Before we move on to the subtitles and closed captioning for Scene 30 I want to get into something regarding the Blu-ray/DVD and VHS/Laser versions of the film that may only be an issue that I not only find interesting but also puzzling. Specifically, it's something about the transfers. Over the course of working to get screen captures and videos of the film I've noticed that whereas, unless there's an actual crossfade transition from one scene to another, as there is from Scene 28 to Scene 29, that's supposed to be apparent because it's seen by the audience, when it comes to the Blu-ray/DVD transfers most scenes lead directly from one scene to the next without any sort of transition effect, but that's not quite the case with the VHS/Laser transfers. When it comes to the VHS/Laser, regardless of whether there's a transition effect between scenes, there's seemingly always at least one frame that contains aspects of each scene.
Here are two videos I've created for the change from Scene 29 to Scene 30 that probably show what I'm getting at better than I can explain it (I've slowed down the individual frames so that each displays for 2 seconds rather than the 33/1000th of a second they normally display at):
Blu-ray:
Laser:
Like I said, it's puzzling to me why the VHS/Laser transfers seemingly created an intermediate frame between scenes that the Blu-ray/DVD transfers don't have. Shouldn't all scene changes of a film play the same and true to the actual film regardless of what video format the film was transferred to? Apparently not. At least not in the case of NoDS (and probably also hoDS - I haven't checked it).
Maybe if Darren Gross sees this post one day he'll be able to explain why there's a difference. Or if anyone reading this now knows why, please feel free to tell us because I would more than welcome an explanation.
And to go off on a tangent from the main point of this post, you've no doubt noted that I've brought up the Laser disc version of NoDS and shared frames from it. Well, that's because I've always wanted to own a copy of the Laser discs of the films and several months back I saw a nice deal on a never opened copy, so I bought it. But not owning a Laser disc player, that meant that I needed to find one that 1) wasn't strictly Japanese, which is the case with way too many available for sale online (Japanese players are 100V AC and would fry if used in the US because we have 120V AC) and 2) didn't cost a ridiculous and astronomical amount of money (just because good Laser disc players aren't readily available, that's no excuse to milk the public for all they're worth! - I'm talking to you, way too many eBay sellers!!). Luckily a few months ago I found one that got glowing reviews back in the heyday of laser discs and didn't cost an arm and a leg, so I bought it, and I'm more than satisfied with it.
And that all leads to how I'd always heard that the Laser disc transfers of the films are so much sharper than the VHS transfers. And I've discovered that's very true, as you can see in this side-by-side comparison of part of a frame from NoDS Scene 30:
Laser VHS And considering my VHS copy of NoDS is starting to show wear, I'm more than happy to not only have another copy of that version of the film, but one that's sharper than the VHS...