i hope there will be a new A logo design. the diamond gold A last time is cool!

Why such a fuss? If people don't want it, they aren't forced to buy it. It's a collectors item and we should feel lucky that our favorite artist is still relevant enough to release stuff like this.

Haven't been here for a long time because of my big exam (actually it hasn't finished yet)
But HMV mails me Ayu this new release... Wow that's BIG, I miss AYU~~ (Oh no, I have to go back to study now!)

Edit: Just Check it, gonna get it if there's that new Duty's PV, Geeez I miss shu-ya! (Sorry for being out of date! XP)

The price is insane

YA increased the price >.<
US$314.75 good thing I ordered when it's still US$295.75 =D

I hate avex for milking her so hard, but at the same time ALL Ayu's PVs in HD - this is ****ing awesome. I'm so getting this but not now...

P.S.: I need Koda Kumi ALL PVs in HD by the end of 2012. :P

thank you for this comment. Now i dont have to write it down ;)

The temptation to buy is so bad for me. I could always justify it as my birthday/Christmas present to myself and it's hard to pass up her PVs in HD. I wonder how the content may change.

It just looks so good, I wish I could afford it. I fear that if I wait any longer for it to show on other second-hand sites the sellers are gonna jack the price up like hell.

A Clip Box 1998-2011 (Title subject to change) [Limited Edition] DVD/Blu-ray - Pre-Order Sold Out.

ppl do have a lot of money, do they?

I don't but I still pre-ordered :P

I didn't read the full title at first so I kept saying "I hope there isn't a Blu-Ray version because then I won't be tempted to buy this"...but there is. God dammit 24000 yen is way too much for me, but holy **** do I want this.

Many fans do save up a certain amount of cash
so they can buy this stuff.
I bought my PS3 by saving in my piggy bank
and i couldn't wait to SLAM' IT when I collected 300euro's for PS3

Well as for me,my salary is 160 euros so
this easily surpasses my monthly income :P
I would buy it if i had that amount of money :yes
because you will have all of her video material in
1 or 2 blurays instead of buying ALL of her previous
CD+DVD versions
Gotta go and find the GLUE :cool
Sticky fingers :D

m... The world consists not only from school-children and poor students

^ I know plenty of non-children/students who would find it hard to justify this amount of money.

I don't get this release. It's too expensive for casual fans, but the hardcore fans will most likely have the material already. Appeal of Blu-Ray alone must be enough for some people then.

how about 300USD++ for A CLIP BOX 1998-2011 with GOLDEN BOX ... :P
i mean, the real 24 karat GOLDEN plated for the box ... :tipsy

i think it's a worth buy ... :D

it'd be great if they officially announced ayu&avex divorce :laugh in that case I'd buy it no doubt :laugh

I know :weep
Even i think this release is useless,i want it so badly!!!!!!!!!!But i also want to have the money for the new photo-book and her next year releases(PoM blu-ray,next single...) I feel frustrated :eviltongu I want to finish my student days NOW

I'm assuming there will be an OS press, like most of Ayu's releases, so I may buy that for the fun of it after all my xmas shopping is done.

Yeah DVD most likely will get a OS press but I don't think so for the blu-ray.

It's not like this release a bit pricey. It's just me who being a poor student :weep I want it so badly... Huwaaa.....:weep

Watch them retract the additional content clause and still charge $300+ just for the PVs.

I disagreed with everybody complaining about its expense.

The first CLIP BOX was 9800yen. Since this box has about twice the content, it should only cost double the first one (about 19600yen for DVD and 20600yen for BD), not far off the RRP.

Imho, considering a normal Japanese video release is about 5000yen, the price is not relatively expensive. Anime box sets are JUST as expensive, if not more. For example Nadia, The Secret of Blue Water Blu-ray BOX is 48000yen. Tiger & Bunny (3 episodes) is 7000nen. Full seasons on BD are usually 23800 (26 episodes, 3 discs worth).

The target audience is Japanese consumers who are accustomed to Japanese pricing. NOT US.

The only sad thing about this release is that it pretty much confirms we won't get a Christmas single, otherwise they would've announced it already, right :(

I know I'm still hoping in my heart they will announce one!

And once again, it's aaallll about the money... -.-

But if I'll ever get 10 million, I will buy this :) but before that, hhha, in your dreams avex xD Pointlesss

I feel like this is avex's way of competing with 「AKBがいっぱい」. If that's actually the case...yeah, good luck with that.

I think people didn't get she's trying to stop her staple releases (summer-winter)... :P

Oh, have you had a personal chat with her? Please tell us more about the plans for her career!

:yes you are so right!!! That's the reason i'm going to wait for an OS press, and if the price is good, i think i'm going to buy it !

