Hentschel Pictures DVD FAQ

Are you really giving these discs away for free?
Will these DVDs work in my DVD player? Can I watch them on my TV?
What forms of payment do you accept?
Why do I need to send you discs in the mail? Can't you just buy the discs for me?
Why do I need to send you extra discs?
How much do you charge to buy discs for me?
What if your estimate is too high?
What if your estimate is too low?
How do I know you're not making a profit on these discs?
How much time do you actually spend on this?
How do you make the DVDs? What tools do you use?
Do you do anything else aside from PGSM?
What region encoding are the discs you create?
Do you have any PAL discs available?
Can I make copies of these discs? Can I redistribute them?
How can I help you out?
How long will it take to get my discs after I order?
What do I do if my discs don't work?
What kind of discs should I buy? Which discs work the best?
When will disc X be available?
Why do you only put four episodes on a disc? Why not five or more?
Can you send me DVDs with the original MPEG4 files on them? Can you send me CDs?
Will you be re-doing the PGSM series with the DVD RIPs?

A: I have enjoyed free fansub so much myself, that I am happy to provide it to others as a free service. The discs are "free" in that I am not making a profit from the distribution of these DVDs. You must still pay for shipping and any other expenses.

A: DVD+R discs work in the vast majority of standard DVD players available out there. I have tried them in many different models from many different brands, and have only come across a couple that don't work:

The bottom line is, I don't promise that they will work in your DVD player, but it is very likely that they will. I do promise that you will be able to play them in your computer using either PowerDVD or WinDVD software.

Assuming that the discs do work properly in your DVD player, then yes, you can watch them on your TV. The video content of the discs has been re-scaled in order to properly display on the vast majority of standard (and even widescreen) televisions. The subtitles should be completely visible and easily readable on your television as well.

A: My preference is to use PayPal. It is the fastest and easiest way. PayPal is more convenient for me because I can keep better track of my income that way. I can also buy supplies directly with money from my PayPal account. The downside is that there is a fee associated with using PayPal. I ask you to pick up this fee for me.

Other payment methods I will accept include money order, cashiers check, and yes, I may even accept personal checks, although I have not been asked to do so yet. I will not accept cash. I want to have some record that payment has been received/cashed. I don't want to deal with someone telling me that they sent payment when I never received anything.

A: I will be happy to buy discs for you. If I purchase the discs for you, then you will save on shipping costs because you won't need to ship any discs to me. Something to keep in mind, though, is that I use some very cheap discs. I make no promises about their durability or longevity.

Another advantage of getting the discs directly from me is that you will likely get your shipment much faster that way. I generally have a set or two of discs already burned and ready to go. I can often ship your entire order the day after I receive payment. No promises, though. :-)

A: I rarely encounter burn failures when making DVDs, but it does happen occasionally. The extra discs are for your own protection. If I do have problems with burning a disc or two out of your set, then I will use the extra discs. If I have no problems, then I will not use the extras. Don't worry. I will not keep the extra discs you send to me. I will return all your discs, whether I use them or not.

A: It varies depending on the cost of supplies. I will charge you exactly what it costs me. Unfortunately, since there are some dishonest people in this world, I need to charge you ahead of time. So I need to estimate the cost before I actually create the DVDs. The current estimate to make fourteen (14) PGSM DVDs is as follows:

15 discs: $4.20
14 DVD cases: $1.68
Postage: $3.85 (in the US)
Padded mailer: $0.65
PayPal fee: $0.60
--------------------------------
Total: $10.98

The current estimate to make ten (10) Akage no Anne DVDs is as follows:

11 discs: $3.41
10 DVD cases: $1.20
Postage: $3.85 (in the US)
Padded mailer: $0.65
PayPal fee: $0.60
--------------------------------
Total: $9.38

A: If the cost estimate I give you is too high, for example, I only need to use 14 discs when I quoted you a price based on 15 discs, then I will give you the option of a partial refund. If you choose this option, I will give you back any extra money that I did not use in filling your order. Normally this refund will be given through PayPal, but other methods can be negotiated. If you decide not to take a refund, then I will treat the extra money as a donation.

