Question for people with the Australian/New Zealand/Madman DVDs

[Nenna]

I like to buy presents early and as I got the responisibility of finding fun presents for the younger generations in my family do I want to give them good stuff. So I thought; "Why not give them Digimon?". Easier said than done, those kids aren't even old enough to being alone and 11 learning Japanese and English from watching fansubbed Digimon Frontier (I was like that if you wonder). But... I can't give them DVDs/USB sticks with fansubbed episodes..!

Enter some DVDs I found online, they claim to have Japanese in them and English sub. Do any of you have them? If so, how is the sub quality? Is it based on the dub or the original? Is it uncut and uncensored? It also wrote Adventure's runtime as1250 minutes compared to the Japanese 1242mins, and 02's as 1300mins compared to the Japanese 1250mins. With all of the dub's cuts does it seem weird that it's suddenly longer..!

 

[sugarplumfairy]

I don't think the original version with subtitles has ever been officially released on DVD in the West.

 

[Nenna]

But if the Australian are legit is it better, atleast I think so :/

 

[Sabrblade]

If anyone is trying to sell DVDs of the Japanese version with English subtitles and trying to pass them off as official products in an English-speaking market, then they are bootlegs.

There has never been an official DVD release of any of the Japanese version Digimon anime with English subtitles in any English-speaking market, so these ones you found have to be bootlegs.

Could you provide a link to the site you found them so we could take a look at them to confirm their (lack of) authenticity?

 

[Nenna]

Here's the Adventure 02 one, it looks legit, and the seller seems popular :/

 

[Theigno]

Here's the Adventure 02 one, it looks legit, and the seller seems popular :/

There seem to be two possibilities here: Either this DVD set is a modified bootleg version of the real one or that seller is simply lying in the description. Looking up the APN for this product, "9322225197879" will bring you to the distributor's catalogue: https://b2b.madman.com.au/actions/catalogue.do?method=view&releaseId=20977
So the DVD seems to be legit but notice how the official description only lists english language and makes no mention of any subtitles or additional audio track. It seems that tehy include the original japanese opening as a bonus which might be what that seller has misinterpreted to mean more than it does.
When it comes to finding an official US dub release with Dual audio you are probably out of luck. The US version will always be censored and getting japanese audio on the same disc would mean doing some pretty complex re-timing of voices and and soundtrack which is something I doubt any distributor would do just randomly do for a normal release. There seems to be an english dub from malaysia (I think) that isn't censored and has a more faithful translation but I've heard that from a production standpoint it's even worse than the US dub and I don't think this version has ever been released on DVD.

Another comment about the technical specs of that DVD is that strangely the Video seems to be encoded as anamorphic 16:9 widescreen which makes absolutely no sense for a series produced in 4:3. The result would either be that the image will either appear to be stretched or the top and bottom of the frame might be cropped away, and both of these options are kinda garbage. weirdly Madman has also released a two-part collection of zero two that appears to be in the in the right aspect ratio, so who knows what's going on there...

also, fansubs are also bootlegs and shouldn't be advocated; one post where that was the case has been edited....

 

[Airdramon]

Apparently the ones that are stocked at JB Hi-Fi in Australia have Japanese subs and original English version on the DVD and are official.
I'm getting them for my birthday so I'll be able to say whether or not they have Japanese as well as English on the 6th.

 

[sugarplumfairy]

I still don't see how they are going to sync Japanese audio and subtitles with the English cut and vice-versa, unless the DVDs include two video tracks.

I am very suspicious about the authenticity of said DVDs — hopefully we can get someone to confirm it for us. I'm sure lots of people would be interested in buying DVDs with the original version and official subtitles, and I'm surprised that such an release (If it exists) was kept under the radar of the fandom.

 

[Sabrblade]

I still don't see how they are going to sync Japanese audio and subtitles with the English cut and vice-versa, unless the DVDs include two video tracks.

I considered that as well, but then a thought crossed my mind. What if these are indeed bootlegs with dual-audio Japanese/English options, but English audio isn't the American English dub, but instead the Malaysian English dub? That one was uncut (but poorly done overall), so someone could in theory create an uncut dual-audio bootleg using that dub for the English track.

 

[Sandra U.]

Here's the Adventure 02 one, it looks legit, and the seller seems popular :/

Browsing in Google I came across this old thread which needs some clarification.

This DVD is an official Australian New Zealand release. It has English language only and English subtitles only since the Australian NZ version is same as Saban's version it is cut and censured. The DVD has as special feature Japanese opening.

Here's the Adventure 02 one, it looks legit, and the seller seems popular :/

There seem to be two possibilities here: Either this DVD set is a modified bootleg version of the real one or that seller is simply lying in the description. Looking up the APN for this product, "9322225197879" will bring you to the distributor's catalogue: https://b2b.madman.com.au/actions/catalogue.do?method=view&releaseId=20977
So the DVD seems to be legit but notice how the official description only lists english language and makes no mention of any subtitles or additional audio track. It seems that tehy include the original japanese opening as a bonus which might be what that seller has misinterpreted to mean more than it does.
When it comes to finding an official US dub release with Dual audio you are probably out of luck. The US version will always be censored and getting japanese audio on the same disc would mean doing some pretty complex re-timing of voices and and soundtrack which is something I doubt any distributor would do just randomly do for a normal release. There seems to be an english dub from malaysia (I think) that isn't censored and has a more faithful translation but I've heard that from a production standpoint it's even worse than the US dub and I don't think this version has ever been released on DVD.

Another comment about the technical specs of that DVD is that strangely the Video seems to be encoded as anamorphic 16:9 widescreen which makes absolutely no sense for a series produced in 4:3. The result would either be that the image will either appear to be stretched or the top and bottom of the frame might be cropped away, and both of these options are kinda garbage. weirdly Madman has also released a two-part collection of zero two that appears to be in the in the right aspect ratio, so who knows what's going on there...

also, fansubs are also bootlegs and shouldn't be advocated; one post where that was the case has been edited....

This is a legitimate Australian New Zealand release. It has English audio only and English subtitles only and Japanese opening as special feature. I know madman website doesn't list the subtitles but it does have I have seen the box sets in shops like sanity, JB-HI-FI and read the info on the back clearly stating English subtitles only.
Regarding Malaysian DVD's they are uncut and uncensored, they have Japanese and Cantonese audio and English, Malay and Cantonese subtitles. I own savers and xros wars Malaysian versions I don't own the others but I have seen them. (they are legitimate DVDs they have the authenticity sticker). About the quality can't complain looks good in my pc and family TV.
Hope it helps.