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What purchasing decisions do fellow UKers make who have region free players? (My setup is HTPC with AnyDVD HD). Are most UK discs pretty much the same as US ones now (although sometimes with PAL extras? I'm kinda used to it now, but it's not really preferable) or is it worth going for import the majority of the time? BBFC stickers are awful, but let's be honest... most Blu-Ray art is also terrible and covered in quotes and other poo poo that doesn't make one iota difference to my purchasing decision. Any particular favourite sites to get good prices/speed/lack of customs heat from? I used to use PlayUSA a lot but their site is still lacking a good separation of Blu-Ray and it's quite annoying. Might have to skim SA Mart for any UK people with collections for sale... EL BROMANCE fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Aug 17, 2010 |
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Aug 17, 2010 01:14
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ClydeUmney posted:To paraphrase a line from Spinal Tap I so wan a Blu-Ray boxset complete with 10" stone henge.
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Jan 14, 2011 21:00
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I, Butthole posted:While we're doing ~player chat~ what would be the best region free Blu Ray player for around $200? My second Panasonic BD65 should be with me on Tuesday, the first suffered from a damaged blu-ray transport so had to be returned. With a €20 donation to the project, you can get a MAC ID locked firmware you can install that does DVD/BD region free and a bunch of other stuff. I paid £125 for mine but its only £150 or so at RRP. Its tiny as well which is nice.
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Feb 11, 2011 11:18
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Sorry I haven't replied about this earlier, I was without my blu-ray player for a while. The query was with regards to cheap multi region blu-ray.PriorMarcus posted:Project? Link? There's several of these players on Amazon and none of them seem to be what your mentioning here. This is the player I have. I bought it with DVD M/R out of the box but it'll arrive locked to Region B for BD. This is the site that supplies the extended firmware. They do a free version first for you to test (does M/R DVD) and then you make a donation of either 15 or 20 euros and they provide you the full firmware that does M/R Blu-Ray, PAL>NTSC all that kinda jazz. Will be doing it in the next week myself as my Region A BDs are stacking up and I can only play those on my HTPC with AnyDVD HD at the moment.
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Feb 26, 2011 10:45
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Something people excited about the Scarface release might like : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scarface-Limited-Box-Set-Blu-ray/dp/B004JHYHAO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301338151&sr=8-1 I can't find an equivalent on amazon.com, and the .co.uk doesn't have BBFC logos stamped on it (when it's without a doubt going to be an '18') so I wouldn't be surprised if this version does appear elsewhere. There's not much extra to it, but I dig that box. Collector's Edition Box Set Includes: Hinged rigid cigar-style boxset with belly band and vac foam tray Steelbook limited edition: Triple Play Blu-ray ‘The Making of Scarface’ exclusive booklet including stills and production notes Tony Montana signature money clip Green card envelope including Tony Montana dollar bill, green card and 3 exclusive artcards Will most likely just get the steelbook if it looks good in real life, not sure about it based on the pictures.
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Mar 28, 2011 19:52
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I think that's different though, as it's 1,000 worldwide existing on that one although it doesn't appear on the UK search. I'm tempted to pre-order just in case it's a weird cockup...
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Mar 28, 2011 20:05
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Ah I get you. As it's a Universal disc, you could take the chance and import... most of their stuff seems to be region free and given the worldwide releasing I can't see this being any different.
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Mar 28, 2011 20:10
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That cover for Brazil is probably the ugliest thing released so far this year.
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Mar 30, 2011 19:13
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And I got the larger one from them when I ordered it in March. Luck of the draw I guess? (I like my packaging, think I prefer it to the new one based on that shot)
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Apr 23, 2011 22:45
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:Planet Earth: Complete BBC Series [Blu-ray][Region Free] (David Attenborough) Skip that one, the Special Edition is only a few £ more, and its apparently a better set. Edit: the UK version is 50hz though so you might have issues importing it and using on your equipment. Be careful. EL BROMANCE fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Apr 26, 2011 |
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Apr 26, 2011 16:07
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I was under the impression that the theatrical and DC video tracks for Aliens were completely different videos as the DC had Cameron's new mastering work while the theatrical used the old grainy 86 print?
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May 11, 2011 15:59
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Now now, if it wasn't or b-r.com I wouldn't have anywhere to sperg about BBFC logos and marketing crap (huge 'Triple Play!' banners) on my discs. A crime of design when it comes to steelbooks.
