The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[SpaceDandy]

Regardless of the gamma issue, Dan Da Dan US BD suffers from anisotropic low-passing. Vertical edges are very much nuked. The JP BD has a selection of poorly low-passed scenes as well. Gotta wait for GER, ITA or FRA BDs.

[NLScavenger]

The Colors Within - JPN BD vs GBR/GER/ITA BD
Japanese track waveform comparison

Suffers from lowpassed chroma like the USA BD. Audio is even worse

JPN and USA BD center waveforms (from https://slow.pics/c/ODpmOOCV)




GBR/GER/ITA BD center waveform

Disc Title:     The Colors Within
Disc Label:     THE COLORS WITHIN
Disc Size:      33,464,890,849 bytes
Protection:     AACS
Playlist:       00007.MPLS
Size:           30,975,412,224 bytes
Length:         1:40:41.035
Total Bitrate:  41.02 Mbps
Video:          MPEG-4 AVC Video / 29,983 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio:          English / DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz /  2027 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz /  1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Audio:          German / DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz /  2165 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz /  1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Audio:          Italian / DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz /  2032 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz /  1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Audio:          Japanese / DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz /  2054 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz /  1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitle:       English / 1.39 kbps
Subtitle:       German / 1.75 kbps
Subtitle:       Italian / 3.47 kbps
Subtitle:       English / 14.97 kbps
Subtitle:       German / 19.41 kbps
Subtitle:       Italian / 18.43 kbps

Writing library                          : x264 core 164 r3204 373697b
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=24 / lookahead_threads=4 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=1 / weightp=1 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=1 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=24 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=30000 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=35000 / vbv_bufsize=30000 / nal_hrd=vbr / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

---------------------------------

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Cyber City OEDO 808 - 2022 Discotek Remastered BD vs 2025 Dybex BD

I mislabeled the screeenshots by accident. This has been corrected now.

[professorwho]

The DRC is far more insulting than the chroma low-passing. For a film all about music and sound with such an incredible mix, it's the ultimate form of disrespect, assuming this was done by the respective teams for disc as opposed to an international master issue.

[Kyle15]

I swear, anime can't catch a break lately with all this Wal-Mart type garbage!

[BigOnAnime]

But the Blu-ray advantage over streaming services!

One of the strengths of the physical media format is the encoding quality. Physical media can provide some advantages over streaming services. Streaming services tend to offer a more compressed video presentation. The physical format offers higher bit-rates and more consistent encoding quality. These aspects can sometimes make a difference for fans.

Streaming video can also be impacted by variances such as data plans, data speeds, streaming service plan tiers, weather issues, location issues, and a myriad of other aspects that don't impact physical media – which continues to provide a consistently impressive presentation quality for fans to enjoy. These aspects might not always be something one considers – but it still differentiates streaming from physical media and is worth consideration. (Internet outage? You can grab a physical copy to watch.)

Blu-ray disc offers a distinct advantage over streaming video services. The Blu-ray format provides lossless audio. For home theater enthusiasts and audiophiles alike, the audio clarity gains offer improvements. Streaming, by comparison, provides a lossy (non-lossless) audio encoding. A lossless presentation can provide theater quality sound (the same type of sound quality delivered in a premium format movie theater). Streaming (especially on older catalog titles) is often limited to MP3 quality audio.

[Show spoiler]Text copied from Neil Lumbard's "review" for Lupin III: The Italian Game.

[Tylerfan]

At this point, I think he’s just doing it out of spite to **** with us

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

[Show spoiler]Text copied from Neil Lumbard's "review" for Lupin III: The Italian Game.

[Show spoiler]Take a shot every time he listed the title

[Le Grande Blu]

Originally Posted by professorwho

[Show spoiler]Take a shot every time he listed the title

The name is an anagram...



Neil Lumbard - AI Blunder (with a couple of letters left over)

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

The Colors Within - JPN BD vs GBR/GER/ITA BD
Japanese track waveform comparison

English, German and Italian dub tracks also suffer from dynamic range compression

[kk1]

Ugh these are getting hard to keep track of (unfortunately), how about a sticky thread with releases with known issues and maybe possible alternatives?
I hate missing a review and buying one of these and rewarding these companies for their sloppy work.

