The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[Enigmo_1]

We all already know grain is nice bud

But yeah, about Cobra screencaps...if you're talking about the bunch on imgbox (which I got from you when you posted it on a kanzenshuu thread) then yeah I can assure you those screenshots made it look extra shitty. The BD was actually decent if you just accept it's not a film preservation attempt. Visually didn't look too awful from how I was watching it.

[BrokenGears]

Hey guys, I'm currently new to the whole collecting anime biz and I was wondering if there was anything really wrong with the current Blu ray releases I have and if they're are much better versions that can be imported(even though I don't have a region free player and probably won't get one anytime soon)

1. Funimtation's release of Fullmetal Alchemist 2003
2. US Release of Redline
3. Funimation release of GiTs Innocence
4. US release of The Sky Crawlers

Thanks!

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by BrokenGears

1. Funimtation's release of Fullmetal Alchemist 2003

The only other English friendly releases of FMA are region locked UK and Australian releases that I believe are ports of the Funi release.

[BrokenGears]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

The only other English friendly releases of FMA are region locked UK and Australian releases that I believe are ports of the Funi release.

Yeah, I got lucky and was able to buy the US release of eBay for 90 bucks and it was legit.

The JP BD is most likely better right? They probably don't have subs anyway

[MrSniper1401]

So I was going through some of the episodes just to check out the video quality of the blu ray and it seems that Funi made a small error. In the last episode of the disc slightly through the halfway point, there's a brief section where Japanese Kanji comes up on screen as subtitles. There is no way to remove it in the settings. It comes up in Dub and Sub. Anyone else experience this? It's not a huge deal but considering this wasn't present when it was streaming it's just very jarring. I haven't watched through through all episodes yet in full, I just happened to find this one instance. I'd be curious if this is an isolated case or if this comes up in other scenes

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by BrokenGears

Hey guys, I'm currently new to the whole collecting anime biz and I was wondering if there was anything really wrong with the current Blu ray releases I have and if they're are much better versions that can be imported(even though I don't have a region free player and probably won't get one anytime soon)

1. Funimtation's release of Fullmetal Alchemist 2003
2. US Release of Redline
3. Funimation release of GiTs Innocence
4. US release of The Sky Crawlers

Thanks!

1. Yes, the JP BD is better encoded, but no subs.
2. The Japanese BD of Redline is better and has English subs
3. This JP BD. Has English subs.
4. No clue. The JP BD has no subs, and the Manga UK BD is a different encode, but not sure if it’s better or worse.

[kevers7290]

Not anime, but anime adjacent: does anyone have info on "The Red Turtle?" Looking for a comparison between the Sony (US) release and the UK (Studiocanal) release.

[BluexBlur]

Originally Posted by MrSniper1401

So I was going through some of the episodes just to check out the video quality of the blu ray and it seems that Funi made a small error. In the last episode of the disc slightly through the halfway point, there's a brief section where Japanese Kanji comes up on screen as subtitles. There is no way to remove it in the settings. It comes up in Dub and Sub. Anyone else experience this? It's not a huge deal but considering this wasn't present when it was streaming it's just very jarring. I haven't watched through through all episodes yet in full, I just happened to find this one instance. I'd be curious if this is an isolated case or if this comes up in other scenes

It was there when it was streaming, the subs were just covering it up.

[MrSniper1401]

Originally Posted by BluexBlur

It was there when it was streaming, the subs were just covering it up.

I understand that is the case for the sub, but it showed up while I was watching the dub. This was not present in the simuldub stream

[NLScavenger]

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack - Nozomi / Anime Limited BD vs Bandai 4K remastered BD

DNR issues aside, I prefer the 4K remastered BD because of the more balanced color grading. Some details are not visible because of the darker colors (see screenshot #14), but these were probably not intended to be visible. iirc the animators used bright colors to compensate for the generation loss caused by contact printing.

