My growing obsession with buying DVDs is getting bad.... I admit this.... but I'm going to cut down... really I am.

I bought one last night from the house of K, "Battle of the Planets" was a series I watched when I was young (I'm thinking '81-'83) and I loved it... a team of "kids" that fought the bad guys and did kewl transformations... well before Mighty Morphing Power rangers or any of that shite...

Well the DVD promised only two episdoes per disc, but offered the original "Gatchman" japanese series that BotP was derived from. From everything I read "Gatchaman" was more violent and more adult in the handling of everything, so I was looked forward to watching it.

The DVD promised the original japanese audio track for "Gatchaman" with english subtitles..... guess what? No subtitles.... in fact in 3 out of 3 special features they lied on the packaging..... so I chucked off an email to Siren Visual the distributors of the DVD with my concerns... read on to see me rant....

[email to=info@sirenvisual.com.au]
Hello,

I just purchased 'Battle of the Planets Volume 1' from my local Kmart
store (Melbourne, Victoria) and I am very disappointed.

It is clearly stated that there is two (2) audio tracks and english
subtitles for the included 'Gatchaman' episodes.

I have been looked forward to a region 4 release of 'Battle of the
Planets' and remember fondly watching the series when I was younger.

I sat back and watched the DVD tonight after I purchased it, the first
signs of potential problems was the 'interactive menus' looked different
to the DVD sleeve.

I then was watching the first episode and thought the audio was a bit
dodgy, I realize this would be because of the age of the material, I
thought I would check the Stereo track to see if that was any better.
There was other audio track than the 5.1 Audio. No matter, I watched
both episodes and then looked forward to watching the original Japanese
'Gatchaman' from which 'Battle of the Planets' was derived.

What do I find? A crystal clear Japanese audio track, with no
subtitles. This is despite the packaging saying there is english subtitles.

I quote the packaging to you here:

[quote]
Special features:
- Contains Two Battle of the Planets episodes, available with either 5.1
Audio or 2.0
- Also contains corresponding gatchman episodes, with English subtitles
- Interactive menu & character Information.
[/quote]

Quickly frankly I am appalled at such out and out lies. Each bullet
point is wrong.
- only one track (5.1)
- No English subtitles
- No Character Information

I have read reviews for the region 1 DVD (see link below) and it had all
of the above and an episode of 'G-Force' included. I care not for the
'G-Force' episode, but what happened to lose both the extra Audio track
and the subtitles?

I was very much interested in buying the whole collection, and am now
thinking of returning the DVD stating that was sold under false pretences.

What can done about this situation?
Can you assure me this is a non-standard DVD I have purchased and that I
can return it and get a disc that has the correct feature set?
If not, will the other DVDs in the series also not contain these
'special features'?

I look forward to your response.

Regards.

DK
[/email]

Was I too harsh? Considering Rhinovideo did the actual DVDs in the states and I presume licensed them to Siren, who fucked up?

.... and yeah I screwed up the email a bit... said there was a link below and then forgot to include it..... for your perusal it is included here.

Updated...
I received the following response...

[email]
The titles have been incorrectly authored and are being redone this month,
including subtitles ( which will not be switchable) , character info
although not the same as the US version) and switchable 5.1 or 2.0 sound. I
am taking a list of names to send replacement copies to when ready. Do you
wish to go on this list?

[name deleted]
Managing Director
Siren Visual Entertainment
[/email]

So I'm happy and have asked to be put on the list... but considering that authoring is just making the DVD contents... leave another month (at least) for duplication and shipping..... so at least I'll be slowed down on this series of DVDs... [: