The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[AreaFive]

Originally Posted by TThomas

Onscreen text like the translation of the book titles is baked into the video.

[TThomas]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=5837

As mentioned earlier: Hardsubs for onscreen text and / or songs is quite common in Germany. And afaik all 11 Crunchyroll x KSM titles are affected.
If you want me to look up another title: Just ask.

[SpaceDandy]

Strengthen my opinion that KSM is the german instance of Kazé France, with outrageous prices atop.

[SpazeBlue]

Natsume's Book of Friends the Movie review

[kevers7290]

Naiera--if you're reading this, can you comment on the quality of the AU release of SAO Alicization? I thought I saw you post them in one of your hauls a while back and I'm considering picking them up if they are Aniplex clones (or at least of acceptable quality).

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by kevers7290

Naiera--if you're reading this, can you comment on the quality of the AU release of SAO Alicization? I thought I saw you post them in one of your hauls a while back and I'm considering picking them up if they are Aniplex clones (or at least of acceptable quality).

Definitely not a clone. Encoded at ~31mbps with dual 16bit LPCM audio. I briefly looked through an episode or two when it released and didn't notice anything obviously problematic. If anything there were some shots in the OP that had slightly more detail in the AU BD due to the lack of a lowpass filter.

If you've seen any Madman discs since they switched over to using x264 a few years back (since the Your Name v2 disc) then that's pretty much what you can expect. Direct encode of the source with no filtering, which generally means their encodes are about as good as the raw source allows for - ranging from perfectly acceptable with some source issues (Promised Neverland), to more or less identical to their Japanese equivalents (Bunny Girl Senpai).

If you haven't seen them previously, Scavenger compared Madman's Konosuba release to the alternatives here and here, and I gave my thoughts on their Promised Neverland release here.

Also as a last FYI, Madman encodes and self authors all their Aniplex releases themselves nowadays, regardless of whether Aniplex's encodes would fit on two BD50s. There's even been examples like SAO Alternate and Demon Slayer where we got Aniplex clones here in the UK, whereas Madman went solo for the AU release.

[kevers7290]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

Definitely not a clone. Encoded at ~31mbps with dual 16bit LPCM audio. I briefly looked through an episode or two when it released and didn't notice anything obviously problematic. If anything there were some shots in the OP that had slightly more detail in the AU BD due to the lack of a lowpass filter.

If you've seen any Madman discs since they switched over to using x264 a few years back (since the Your Name v2 disc) then that's pretty much what you can expect. Direct encode of the source with no filtering, which generally means their encodes are about as good as the raw source allows for - ranging from perfectly acceptable with some source issues (Promised Neverland), to more or less identical to their Japanese equivalents (Bunny Girl Senpai).

If you haven't seen them previously, Scavenger compared Madman's Konosuba release to the alternatives here and here, and I gave my thoughts on their Promised Neverland release here.

Also as a last FYI, Madman encodes and self authors all their Aniplex releases themselves nowadays, regardless of whether Aniplex's encodes would fit on two BD50s. There's even been examples like SAO Alternate and Demon Slayer where we got Aniplex clones here in the UK, whereas Madman went solo for the AU release.

Thanks so much for the detailed answer. As long as they are competent releases, I will definitely opt for the Madman version. The price difference is VERY SIGNIFICANT.

[Naiera]

Yeah, I don’t buy UK/AU SAO because they’re clones; I buy them because they’re cheaper and I don’t love SAO, I merely like it. Ordinal Scale was great, though.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

If you've seen any Madman discs since they switched over to using x264 a few years back (since the Your Name v2 disc) then that's pretty much what you can expect. Direct encode of the source with no filtering, which generally means their encodes are about as good as the raw source allows for - ranging from perfectly acceptable with some source issues (Promised Neverland), to more or less identical to their Japanese equivalents (Bunny Girl Senpai).

That’s awesome! I thought they were the usual mediocre western anime Blu-ray stuff. Sounds to me like it’s some good shit.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by kevers7290

Thanks so much for the detailed answer. As long as they are competent releases, I will definitely opt for the Madman version. The price difference is VERY SIGNIFICANT.

And I got them in a 2 for 1 sale

EDIT: They have one right now! 369 anime Blu-rays in the BOGO selection.

[kevers7290]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Yeah, I don’t buy UK/AU SAO because they’re clones; I buy them because they’re cheaper and I don’t love SAO, I merely like it. Ordinal Scale was great, though.

