Towa no Quon
(Sentai)
Disc 1: 41.1GB (Contains films 1 to 4)
Feature size (Film 1): 9.47GB
Video:
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
19.2 mbps AVG
35 mbps MAX
6.52GB
Audio:
Japanese DTS HD-MA 5.1 24-Bit 4336 kbps
English DTS HD-MA 5.1 24-Bit 4335 kbps
Towa no Quon is a 6 part film series, so the format here is odd. Each "film" is around 50 minutes, so while there is the possibility for good compression
in this format, I'd rather Sentai did a 3-3 split. As 3 films with dual 5.1 tracks per disc would give ample space for higher bitrates, most likely the high twenties or even the low thirties. But, this is similar to the splits everyone does,
in terms of runtime, this is the equivalent of an 8-4 split, so bitrates are similar to such efforts.
This was released
in June of 2012, 6 years ago. Within the first 2 years of Sentai hitting BD. Back then, they were known for bad PQ. How they've changed... now they're better than FUNi on a constant basis. Being an earlier release, I was willing to cut some slack, because the first Blu-rays from the professional studios were far from the best. But this could be summed up
in one word:
Banding
Good lord, what banding there is. First off, the
site's review is
100% WRONG. When I've complained about this site's reviews, they all come from the same person. I'm not gonna name him, but it shows that he cares only about aesthetics and not encoding. Also, almost every review he's published where the film doesn't have a 5.1 track or higher, he gives a 4/5. Really. Just really. Talk about sound quality, not the fact that there isn't a 5.1 upmix that would actually sound worse than the original mix.
There are insane amounts of banding.
In the darker scenes it's big enough to make out, and
in daytime scenes there's a tiny bit of it present occasionally. It's not as bad as Re:Zero, but it's close. Other than the banding, it's solid. Line detail is good with no aliasing, and everything else is just about fine. it's just the banding is insanely distracting.
Audio-wise, there's nothing to complain about. The Japanese and English mixes are nearly bit-for-bit identical and it shows. There is no hissing or any trace of a bad source. No compression whatsoever. Flawless
in terms of clarity, but use of surround I'll leave up to people who actually have a surround setup.
For an early Sentai release, its one of the worst. The films are boring and just plain stupid, to the point where what few action scenes (
in classic Bones style of being insanely well animated) can't help here. PQ is acceptable when the series is
in daylight, but when night shows up, its nearly unwatchable. Audio is stellar, though, so it's not too bad. I paid $5 for it at a Rightstuf sale a few years ago, and its worth that amount for sure. If you can find it cheap, go for it. Otherwise, pass.
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Linear Mode