I wonder if the japanese fans are excited or angry

Well, she doesn't releases singles this year, and now is winter, we have hopes for a new single

...but isn't it a bit too late for a new single in December? Usually we have a two-month advance notification of a new single, but this is already November, and the earliest she would release a single at this time would be January!!! :no

(I'm not sure if Ayu's going to ever go to the Kouhaku this year just because she only released five songs and that's it... Had the earthquake not happened we wouldn't have something like this...)

i dont think she'll release a new single this year... btw, focus!

There's still some time, and we all know Ayu is queen of announcing things at the last minute.

And I think that this release will have about 4x the content of COMPLETE CLIP BOX due to the CMs. (54 clips in total for the CCB, 200+ for A CLIP BOX)

And hasn't the FIVE PVs been left out here?! So that price is even higher. That means the cost of this set is even less than half the amount to get all that.


While I admit I can't afford all this, I know well enough that this isn't a bad price considering what we're getting for it. As someone else pointed out, this is the sort of thing aimed at Japanese hardcore fans that are more than used to these sorts of prices for DVD sets of any kind.

Oh whoops, I forgot to add FIVE in there, LOL. I guess for some reason I was unconsciously thinking that people who would buy this would already own FIVE or something. Baaah. The total with FIVE is 54,995yen.

good point argh

thats troublesome, and we cant find out until it's avail. for purchase.. unless any release info from avex describing the remaster process?

Well... I haven't had a personal chat with her... But she is going to have her 2nd consecutive year without a seasonal single... u tell me what it means them :P

Unless, of course, she releases a late one, but it seens unlikelly...

Does anyone know what era of music videos and on were shot in HD?

It'll be cool to see all of her PVs in HD, at least. :)

I can imagine Avex passing off "HD Edit"s as the bonus stuff for a few key music videos reedited into HD using the original film.

There are HD masters of stuff recorded in 1999/2000 so I imagine most of her videos were done in HD.

Source?

I'm just going by the HD releases of others' concerts from 1999 and 2000 as well as the footage we've seen from the ayumi hamasaki 10th anniversary LIVE compilation that was in HD.



Of course, not all of them are. It's a bit strange how concert tour 2000, DOME TOUR 2001 and STADIUM TOUR 2002 are in 16:9 and others afterward are 4:3.

The part 2 had more recent concerts and only AT03-04 was in 4:3.

Could the frames have been stretched or zoomed in to fit?

The quality was really good in those files, so I'm not sure if they were stretched/zoomed in. Also, the ones that were originally 4:3 got the bars on the side to compensate. The first mention of "HD cameras" being used for filming was during AT05's DVD release since she had like 30-40 of them.

To my knowledge ST02 was Ayumi's first tour filmed using HD cameras, but not all cameras used were HD, it was a mix(obvious even when watching the DVD because the image of the HD cameras is still a bit sharper), her first concert filmed fully in HD was AT05.
However, that doesn't have to mean anything when it comes to PVs. It depends more on if they were recorded on film or digitally. Concerts are generally filmed digitally since the pure amount of cameras makes digital recording a LOT easier, faster and cheaper. Film would be impossible to use live. Film can be mastered at 1080i Full-HD in incredible quality as long as the originals are used but most digital recordings of that time were not in HD. My guess is that if she recorded digitally(it may be a mix, too) filming PVs in HD didn't begin any earlier than 2003, if she began then. Especially the PVs for Love Songs show film grain(but that may be digitally inserted to create an effect and not real) so those probably CAN be mastered at Full-HD in great quality while the Five PVs seem to be digital and in true HD.

Someone has to watch making-ofs and look for the types of cameras used lol

bleck... 2005? I'd like to have Ourselves in HD x;

It sure would be nice to have her PV's and live performances in HD quality, but I'm not that 'hardcore'. I can count the PV's I like on one hand. It's sure disappointing that this is announced as I see it as unneeded (for me that is). I think that the sales will stay under 50.000 (maybe even 25.000 </exaggerating>).

I might end up downloading the HD versions of Rule, Mirrorcle World and Ballad XD.

Well, even if they only sell 5,000 they will be making quite a bit of money, lol.

The sales will probably stay below 25k, maybe even 10k, but this is not a release for big masses, they know only a small part of fans will be interested so it's not like they will be expecting more. In fact, selling 10k of these will be like selling 1kk of an Ayu album(since Ayu's albums are damn expensive productions with the amount of expensive PVs, the locations she travels to, the wellknown people she works with...).

It will DEFINITELY be interesting if it sold well.

COMPLETE CLIP BOX was incredibly expensive at the time of release (and Ayu was more popular) and that ended up selling 64k at an MSRP of 10,290yen.

Even if all that contend wasn't filmed in HD it would be super easy to upscale it to blu-ray/hd, so not having or having that HD cameras is irrelevant.