A: If the cost estimate I give you is too low, for example, postage costs more than I was expecting, then you do not need to send me any more money. As long as you send me the money we agreed on before the transaction, then you have fulfilled your obligation to me. If you would like to send me extra money to cover the deficit, you are welcome to do so. I will treat your extra payment as a donation.

A: All of my expenses and donations are listed on the donations page. I guess you'll just have to trust me. I think that my very fair prices speak for themselves. Even if I did make a profit, it certainly would not be significant enough to warrant all the time that I have spent on these discs; not at these prices and the volume that I sell.

A: That's difficult to answer. Designing PGSM disc one and learning all the tools to make it took the most time. I actually worked on disc one, itself, for about two months before I was satisfied with it. After that, the subsequent PGSM discs become increasingly easy. At this point, I can design a new DVD with only about 8-10 hours of work. Some things still take longer, though. The PGSM music video easter egg took me a couple weeks of effort.

The Akage No Anne discs require much less time because they are a much simpler format. The first one was about 5 hours of design work, and each new disc now takes me about 2 hours.

Burning the discs is pretty time consuming, but can be done in the background. It takes even my spiffy new 16x DVD burner about 15 minutes to burn each disc. That means a typical set of 14 DVDs will take over 3 hours to make. Of course I'm not sitting in front of the computer for that whole time waiting for each disc to be done, but I can't wander too far either. I need to be available to pop in the next disc when the previous one finishes.

Then there's also time spent designing the insert images for the cases, labeling discs, printing inserts, packaging up, standing in line at the post office, answering emails, maintaining web pages, downloading material... It adds up. Suffice to say that I spend a lot of time on this.

A: For tools, tips, and tricks, see my DVD Tech web page. I will try to keep adding more useful info there whenever I get the opportunity.

A: I currently have some of the Akage No Anne discs available and am working to finish the series. I am also evaluating other anime for future projects. See my Future Projects page for more information. If you really want to see something, feel free to request it. It certainly can't hurt. If enough people request the same thing, I may consider it.

A: I have only personally tried them on region 1 DVD players, but it is my understanding that they should play in any region. Unlike commercial DVDs, discs that I create are not specific to a single market region.

A: All of the discs I offer are currently NTSC format only. I don't get very many requests for PAL, and I would rather spend my time designing new discs rather than remastering the old ones in a new format. If someone else feels motivated to tackle this task, feel free.

A: Absolutely! I strongly encourage you to copy and distribute these discs! Here are some rules to observe if you decide to do this:

A: Aside from financial contributions, here are some things to consider if you feel motivated:

A: That really depends on a lot of things. I tend to make discs even when I don't have any orders for them, so I often might have discs all ready for you if you pay me to supply the DVDs. If you send DVDs to me, then under ideal circumstances it will probably take a couple of days for me to burn your order. Occasionally, though, I get backed up, and it can take a week or more before I can even start your DVDs. Generally if this happens I will let you know and will keep in touch with you about my progress. I can only go as fast as I can go.

If it seems to be taking too long, and you decide you want to cancel your order, you have that option. If you asked me to supply the discs for you, then I will give you a full refund of your money upon request. If you sent the discs to me, then I guess you don't have much choice in the matter, do you?

A: Hopefully this shouldn't happen too often at this point. I think I have many of the "bugs in the system" worked out now. However, I'm sure that a few people will still have problems. My first question would be, have you tried the disc in a computer? I don't guarantee that my discs will work on all DVD players. I do guarantee that they will work properly on a computer equipped with a DVD-ROM and DVD playing software. If you have problems on your DVD player in the living room, but it works fine on the computer in your office, there's probably not much I can do about it. That being said, I have come across very few players that simply refuse to read the discs that I make.

If you think you have a bad disk, let me know. I can send you a program that will check the disc and can tell me if it is truly bad. If the program tells me that your disc is flawed, then I will be happy to send you a replacement at my expense.