Same. With the JBHiFi BOGO sale I was able to purchase the entirety of SAO Alicization for ~55USD (shipped) compared to the Aniplex at $250USD. Kind of a no-brainer. I'll save my Aniplex money for Monogatari, Demon Slayer etc.

[Memade]

Sentai announced Vinland Saga home release. What can we expect from them in terms of quality?

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by Memade

Sentai announced Vinland Saga home release. What can we expect from them in terms of quality?

They're okay. My biggest issue with them (aside from their absolutely awful dubs) is that they use some sort of filter during encoding that causes ringing around text, however I recently bought Tsurune which is native 1080p, and there's visible ringing around lineart sometimes. Most people probably won't notice, but I can't not see it.

[NLScavenger]

Nisemonogatari - Aniplex (JP singles) vs Hanabee/MVM BD

Comparison

Aniplex (JP singles)


Hanabee/MVM BD


Aniplex BDInfo episode 01

Disc Title: BD_VIDEO
Disc Size: 19.103.546.764 bytes
Protection: AACS
BD-Java: No
Playlist: Episode 01
Size: 8.921.118.720 bytes
Length: 0:26:17.576
Total Bitrate: 45,24 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 37985 kbps / 1080p / 23,976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit

Aniplex vol. 1 BDInfo full disc

Disc Title: BD_VIDEO
Disc Size: 19.103.546.764 bytes
Protection: AACS
BD-Java: No
Playlist: 00001.MPLS
Size: 17.383.716.864 bytes
Length: 0:51:14.738
Total Bitrate: 45,23 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 37976 kbps / 1080p / 23,976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit

Hanabee/MVM BDInfo episode 01

Disc Title: Nisemonogatari - Part One - Blu-ray™
Disc Label: NISEMONOGATARI DISC 1
Disc Size: 42,098,603,606 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: Episode 01
Size: 5,169,320,064 bytes
Length: 0:26:16.658
Total Bitrate: 26.23 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 23078 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: English / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1797 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   768 kbps / 24-bit / DN -4dB)
Subtitle: English / 44.778 kbps

Hanabee/MVM vol.1 BDInfo full disc

Disc Title: Nisemonogatari - Part One - Blu-ray™
Disc Label: NISEMONOGATARI DISC 1
Disc Size: 42,098,603,606 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00000.MPLS
Size: 40,736,395,008 bytes
Length: 2:59:48.277
Total Bitrate: 30.21 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 26878 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: English / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1810 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   768 kbps / 24-bit / DN -4dB)
Subtitle: English / 45.626 kbps

[FeelsBDMan]

Has anyone here done an analysis of Funimation's Railgun T?

I know S was not the greatest but yeah curious as I picked it up recently and it looks fairly decent to me although I wasn't really paying attention to the finer details.

[Spoofer]

Originally Posted by Tylerfan

Akira 4K review is now out:
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Akira-4K-Blu-ray/247206/

Even Neil isn't a complete fan of the results

I notice they gave the 1080p version 4/5 stars, as opposed to the 3/5 for the UHD. Does anyone know if the 1080p version lacks the DNR, perhaps being the same transfer as Funi's previous BD releases? Just curious.

[BigOnAnime]

The 1080P version is the exact same disc as the prior release. The end of disc credits proved that.

Originally Posted by AuraOfAzure

4K disc didn’t have anything after the Eirin rating splash page. This is from the 2K disc.

https://twitter.com/AuraOfAzure/stat...40941615452165

[Spoofer]

Ah, thanks!

[professorwho]

Quick comparison between the restored and unrestored versions of Memories

Behold... the power of AstroRes;

https://slow.pics/c/sER233wv

I made a tiny mistake: number 10 is identical between both, so ignore that one (shot wasn't changed in the restored version), and I don't feel like re-doing the long upload, so sorry.

Otherwise, enjoy!

Screenshots tell only half the story. In motion it looks fantastic. On the Blu-ray is a fantastic side-by-side feature edited by Shaybs with narration by Justin so it's easily the better comparison. This is for those who don't have their discs yet or are on the fence.

[Zhou]

Despite the loss of some visual information (look at Eva's face in comparisons 16 and 18, not to mention some fine detail in the first one), this Magnetic Rose restoration is impressive as hell. I'll be very glad to replace my copy of the Japanese release with Discotek's.