The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[pikagreg]

Started my Yumeiro BD and yeah... lol. I mean you can't beat $7 at least and I was willing to pay more for this show. What is the correct term to say what is the main thing wrong with Sentai's SDBD's anyways? I remember you guys talking about it back when they first started coming out and why you see shimmering in the credits.

[Footlong Shoe]

Originally Posted by Ccharmanderk

Yknow, after being here for a good while, I'm a bit curious as to what you guys all consider the best-looking US anime Blu-rays. I'd imagine the answers would vary a bit from person to person.

Vision of Escaflowne is really good, and the Gundam Blu-rays I own (original series and G Gundam) are quite impressive, as well.

[Enigmo_1]

Originally Posted by Footlong Shoe

Vision of Escaflowne is really good, and the Gundam Blu-rays I own (original series and G Gundam) are quite impressive, as well.

isn't original series hella blurry, even for 16mm (a bit like Kai by Q-tec)? ofc it's down to the remastering done in japan but yeah i don't imagine US bd in any way resolves it

edit: nvm checked again. i was thinking of zeta. og msg looks pretty nice

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Enigmo_1

isn't original series hella blurry, even for 16mm (a bit like Kai by Q-tec)? ofc it's down to the remastering done in japan but yeah i don't imagine US bd in any way resolves it

edit: nvm checked again. i was thinking of zeta. og msg looks pretty nice

Eh, it’s the original Gundam which is heavily DNR’d by Q-Tec. That one is pretty bad IMO.

[Enigmo_1]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Eh, it’s the original Gundam which is heavily DNR’d by Q-Tec. That one is pretty bad IMO.

Going off of memory, i was also under the impression that Gundam '79 had the blurry DNR look like DB Kai, hence my initial response to Footlong Shoe.

But checking some screenshots I could find, it doesn't seem to be the case, to me at least:

[Show spoiler]

Vs Zeta Blu-ray, which has grain and all, but looks blurrier and has that really bad chromatic aberration or w/e it is:

[Show spoiler]

[Logan Jones]

An earlier release, I gander?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Logan Jones

An earlier release, I gander?

No, the original Gundam series is 100% a Q-Tec DNR mess. The site's review is meh, but the screenshots show all:





The show was shot on 16mm and is nowhere near that clean and grain free if remastered correctly.

[Logan Jones]

It really is a shame. Several years ago they spent so much effort scanning the original negatives in high quality, only for it to be released like this.

[Footlong Shoe]

Being a Dragon Ball fan has definitely lowered my bar substantially in terms of judging DNR lol. Gundam still looks great to me. The grain may be gone but the image doesn't suffer as much as it would usually have to to make me complain. Though I will admit it is far from ideal. My endorsements for Escaflowne and G Gundam still stand, though.

[professorwho]

I do agree with Escaflowne and G Gundam, especially the latter. For Escaflowne, if one is Region B, the Anime Limited release is better (encoded by Justin Sevakis), but the FUNi release is still really good.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by Logan Jones

It really is a shame. Several years ago they spent so much effort scanning the original negatives in high quality, only for it to be released like this.

They scanned brand new 35mm blow-up interpositives that were created from the original 16mm camera negatives. This was in 2006.

I wonder if the Bandai R2 or R1 Anime Legends DVDs used a pre-dnr version of the HD remaster.

[Logan Jones]

That's right. I meant the interpositives. I wonder about how the DVDs look too.

[Enigmo_1]

Originally Posted by professorwho

No, the original Gundam series is 100% a Q-Tec DNR mess. The site's review is meh, but the screenshots show all:

[Show spoiler]

The show was shot on 16mm and is nowhere near that clean and grain free if remastered correctly.

Well, from my honest experience, screenshots on the main pages from this site aren't great.

It looks slightly better in the screenshots I ran into yesterday.

And yeah obviously grain has been reduced, but you use "remastered correctly" as if any grain reduction on animation turns a remaster into a bad one...which is just... yikes.

Anyway, what's your source that it was actually Q-Tec who remastered Gundam '79?

[NLScavenger]

Patlabor: The Movie

Comparison US Ultimate Collection BD & JP BD

US Ultimate Collection BD


JP BD



Bitrate viewer US Ultimate Collection BD

AVG: 19921 kbps | MAX: 34615 kbps

Bitrate viewer JP BD

AVG: 28387 kbps | MAX: 47683 kbps

[professorwho]

Also worth mentioning the US BD only has the Japanese 5.1 remix with re-done voice acting and effects- the original Dolby Surround option isn’t included, sadly.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Also worth mentioning the US BD only has the Japanese 5.1 remix with re-done voice acting and effects- the original Dolby Surround option isn’t included, sadly.

Yeah, that's a big problem. I already remuxed the 2 movies with with the original audio. I might go after the Korean BDs depending on how much I like these movies.

[Logan Jones]

I know of SD-BDs being ≈720x480i/p, but I know early 2000s digital anime was mastered in a resolution that was higher than that.

Question: What's the resolution(s) that digital anime/animation from the early 2000s was mastered in?

(I learned in a video that the resolution was 576p, but I'm not certain that that is the case for all anime/animation from that era.)

Furthermore, I want to know the reasoning behind this choice of resolution.

[Naiera]

All sorts of different resolutions were and are used.

[Logan Jones]

Interesting... Like 768x576, or 1024x768? Or even oddball uncommon resolutions too?

I'd like to know some examples, because I can't seem to find any info online.

[professorwho]

In the coming days I’ll be posting stats and screencaps of classic anime series that may not have been given full breakdowns here- like Outlaw Star (UK release by Anime Limited), Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex (UK release by Manga Entertainment) and Turn a Gundam (US release by Nozomi/Rightstuf). I’ve came to some interesting conclusions here- ones that actually go against what was thought to be known facts here- some good, some bad. Either way, I think you’ll be happy with the breakdowns I’ll be writing up.