The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[Naiera]

The last time I had issues, I did try to upgrade. I guess there's a new one out I didn't get. Thanks.

EDIT: I probably just installed that daspi thing, which wasn't any newer than what I already have. Didn't think to upgrade MakeMKV itself

[vincentric]

Funi are very dedicated at using the latsest version of aacs ASAP.

Too bad that dedication doesn't carry over to their video quality control.

[Naiera]

[kk1]

Originally Posted by Naiera

I can't MakeMKV either of the Zvezda discs, so I'll just describe the issue.

Solids tend to pulsate. Backgrounds such as the night sky in the first episodes are the worst, with the entire screen sometimes just blinking like crazy. It's completely nuts. I don't remember seeing the issue this bad before, and definitely not on a Kazé disc.

The episodes are split 7/6, but the discs are 15 and 14 gigs, respectively

Damn, that sucks I wanted to get that...

[Naiera]

Definitely can't recommend that trainwreck. The last time I was this disappointed in a release must've been when some upscale went terribly wrong. Toradora, I guess.

[Naiera]

The first disc of Terror in Resonance looks pretty decent, going by the numbers at least. I can't say if the brightness is f'ed or not. About 45 gigs for 8 episodes. Below are the stats for the first and largest file.

[Show spoiler]File size : 4.92 GiB
Duration : 22mn 52s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 30.8 Mbps
Movie name : Disc 1
Encoded date : UTC 2016-02-07 02:45:12
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.9.9 darwin(x86-release)
Writing library : libmakemkv v1.9.9 (1.3.3/1.4.4) darwin(x86-release)
Original source medium : Blu-ray

Video
ID : 1
ID in the original source medium : 4113 (0x1011)
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 52s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 27.0 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 38.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.543
Stream size : 4.31 GiB (88%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

Audio #1
ID : 2
ID in the original source medium : 4352 (0x1100)
Format : TrueHD
Codec ID : A_TRUEHD
Duration : 22mn 51s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 395 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 3 750 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Frame rate : 1 200.000 fps (40 spf)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossless
Stream size : 392 MiB (8%)
Title : Surround 5.1
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio #2
ID : 3
ID in the original source medium : 4354 (0x1102)
Format : TrueHD
Codec ID : A_TRUEHD
Duration : 22mn 52s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 1 398 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 1 728 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: C
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Frame rate : 1 200.000 fps (40 spf)
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossless
Stream size : 229 MiB (5%)
Title : Stereo
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Still no one willing to pick at Ladies Versus Butlers!? It's on TWO BD-50's, with a 6/6 split apparently. The most broke company doing what no one else really does.

Now we have more reason for someone to finally pick at it. Someone just let me know that someone made a comment that supposedly these BD's are a MPEG2 encode, as in, a DVD codec IIRC. This was a comment someone made on this Facebook post from Media Blasters.

[wesslan]

Originally Posted by svenge

The banding is rather disappointing, as such I'm reconsidering whether or not to get the US release at all. My copy of the HK release has everything that the US version has (extras, booklet, etc) except for an English dub, and to mis-quote William S. Sessions: "Winners Don't Use Dubs".



Anyhow, here's a comparison of the specs for reference:

Japanese release
Video: AVC @ 39440 kbps
JP audio: LPCM 5.1 @ 4608 kbps (16-bit) / LPCM 2.0 @ 1536 kbps (16-bit)

US release
Video: AVC @ 31978 kbps
JP audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 @ 1675 kbps (16-bit)
EN audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 @ 2368 kbps (16-bit)

So there are no visible banding or other compression issues with the HK disc? How are the subs, correct translated?

[vincentric]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Now we have more reason for someone to finally pick at it. Someone just let me know that someone made a comment that supposedly these BD's are a MPEG2 encode, as in, a DVD codec IIRC. This was a comment someone made on this Facebook post from Media Blasters.

LVB was one of several titles I had to cancel last month at RS and AmzJP because of new 4k tv purchase. Have recovered more than enough to re-order it but have lost more interest in it since then and may not re-order. Have just been streaming more of it and like it for what it is; silly slapstick ecchi, just not my cup of tea overall.

[kk1]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Definitely can't recommend that trainwreck. The last time I was this disappointed in a release must've been when some upscale went terribly wrong. Toradora, I guess.

I was reading some other reviews of WCZP and none of them mention the issue you are having with the blinking, are you sure you didn't just get a bad disc?

[vincentric]

Checked out railgun s2. It was given a decent amount of data. Around 5.5, 5.8 GB per ep -

Approximately 4.7 GB for the video and 1 GB for the audio.