I havn't ordered mine yet, waiting on some moneyies!!

i think it'd help if they put in the Pachinko clips, but yeah... lol

Seiko Matsuda has released something like this before with more contents but much cheaper. Look at this: Seiko Matsuda Video Diamond Bible.

Anyway, I think this is just the beginning, can you imagine if Ayu will release something like this in the future?
Seiko Matsuda Single Collection 30th Anniversary Box ~The Voice of a Queen~
Seiko Matsuda (box set)

i hope the old videos don't get the bars on the side

Hers was an odd mix of live and PVs though. If it were all PVs, I think it'd have cost more. And I think she has half the discs of Ayu's set as well?

I honestly don't think the price is THAT outrageous.

Isn't this stuff like always crazy expensive? It seems quite typical to me for such a large thing...maybe I'm crazy...

It would be cool if there was like, stuff stuff in it though. Like postcards, or pamphlets or something...just extra stuff besides just the discs...

did the other clip boxes come with anything extra like that?

the price isnt that HUGE, it's expensive i know, but not ridiculous, i'm sure avex will make it worthy

PVs in HD as far back as 2003 would be a dream. Memorial Address PVs in HD *drool*

But somehow I doubt those videos were filmed in true HD. The first proper HD concert of hers was AT05, as already mentioned, so why would her PVs be filmed in HD quality before then? You would think concerts got the HD treatment before PVs did. There's going to be a ton of upscaling done to most of these videos, which will be nice and all, but it won't be true HD and hardly justifies the price.

"having HD cameras is not important because the video can be upscaled" is very stupid logic. Blu-ray is pointless if the content is not true high definition. Otherwise go get the DVD, put it in a blu-ray player and voila, free upscaling before your very eyes.

Because they don't need to use as many HD cameras for a PV? Just a thought.

btw i wonder why at05 wasnt released in blu-ray format..

I really am not getting this people...
The early PVs where filmed to be fullscreen so to be able to watch the PV using a widscreen there is the necessity to have black bars on the sides, you will always have 2 options, go for the usual stretching and you will get an ayumi a little bit more full then usual or simply crop the image to fit screen and you'll end up cutting her head in some shots. Your call. I really love some of the stuff being 4:3, what's so wrong with that?
HD has nothing to do with 4:3 or 16:9, stuff can always be remastered or converted.
I think this is a wonderful release for the fans that can. For those who can't, well we have this forum to help out and give them a BD-rip.

Amazon.jp preorder links.

Blu-ray Limited Edition (for 17,871 yen)
Blu-ray Normal Edition (for 16,317 yen)
DVD Limited Edition (for 17,094 yen)
DVD Normal Edition (for 15,540 yen)

^that price much better xD

^
haha yeah, I want to know the TeamAyu gift. If it's some lame stuff I will order from Amazon.

Wow, that is indeed a much more affordable price. I might consider getting it by amazon.co.jp as well.

It was nothing but sarcasm. Ppl complain bout the price, but pre-order is already sold out. So for hardcore fans price tag isn't that scary & release isn't pointless.

I just SO know this, cause I'm saving money for it right now :D

I explained it before, concerts are always filmed digitally since it's faster and cheaper(and it's the only way to show the concert on the screens properly while it happens) but digital HD didn't start being really popular until a few years ago because the files used to be gigantic(they still are but computers became much more powerful). PVs however can either be digital or on film and if they used film creating good 1080i versions will be no problem at all. The question is not whether HD cameras were used or not, the question is whether she recorded more on film or digitally. I think most of her videos that do not involve much CGI were probably filmed on film. And if that is true they can easily make incredible quality HD (without any upscaling needed since film has a high resolution) as long as they use the originals to create it.

For older digital PVs..they will probably be upscaled, but as long as it's professionally done and not automatically it usually gets to great results. A professional upscale is much, much better than an automatic upscale from a bluray player or HD-TV will ever be.



And about the bars on old videos...some people have to learn what aspect ratios are xD They are supposed to be 4:3, making them 16:9 would involve either cutting something off or streching it, both would completely destroy the image compositions.
Not everything is filmed in 16:9, 16:9 has only been the standard for a few years and only in TV productions. Before that 4:3 was standard, for movies there are a number of different ratios that are equally normal. Movies tend to be 1:85:1 or even 2:35:1, resulting in bars at the top and bottom when displayed on a normal TV. That's just the way it is, that's no error, that's just different ratios.

^ I also stated that on my previous post, but thanks again for bringing it up. There is absolutely nothing wrong about it not being widescreen.
I'm really really interested in this release.
Someone also pointed out that it would be great if we would get surround sound, which I would love, but the only 5.1 mixes so far are of RAINBOW (song only), and MY STORY. I wonder if they would go the extra mile to make everything sound this good, but I kinda doubt it. ONe can dream though.

There's also a 5.1 version of HEAVEN from that movie's special features I think.

