The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[Robbl]

Oof, that's a big yikes. Matching the series' quality I guess :P

[StefaanD]

Yeah you can really tell from that one screenshot

[professorwho]

Well, in regards to Fairy Tail, it's sadly the best we'll get, as there's no Blu-ray release in Japan. Remember that the first series is upscaled from a 480p master (because it takes less time to composite), so it's not gonna look optimal.

[professorwho]

I updated my Area 88 Write-up with some screencaps. In total 45 images.

Here they are, for convenience. Imgur put them out of order, which is a good thing, as it makes it harder to spoil (though, nothing in there is an outright spoiler).

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

I finally got around to watching my custom MKV. The Dynit 30th anniversary BD is a very lovely upgrade over the blurry Bandai BD. The Bandai BD is like a dirty mirror in comparison.

[professorwho]

Remember the whole Batman Ninja fiasco when it came out? I posted the stats, and then there was concerns of dubtitles, which was actually false, but it was still a mess. Well, there IS a Japanese release, and while I don't have it, McCrutchy does.

There's two editions:

The Standard edition and the Deluxe edition and the difference isn't just packaging. The discs are totally different.

The stats of the JP Deluxe edition are as follows:

Video:
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
1.78:1 Aspect Ratio
23.976 fps
32091 kbps AVG (32.09 mbps)
41108 kbps MAX (41.10 mbps)

Audio:
Japanese Dolby Atmos/TrueHD 7.1 16-Bit 48kHz 3224 kbps
Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 16-Bit 48kHz 1643 kbps
Japanese LPCM 2.0 24-Bit 48kHz 2304 kbps
English Dolby Digital 5.1 448 kbps
French Dolby Digital 2.0 192 kbps
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 192 kbps
Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 192 kbps
German Dolby Digital 2.0 192 kbps

And English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German subtitles.

Source

What's the difference between the standard and deluxe editions? Well, only the deluxe edition has the Atmos/7.1 track. I'd assume the video is the same between them, so unless you have a 7.1 or Atmos setup, get the standard edition.

And here's the fun part, the comparison to the US release. The US one has a PATHETICALLY low bitrate of only 14.90 mbps! Yes! This Japanese release more than doubles it! Not only that, but the original Japanese audio was only presented as a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix at 640 kbps! If you want a lossless JP mix, and most likely improved picture quality- the JP release is a no-brainer.

[pikagreg]

That is good to know for anyone who wants a good copy. The US one was only like $10 so I just said screw it and gave it a blind buy lol

[wesslan]

Wow now I want to see and listen even more to the JP version, love Atmos.

[LexInHD]

I've been watching the Zillion release from Funimation. All I can say is that the video quality is bad on all sides. The Toei HD masters are (apparently) very bad and the encoding is bad to boot. Halos, macro-blocking, video noise, and all the friends and family came to town with this release.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by LexInHD

I've been watching the Zillion release from Funimation. All I can say is that the video quality is bad on all sides. The Toei HD masters are (apparently) very bad and the encoding is bad to boot. Halos, macro-blocking, video noise, and all the friends and family came to town with this release.

I guess you didn't feel like a zillion bucks while watching.

[Gouki]

I think they spent more time on the slip than the content.

[professorwho]

One little correction, Toei didn't do Zillion. Some weird company called Bop (バップ) did the Japanese Blu-ray release.

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by professorwho

One little correction, Toei didn't do Zillion. Some weird company called Bop (バップ) did the Japanese Blu-ray release.

The company name's is VAP and they release a lot of titles for NTV including the Mamoru Hosada films post-Girl who Leapt Through Time, the Chihayafuru series, Hajime no Ippo, and others.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

The company name's is VAP and they release a lot of titles for NTV including the Mamoru Hosada films post-Girl who Leapt Through Time, the Chihayafuru series, Hajime no Ippo, and others.

Yeah. Pretty much anything produced by Madhouse is them.

[Girls With Guns]

Bop!

[husky1993a]

Originally Posted by Girls With Guns

Bop!

Bop!

[professorwho]

And now we have another “I’m only going to talk about aesthetics” review:

Haikara-san Here Comes Miss Modern

While I can appreciate reviewing a title that would normally not be covered, the review, as basically every other anime review here lacks any analysis on encoding:

Haikara san: Here Comes Miss Modern is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Right Stuf with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This 2017 production looks excellent in high definition, with clear and well defined line detail and an appealing if not especially boisterous palette. Beniro tends to wear a lot of purples and pinks, and even her hair has a kind of violet tint to it, and that blue-red end of the spectrum probably pops the most distinctively throughout the presentation. Some of the backgrounds can tend to be a little underdeveloped, and as with many anime facial features tend to kind of come and go willy nilly at times. There are a few stylistic conceits that crop up interstitially at times, but on the whole this offering tends to be largely "realistic", with few outré elements like chibi and the like.

He’s just talking about the visuals and not the encode. I’m fine with spending a sentence or two focusing on the visuals, but you should keep the enthesis on the compression. That’s what we really care about- it can be a pretty movie, but if it’s poorly encoded (Gravity is a perfect example- pretty film, bad encoding) it doesn’t matter.

Overall, I wish the reviewer would go more technical so as to not tell what he thinks of the pretty colours. But, then again, most sites don’t do that, so it’ll never happen. Thankfully? It appears he hasn’t blatantly lied about encoding like he did with Psycho Pass and Steins;Gate (in the latter he actually praised the banding, WTF?!). So continue the trend of not holding the reviews here in high regard unless they start to dedicate analysis to the technical aspects.

[pikagreg]

Decided to rip my Strawberry Panic BD. Does it being in 480i make it an SDBD technically? lol

Video:
480i MPEG-4 AVC
4:3 Aspect Ratio
29.970 fps
6514 kbps AVG
17368 kbps MAX

17.4gb (13 episodes on one BD25 for disc 1)

Audio:

Japanese: LPCMD 2.0 16-bit 48hz
3.41gb

No sub files since they are hardcoded

[Show spoiler]

[Show spoiler]

[Show spoiler]

[Ccharmanderk]

480i makes it literally an SDBD, lol.

Also, hardsubbing video in 2018? For shaaaaaame.

[professorwho]

Not to mention 2 BD-25s. Should’ve just put it on one BD-50. Probably would’ve cost less (but it would’ve given away it was probably an SD-BD, as they never said it was when they listed it).