The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[professorwho]

Updated the comparison with resized DVD caps and a SlowPics comparison. Resized caps were achieved with settings PM'd to me by Nostalgic Twilight. Thanks!

https://slow.pics/c/JqSqRR6q

[BigOnAnime]

I think you need to update your link as it leads to a login screen.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

I think you need to update your link as it leads to a login screen.

Worked fine for some friends I sent it to. Might be on your end.

[Logan Jones]

Happened to me, too.

[Lambadelta]

goes to a login screen for me also.

[Zhou]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Anyone here has the booklet, can you take pictures or scan it for me? I may be able to translate it if the text isn't too complicated (or I'll pay ultimatemegax to do so if he's up for it) and the scan/images are in good quality.

Here are some cellphone pictures of the Anno interview. I wish I could do a proper scan, but the fact that the booklet is squarebound makes that pretty much impossible without ripping it apart, at least with the kind of scanner I own. Even photographing it was a pain, which was why I took many partial shots of each left-hand page.

[Nostalgic Twilight]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Worked fine for some friends I sent it to. Might be on your end.

You have to put the link in code brackets like I did here. That website automatically changes the URL after you submit a post with a direct link. I found out the hard way myself.

[Zhou]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Updated the comparison with resized DVD caps and a SlowPics comparison. Resized caps were achieved with settings PM'd to me by Nostalgic Twilight. Thanks!

https://slow.pics/c/JqSqRR6q

Man, that sixth comparison is brutal. FORS completely obliterated the blushing lines on Yukino's face.

[kevers7290]

Did Anime Ltd. ever fix the video issues that affected the "Your Name" Blu-ray release? If I were to buy a copy now, can I assume it is a "corrected" copy?

[slerch666]

Some time ago, I did a comparison of the Maiden Japan BD to CPM/US Manga Corps DVD release of Armored Trooper VOTOMS. In my comparison I pointed out a lot of frame issues because of poorly encoded 480i content.

The folks here were kind enough to speculate as to what the issue was, I contacted Maiden Japan/Sentai, got a response that they would look into it and said they would look to implement changes for future releases.

Fast forward to quite a few more SDBD releases from Maiden Japan and each had exactly the same kind of issues (Xabungle still pisses me off).

Given that VOTOMS was being released as a Complete Collection edition, I had emailed them about whether the new collection would be reauthored or not and the response I received back was that yes, it was being reauthored but they could not give me specifics.

I assumed this meant squishing it all to fit fewer discs but decided to order it anyway.

And... I can say that I am BEYOND EXTATIC to report that in viewing the first disc, there are ZERO terrible frames. I spent a long time frame by framing the new release, roughly through the first 20 minutes of the first episode and did the same from the original release. There is no question that the Complete Collection has corrected video!

I would say that given each episode is roughly 2.8 GBs or so and the video is taken from the remastered DVD source from Japan, this is the definitive release of the show at this particular moment in time, barring a complete remastering from film elements to 1080p (unlikely now given how much time has passed since the DVDs were released in Japan but there is always hope).

This includes grain, glorious grain.

I am actually tempted to watch through the entire series again JUST because how great this looks now, without interlaced frame issues!

I am going to look at the first OVA as well as that's where I had to stop watching given I couldn't deal with the ghost frame issue on my screen anymore and report back on those as well and how they fare in this set. I am hoping for great things!


EDIT- CONFIRMED. The OVAs appear to be fixed as well! WOOHOO!

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by kevers7290

Did Anime Ltd. ever fix the video issues that affected the "Your Name" Blu-ray release? If I were to buy a copy now, can I assume it is a "corrected" copy?

Audio was fixed and video was mostly fixed (two glitched frames exist). If you buy a new standard edition copy it should come with the new disc. Any old editions like the CE or Steelbook will likely have the original disc though and you will need to email for a replacement. In the long run we should probably be thankful that Madman screwed up Your Name as horribly as they did. Clearly it was the straw which broke the camel’s back, as it finally made them address their horrendous encoding and gamma issues that plagued their releases up until then.

[Nostalgic Twilight]

Here is a copy and paste of my post regarding Viz's InuYasha BD release from the InuYasha thread:

While I do see some aliasing in quite a few of the HD shots, I agree with Mangaranga and NLScavenger's assessment that this is indeed a (perhaps old archived) native HD transfer, similar to the original Cardcaptor Sakura HD master. Film grain is present throughout, though it is a little light. Compression could be improved in places, as evident in some examples, but still much better than the DVDs. I'm definitely never going back to the DVDs after seeing the difference, especially since it looks like we are getting all of the proper songs. The comparison shots can be found here:

https://slow.pics/c/9W0EFIor

Also, here is a look at the bitrate:

[chronoclast]

Originally Posted by slerch666

And... I can say that I am BEYOND EXTATIC to report that in viewing the first disc, there are ZERO terrible frames. I spent a long time frame by framing the new release, roughly through the first 20 minutes of the first episode and did the same from the original release. There is no question that the Complete Collection has corrected video!

