Hailing from Singapore, I'm pretty familiar with these grey-market DVD sets. I own quite a few of them, since they're available over-the-counter from a few stores around here. Not hard to find, if you know where to look.
They're a lot /cheaper/ than American DVD releases. In my experience, they can be up to a quarter or third of the price. American anime DVDs aren't usually available through Singaporean retailers anyway.
But the quality, in general, is definitely inferior.
It's pretty hit-and-miss. On one end of the scale, I have a fully bilingual Cowboy Bebop set that's of excellent quality - good subtitles in both English and Chinese, the English dub, and even some extras. My Trigun set's roughly around the same quality too.
On the other hand, I also own a Mobile Fighter G Gundam set that's got somewhat dodgy video quality, especially for DVD...and subtitles ripped directly from fansubs. I know they're fansubs, because it's right in the subtitles. 'THIS IS A FANSUB. NOT FOR SALE'. That, and the URLs and addresses leading to fansub groups, kind of give the game away. =)
Grey market. Definitely grey market. If not outright black.
-- Acyl
They're a lot /cheaper/ than American DVD releases. In my experience, they can be up to a quarter or third of the price. American anime DVDs aren't usually available through Singaporean retailers anyway.
But the quality, in general, is definitely inferior.
It's pretty hit-and-miss. On one end of the scale, I have a fully bilingual Cowboy Bebop set that's of excellent quality - good subtitles in both English and Chinese, the English dub, and even some extras. My Trigun set's roughly around the same quality too.
On the other hand, I also own a Mobile Fighter G Gundam set that's got somewhat dodgy video quality, especially for DVD...and subtitles ripped directly from fansubs. I know they're fansubs, because it's right in the subtitles. 'THIS IS A FANSUB. NOT FOR SALE'. That, and the URLs and addresses leading to fansub groups, kind of give the game away. =)
Grey market. Definitely grey market. If not outright black.
-- Acyl