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May 17, 2011 10:32
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Yeah, their logos and German ones are even worse than ours. I just prefer the US style where there's a small rating on the back, not shoved down your throat and doesn't get in the way of the art at every opportunity. I think my Oceans boxset has something like 17 or 18 ratings certs on it... I mean, is it really necessary?
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May 17, 2011 22:33
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ALL YOUR BASE posted:Ordered Sucker Punch along with it Ouch, by far the worst movie I've seen all year. I was a big fan of Snyder's "Watchmen", but SP is just an unwatchable mess of a film.
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Jun 24, 2011 16:05
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Yeah I have the first Harry Potter UK DVD in full screen and we had a lot of flipper discs with different crops on either side. Only time I get irked by a/r is if I'm watching a comedy in the theater that's 2.35:1 and makes no use of it. Then films like Battle LA or whatever it's called that has about 99% of its run time in medium close up or even tighter, which looks absolutely ridiculous at such a wide aspect. Crap film by all accounts so won't be adding to my collection when it comes out.
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Jun 30, 2011 13:26
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Thought Rango looked stunning in the theater, enjoyed it too... just not sure if it was to the degree to pick it up on blu.
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Jul 26, 2011 15:10
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Same, I saw an iTunes (from memory) episode of 70s Show and it looked pretty great. Friends looks fantastic in HD, a hundred times better than air, and if it wasn't for the cropping Seinfeld HD episodes would be keepers too. If it was shot on a compatible format, then blu-ray makes total sense. Has anyone picked up the Criterion 'Dazed and Confused' yet? It came out on Tuesday I think... first time that Linklater has been directly involved in a home format release if I'm right, as he always had issue with the studio and wouldn't contribute to previous discs. Definitely going to have to import this one at some point, maybe along with a more obscure Criterion to start my collection off. If I could only afford that BBS set, sigh.
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Oct 27, 2011 08:43
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Wasn't it Die Hard where they released Alan Rickman's cable early purposely to get a natural reaction from his death scene? I mean, that's real film making.
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Nov 12, 2011 12:23
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My first Criterion came today, Dazed and Confused, and I'm in love before it's even hit my player. With the BD releases, are there many cases where they're likely to go out of print, and if so is it easy to find a list? I order through PlanetAxel to the UK (arrived in <4 days in the middle of December!) so probably can't buy many as I don't think anywhere that does the 50% sales ships here. I have my eye on America Lost and Found and the Three Colors trilogy, neither of which I'm hoping are going to go OOP any time soon.
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Dec 16, 2011 19:29
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OGB posted:I could be wrong and talking out of my rear end, but isn't Blu-Ray near 2K resolution, which is considered good enough to be archival in some instances? Yes, I think the poster who keeps bringing up 2K is doing so because they're unaware that unlike 1080p, the measurement is done horizontally. It's literally 80 pixels wider than 1920x1080 and is essentially the same thing. There's zero likelihood we'll see 2K in the home for media playback.
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Dec 31, 2011 14:10
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caiman posted:- Proper aspect ratios all around. True, there's a small handful of rogue releases that modify the film from its OAR, but generally speaking fullscreen/pan&scan/altered releases are a thing of the past, which makes the format a goldmine for film purists like myself. No more dealing with the frustrations of hearing from some Wal-mart frequenter about why fullscreen is the better choice, or of accidentally picking up the wrong version and having to drive back to the store. Is aspect ratio still a big deal in the States? In Europe we had mixes of flipper discs (16:9 one side, 4:3 the other) and different editions back when DVD first became popularised, but I don't think I've seen a 4:3 disc in years now. Then again, we adopted 16:9 SDTV in the late 90s which meant a lot more people had the sets. A bigger difference, which is due to the HDTV spec in general, is no more anamorphic requirement or different PAR (Pixel Aspect Ratio). I could sperg on for ages, but before HDTV, you had to deal with 3 separate aspect ratios - the screen, the movie and the pixels. HDTV is designed foremost for a 16:9 screen so 4:3 is easily dealt with and the pixels remain at 1.00 regardless of output. If you dealt with PAL/NTSC a lot, this is a big step up. Now that 99.9% of movies are 1080p/24hz regardless of whether you buy it in the UK or US, joy. No more buying PAL discs and dealing with audio speedups. Now if we could only get rid of 50hz from broadcast...
