The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[JEArgumedo]

Originally Posted by DigitalDeluge24

I see... I would never think of doing video effects like shaky cam and end credits in 1080i, I'd probably master the entire show in 1080p, archive it and then create a 1080i copy for TV. But I guess that's how not the TV anime industry works currently. If there are Japanese studios that do this sort of archiving, they likely don't bother using these higher quality materials for home video.

Oh, what might have been...

Thankfully, skilled video engineers can do wonders with a high-quality QTGMC deinterlacer. But I think, for now, I'll just stick to Blu-rays of theatrical movies and HD remasters of shows shot on 16mm film.

Remember, these shows are meant for broadcast, which is to this day still 1080i (or 720p if you're Disney or FOX) in most of the world. While most shows these days do everything at 24p and the network applies a real-time 3:2 pulldown when airing, back in the early to late 2000's it was much easier (or even necessary) to conform the TV field/frame rate of 60i/p. Archiving a 1080p master just wasn't on anyone's minds because where could you possibly show it? No Internet streaming service in the mid-2000's could stream 1080p. Heck, YouTube didn't start streaming 720p until 2009. Blu-ray and HD DVD in 2006 could show 1080p sure, but not many TV shows were coming out on the formats until later on, and they also support 1080i. Wasn't worth changing workflows for a rather niche format like Blu-ray compared to television which has a much wider audience.

We all have the benefit of hindsight now, but it is worth remembering when these shows were made that HD was very new and not many people could predict how video could evolve. Frankly, I'm grateful that some shows are 1080i like Ghost In The Shell: SAC because the alternative would likely just be an SD workflow like on FLCL.

Also, yeah, QTGMC is great, but most Blu-ray players and TV's these days do a pretty decent job deinterlacing in real-time so it's not too big of an issue either. Remember, all North American broadcast TV is still 1080i/720p so even your fancy 4K TV has to take into account deinterlacing that 1080i signal.

[Kriztoffer Swank]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Patlabor on Television BD

[Show spoiler]Ultimate Collection caps are from the JP audio version. The JP audio is the SS-Remix version (in stereo) that was released on LD/VHS between 1990-1992. Apparently the Labor sfx are different from the original mono broadcast mix. The original mix has never been released on home video.

2018 Ultimate Collection BD


2013 BD - source: Blu-ray.com review


2018 Ultimate Collection BD


JP BD - source: hissatsu


Bitrate viewer episode #1 - 2018 Ultimate Collection BD:

Apologies for the old post bump. Does the Patlabor Ultimate Collection feature improved encodes then, and this isn't just a case of Blu-ray.com's screencaps being nonoptimal? And is the currently in print Complete Collection Special Edition the same disc content as the UC? Wondering if it's worth getting even though I already own all the single releases. I notice the Blu-ray.com caps show digital stairstepping on some of the lineart, though it isn't something I noticed from normal viewing distance.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by Kriztoffer Swank

Apologies for the old post bump. Does the Patlabor Ultimate Collection feature improved encodes then, and this isn't just a case of Blu-ray.com's screencaps being nonoptimal? And is the currently in print Complete Collection Special Edition the same disc content as the UC? Wondering if it's worth getting even though I already own all the single releases. I notice the Blu-ray.com caps show digital stairstepping on some of the lineart, though it isn't something I noticed from normal viewing distance.

New improved encodes without the 0.88 gamma. Also fixes some errors with the subtitles. The subtitles are also smaller and anti-aliased. The currently in print edition should just be the UC with slightly simpler packaging (O-ring instead of Slipcase).

[Hikaru84]

Anyone looked at the 4K Belladonna of Sadness?

[Hrabnaz]

There's a new Steins;Gate 0 box coming out in March in Japan, but it's apparently only going to have 2 discs for 25 episodes. Anyone have any predictions for the video quality? It's a bit disappointing to see so few discs at such a high cost. For comparison, the previous release of the show in Japan was in 6 singles, presumably BD-25s.

[SpazeBlue]

Originally Posted by Hikaru84

Anyone looked at the 4K Belladonna of Sadness?

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...1#post19804341

[The Collector FX]

Originally Posted by SpazeBlue

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...1#post19804341

I love how there's a whole community of members that post about anime related topics/threads that never, ever set foot in the actual anime sub-forum... or post those topics where it f***ing belongs... (here)

I've missed out on so many Nova/IVE/International anime preorders because members post that stuff in the Movies/UHD subforum while neglecting this place.

