The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[cooperb21]

I noticed funimation is re-releasing/packaging shows. Does anyone know if quality is better or worse than before? It could just be a packaging change with same discs/code. No real idea on that.

https://www.rightstufanime.com/PSYCH...assics-Blu-ray

https://www.rightstufanime.com/Stein...assics-Blu-ray

[Naiera]

Same discs.

[professorwho]

Exact same discs, so the exact same s**ty encodes. Those 2 will forever be f**ked in the US/UK with their awfulness...

[cooperb21]

Okay, thanks for heads up.

[BlackCondor93]

Regarding the complete collection of The World God Only Knows (which has all 3 season and the OVAs in one set), has the audio glitch with the Japanese audio in Season 1 episode 12 been fixed?

[nagpo]

Originally Posted by cooperb21

I noticed funimation is re-releasing/packaging shows. Does anyone know if quality is better or worse than before? It could just be a packaging change with same discs/code. No real idea on that.

https://www.rightstufanime.com/PSYCH...assics-Blu-ray

https://www.rightstufanime.com/Stein...assics-Blu-ray

In terms of Essentials: I really hate how they're just using a rebranding to flood the market with these old shows. It gets in the way of all the new releases from their competitors too. A lot of the shows they're re-releasing aren't even good, which is typical funimation fair.

No reason for this Essentials line, are people really going to get fooled into buying these old shows they didn't want before into buying them now because it's a different colored box? Most Funimation shows are bad, like most of these essentials, ironically enough. Funi seems to license every single show every season, and since most shows are bad, most funi releases are bad.

[pikagreg]

I have been seeing more anime in stores lately and I think rebranding helps get new SKUS out there for retailers to be interested in. I do it is dumb how we get some shows BD only that are more expensive than the original combo packs.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by nagpo

No reason for this Essentials line, are people really going to get fooled into buying these old shows they didn't want before into buying them now because it's a different colored box?

Why so cynical? I’ve considered many of these Essentials because I just didn’t get around to buying them the first time they came out. A much nicer price helps, too.

[Pyoko]

Took a quick look at the Patlabor complete collection after reading the subtitles were redone and sure enough, all of the discs have been reauthored. Subtitles are still yellow, so bleh, but at least they're not ludicrous in size anymore and as an added bonus they're actually anti-aliased this time, nice!

Old left, new right:






On the other hand the first OAV now has a gamma change and very mild black crush, though an OK price to pay for sensible subtitles. I don't have any other of the older discs so I don't know the extent of the issue, but comparing WXIII to the Korean disc that one doesn't seem affected. Compression on the US disc is kind of not so good though (notice ringing around the letterbox).

US left, KR right:

[nagpo]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Why so cynical? I’ve considered many of these Essentials because I just didn’t get around to buying them the first time they came out. A much nicer price helps, too.

It floods the market with redundant releases. These were already cheap SAVE sets. It gets in the way of real new releases, gets them lost in the listings. It's similar to when a game dev just ports a game from last gen onto their new console without any new additions. It's done merely for a quick buck. Now, if these shows had gone through some new audio/visual enhancements I wouldn't even be complaining. But as far as I can tell it's quite literally the same disc but in a different box. I don't think I'm being cynical - I don't even understand your point in that. I'm just voicing my opinion on these releases.

[Pyoko]

Originally Posted by nagpo

It floods the market with redundant releases. These were already cheap SAVE sets. It gets in the way of real new releases, gets them lost in the listings. It's similar to when a game dev just ports a game from last gen onto their new console without any new additions. It's done merely for a quick buck. Now, if these shows had gone through some new audio/visual enhancements I wouldn't even be complaining. But as far as I can tell it's quite literally the same disc but in a different box. I don't think I'm being cynical - I don't even understand your point in that. I'm just voicing my opinion on these releases.

I don't know if there's some kind of benefit to constantly re-releasing stuff in terms of getting exposure on "new releases" lists and so on, and maybe that's partly why they do it, but I think this is mostly just a typical rebranding effort.

The main thing is they can't just lower the prices on existing products. That would in the long term hurt the sales of their premium/regular products, if people got used to just waiting a bit and getting the exact same thing much cheaper. This way you know you either pay more on release or have to deal with an ugly/tacky banner for the eventual el cheapo edition.

On the other hand the SAVE line may have gone too far into intentionally ugly territory, putting people off (I'm certainly one of them) and they're now just trying to retire it and unifying everything under the "Essentials" and "Classics" brands. So yeah, that's going to mean a few redundant releases, but only during the transition.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by Pyoko

Took a quick look at the Patlabor complete collection after reading the subtitles were redone and sure enough, all of the discs have been reauthored. Subtitles are still yellow, so bleh, but at least they're not ludicrous in size anymore and as an added bonus they're actually anti-aliased this time, nice!

Do the movies have the original 2.0 Dolby Stereo mix this time?

