Ultra C DVD

[Carlx]

Very bad, Senkou Shoujo keeps getting more and more annoying every time I listen to it.

[ecogazoo]

In 2 years, EMI will feature the covers as a Limited Edition mini-DVD at full price.

[Yahiko]

gotta find bootlegs nao!

[GIGAcorrupt]

So like...I do believe this is my very first post >.> "a new sign of life"

But um.....my question is... What site do you guys recomend I order this on?? O.O

[Glathannus]

Originally Posted by GIGAcorrupt

What site do you guys recommend I order [Ultra C] on?

Depends on several things:
1.) How fast you want the shipping to be, since you've got 4+ possible delivery methods, more-or-less of which are offered by each individual vendor
2.) How concerned you are about the sturdiness of the shipment packaging, since some vendors take that very seriously while others neglect it
3.) How concerned you are about the base price, the shipping cost, or both
4.) How many or few other things you want to order with the same shipment, since some vendors have better bulk rates than others
5.) How important PayPal is to you, since some vendors support it, but not all of them do

HMV Japan tends offer the lowest base price with Japanese DVDs, but their customer service has been lousy, and EMS is the only international shipping method they offer. EMS isn't cheap, and neither is FedEx, but in the larger shipments FedEx becomes the cheaper of the two while being at least as fast. CD Japan offers EMS and FedEx, but the base prices of their DVDs are usually higher. They also tend to be faster on getting the shipment out of their hands, while HMV Japan gets noticeably logjammed at times.

YesAsia tends to have the highest base prices and the cheapest shipping, but unfortunately it's you-get-what-you-pay-for shipping. If you're only ordering Ultra C on its own and you don't mind not being able to track the shipment while you wait week(s) for it, YesAsia might be your overall cheapest option. They accept PayPal, too.

CD Japan is your fastest and overall most expensive option, but excluding the time it takes your money to transfer, a FedEx delivery from CD Japan will reach your home within 24 hours. EMS from any vendor (CD Japan or HMV Japan) could take 3 business days, depending upon how far away you live from the nearest big city.

[Nimh]

This and Spa and Treatment are on the way to me from CDJapan.

Looking forward to this more than the new Eminem album, which shows the blindness of my devotion.

[GIGAcorrupt]

@ Glathannus

Thanks yo!! Another question, the DVD is region free right?? and If I did my convertion right...it's about 40 something U.S Dollars right??

With Yesasia...do you know how they package their stuff?? as in Weak card board stuff or something sturdy to ensure some sort of safety measurement...

[Glathannus]

The only Ringo/Jihen DVD that hasn't been Region-Free, was Gekokujyo Xstasy. That was nearly a decade ago, and the rest of the discs have been Region-Free ever since.

A few years ago, 4000yen would have been more like $36 US dollars. Nowadays it's more like $47 US dollars - which is close to what YesAsia is charging. If you choose CD Japan or HMV Japan, you'll have to pay some kind of shipping ontop of that.

HMV Japan has a multi-buy price of 3234yen, which translates to around $38 dollars. But you have to commit to buying another DVD, and that DVD could also be a cheap multi-buy. HMV Japan is also selling Spa & Treatment for 2926yen (multi-buy), which translates to $34-$35. If you bought them together to lock in the multi-buy prices, and paid for EMS (the only delivery method HMV Japan offers), it would total to 7067yen - around $83 USD. I should point out that HMV Japan does not accept PayPal, but they do take major credit cards, and most credit cards will do currency conversion automatically, though your bank will probably charge you 3%.

If you bought Spa & Treatment with Ultra C at YesAsia, it would cost you $91 with their FREE shipping, and their free shipping is a lot slower than EMS.

YesAsia's packaging is okay. It's not the best, and it's not the worst. It used to be the worst, but then HMV Japan drastically lowered their own standards one day. I can't say it's a huge problem that HMV Japan neglects their package sturdiness, since EMS is insured and there aren't a lot of accidents or mishandlings with EMS. It would be a problem if YesAsia packaged things the way HMV Japan does, and sent that off through the free shipping, though.

[GIGAcorrupt]

Region free ehh? That I did not know. What's stopped me from buying Ringo Expo is because it's usually "region coded." Does that also apply to most of SR and TJ CD's?

But seriously thanks a bunch for answering all of my questions. You really have helped me much in my decision ^^

[Glathannus]

Originally Posted by GIGAcorrupt

What's stopped me from buying Ringo Expo is because it's usually "region coded." Does that also apply to most of SR and TJ CD's?

Ringo Expo isn't exactly "region coded".
Here's what one of my ripping programs says about the original disc:

Originally Posted by AnyDVD

Media is locked to region(s): 1 2 3 4 5 6 8!

Basically what that means is, as long as your player isn't coded to Region 7, you're okay. Since there's really no such thing as players or discs coded specifically to Region 7, Ringo Expo is basically All-Region. The whole 1234568 deal is fairly normal not just with Shiina Ringo releases, but with a lot of "All-Region" releases throughout the world. 12345678 discs do exist, but throwing in the 7 doesn't actually serve any purpose for anyone.

You have to ignore what the vendors are saying about SR and TJ releases, because the vendors are only assuming the worst and trying to avoid liability for the Region-2 coding you can all-too-often get from other Japanese record labels. EMI Japan (formerly Toshiba-EMI) seems to be very lax about Region restrictions, so if you are interested in any of their other artists such as Utada Hikaru or ACIDMAN - their DVDs are All-Region too.

Audio CDs can't be region-restricted - not if they're supposed to work in a normal CD player. A small handful of Shiina Ringo CDs from 2003 were copy-protected, because at that time every branch of EMI throughout the world was employing this copy protection on every artist signed to EMI - but the discs would still work in ordinary CD players. A couple of years ago EMI discontinued those copy-protected releases, and has reissued them as unprotected. Since the unprotected versions have new catalog numbers and newer release dates, it's practically impossible to buy the copy-protected version on accident unless you're getting it secondhand.

You've got nothing to worry about.