A: There are many writable DVD formats out there, made by many different manufacturers. Which one is best for receiving a Hentschel Pictures release? Well, the most important factor is that the discs must be either DVD+R (DVD plus R), DVD+RW, DVD-R (DVD minus R), or DVD-RW format. DVD-RAM will not work. My DVD burner simply does not support this format. Also, do not send me CD-Rs. The DVD content that I have created will not fit onto the smaller CD format discs.

Another factor to consider is the write speed that the discs support.  My DVD writer is a 16X speed writer. That means that it should support all 1X, 2.4X, 4X, and 8X speed media. At this time, anything faster is pretty expensive and hard to come by. Obviously, the faster the media that you buy, the faster I can burn your discs and get them back to you. 

As for the question of which brand of discs work best, it has been my experience so far that all brands of media work very well in my new 16x DVD burner. I very rarely have burn failures any more, and when I do, it never seems related to the brand of media. You might as well buy me either a brand that you trust, or the cheapest discs you can find.

A: When I am done making it. I can always give an estimate, but that estimate is often based on many unpredictable factors. When will the fansubs be available to me? How many orders will I get for currently available discs? How cooperative does my computer system feel this week? How much time do I want to spend with my family? How much time will Marlene let me spend away from my family? What other important projects am I currently working on? The list goes on... Bottom line is, DVDs are not necessarily the highest on my list of priorities. This is a service that I offer, free of charge, and I make no promises about timing and availability of releases.

A:  The program that I use to make DVDs (Pinnacle Studio 8) does not allow more than 124 minutes on a disc. This includes the warnings and splash screens when the DVD starts up, the video footage for all menus, and any special features that are included on the disc. Each PGSM episode is approximately 24 minutes long. Four of them takes up 96 minutes. Five would take up 120 minutes. That doesn't leave much room for menus, special features, etc. I decided to use less time for the episodes and more time for the menus and easter eggs.

In Akage No Anne, I was able to fit five episodes per disc, but in order to do this, I had to use a very simple menu, and I cut off the end credits from each episode and made a single "Credits" selection from the main menu. I know that some MPEG4 files available on the internet are pretty small, while others are larger. The size of the original MPEG4 just tells the quality with which it was encoded. The number of episodes I can fit on one disc is based completely on the running time of the episodes, not the original size of the MPEG4 source material.

A: I can do this for as long as I have the MPEG4 files on my hard drive. I will not download any files to send to you, though. I currently keep all the PGSM MPEG4 files on my hard drive, even after I am done with them. The first 50 episodes should fit onto three DVDs or 17 CDs, if you prefer that. I do not keep the Akage No Anne MPEG4 files. Once I have made a disc, I remove all used files from my hard drive.

This may be obvious, but I will state it anyway, just for the record. If you decide to go this route, you will need to have a computer with a DVD-ROM (or CD-ROM for CDs) and you will need to have software capable of playing MPEG4 videos installed. These discs will not work on your DVD player. They will have no menu system, and no easter eggs.

A:  Maybe eventually, but not right away. There are a couple reasons for this:

1) So far, I have been unsuccessful at getting a good quality conversion from the MPEG4 codec used in the TV-Nihon files into the MPEG2 codec used by DVDs. This is only a problem for the DVD RIPs. I have not had any issues with any of the TV broadcasts. The problem I am seeing is that the frame rate in the resulting video is extremely unstable. You can actually see this phenomenon in Act 1 on the first disc in the series. I took Act 1 from the DVD RIP of that episode. If you pay close attention, you will see that the motion is pretty jerky. This is especially visible in camera pans. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I suspect that that the video content of the DVDs that TV-Nihon is RIPing from is actually at a frame rate of 24 FPS. I will need to do a pull-down conversion to get things to work properly. Until I can get this kink ironed out, I will not be re-releasing any discs with the DVD RIPs on them.

2) I am getting tired of making PGSM discs! :-) I want to do another series. I like PGSM, but you have to realize that I have spent a lot of time making, and re-making these discs. I'm ready for a new challenge. See my list of other projects that I am thinking of.