It's fairly clear from the start that Dreamworks doesn't care about this release. I would imagine that the only reason they even purchased the rights to the entire Ring series is simply so another firm couldn't release the original Japanese offerings against Dreamworks' remakes. For example, pushing a DVD release of Ring 2 when the company's The Ring Two was about to hit theaters. Regardless of the reasons, this disc is a lackluster offering that contains a decent video and audio transfer, but lacks any extras at all.

There is nothing special about the video presentation, but it does the job well enough. The colors, for example, stand out, but lack the vibrant contrast that was present in the company's Ringu release. The brightness level here is also set a little low too, drowning out some of the darker scenes in the film. In terms of the noise levels, the entire movie has a thin layer of grain over it, but nothing that is overly distracting. To Dreamwork's credit, there are really no blatant signs of compression here, while the movie itself looks naturally sharp, avoiding blatant edge enhancement.

Ringu 2's original, and fairly unique, aspect ratio of 1.78:1 is preserved on this disc, and it's Anamorphic for widescreen TVs.

The audio on this disc is presented acceptably, although more options would have been nice, like a 2.0 stereo track as was included with Ringu. What is present on this DVD is a 5.1 surround track, in Japanese, of the film. When the film rises to the occasion, there is some nice speaker distinction present, as it makes good use of the audio format. There are no inconsistencies to speak of either, as no pops or crackles can be heard for the course of the movie.

The audio track is accompanied by, removable, English, French or Spanish subtitles.

Anyway it's sliced, this release is bare bones and nothing more. The only positive note that can be stated is that at least it has menus...

Bottom line, the video and audio presentation here is good enough to get by, but the total lack of extras is really dishearting. Unlike the other Ring (1998) sequels, this region 1 disc actually retails by itself. However, the asking price is half of what the Anthology set costs, and since the set is the only way to get The Spiral (1998) or Ring 0 (2000) on region 1 DVD there is no reason to pick up this single disc, unless one wants the cover.

This disc is also featured in the DVD box set: Ringu Anthology of Terror.