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Seeking French edition Tintin cartoons in the USA

Danagasta
Member
#1 · Posted: 24 Jun 2005 17:06
[Moderator action: this post and some replies moved from another thread.]

It's next to impossible to get the French versions here, let alone the DVD sets. All the Tintin videos available here are VHS, and they're in the twenty dollar range at the Yale Bookstore in New Haven. Most Americans don't speak another language---as you probably know, our nation is at least three times the size of Europe, so there isn't really a need for most folks to learn anything but English (or in some places, Latin American Spanish.) As for myself, I'm one of very few who bothered to learn, and I'm on my sixth now, Mandarin.

I want to find out about the sync issues myself, as that's my area of expertise (I have a BA in Communication, which includes quite a lot of production issues just like this.) If possible, I'll keep an eye out and see if I notice any differences like you said once (and if!) I ever get the French versions.
Pelaphus
Member
#2 · Posted: 24 Jun 2005 17:41
Danagasta -- I think your best bet is eBay. It's policy here to recommend only the official licensed set (a policy I agree with), which predominates on eBay in various international editions ... but I will say, if the search for what you want becomes frustrated, just academically, let your conscience be your guide, the Asian DVD box has 11 discs, not ten (the 11th contains LAKE OF SHARKS, the Belvision original), plus ALL the Nelvana animations (none, like TINTIN IN AMERICA, omitted) AND all the primary soundtrack languages, including English and French. I will say also, there's one on eBay now that is so CLEARLY bootlegged that it's almost worth having for the novelty of the box. That's because the box -- which features Tintin putting on his coat and on the move as Snowy follows, on a landscape against a turquoise blue sky -- has this title on both the lid and the spine: TINTIN AND THE ALPH ART.
Danagasta
Member
#3 · Posted: 24 Jun 2005 18:28
Thanks Pelaphus! I can do any PAL/SECAM to NTSC conversions myself anyway, so that's a good bit of info to know.
I'm guessing the Asian ones may be VCD, in which case they wouldn't require conversion.
You know, this makes me think. If NTSC were to be converted into PAL (I'm guessing some of you are familiar with this), how is the resolution? I know that NTSC only has 525 scan lines, whereas PAL is 720, so when the standards converter fills in the gaps.....
I know that non-NTSC shows that are converted for use here in the US and Canada tend to have a VERY characterisic "lossy" appearance.
Courtney
Pelaphus
Member
#4 · Posted: 24 Jun 2005 19:38
Courtney -
No these are DVDs. There is still a legit VCD set around, but to the best of my knowledge, the online shops listing it have no license to sell to US buyers and won't. There's also a Malay VCD set, which I own, that USED to be the mainstay of eBay, but it's become quite rare in the wake of the DVDs proliferating.(That set has caused some friendly debate here as to its legitimacy; I'm 100% convinced it's legit, for all kinds of reasons, but the releasing co. has expired and I believe they were sub-licensing which sometimes happens; and being a dead company to boot it doesn't appear on the official licensee list). Given a choice, the DVDs win for quality and versatility hands down.

Conversion shouldn't be a big deal. If you mean for private backup purposes, that's something we should discuss off-forum, as it's a legal hot button here. But if you mean for watching, all you need is a region free DVD player with a converter built in. Those are cheap and plentiful, and cover both PAL and NTSC sets. And to the best of my knowledge, SECAM is a videotape format that doesn't apply to DVDs, certainly no DVDs that I have, even from France. (By the way, the French format is not SECAM exactly, it's a variant, SECAM-L; most affordable multi-format VCRs, whose converters cover NTSC, PAL & regular SECAM, can't accommodate SECAM-L, because it would require a second built-in converter JUST for that format alone.)