It looks like shite though. Banding, blocking, aliasing (see screencap #2, when the camera pans downwards, around 90% of the image turns into a shimmering mess), even some edge sharpening all make an appearance. Banding and blocking in particular are major issues, they occur often and severely. The blocking that can be seen in the first few seconds of ep7 is just embarrassing. The only saving grace is that a nice portion of the show is shot during brighter daytime scenes where the issues aren't as apparent (but still noticeable). The video deteriorates quite badly otherwise, nightime/dimly lit scenes look terrible. Whoever encoded this needs to lose their job as. soon. as. possible.

First 8 screenshots are from ep1, the last one from ep7 -











I would've capped more pics from ep7 but didn't feel like wasting any more of my time on it.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by kk1

I was reading some other reviews of WCZP and none of them mention the issue you are having with the blinking, are you sure you didn't just get a bad disc?

I don't see how a bad disc could do that. It's obviously some sort of super shitty compression issue. It's 6/7 eps on BD25s, for pete's sake.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by vincentric

Checked out railgun s2. It was given a decent amount of data. Around 5.5, 5.8 GB per ep -

...

It looks like shite though.

Terror in Resonance also has really nice banding

[BigOnAnime]

Just how little respect does FUNi have for Shinichiro Watanabe? They not only didn't do a CE like the UK did (I'm still amazed they went with just art cards.........), but also messed up the video with that amount of banding?

Good gawd. I didn't care for the show (I nickname it "Terror in Crapness"), but I'm still a little upset and absolutely baffled at how they're treating it. This is supposed to be one of their biggest titles of the year (People couldn't stop talking about it when it was airing, it was quite popular, and is already in the top 100 most popular shows list on MAL...).

[Naiera]

FUNi respects only making money. No need to improve their Blu-rays when the majority of their buyers are mouth breathers who couldn't care less.

[Sylontack]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Just how little respect does FUNi have for Shinichiro Watanabe? They not only didn't do a CE like the UK did (I'm still amazed they went with just art cards.........), but also messed up the video with that amount of banding?

If the mockup images are anything to go off for the UK edition, they've done a relatively even split on the discs (Not sure what FUNi's discs are laid out like), so if they didn't end up using FUNi's discs it might be a much better looking release. I've got my fingers crossed Madman's release next month uses the UK discs and not FUNi's if that is the case though. (Because if they are two different encode/authorings then it could go either way if FUNi's is Region B they could use FUNi or AL)

[kk1]

Originally Posted by Naiera

I don't see how a bad disc could do that. It's obviously some sort of super shitty compression issue. It's 6/7 eps on BD25s, for pete's sake.

Just wondering why no one else mentions it, the only problems they list are subtitles and not being able to skip the opening properly. Though this forum seems to be one of the few places that scrutinizes video.

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by vincentric

Checked out railgun s2. It looks like shite though. Banding, blocking, aliasing (see screencap #2, when the camera pans downwards, around 90% of the image turns into a shimmering mess), even some edge sharpening all make an appearance. Banding and blocking in particular are major issues, they occur often and severely. The blocking that can be seen in the first few seconds of ep7 is just embarrassing. The only saving grace is that a nice portion of the show is shot during brighter daytime scenes where the issues aren't as apparent (but still noticeable). The video deteriorates quite badly otherwise, nightime/dimly lit scenes look terrible. Whoever encoded this needs to lose their job as. soon. as. possible.

Looked at a JP BDrip and compared it with Funi's BD. Unfortunately I think you're going to have to direct your complaints towards Warner Japan in this case. The awful banding and that horrendous shimmering are both present in the source evidently. Can't comment on compression issues since they're both heavily compressed in comparison, but I imagine most, if not all the issues stem from the JP BD encode. I'm not defending Funi in any way considering Eva looked like shit, but it appears to be a bit like Sentai's Chuunibyou IMO - they did what they could with a bad source.

Speaking of Sentai. Couple of pages back I noted that the text for the OP/ED text credits of K-On! looked like shit, something which I put down to being a side effect of using HDCAM masters, but every single Sentai release I've looked at authored by their new guy suffers from the issue. Seems a bit strange that we can get a competent picture as a whole, but compression around text falls apart completely.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by kk1

Just wondering why no one else mentions it, the only problems they list are subtitles and not being able to skip the opening properly. Though this forum seems to be one of the few places that scrutinizes video.

It's been established time and time again that reviewers, in general, don't know shit about video quality

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by Naiera

It's been established time and time again that reviewers, in general, don't know shit about video quality

Most casual watchers in general either don't notice or don't give a shit either. I didn't tend to notice the awful compression issues as much until I started visiting here. Banding has always been a massive annoyance for me though. I specifically remember one of my early days retail purchases being Highschool of the Dead on BD, and despite being no videophile until a bit later on, I knew it looked like shit compared to the BDrip I'd watched prior in part due to the godawful banding it suffered from. It amazes me how many comments I've seen from people that just don't notice it.