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Dec 31, 2011 14:23
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caiman posted:Very good point. There's no such thing as a non-anamorphic Blu-ray. Actually it's the other way around - Blu-ray negates the requirement to use the anamorphic process. In DVD terms, 'anamorphic 16:9' is essentially a flag on the disc that tells the player 'hey, the screen hooked up isn't 4:3 so you need to interpret each pixel to be a bit wider than the storage ratio says it is'. The only reason you'd need to bring this into play now would be if super wide aspect TVs started taking off to such an extent, that disc publishers wanted to give them properly formatted media. Again, this isn't going to happen so it makes life a lot easier.
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Jan 2, 2012 20:26
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I made my Panasonic BD65 multi region by buying firmware from Firmwareinfo.com - it was around €20 iirc and hasn't failed me on any discs I own (on the menu screen you type 2708 then the bluray and DVD regions you want set, hit OK and it reboots to that region). Definitely recommended. I bought the UK tin of Tinker Tailor yesterday, really nice stuff. I think I read that Studio Canal is always region locked and the extras are definitely 50hz (not sure about intros or menus) but if you've got the hardware it might be worth an import as its probably a few months away from US soil I'd guess.
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Jan 31, 2012 11:19
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Even region free titles get flagged with their country of origin, I wouldn't worry too much. I haven't got the £50 to dedicate to it, but I have a multi region player so if by chance one of my friends picks it up, I can set my machine to A and see if it still works.
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Apr 16, 2012 18:26
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CPL593H posted:I've been wondering lately, why has this become a thing? Are there actually people who honestly prefer to pay 5-20 bucks extra from some lovely knick-knack? These things really add nothing to the purchase. You can't possibly be referring to the 3" plastic sword that came with the Kill Bill Vol. 1 box set I paid $150 for...  Yeah, you probably are. The sad thing is, if I see a Vol. 2 box set anywhere for $80 or less I'd still buy it to match. EL BROMANCE fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Apr 17, 2012 |
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Apr 17, 2012 16:52
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CPL593H posted:Why would you do this? It's actually a really nice box set, just the sword part is crap. http://www.highdefdigest.com/blog/unboxed-kill-bill-dvds/ I wanted the uncut version of the film (and still maintain it's a lot more fun, the disc has been put on a fair bit to show people who've never seen it), and it was a case of either paying about £30 and waiting ages to import the disc-only, or buying the box set from a local Korean/Chinese movie store for £80. I had the money, and it looks good on the shelf so hey. I like the far East limited edition sets, most of the time they're no more expensive than the disc only and it's more down to nicer packaging and the odd extra than adding on $50 for some godawful figurine. My 'House of Flying Daggers' box is nice, limited to 2,000 and comes with a rad picture book and soundtrack as well as some other tat and only cost about $30 compared to $25 for the disc only. LOTR bookend DVD super editions? Yeah, no thanks.
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Apr 18, 2012 09:20
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^^^ I have the West Wing DVDs up to s5 but I haven't put them on in ages... I can't remember how the title cards etc are done, but on the HD 16x9 online they're all 4x3 cropped while the rest of the show is wide. I think both West Wing and Friends are looking fantastic in their remasters, Friends probably more so as those SD masters were floating around for years and were looking pretty ropey for the last year. The show looks completely different now, a massive improvement. I watched most of the first season of West Wing and thought that looked pretty good too, but it always looked good for an SD show. ElwoodCuse posted:How was that filmed/broadcast? drat these shows that came out in the limbo of when HD was just catching on so it wasn't really a priority. Gilmore Girls is yet another case of a 'funny' one - from memory, later seasons were broadcast in HD 16x9, but the DVDs were cropped to 4x3 because that's how Amy Sherman Palladino wanted them, the 16x9 broadcast was against her wishes. (I just looked it up, and a site talking about the imminent 2005 release of the DVD box set states 'Again I'm annoyed that Amy Sherman-Palladino or the WB are releasing this in full screen format and not the originally aired wide screen format but is in Dolby Surround sound.') I think the current web versions of the show look pretty good, and I imagine she shot it 4x3 safe due to the years of production and the fact that was her preferred AR while knowing the broadcast would be wider. Friends was shot without this being a factor, and generally to save money so it's a different circumstance. I personally don't think I'd find issue with either aspect ratio being used if it ever did come out on Blu-Ray, but I imagine it would be the 16x9 versions we see online. EL BROMANCE fucked around with this message at 13:58 on Jun 24, 2012 |
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Jun 24, 2012 13:55
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I want to know which designer (or suit) thought that adding the 'Welcome to...' would make it look good. It doesn't, it looks loving dumb. Glad Universal are adding those tacky 100th Anniversary banners, reminds me of how terrible discs looked when the HD formats first launched. 
