The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[omarchafa]

Since when did Shout Factory starting releasing anime BDs especially movies? Are they good when it comes to video encoding? I would have hope so since they were top tier on their DVD releases back in the day.

[NLScavenger]

Bakemonogatari – Hanabee / MVM BD

Sylontack posted a screenshot comparison with the Aniplex BD a long time ago, but the screenshots are gone now.

Screenshots

Audio
Japanese: DTS-HD MA 2.0 / 1750 kbps / 48 kHz / 24-bit
Audio commentary: DTS-HD MA 2.0 / 1120 kbps / 48 kHz / 16-bit

Bitrate viewer report – complete disc 1
Episodes are encoded as a single file. No separate M2TS files.

AVG: 19938 kbps | MAX: 62490 kbps

Episode 1 (split via mkvtoolnix)

AVG: 24215 kbps | MAX: 56047 kbps

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by omarchafa

Since when did Shout Factory starting releasing anime BDs especially movies? Are they good when it comes to video encoding? I would have hope so since they were top tier on their DVD releases back in the day.

They are mediocre. They started with a contract with GKIDS and Ghibli, now they also work with Eleven Arts.

They do constant bitrate encodes with little variation (because they're automated with no human compressionist), and often times have poor artifacts. They're good for an automated process, but not as good as the JP BDs often are.

There's two exceptions- one good, one bad. Maquia is hardsubbed with 2 video tracks because Bandai wanted it hardsubbed; Perfect Blue is good because they "stole"* Justin Sekakis' encode for the upcoming UK remastered BD.

Plus, their translations are sub-par, but that's an Eleven Arts thing. (Their Super Sentai DVDs have questionable translations too, often with really bad errors)

*got rights

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

TLDR: You really want to capture those again in MPC/MPV, because as they stand currently they're not accurate.

(this is about Castlevania and me using VLC for screenshots)

Here

122 screenshots done in VirtualDub2, as recommended by NLScavenger, to prove the encode is the issue.

Here's some highlights:

[Show spoiler]

Still the worst looking BD I own.

[slerch666]

Originally Posted by chronoclast

Thank you. I'll send an email to them after you post about Human Crossing that way there's more evidence if that one is also messed up or not.

Human Crossing is definitely impacted. I will do screen caps tomorrow. Did a frame by frame with the Oppo and saw several frame errors in those seconds.

Hopefully we can get Sentai to fix their future encodes even if they refuse to fix this first batch.

[chronoclast]

Originally Posted by slerch666

Human Crossing is definitely impacted. I will do screen caps tomorrow. Did a frame by frame with the Opportunity and saw several frame errors in those seconds.

Hopefully we can get Sentai to fix their future encodes even if they refuse to fix this first batch.

I was afraid of that. There's a very high likelihood that every SD-BD of theirs so far is botched in the same way. I bet they have their encoder settings not set correctly.

They've rarely done recalls so we're likely stuck with these botched releases for the time being. They need to fix this problem for future releases ASAP though.

[professorwho]

While I have industry contacts, I sadly have none for Sentai. So I can't pass it along unless I did by email. And, considering I don't have any, I'm not sure what I'd say.

[professorwho]

Fist of the North Star Movie Caps

4:3 vs 16:9
DVD vs Blu-ray

[Lambadelta]

Finally decided to do a small write up on Selecta Vision's release of Slayers NEXT

Physical Package

• Thin cardboard sleeve/box which contains a 3 panel digipack, and a 4th panel that holds a small booklet.
• The small booklet contains character profiles, small back information, and some simple art illustrations/character sketches.
• The set is presented on 3 BD50s.
• Episodes on the disc are around 3.9GBs each.

Media Info (Ignore the lack of Spanish Audio. I don't rip it)

General
Unique ID                      : 52111649722207830181335016590294383142 (0x273456B2C23CAFFC144C1BBB3DCFFA26)
Format                         : Matroska
Format version                 : Version 2
File size                      : 3.36 GiB
Duration                       : 22mn 20s
Overall bit rate mode          : Variable
Overall bit rate               : 21.5 Mbps
Encoded date                   : UTC 2019-03-03 02:39:27
Writing application            : MakeMKV v1.14.2 win(x64-release)
Writing library                : libmakemkv v1.14.2 (1.3.5/1.4.7) win(x64-release)

Video
ID                             : 1
Format                         : AVC
Format/Info                    : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                 : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC         : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames      : 4 frames
Codec ID                       : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                       : 22mn 20s
Bit rate mode                  : Variable
Maximum bit rate               : 35.0 Mbps
Width                          : 1 920 pixels
Height                         : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 16:9
Frame rate mode                : Constant
Frame rate                     : 23.976 fps
Standard                       : NTSC
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0
Bit depth                      : 8 bits
Scan type                      : Progressive
Language                       : English
Default                        : No
Forced                         : No
Color range                    : Limited
Color primaries                : BT.709
Transfer characteristics       : BT.709
Matrix coefficients            : BT.709
DURATION                       : 00:22:20.839500000
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES               : 32148
NUMBER_OF_BYTES                : 3337673893
SOURCE_ID                      : 001011
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP        : MakeMKV v1.14.2 win(x64-release)
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC   : 2019-03-03 02:39:27
_STATISTICS_TAGS               : BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES SOURCE_ID

Audio
ID                             : 2
Format                         : DTS
Format/Info                    : Digital Theater Systems
Format profile                 : MA / Core
Mode                           : 16
Format settings, Endianness    : Big
Codec ID                       : A_DTS
Duration                       : 22mn 20s
Bit rate mode                  : Variable
Bit rate                       : Unknown / 1 509 Kbps
Channel(s)                     : 2 channels
Channel positions              : Front: L R
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                      : 16 bits
Compression mode               : Lossless / Lossy
Title                          : Stereo
Language                       : Japanese
Default                        : Yes
Forced                         : No
DURATION                       : 00:22:20.586666666
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES               : 125680
NUMBER_OF_BYTES                : 268466708
SOURCE_ID                      : 001101
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP        : MakeMKV v1.14.2 win(x64-release)
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC   : 2019-03-03 02:39:27
_STATISTICS_TAGS               : BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES SOURCE_ID

Picture Quality
Honestly an improvement from S1 with it not being as aggressive. But it is still an upscale of a SD source with attempted colour correction, and what looks like artifical grain/noise.

