it's free and fantastic) has an option to remove all coding so your copy will play in the States.
Oh, the series in Australia seems to have all the extras.

[Reply #11 on:]

I was disappointed with the Season 3 menus. I was expecting them to be like the Season 4 menus which were really cool. Instead, all they added were some cheesy voiceovers for the episode menus. Oh well, the rest of the set is great!

[Reply #12 on:]

From what I hear, non-Region 1 discs suffer from some problems synching audio commentary with what's happening onscreen. There can be discrepancies greater than a full ten seconds.