I would say that given each episode is roughly 2.8 GBs or so and the video is taken from the remastered DVD source from Japan, this is the definitive release of the show at this particular moment in time, barring a complete remastering from film elements to 1080p (unlikely now given how much time has passed since the DVDs were released in Japan but there is always hope).

Glad to hear they fixed the video. What codec did they encode with, AVC or MPEG-2?

[slerch666]

Originally Posted by chronoclast

Glad to hear they fixed the video. What codec did they encode with, AVC or MPEG-2?

They are AVC.

Without doing the analysis and just watching the counter for bitrate, video sits comfortable at 9 - 10 Mbps. I've seen bursts up to 18.3.

On a related note, there was a post here on how to do the disc analysis and screen capture but it was quite some pages deep. Anyone have a quick and easy link to it? Thinking I may pop out the old BDs and compare to the new.


Also in relation to VOTOMS, the set is now 9 discs instead of 6. TV series is spread across 4 discs and all of the compilations get their own disc. So 5 discs for the TV series. All of Pailsen Files is on their own disc. Original TV series OVAs get their own disc. Genei gets its own disc and Case;Irvine/Finder/Chirico's return are on the final disc in the set.

The only argument for keeping the original releases, for me, is that you get extra cover art and that's about the only reason to keep them.

[sagadego]

Originally Posted by slerch666

Some time ago, I did a comparison of the Maiden Japan BD to CPM/US Manga Corps DVD release of Armored Trooper VOTOMS. In my comparison I pointed out a lot of frame issues because of poorly encoded 480i content.

The folks here were kind enough to speculate as to what the issue was, I contacted Maiden Japan/Sentai, got a response that they would look into it and said they would look to implement changes for future releases.

Fast forward to quite a few more SDBD releases from Maiden Japan and each had exactly the same kind of issues (Xabungle still pisses me off).

Given that VOTOMS was being released as a Complete Collection edition, I had emailed them about whether the new collection would be reauthored or not and the response I received back was that yes, it was being reauthored but they could not give me specifics.

I assumed this meant squishing it all to fit fewer discs but decided to order it anyway.

And... I can say that I am BEYOND EXTATIC to report that in viewing the first disc, there are ZERO terrible frames. I spent a long time frame by framing the new release, roughly through the first 20 minutes of the first episode and did the same from the original release. There is no question that the Complete Collection has corrected video!

I would say that given each episode is roughly 2.8 GBs or so and the video is taken from the remastered DVD source from Japan, this is the definitive release of the show at this particular moment in time, barring a complete remastering from film elements to 1080p (unlikely now given how much time has passed since the DVDs were released in Japan but there is always hope).

This includes grain, glorious grain.

I am actually tempted to watch through the entire series again JUST because how great this looks now, without interlaced frame issues!

I am going to look at the first OVA as well as that's where I had to stop watching given I couldn't deal with the ghost frame issue on my screen anymore and report back on those as well and how they fare in this set. I am hoping for great things!


EDIT- CONFIRMED. The OVAs appear to be fixed as well! WOOHOO!

rip my wallet

[Pyoko]

Originally Posted by Nostalgic Twilight

While I do see some aliasing in quite a few of the HD shots, I agree with Mangaranga and NLScavenger's assessment that this is indeed a (perhaps old archived) native HD transfer, similar to the original Cardcaptor Sakura HD master.

I don't know how the whole Inuyasha upscale rumor even got started. It's clearly got HD sharpness and the underlying source looks better than several of those older transfers like CCS or Patlabor since it doesn't have sharpening. The issue is that it appears to have been transferred to 1080i and some doofus deinterlaced (not IVTC'd) it to 1080p causing all those artifacts.

[Logan Jones]

Well that sucks. Is there a better Blu-ray of Inuyasha?

[mysticwaterfall]

As far as English friendly releases go I think it's the best we are getting. Shame about the frame jumps since it has the op intact.

Awesome news about Votoms. Glad I was able to get enough from the old version to cover the new version. Just get a shipping notice for it from Sentai.

[Bamble]

While it's good to hear that the TV series is fixed, there may be another issue with the new Votoms set; one report has Pailsen Files playing in 4:3 on a PC/PS4:

https://twitter.com/TomAznable/statu...51650173100032

[chronoclast]

Originally Posted by Bamble

While it's good to hear that the TV series is fixed, there may be another issue with the new Votoms set; one report has Pailsen Files playing in 4:3 on a PC/PS4:

https://twitter.com/TomAznable/statu...51650173100032

He mentioned it displays correctly using a BD player so it could be that the PS4 and PC software he used aren't detecting the anamorphic flags correctly with SD content on BD. I remember Justin saying before how the PS4 had compatibility issues with SD-BDs which weren't fixed until he changed authoring software. It might just be a compatibility issue with how it was authored.