Pokémon: Season 1 - Indigo League (1998-1999) (Champion's Edition)

[Scottie]

Listed on Barnes & Noble and DVDPlanet with a November 14 release date.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd...=0782009244684

http://www.dvdplanet.com/pokemon-ind...1/782009244684

[Vashetti]

I take it this will be an upscale?

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Vashetti

I take it this will be an upscale?

Here's a quote from a member in the Anime forum.

Originally Posted by Asuras

The Digital HD that was release online officially a month or so ago was an upscale. If that matters to anyone. Quality is much better than the DVDs currently out. But definitely looks like an upscale and not any sort of remaster or HD Scan.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...ostcount=32660

[Scottie]

I just want to go on the record and state the following.

Approximately a month ago I was itching to revisit all of the nostalgia of my youth and purchased the complete collections of Indigo League, Adventures on the Orange Island, Johto Journeys, Johto League Champions, Master Quest, and Advanced on DVD. I also purchased the first three movies under the assumption that the Blu-ray Steelbook was Out of Print (since it was not available on Amazon).

I binge watched the first season and first movie, finishing up last weekend, and started with the second season this week.

Hell, I even e-mailed Viz Media and asked if they had any plans to release the show on Blu-ray (otherwise I would have returned the DVDs) and received the following response.

Hi,

Thanks for writing in with your suggestion! While we do not have any news regarding a Blu-ray release for the Pokémon TV series at this time, we're always looking to see what our fans want, so your message will be sent to our team to review.

Today I find out that the Steelbook is not Out of Print and that the show is now coming to Blu-ray.

I couldn't be happier, but still.

[eightslicesofpie]

I haven't watched the show since I was a kid and it was on TV but I loved the series so I might have to revisit it with this set..

[kevin87]

If this happens, and it looks good with a decent price then I'll get it. I really liked the first 5 seasons until Misty left, after that I started losing interest and haven't see anything except some of the movies in the past 7 or 8 years and the weird style change for the newest one makes me not really want to catch up. lol

Hopefully it'll be a fair price, can't see anybody giving $60+ per season for 21 seasons.

[Donl1282]

Wait, this is a blu-ray release?

[Codename Wolverine]

I was hoping this would happen, definitely on my wishlist.

[Traveller]

Wonder if they will continue through and release everything on Blu.

[Nailwraps]

Holy toledo!!!

[dig311dug]

recently bought DVD's... dam

oh well, they get up converted in my ps4 anyway, so isn't that the same thing?

[InuYashaCrusade]

I actually have tears in my eyes right now, no joke. This is like all I could have asked for right now, holy cow...

I'm in no matter what the price is.

[kidglov3s]

Originally Posted by dig311dug

recently bought DVD's... dam

oh well, they get up converted in my ps4 anyway, so isn't that the same thing?

I have to imagine that the 4Kids edit of Pokemon was done on SD digibeta, but the BD encode of the SD material can improve on those DVDs to some degree. It'd be nice to see screenshots of the digital HD to compare to the DVDs, as I do like these shows and the DVDs are tough to watch but I'm curious to see what the upgrade amounts to.

[InuYashaCrusade]

If the quality looks like it does on-demand through Disney XD then it is very good. The remasters have been up through my cable provider on-demand since about April I believe.

[Scottie]

This is the quality we could possibly be looking at.

Classic Pokémon Episodes are Now Available in HD! - YouTube

[Hardback247]

I wish the Japanese versions of the episodes were legally available in the U.S.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Hardback247

I wish the Japanese versions of the episodes were legally available in the U.S.

I'd ideally enjoy having the Japanese and English audio tracks on a release.

The English dub is dear to my heart, but some of the lines are so silly. Not to mention, characters have mis-identified certain Pokémon.

[Ooze33]

Well this is very exciting! I wonder if this'll be a one-and-done release or if future seasons will see a Blu edition?

[C.mcbraggins]

From what I saw in the vid, it looks like just a simple upscale and DVNR slop job of the 480i edited masters (in some shots, you can still see some remaining rainbowing and dot crawl on the edges of object). Since Viz is of course putting this out, we can all say the PQ is gonna look just as bad as Salor Moon, and yet Funimation gets continuously bashed for DNR and cropping to DBZ but AT LEAST they get FILM ELEMENTS to work with. Many bets they'll be a 1,496 page thread *****ing all about it after release day, so hang on to you're seat belts and popcorn!

[Nailwraps]

Or save all the trouble and contact ViZ Media.

Tell them you want the season fully restored and remastered from the original negatives (no DNR!) and SD inserts (or reconstructed from HD sources) for English text titles and signs when needed.