I don't watch in PAL, but I've converted a few videos to PAL for European friends and they've all said it turned out great.
Danagasta
Member
#5 · Posted: 25 Jun 2005 03:28
But if you mean for watching, all you need is a region free DVD player with a converter built in. Those are cheap and plentiful, and cover both PAL and NTSC sets. And to the best of my knowledge, SECAM is a videotape format that doesn't apply to DVDs, certainly no DVDs that I have, even from France
Not here in the US LOL---they run somewhere in the $300 range. Americans don't really buy "region-free" anything anyway, so you'd think they'd be cheaper! Very few export DVDs will be SECAM either, because like you said, a variant of SECAM is used. The television system and DVD type have to match regardless, so it goes without saying that SECAM DVDs exist.
Just for fun, a site with some SECAM discs:https://www.aramovies.com/Query_eng.asp?qt=ByPAL
Just another note: if you look at the specs for the two formats, you'll find that they're almost identical except in one or two ways.
Pelaphus
Member
#6 · Posted: 25 Jun 2005 05:04
LOL back at you (and with you), Danagasta -- I AM American, I live in NYC. And there are online vendors selling region-free (even VCR friendly) DVD players for under $100. But you're right about this much: unlike most of my USA friends, I have an unusually comprehensive set of electronic "toys," precisely to avoid the limitations of region codes and format types. But not an expensive or rarefied set -- virtually all the video units I own are consumer electronics, readily and quite legally available. It just takes a little patience and research to identify the units you want and the best outlets from which to buy them. (The most expensive toys were the specialty VCRs. When I got my GO-Video two deck dubber, it was JUST before the digital copyright law went into effect, so GO-V was still making boxes that could override copy protection. At the time I paid about $500 for a hi-fi stereo "stacked decks" model, not an outrageous price then. Much more recently I got a Samsung Worldwide VCR -- the "low end" $300 model that records and plays in all formats save SECAM-L -- and that's the box that has let me see, among other things, a number of Belvision Tintins, plus the Tintin musical.)

And -- typed sometime later -- an LOL on myself. I was just tooling around the website and saw your posts on video formats & technology. I didn't know who I was dealing with. I bow to the master...
jockosjungle
Member
#7 · Posted: 25 Jun 2005 09:55
Region Free DVD players are common in the UK because of the benefit of buying R1 DVD such as better selection and cheaper prices, seldom would a US person wish to buy R2 DVD hence the system is a lot more expensive.

Anyway back on topic regarding French Tintin

A R1 DVD Set has been released in Canada in two parts, the first is available now and the second is available in the Autumn.

The first half will set you back around $40

http://www.dvdsoon.com/show-title-details.xml?uid=136882

The set is really nice and is predominantly a French release as you can see from the covers, but the set also includes an English soundtrack as well. But the set was designed as a French release.

A review of it can be fouund here https://www.tintinologist.org/articles/r1dvdreview.html

Hope this helps, no reason to do any conversions!

Rik
Danagasta
Member
#8 · Posted: 25 Jun 2005 17:50
Oh cool, Pelaphus, you're not far from me at all! I'm in New Haven, CT(originally from TN though.) I can't check profiles on this computer because when the second window comes up, it knocks me offline, so I'm making sure not to run on the assumption that everyone I talk to is American.
I'm going to check Ebay for cheaper ones, that'd be the best thing on earth to get something region-free. I do my conversions myself usually, but since I'll be working even more in about two weeks, I can't get to the UNH studio to do them--plus they're renovating in there, so it smells like paint and varnish. Ew.
Thanks so much, but I'm hardly the mistress of formats ^_^ Paul Falcone, the guy who taught me all this stuff, is the true Zen master all the way, and I'm giving him full credit for this.

Courtney

--
EDIT - Posted: Jun 25, 2005 09:57:35
I like it, Rik!!! Thanks so much!
As it turns out, they're renovating the University of New Haven's editing room this summer, so conversions and so forth are on hold anyway. I'd give my frontal lobe to get the French-language Tintin DVDs, region or no region. Soundtracks are no issue, as I've been speaking French (the Canadian variant though...) since I was almost 12--I started learning four months before my birthday and got a lot of great French-language stuff as gifts ^_^ I had also taped every single Tintin episode off the TV, and they're all downstairs as we speak...or write....ah, whatever!
Courtney
--
[Post edited by Moderator. Combined 2 posts.]
Pelaphus
Member
#9 · Posted: 25 Jun 2005 18:29
Courtney --

Actually, the BEST place for region-free, where you don't have to worry about bidding, and have access to tech-help and the vendors, is this place online:
http://www.220-electronics.com/
They have stuff ranging from low to high end, and honest ratings of the products too.
Btw, visit my website www.aislesay.com and click on the mail link, bottom of the home page. You can get to me directly that way and we can continue nattering on about this stuff without pulling Forum focus from the boy and his dog ...

(Apologies to the moderators for going so screamingly off-topic. I know this post practically has a bull's-eye on it, it's so slated for removal or being shifted elsewhere, but if you might leave it up just long enough so that Courtney can acknowledge seeing it, I'd be grateful.)
Danagasta
Member
#10 · Posted: 26 Jun 2005 03:10
Message received loud and clear, Shark. Over and out!

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