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Jul 11, 2012 12:35
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piratepilates posted:Yeah as it turns out the movie is actually called Marvel's The Avengers and in the UK it was called Marvel's Avengers Assemble. I didn't know that, only knew it as Assemble. I'm still angry over 'Die Hard 4.0'
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Jul 16, 2012 01:32
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Is one version a direct cut out of the other with no panning? I thought Blu-Ray spec might allow masking of video so you can just use one source and alter the A/R on the fly that way.
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Jul 16, 2012 01:46
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Interesting, I never knew the P&S option followed any flags, and presumed it was just a central 4x3 cutout. I wonder if I have any discs that support this. There were quite a few 'FULLSCREEN EDITION' headed discs over here in the UK, but not as many as you guys suffered. Then there were the DVD10/18s with FS on one side and WS on the other.
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Jul 17, 2012 21:16
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Tomtrek posted:That and the UK's release of I was halfway through a long rant about hating the incompatible natures of the US and UK ratings systems, but it sounds like it's the German version that's censored and not the UK one. It's the spear scene that's different. Spoiler in link - http://www.movie-censorship.com/news_en.php?ID=4149 I do hate it when the studios would rather shift more units by cutting an R down to a 15 than releasing it uncut at 18 though.
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Sep 17, 2012 15:12
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Ouch, poor effort. I'll see if my mate has any juice on it, he works for Disney UK still I think. Is the DVD the same? I think there's a copy in the house somewhere. The aforementioned boxset looks a real cheap effort so I wouldn't be surprised if this is true. I hope my mate gets a better deal when he buys the Phase 1 boxset from the States.
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Sep 17, 2012 19:22
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Tomtrek posted:I've now watched the UK Blu-Ray and can confirm that it is censored exactly as that link describes - which doesn't really make any sense since the film got into cinemas uncut as a 12a, but yet they cut it for Blu-Ray and it's still a 12? Based on what Max22 posted, it'll be down to laziness. They'll possibly reissue it with the scene corrected and the usual disc swapout by mail. Weird how it's the German version that dictated this, interesting to know if the uncut master for UK is lying around unused somewhere. This happens all the time sadly, the Community DVDs have the wrong cuts for some of the episodes (they used the syndicated versions by mistake) and the Arrested Development DVDs have an episode where the FOX TV on screen graphics are on there. You'd really think these things would be picked up...
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Sep 17, 2012 20:35
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Yeah Brazil and Koyaanisqatsi are must haves for me. Now to find a good place to import from now Axel is sadly no more.
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Sep 18, 2012 01:48
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Max22 posted:What? Really? Yeah, the only example I can think of is the Professor Ian Duncan gag about an 8 being a British 10 is missing from the episode where Annie joins his study.
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Sep 18, 2012 13:36
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Bit confused over the upcoming Criterion release of Koyaanisqatsi. Despite the R2 MGM DVD and the iMDB listing being 1.85:1, the previous R1 DVD was an unmatted 1.33:1 print that looks far better for composition. Criterion have it listed as a 1.85:1 director approved transfer. Is this definitely right? Also in 'blu-ray fuckups of the week', from what I've read of Portlandia season 2: low res audio and a load of garbage at the beginning of one of the episodes. Whoops!
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Sep 26, 2012 20:04
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The whole 'It needs to be standard definition, 4:3 and shot on film to make it feel real' excuse of Simon's annoys me so much. Keep your aspect ratio, but don't say it needs to be SD for realism because that's utter nonsense and you certainly don't shoot on film if that's the intended effect. I was hoping he'd realise he was talking out of his rear end after doing Treme, but no news is bad news I guess.
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Nov 5, 2012 16:10
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Wow, I never realised AnyDVD HD was so expensive. It does work pretty well though, I'll give it that. I got fed up with the Bluray player in my PC though, and just went for a Panasonic standalone and hacked the firmware on it (which works great). Blu-ray integration into media centres was always pretty ropey back about 3+ years ago, maybe it's better now. I don't regret the change though, personally.
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Nov 13, 2012 18:52
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TheSwami posted:Anyone else get the crazy Lawrence of Arabia set? I swear this thing has the same physical footprint as a Laserdisc box. Totally nuts. Is it wrong I'm more excited by the Bill and Ted blu? No. Party on dude. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Nov 14, 2012 01:16
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