The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[professorwho]

So, in short- there’s nothing wrong with the program/encoder FUNi uses, but the actual problem is the person putting in the settings/checking it- correct? (I’ve always thought that, but never considered the software until now, only to realise such information was outdated)

[mp3dom]

More or less... plus the time/cost investment.
You should consider that japanese blurays are made by big companies (think of Sony, Imagica, Qtec (ok, you all know this company for the upscales, but it's still a big company with lots of expensive professional tools) and so on) and works on video as a main business. Considering the MSRP of a japanese bluray, you can expect to have one compressionist to fine-tune the encoder every time for that particular footage and/or fix some problems the master may have and/or fix or re-encode on a scene by scene basis.
Japanese disks also have the advantage to always have maxed out bitrates, which helps in less manual adjustments.

[professorwho]

Q-Tec isn’t a bad company really... it’s just that their upscales suck. They sync the video and audio for TV anime during production (as remember, they are worked on separately in production- typically the visuals done first, then audio). Plus, their compression and authoring ignoring upscales are typiclaly fine. A good example most of you probably have is JP Your Name. That’s pretty damn good. Near flawless encode. Not 100% perfect (the mp3dom disc has more fixes and optimization), but good.

[Yuripa]

Originally Posted by mp3dom

.
Just to specify... Sirius Pixels IS the most used encoder on commercial blurays. Almost all the Majors use it and almost all the japanese blurays you see are encoded with this software. So, FUNi actually is using a top-notch encoder.

I heard that one of the most used encoder for Japanese Blu-ray was Blu-code encoder, is this not the case anymore? Since you are saying the Sirius is more used now.

[mp3dom]

Blu-Code is a discontinued encoder since 2009/2010. They all switched to Cinema Craft (years ago) and now Sirius Pixels. For example, japanese Evangelion 2.22 was encoded with Blu-Code, but 3.33 with Cinema Craft. It's very hard to find a Blu-Code encode on recent disks nowadays.

[Robbl]

Does Sirius Pixels have a CLI for piping Vapoursynth outputs?

[StefaanD]

Originally Posted by Footlong Shoe

That’s also the format on the Blu-ray that didn’t work for me, so disabling DTS 5.1 output should still fix the problem (Master Audio wasn’t a separate option on my PS3, at least, maybe because it’s connected through optical)

That's logical , as an optical connection cannot handle HD audio formats like DTS-HD MA or Dolby TrueHD.

[mp3dom]

Originally Posted by Robbl

Does Sirius Pixels have a CLI for piping Vapoursynth outputs?

It doesn't use Windows decoders (if you install new decoders, it won't support more codecs), but only the built-in ones, and the only supported files are mainly uncompressed or prores.

[professorwho]

As if the Maquia debacle couldn't get worse...


F*CK. SHOUT. FACTORY. Simple as that. How do you mess up something that badly? I know it's the DVD copy, but damn. That is some insanely bad QC.

[wesslan]

How is the US compared to JP for PQ and AQ on Maquia?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by wesslan

How is the US compared to JP for PQ and AQ on Maquia?

Well, ignoring the hardcoded subtitles when watching with JP audio, it’s okay, I guess. Not bad at all, but not as refined as the JP BD.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by wesslan

How is the US compared to JP for PQ and AQ on Maquia?

https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...r-blooms/page2

Originally Posted by Sensuifu

Screenshot comparison between the Hardsub vs Dub.

Comparison between JP BD versus Shout Dub

Comparison between JP BD and Shout hardsub

-------

Originally Posted by svenge

Here's the BDInfo for the JP release of Mamoru Hosoda's Mirai. Executive summary: 36 mbps AVC video, 24-bit LPCM 5.1 audio, no English subs.

The main disk is bare-bones, but there is also a 2-disc Special Edition with 98 minutes of extras.

[Show spoiler]

DISC INFO:

Disc Title:     MIRAI NO MIRAI
Disc Size:      35,639,780,145 bytes
Protection:     AACS
BDInfo:         0.7.5.5

PLAYLIST REPORT:

Name:                   00001.MPLS
Length:                 1:37:58.872 (h:m:s.ms)
Size:                   34,871,844,864 bytes
Total Bitrate:          47.45 Mbps

VIDEO:

Codec                   Bitrate             Description     
-----                   -------             -----------     
MPEG-4 AVC Video        35948 kbps          1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1

AUDIO:

Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description     
-----                           --------        -------         -----------     
LPCM Audio                      Japanese        2304 kbps       2.0 / 48 kHz /  2304 kbps / 24-bit
LPCM Audio                      Japanese        6912 kbps       5.1 / 48 kHz /  6912 kbps / 24-bit

SUBTITLES:

Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description     
-----                           --------        -------         -----------     
Presentation Graphics           Japanese        35.395 kbps

HK BD:

PLAYLIST REPORT:
Name:                   00001.MPLS
Length:                 1:37:55.041 (h:m:s.ms)


Size:                   22,197,540,864 bytes
Total Bitrate:          30.23 Mbps
VIDEO:
Codec                   Bitrate             Description    
-----                   -------             -----------    
MPEG-4 AVC Video        24991 kbps          1080p / 24 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
AUDIO:
Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description    
-----                           --------        -------         -----------    
DTS-HD Master Audio             Japanese        2251 kbps       5.1 / 48 kHz / 2251 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Dolby Digital Audio             Japanese        640 kbps        5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio             Chinese         640 kbps        5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
SUBTITLES:
Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description    
-----                           --------        -------         -----------    
Presentation Graphics           Chinese         22.364 kbps                    
Presentation Graphics           English         22.968 kbps

[dan2026]

I'm probably going to show my ignorance here. But I'm surprised that a lot of these companies haven't moved to h.265, the successor to h.264.

As I understand it, it provides much more efficient video encoding giving smaller file sizes with very little loss in quality. And that it has mostly supplanted h.264 at this point.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by dan2026

I'm probably going to show my ignorance here. But I'm surprised that a lot of these companies haven't moved to h.265, the successor to h.264.

As I understand it, it provides much more efficient video encoding giving smaller file sizes with very little loss in quality. And that it has mostly supplanted h.264 at this point.

The BD format does not allow for h.265 compression whatsoever. Only UHD does.

[dan2026]

Originally Posted by professorwho

The BD format does not allow for h.265 compression whatsoever. Only UHD does.

Guess that answers that question

[cooperb21]

I bought Vision of Escaflowne on blu-ray, but it seems to have very bad issues. Is this common or bad discs for me? Picture becomes blurry and keeps freezing at middle of episode 4 on disc one. Using chapter select/skip causes ps4/xbox one player to freeze up and become unstable.

edit: Only second half of episode 4 seems like this and every other episode/section seems fine. Any one else have funimation blu-rays to test this part as only being issue for me?

[professorwho]

I have them but never encountered that problem. I’ll check later today.

[chronoclast]

Originally Posted by cooperb21

I bought Vision of Escaflowne on blu-ray, but it seems to have very bad issues. Is this common or bad discs for me? Picture becomes blurry and keeps freezing at middle of episode 4 on disc one. Using chapter select/skip causes ps4/xbox one player to freeze up and become unstable.

edit: Only second half of episode 4 seems like this and every other episode/section seems fine. Any one else have funimation blu-rays to test this part as only being issue for me?

Are there any scratches on the disc?

I have the part releases and didn't encounter any playback problems.

[professorwho]

What release do you have? The individual parts, or the complete set?

[cooperb21]

Originally Posted by professorwho

What release do you have? The individual parts, or the complete set?

Escaflowne TV Complete Series with movie/collectors edition box.