New US Release w/ Japanese version

[Crash]

Hi!
What I do with this stuff is just use the DVD/Blu-ray drive on a computer to view it.
You can get a lot of software over the bay of piracy and probably elsewhere to keep the cost down.
But I remember a good one called DVD Ghost. It would just read any DVD, regardless of region of the disc or drive.

For Blu-ray, Redfox AnyDVD HD is a good one.
You then just play it in Media Player Classic or ... probably any other media player app in Windows.

For this reason, I find it funny that they barely make any desktop PC chassis now with even a single enclosure for an optical drive at the front.

[jackpittorino]

thanks for the suggestion, I just remembered that I plan on looking into purchasing a region free blu ray player

[Crash]

That too!
I don't have a standalone Blu-ray player; just a drive that goes into a big desktop that sits next to our TV unit and acts as a media center.

I remember having a region-free DVD player as a student and it was very hassle-free; unlike with software solutions, it requires no configuration or updating etc.

One thing I will say is that desktop Blu-ray optical drives seem to have a high rate of failure in my experience.
In the 10 years since that machine was built (it's been upgraded a lot since then) it's gone through 3 blu-ray drives.
It currently has a Pioneer, which is holding up much better than the Sony and Asus ones that it had before.

We do a fair bit with Blu-rays and nothing with streaming.
I'm looking forward quite a bit to the Stingray Blu-rays, which I think are coming out next month.

[jackpittorino]

Last year I finally bought a multi region blu ray player and the X-Bomber SD Blu Ray. I had an absolute blast watching the original Japanese version of X-Bomber

[Crash]

Hi Jack!
I was pleased with the SD blu-ray for that same reason.

If you haven't seen it, check out dym005's AI-upscaled version of the English-language release.
It looks really good and it gave me a new appreciation for the series:
https://xbomber.co.uk/?a=90

[jackpittorino]

I saw bits of the Upscale and it looks fantastic, I didn't watch all of it though since the original Japanese version is my preferred version of the series.