[professorwho]

I try and avoid the anime section here as much as possible because of how elitist and toxic it is. Not everyone wants to post in the hellhole that is here (not this thread specifically, but the general vibe).

[The Collector FX]

Originally Posted by professorwho

I try and avoid the anime section here as much as possible because of how elitist and toxic it is. Not everyone wants to post in the hellhole that is here (not this thread specifically, but the general vibe).

My experience in the other sub-forum's has been the exact opposite. In fact my recent ban was outside this anime forum and my last significant post in the Movies sub-forum was in the District 9 thread where someone made a ludicrous comparison of Robocop to District 9.

Yes, this sub-forum can be intense sometimes but the members over yonder in the shallow end of the pool are soft, and quite frankly can't stand anyone that goes against the popular opinion(s).

We're pretty level-headed compared to the film snobs that populate the rest of this website.

[kk1]

Originally Posted by professorwho

I try and avoid the anime section here as much as possible because of how elitist and toxic it is. Not everyone wants to post in the hellhole that is here (not this thread specifically, but the general vibe).

LOL what? Elitsit, toxic? It's full of nerds

[The Collector FX]

Originally Posted by kk1

LOL what? Elitsit, toxic? It's full of nerds

Funny enough I personally think that's a big reason why some members would rather post their anime related topics in the other forums because they don't wanna be "associated with the nerd crowd".

That's just my unsubstantiated opinion though.

[Member-571539]

Originally Posted by kk1

full of nerds

[Kriztoffer Swank]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

New improved encodes without the 0.88 gamma. Also fixes some errors with the subtitles. The subtitles are also smaller and anti-aliased. The currently in print edition should just be the UC with slightly simpler packaging (O-ring instead of Slipcase).

Is it just me, or do the 2013 caps seem to have better grain retention than the 2018 caps? Unless on the original 2013 disc, the nonoptimal encoding and gamma boosting is making the grain look chunkier than it ought to. Curious about your take on it.

There's less pixelation on the lineart in the 2018 release and that's a big deal (especially since, someday, I'd like to get a good projector and would like to not see such artifacts). I wonder if that affected all the older single releases or if it's just volume one that's like that.

Is it just the TV series that had the wrong gamma or are the two OVA series like that also?

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by Kriztoffer Swank

Is it just me, or do the 2013 caps seem to have better grain retention than the 2018 caps? Unless on the original 2013 disc, the nonoptimal encoding and gamma boosting is making the grain look chunkier than it ought to. Curious about your take on it.

There's less pixelation on the lineart in the 2018 release and that's a big deal (especially since, someday, I'd like to get a good projector and would like to not see such artifacts). I wonder if that affected all the older single releases or if it's just volume one that's like that.

Is it just the TV series that had the wrong gamma or are the two OVA series like that also?

Looking at those caps, it seems like the older release has better grain retention and compression, but it isn't perfect either. The newer release does however appear to have some filtering which helps to reduce the comb artifacts to a certain extent.

First OVA has wrong gamma. Dunno about the second OVA, but I presume it's also wrong.

[BoopityBoop]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but the Boogiepop and Others release from Funimation has the wrong animation for the clean OP (it reuses the ED animation for some reason). The OP in the actual episodes has the correct animation.

[The Collector FX]

Does anyone know if there's any significant difference in terms of picture quality between the Bandai Visual release of Escaflowne: The Movie versus the Funimation release?

Also, it appears that a bunch of the special features that were available on the Ultimate Edition of the DVD release never appeared on any of the later BD releases.

[kk1]

Originally Posted by The Collector FX

Does anyone know if there's any significant difference in terms of picture quality between the Bandai Visual release of Escaflowne: The Movie versus the Funimation release?

Also, it appears that a bunch of the special features that were available on the Ultimate Edition of the DVD release never appeared on any of the later BD releases.

I know the best release is the UK version that only (for some inexplicable reason) came with the Ultimate Edition since Justin authored it.

[Member-571539]

Originally Posted by kk1

I know the best release is the UK version that only (for some inexplicable reason) came with the Ultimate Edition since Justin authored it.

Wasn’t the movie still a clone of the Funi release though?

[kk1]

Originally Posted by gloomranger

Wasn’t the movie still a clone of the Funi release though?

I thought the regular release (which also came with the CE) was a clone of Funi's the one with the UE was the only one that was different.

[Streetlight]

What frame rates were those 1080i shows mastered at?

How much would a HD recomposite improve compared to the highest quality SD master?