Hey all, I've just finished my annual GTO/Denshathon (I watch both series once a year as a sort of tradition as they're my favourite dramas!)

I have both as hardsubbed divxs but I'm trying to get them on DVD now for the quality.

And by DVD I mean the actual DVDs, not the divxs on DVD

I found this one which seems like it'll be what I'm after:

There are many floating around that have the episodes squeezed onto 3 DVDs but that one uses 6 for the episodes (it also includes the specials and movie but I'm not fussed about those)

But I thought I'd try here first. I'm not fussed about subtitles as I'm planning on doing them myself anyway.

But what I am looking for are 1:1 identical to (i.e. taken from) the original DVDs, not reencodes, hardsubbed, or divx files on a DVD (and especially not DVDs authored from divx!)

So in short, I already have the hardsubbed ones for Densha and GTO.

I'm in the UK and can pay by Paypal.

Thanks for looking!

Have you tried purchasing the DVDs from Amazon Japan or YesAsia?

I have but it's $270(��180) for the boxset which is madness!

And that's not even them selling it at a premium, that's how much it is. When I went to Japan two years ago I wanted to buy it but it was around 20000Y for one series. All the dramas are around that much, too. Hana Yori 2 had just come out and that was closer to 24000Y if I remember

The one in the photo is Chinese and is $30 but it may get hit by import tax to bring the total to maybe around $80 or so. Last year I found someone on Yahoo auctions Jp selling it for around $70 with a broken box (who also ships worldwide) but I missed out on it

I figured maybe someone on here has the Chinese one maybe and would be interested in selling it.

bilal wrote:

I have but it's $270(��180) for the boxset which is madness! And that's not even them selling it at a premium, that's how much it is. When I went to Japan two years ago I wanted to buy it but it was around 20000Y for one series. All the dramas are around that much, too. Hana Yori 2 had just come out and that was closer to 24000Y if I remember The one in the photo is Chinese and is $30 but it may get hit by import tax to bring the total to maybe around $80 or so. Last year I found someone on Yahoo auctions Jp selling it for around $70 with a broken box (who also ships worldwide) but I missed out on it I figured maybe someone on here has the Chinese one maybe and would be interested in selling it.

The prices at that site seem reasonable. You probably won't find much better deals than that when you are overseas. I am not sure if there is really any difference in picture quality between those DVDs and the raw files online though.

xploring wrote:

The prices at that site seem reasonable. You probably won't find much better deals than that when you are overseas. I am not sure if there is really any difference in picture quality between those DVDs and the raw files online though.

I think the difference in video quality is pretty negligible.... But there are those who are, pardon the expression, anal about it.

I figured that, as I watch them every year (I think it's been 4 years now for GTO), they may as well look as decent as I can get them. And no, they're not similar in quality. I even tried the 1080i television rip I found but it was awful and blocky as soon as anything moved.

As to your opinion on being anal, that's neither here nor there - the divxs aren't bad as such, but I'm not too hot for divx tv rips. If I don't like something I just don't like it. I have friends who don't like 320kbps mp3s or can tell the difference between dd5.1 and dts but I don't call them anal.

Ok the real reason is I can't stand seeing Misaki Ito (Densha) and Nanako Matsushima (GTO) all blockied-up

Not to mention I'm interested in the subbing process so they'd be good practice (I added subs to a film I bought on DVD recently, Lily Chou Chou).

Well this thread is going nowhere fast so I'll just try ordering them online. Thanks for the replies.

bilal wrote:

I figured that, as I watch them every year (I think it's been 4 years now for GTO), they may as well look as decent as I can get them. And no, they're not similar in quality. I even tried the 1080i television rip I found but it was awful and blocky as soon as anything moved. As to your opinion on being anal, that's neither here nor there - the divxs aren't bad as such, but I'm not too hot for divx tv rips. If I don't like something I just don't like it. I have friends who don't like 320kbps mp3s or can tell the difference between dd5.1 and dts but I don't call them anal. Ok the real reason is I can't stand seeing Misaki Ito (Densha) and Nanako Matsushima (GTO) all blockied-up Not to mention I'm interested in the subbing process so they'd be good practice (I added subs to a film I bought on DVD recently, Lily Chou Chou). Well this thread is going nowhere fast so I'll just try ordering them online. Thanks for the replies.

Well the only course of action would be to bite the bullet and spend the money for the original DVDs... Though they won't have any English subs.