[Misioon_Odisea]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Blu

The name is an anagram...

Neil Lumbard - AI Blunder (with a couple of letters left over)

I got you covered: MLAI Blunder (The ML part stands for Machine Learning )

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by kk1

Ugh these are getting hard to keep track of (unfortunately), how about a sticky thread with releases with known issues and maybe possible alternatives?
I hate missing a review and buying one of these and rewarding these companies for their sloppy work.

Could use a thread like this.
https://forums.animeuknews.net/threa...e-discs.12497/

I did try something like that in the past.
https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=780198

v_i does have this for things that got recalls. He and I tried to add info to the notes section on ANN release entries.
https://www.v-i.dev/recall

[Misioon_Odisea]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Could use a thread like this.
https://forums.animeuknews.net/threa...e-discs.12497/

https://forums.animeuknews.net/threa...93#post-689386

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

AL UK BD of The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes is a port of Sentai's BD with the theatrical master. The AL France BD uses the home video master.

Egads, just finding out about this one right now blows in particular. It's a movie I have championed a lot around these circles and I remember proudly pre-ordering Sentai's Blu-ray as soon as I got the chance. Of course I'm not going to get rid of it anyway, it's a movie too special not to have on home video and I'm going to continue enjoying it with the disc I have, but we can't ever seem to catch a break nowadays with all the problems present on these discs, can we?

[BigOnAnime]

Great, another for this list...
https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=866210

[Prince_7]

Also, French release is an x264 encode.

[NLScavenger]

Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend (Theatrical version) - Discotek Media BD vs Kitty Media BD (very NSFW)

Forgot to add this scene to the comparison (shows AstroRes usage). Comp #43 shows clean up error in the Kitty Media release where data from the next frame is copied over (see comp #44).

Disc Title:     Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend
Disc Label:     UROTSUKIDOJI_OVERFIEND
Disc Size:      24,913,288,569 bytes
Protection:     AACS
Playlist:       00003.MPLS
Size:           17,253,340,032 bytes
Length:         1:45:17.686
Total Bitrate:  21.85 Mbps
Video:          MPEG-4 AVC Video / 18,999 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio:          English / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   830 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   256 kbps / 16-bit)
Audio:          Japanese / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   807 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   256 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitle:       English / 2.40 kbps
Subtitle:       English / 22.00 kbps

[dubudavid]

Good eye, that is the one and only shot I had to ask for upscaling via AstroRes, since on both of our prints, too many unique frames were damaged to use as-is (it was the first shot of the reel, which tend to be the most damaged due to the wear and handling).

[Weskerredfield3]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend (Theatrical version) - Discotek Media BD vs Kitty Media BD (very NSFW)

Forgot to add this scene to the comparison (shows AstroRes usage). Comp #43 shows clean up error in the Kitty Media release where data from the next frame is copied over (see comp #44).

Disc Title:     Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend
Disc Label:     UROTSUKIDOJI_OVERFIEND
Disc Size:      24,913,288,569 bytes
Protection:     AACS
Playlist:       00003.MPLS
Size:           17,253,340,032 bytes
Length:         1:45:17.686
Total Bitrate:  21.85 Mbps
Video:          MPEG-4 AVC Video / 18,999 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio:          English / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   830 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   256 kbps / 16-bit)
Audio:          Japanese / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   807 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   256 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitle:       English / 2.40 kbps
Subtitle:       English / 22.00 kbps

Discotek did a great job with this Release, I Was Very impressed with it; A Huge improvement over MB's Hack Job

[Jackson_H]

Blu-ray disc is the better format but I'm curious if anyone ever did comparisons between Blu-ray and HD-DVD for the anime titles that got both like Brave Story, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Afro Samurai and Appleseed Ex Machina

[SpaceDandy]

What's the point? HD-DVD died before AVC encoders became mature. The rare titles that made it to both format like Honnéamise generally had both discs made with the same encoders. If the studio cared, the Blu-ray encodes benefited from the more permissive settings. Else everything was constrained to the very limited HD DVD format.