Originally posted by: Karyudo
Still, US NTSC came in lookin' washed out, while the JPN NTSC came in lookin' nice. No crushing of the blacks, I don't think, and neither are the whites blown out.

I'm no expert in this, but I do know that the NTSC system used in the US has the "black" voltage set above zero, at 7.5 IRE, because of early problems with NTSC broadcasts. The Japanese system has black set to 0 IRE (as does the PAL system). Therefore you would expect that a Japanese disc played on a system properly calibrated to the US system would be too dark.

I don't know why the Japanese discs seem to be showing better colour saturation, unless it's just because the manufacturer of those discs was producing better pressings.