You are right!! Oh and fated got that as well because it was featured in the movie kaidan, but it wasn't the complete version, as for HEAVEN I have never seen Shinobi before so I don't know if it is full or not.

Hmmm... If it were for the fact that $1 = less than 80 yen, I'd be super tempted right now. But no matter the price, unfortunately, still too expensive for me :( Maybe I'll get it one day. I doubt they'll all sell out within a year, right? Collectors items seem to always pop back at least once after being sold out, too.

The HEAVEN PV with 5.1 sound is included in the limited edition of the DVD I think :) So it should be full.

Oh that's great I had no ideia about this. Hopefully Avex will remaster everything with surround sound but I have a feeling it really is only going to be LPCM.

i'll just waita for her 150th single compiliation, and by then, i'll just wait for her 200th single compilation, and by then, i'll just wait for her 250th single compilation, and by then, i'll just.... nth single compilation

Does anyone know what the shipping charge to North America might be on this?

^
Shipping to Switzerland is 3000 yen. You can put it in your shopping card and it will show you how much shipping is to your address. ^^

Shipping is 2,000yen to the USA from Amazon.jp.

If only there weren't custom duties here in Italy... =_=;
I think I'll buy it from yesasia...

Does amazon JP automatically list all Blu-Rays as region A?

u'll better wait for her to die then..

and oh, the price at amazon.jp is great!!

Even with a ￥3000 shipping to France, the price of the Limited DVD Edition is lower than the actual price XD (￥19,280 < ￥22,000)
I may consider buying it finally...

I'm thinking on telling my parents that they buy me this as my christmas present...but they hate that i spend my money on japanese music and specially ayu,it's so sad u.u

This is the fate of a fan of Japanese music. If only they released international versions of these albums/releases.

^I agree! I would love to be able to go to my local music store and buy Ayu's releases.

i thought amazon.jp doesn't ship to USA?

They don't ship toys, software, and a few other things.

They do ship CDs and DVDs internationally though.

Thankseveryone!... JUST PreOrdered 19020 yen... screw yesasia, 300+USD phew!

i'm hoping it has bluray 5.1 sound as well... otherwise... sigh. a BD is suspposed to be HD both visually and aurally... (spl)...

they better not mix up and send me the non-limited edtion cuz that's what i preordered...

So you preordered the limited edition?

Last I checked, $1 = 78yen so if you add on the shipping to the limited edition blu-ray, which is the most expensive, it still comes out to $254.76...

So sad I can't buy the limited version through amazon.jp.
The last time I ordered there I had 60€ of taxes (it was the complete live box and some other stuff).

It may be (at least) 100€ this time!

I'm going with yesasia then. It's the only way to be sure I wont have any taxes in my country. And it's quite ""cheap"" too (200€ with free shipping).

I just ordered it from amazon.co.jp as well...
￥ 20,020 + 25% taxes in Norway (most likely as it's ems shipping).

I can live with that since they sold out at CDjapan, lol. =P

Just hope amazon.co.jp doesn't get some weird region-coded one since it says Region A on their website. <.<

I think they default to putting Region A. Most Blu-ray music releases are not encoded with region locks.

First, I was all... "Why would I need this?"

Then I realized that besides "only" the PV's in awesome quality there is gonna be all this extra material stuff.

Now, I'm like... "Man I kinda want this."

YA would be the best choise for me. Oh my I can't really afford it though. Oh you clever Avex, you know how to make things hard for me don't you! ;)

Three questions I need answered please:

1- OK so I know that Amazon doesn't charge until it ships, right? That goes for amazon.co.jp as well?

2- Is the version up for preorder at amazon the limited edition or regular?

3- are blu rays region free? Or at least, will this one be?

I cancelled my order at YA and purchased at Amazon.co.jp, I'm nervous though... If I ordered the Limited Edition will they send me the right one? Has anyone had any problems with them in the past?

There are two links, the more expensive one says Limited Edition under Format and the cheaper one just tells you it's a blu-ray to answer your 2nd question:yes

All Blus from japan are Region A which work in the US unless they are Region All which in that case they work everywhere to answer your third question...

anddd amazon hasn't charged me yet, but I can't say for sure xD

If there is a new music video/new song and a never been seen music video on this collection..will you guys who are against this, change your mind and buy it?

They label Ayu's CDL as "Region A" but if I remember correctly, it is Region-Free like all other avex Blu-rays.

And Amazon is unlikely to get it wrong.

The LE has this in the more detailed description on that page and is also the most expensive of the four:
The only thing with Amazon is that they do not package extras with CDs or DVDs unless they explicitly state it in the item description (CD+DVD+poster or something).

I wouldn't worry. Their shipping is EXTREMELY fast and I've had something arrive in one day once!

Running time is estimated at 600 minutes.