Both BDs feature the Dolby Stereo mix, but the Nozomi/AL BD also has a 5.1 upmix and the Bandai 4K remastered BD has a new discrete 4.1 remix. The 4.1 remix is basically what the film would have sounded like if it received a 70mm release with a 6 track magnetic soundtrack back in the day.

Nozomi / Anime Limited BD screenshots [Alternate link]



Bandai - 4K remastered BD screenshots [Alternate link]


For the lulz: Beez R2 PAL DVD screenshots (frameblended from 23.98fps to 25fps) [Alternate link]


BDInfo & Bitrate viewer - Anime Limited BD

Disc Title: CHARS_COUNTERATTACK_BD
Disc Label: CHARS_COUNTERATTACK
Disc Size: 42,511,192,376 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00001.MPLS
Size: 38,198,089,728 bytes
Length: 1:59:52.185
Total Bitrate: 42.49 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 27643 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: English / LPCM Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz /  4608 kbps / 16-bit
Audio: English / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1536 kbps / 16-bit
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz /  4608 kbps / 16-bit
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1536 kbps / 16-bit
Subtitle: English / 1.486 kbps
Subtitle: English / 48.239 kbps

AVG: 27643 kbps | MAX: 49658 kbps


BDInfo & Bitrate viewer - Bandai 4K remastered BD

Playlist: 00001.MPLS
Size: 39,518,619,648 bytes
Length: 2:00:07.200
Total Bitrate: 43.87 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 36206 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  2304 kbps / 24-bit
Audio: Japanese / DTS-HD Master Audio / 4.1 / 48 kHz /  3138 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 4.1 / 48 kHz /  1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitle: Japanese / 37.405 kbps

AVG: 36214 kbps | MAX: 48003 kbps

[professorwho]

Did something happen with the BDinfo on the AL disc? I know it has 2 LPCM 5.1 mixes, but they’re not showing up.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Did something happen with the BDinfo on the AL disc? I know it has 2 LPCM 5.1 mixes, but they’re not showing up.

I copied the wrong one. fixed now.

[Ccharmanderk]

Char's Counterattack doesn't look too bad even with the DNR. There's still some grain remaining, albeit in a very light capacity, and line work seems to be more or less intact. Far cry from TMS' 4K offerings.

[T26S]

Nice comparisons would you guys still recommend the AL CCA bluray

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by T26S

Nice comparisons would you guys still recommend the AL CCA bluray

The transfer is a bit dated and the windowboxing is a bit annoying, but it's still a perfectly acceptable release and the packaging is nice. Had to zoom in slightly to alleviate the windowboxing problem.

Bandai is re-issuing CCA next month in Japan with English subs. It doesn't use the 4K remaster sadly, but it should not have the windowboxing problem of the AL BD.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by cfx

Was there ever a comparison of the Shout and AL versions of A Silent Voice?

I have the Shout and just wondered if I needed to get the other one too.

I have seen ZERO screenshots of the Shout release. There was a huge comparison a few pages back by Scavenger comparing the JP, IT and UK BDs. I provided screenshots from the JP BD.

If anyone here who can take screenshots has the Shout BD, I'd love to see some caps and stats.

[Sylontack]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

The transfer is a bit dated and the windowboxing is a bit annoying, but it's still a perfectly acceptable release and the packaging is nice. Had to zoom in slightly to alleviate the windowboxing problem.

Bandai is re-issuing CCA next month in Japan with English subs. It doesn't use the 4K remaster sadly, but it should not have the windowboxing problem of the AL BD.

A shame the 4K doesn't have an English friendly release at this point, seeing as I'm going to watch CCA for the first time once my order finally makes it to Sydney. The windowboxing isn't a huge deal-breaker for me though. Curious to see how the JP re-issue fares (packaging and encode of course), though I've already spent a good $50-$60 to get the UK set of a single film over here, goes to show why I still haven't grabbed any of the series BDs yet

[kevers7290]

Can it be assumed that the UK release of Mirai is superior to the US release?

[Thedoctor2016]

Nope its not, it has no extras on disc. Zero, AL should be ashamed.

[kevers7290]

^I mean in terms of video quality. I really don't care about extras.