(The series is blackboxed. I've just removed them for this comparison)



https://slowpics.org/comparison/21e7...c-8e61314b241c
(diff.pics refuses to work for me)

While there is detail loss especially in scenes with bright lights I find the BD quite enjoyable to watch when it isn't right up in my face at a desk. The attempts to up its colour range, and not relying on a BD/TV's upscale solutions makes it a semi-decent solution to those wanting the series on BD, but do not forget this set is NOT english friendly. I've personally muxed in the ENG dub to the BD rips so I can enjoy them.

Not a the worst purchase a Slayers Fan can make while wanting to own another release, and willing to put a bit of work in to being able to enjoy it in english.

It still a shame though that this series still has no rescan made.

[Yuripa]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Bakemonogatari – Hanabee / MVM BD

Sylontack posted a screenshot comparison with the Aniplex BD a long time ago, but the screenshots are gone now.

Here you go : https://slowpics.org/comparison/ecbb...2-56b71e6532b2

I just used 4 screenshots, but it's enough to show the difference I think.

[slerch666]

Originally Posted by professorwho

While I have industry contacts, I sadly have none for Sentai. So I can't pass it along unless I did by email. And, considering I don't have any, I'm not sure what I'd say.

You can always put in a Tech Support request from their site. They were responsive to my first 2 emails. After that they have ignored me (only sent 4 emails, for the record).

To be silly...

"Dear Sentai/MaidenJapan

Your interlaced capability on your SD on BD releases is severely lacking. Please stop encoding at 30 fps straight and instead use the proper 4:3 pulldown method.

Thank you."


And no, I have no idea if I even phrased all that correctly.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by Yuripa

Here you go : https://slowpics.org/comparison/ecbb...2-56b71e6532b2

I just used 4 screenshots, but it's enough to show the difference I think.

Makes me wish that there was a market for the Monogatari series in Italy. Would have gladly bought a Dynit release.

[Yuripa]

Indeed.
Tha AoA release of Bake & Nisemonogatari has a pretty big amount of banding unfortunatly.
It's not as bad as the AUS/UK release but it's still a little disapointing.
I do not own the German edition but I heard that there is still some heavy banding on some scenes.

[Yuripa]

while I was at it, I just take a few screenshots from the french release from Dybex/IDP (The 2nd edition, the Saphir one) and... damn it hold very well against the AoA edition.
A little more Banding (very slight) but waaaaaaay better than the AUS/UK edition.

It also should be noted that the french edition is on 2 BD, while AoA is 6 (for 15 epsiodes), meaning that if you know how to encode, there is no need to have that many discs, and IDP know how to encode, it's one if not the best authoring house in France.

https://slowpics.org/comparison/9698...0-4c4320996f75

[russ869]

Originally Posted by svenge

You don't add "st", "nd", "rd", or "th" to roman numerals that indicate generations.

Unless, of course, it's Lupin the IIIrd...!

[Ccharmanderk]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Fist of the North Star Movie Caps

4:3 vs 16:9
DVD vs Blu-ray

Bought this Blu-ray not long after release as to upgrade from DVD. Probably the best possible release short of a new transfer and/or Toei stumbling across unaltered versions of the censored sequences. A few oddities (both the theatrical and home video endings are SD upscaled, just from different sources), but it's worth getting over the DVD.

[BlackCondor93]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Maquia is hardsubbed with 2 video tracks because Bandai wanted it hardsubbed;

I honestly thought Hakuhodo DY MaP (formerly Showgate) was the licensor, rather than Bandai Visual/Emotion (I'm basing this on the front cover of Madman's upcoming release, which has Hakuhodo DY MaP's logo next to the Madman logo).

[slerch666]

Well DANG. I got a response from Sentai about their SD on BD releases.

Doesn't sound like they will ever fix the VOTOMS, Xabungle, Human Crossing, and previous releases but I did get a promising response with regards to future releases:

"Thanks for reaching out. We are now aware of the issue and are reviewing the process for SD on BD future releases. We appreciate your support. Have a great day! "

My only problem is that anything that has been solicited, like the VOTOMS OVAs, likely are using the old setting and are already completed. Makes me sad it is unlikely we'll ever see a great VOTOMS release in North America. But at least we should see correctly encoded discs in the future.

[pikagreg]

I assume Kino's Journey probably had the same issues?

[slerch666]

Originally Posted by pikagreg

I assume Kino's Journey probably had the same issues?

I do not own the disc to check but considering they seem to have used the same settings for all of their SD on BD releases, there is a near 100% certaintly that it is impacted. The easiest way to tell, if you own it, is to start it up then crawl frame by frame. You should see it very quickly, what I would call ghosting, but may have a more technical name.

You can also see it in motion as jaggies in some diagonal lines.