Video:

This was probably taken directly from TV, but the quality was still pretty good. A little blurry and a little over-saturated, but still very pretty.

Audio:

Perfectly decent audio, I'm no audiophile though, so don't take my word for it ;-)

Subtitle:

In a nutshell: you can read the subtitles but you often can't understand them. The subtitles weren't engrish or mis-timed, but they were often poor translations (clearly HK originals in some cases). Some major characters get re-named about halfway through, and the story (which is a mystery and is already difficult to pick up on) is made VERY difficult to follow. The subtitles at the end were so unclear that I am still not sure if the case was solved or if the bad guys got away -- I can't tell if it was an intentional part of the series or just poor translation getting in the way.

Comment:

The story is pretty engrossing in this set of four episodes (nice that they kicked it up to 4 episodes per DVD after the first DVD). The first episode is a one-off story about a bunch of suicidal love-androids, but the next three episodes contain a single story-arc about a hacker / blackmailer / kidnapper named the Laughing man. This was a pretty great story (pure GITS territory) but the subtitles really got annoying -- in one episode the villain is referred to as the Laughing man, in the next he is the Laugher, and several times he is called the Laughter. I am really loving this series but it needs to get a decent translated edition! Note: the disc also has 4 documentaries with some production interviews and definitions of GITS terms that were poorly translated, and IMHO boring. I skipped through them after watching the director "ummmmm" and "errrr" his way through his first question ;-)