[Pyoko]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Do the movies have the original 2.0 Dolby Stereo mix this time?

Unfortunately they didn't fix that, 5.1 renewal mixes only.

[Girls With Guns]

Originally Posted by Pyoko

Took a quick look at the Patlabor complete collection after reading the subtitles were redone and sure enough, all of the discs have been reauthored. Subtitles are still yellow, so bleh, but at least they're not ludicrous in size anymore and as an added bonus they're actually anti-aliased this time, nice!

See, I would still prefer the subtitles to be about half the size of what the updated subs are, so that the subtitle lines are only half as wide as the video image. I like fairly small subtitles so they don't cover so much image real estate.

[cooperb21]

Originally Posted by Pyoko

I don't know if there's some kind of benefit to constantly re-releasing stuff in terms of getting exposure on "new releases" lists and so on, and maybe that's partly why they do it, but I think this is mostly just a typical rebranding effort.

The main thing is they can't just lower the prices on existing products. That would in the long term hurt the sales of their premium/regular products, if people got used to just waiting a bit and getting the exact same thing much cheaper. This way you know you either pay more on release or have to deal with an ugly/tacky banner for the eventual el cheapo edition.

On the other hand the SAVE line may have gone too far into intentionally ugly territory, putting people off (I'm certainly one of them) and they're now just trying to retire it and unifying everything under the "Essentials" and "Classics" brands. So yeah, that's going to mean a few redundant releases, but only during the transition.

Save edition's were very ugly for sure. These Essentials seem to be an improvement to me. Wouldn't mind owning one of them and even the "classics" line seems to look better imo.

The downside is if you own any of the old style packaging they won't look as good in the collection. You'll have to live with the no-matching or buy the new sets of the same series.

[cooperb21]

Originally Posted by nagpo

It floods the market with redundant releases. These were already cheap SAVE sets. It gets in the way of real new releases, gets them lost in the listings. It's similar to when a game dev just ports a game from last gen onto their new console without any new additions. It's done merely for a quick buck. Now, if these shows had gone through some new audio/visual enhancements I wouldn't even be complaining. But as far as I can tell it's quite literally the same disc but in a different box. I don't think I'm being cynical - I don't even understand your point in that. I'm just voicing my opinion on these releases.

At least the new releases look better. (Box art/packaging wise not disc.) That's about the only difference.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Girls With Guns

See, I would still prefer the subtitles to be about half the size of what the updated subs are, so that the subtitle lines are only half as wide as the video image. I like fairly small subtitles so they don't cover so much image real estate.

Agreed. But, it’s still a massive improvement as is. 1/2 size subs with anti-aliasing makes for the definitive Patlabor experience. (Except for the movies- they look good on Sentai’s releases, but lack the finer detail and original stereo mixes of the JP BDs)

[chronoclast]

Originally Posted by nagpo

In terms of Essentials: I really hate how they're just using a rebranding to flood the market with these old shows. It gets in the way of all the new releases from their competitors too. A lot of the shows they're re-releasing aren't even good, which is typical funimation fair.

No reason for this Essentials line, are people really going to get fooled into buying these old shows they didn't want before into buying them now because it's a different colored box? Most Funimation shows are bad, like most of these essentials, ironically enough. Funi seems to license every single show every season, and since most shows are bad, most funi releases are bad.

As someone who refuses to buy any initial new release from Funi due to the overall lack of effort and quality they put into their discs, the essentials and classics re-releases are the only things I'm willing to buy from them so it's good for me they started doing them. Even then I still won't pre-order as they've proven they can even screw up on simply putting old discs in new packaging.

Too many poor quality encodes, botches, and they're refusal to do new encodes and fix their screw ups has given me a very negative opinion toward Funi in general. I'd rather be patient and give them less money.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by nagpo

These were already cheap SAVE sets.

No, they weren’t.

[Pyoko]

Originally Posted by Girls With Guns

See, I would still prefer the subtitles to be about half the size of what the updated subs are, so that the subtitle lines are only half as wide as the video image. I like fairly small subtitles so they don't cover so much image real estate.

I also think they could be much smaller still, but I'll take what I can get. More importantly I'd want them to be white.

I will never understand the infatuation anime distributors in the US have always had with yellow subtitles. White works with everything; yellow is distracting, looks terrible and ruins the visuals if the show itself doesn't happen to be colorful, always introducing a strong color element that wasn't meant to be there. Apart from the Papyrus subtitles on Avatar I don't think I've ever seen them on anything "live-action", and I've never seen them period on anything that didn't originate in the US. JP anime releases with English subtitles are always white. Anime Limited's release of Cowboy Bebop used white subtitles, then they switched to yellow for Escaflowne and Outlaw Star when surprise, surprise, those were authored in the US.

As for the legibility they certainly pop more but I don't think that makes them much more readable when watching, or it's extremely marginal on the whole and not worth the drawbacks. /rant