The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[BuccoBruce]

I'm sure this is a dumb question or maybe it's even been asked before, but why hasn't Anime switched to UHD BD? I don't mean why aren't we getting more 4K upscales of anime, no thank you. I mean why aren't they mastering to 10-bit, HEVC, SDR, BT.709 1080p UHD BDs? Spec supports it...



100 GB discs, less/no banding...why not?

[dubudavid]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

RIP freeze grain processing: https://slow.pics/c/Y6YWxW0m (also notice the silly error in the JP BD screenshot)

I actually didn't realize this before, but looks like the JPBD also got rid of a lot of what we call "cel dirt", which was present on the cels themselves during principal photography. At Discotek we felt that this is part of the artwork itself (and especially shows how cheap and dirty a job Part 1 was to begin with) and should have been preserved so we did not remove any of it, just actual film dirt. I suppose restoration is an overall subjective matter, with a few objective dos and DO NOTs of course haha.

[CrashOveride95]

Originally Posted by BuccoBruce

I'm sure this is a dumb question or maybe it's even been asked before, but why hasn't Anime switched to UHD BD? I don't mean why aren't we getting more 4K upscales of anime, no thank you. I mean why aren't they mastering to 10-bit, HEVC, SDR, BT.709 1080p UHD BDs? Spec supports it...

100 GB discs, less/no banding...why not?

Probably because nobody will buy them

Same reason UHD SDR isn't really common

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

I'll look into 17B tomorrow.

A bit sooner: https://slow.pics/c/8eF931AM (US BD / JP BD / IT BD / HIDIVE)

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

A bit sooner: https://slow.pics/c/8eF931AM (US BD / JP BD / IT BD / HIDIVE)

The Italian BD really in on a whole other level of bad. Sweet Jesus.

[Mangaranga]

I might come back and do an actual comparison for this, but I've briefly flicked through and compared episode 1 of Wonder Egg Priority from the US BD and JP BD, and I'm admittedly somewhat impressed. Funimation's signature red tint seems to have finally gone (hard to tell due to the filter on the JP BD), and the two different encodes actually trade blows as to which one looks better compression wise. The Japanese BD uses Aniplex's usual blanket method of applying a lowpass and deband filter, which also more or eliminates video noise. Funimation's is - as per usual - a raw encode of the source, but it doesn't seem to have any truly intrusive issues like overly obvious or excessive banding. As a result there is sometimes better detail retention, and the encoding around reds can also be noticably better. The only real annoyance to me is artifacting around Japanese text - something Sentai's BDs also suffer from.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by BuccoBruce

I'm sure this is a dumb question or maybe it's even been asked before, but why hasn't Anime switched to UHD BD? I don't mean why aren't we getting more 4K upscales of anime, no thank you. I mean why aren't they mastering to 10-bit, HEVC, SDR, BT.709 1080p UHD BDs? Spec supports it...

LOL. Because just about no one has a UHD BD player.

[BuccoBruce]

Originally Posted by CrashOveride95

Probably because nobody will buy them

Same reason UHD SDR isn't really common

I would...I guess the amount of people who'd actually want that would be pretty small.

Originally Posted by Naiera

LOL. Because just about no one has a UHD BD player.

To be fair, I haven't got an actual Blu-Ray player at all. Xbox One S in the home theater and a USB3 BD-RE drive connected to my computer when I need it.

[Prince_7]

Originally Posted by BuccoBruce

I'm sure this is a dumb question or maybe it's even been asked before, but why hasn't Anime switched to UHD BD? I don't mean why aren't we getting more 4K upscales of anime, no thank you. I mean why aren't they mastering to 10-bit, HEVC, SDR, BT.709 1080p UHD BDs? Spec supports it...



100 GB discs, less/no banding...why not?

Adding to everything that was said above, they'd also probably do rec.709 and that's a big no no considering the mess it is for entry level UHD players.
Just try out the UHD of Evangelion 3.333 and you'll see what I mean, a lot of players putput it in the wrong color space because of how unusual it is to have SDR rec.709 on a UHD disc.

[Ikari]

Hm, anyone know how The Legend of Black Heaven Blu-ray and S-CRY-ed blurays looks since they are upscales? Figured I'd grab the Patlabor bluray boxset before it's gone and to justify the shipping costs, looking at some of the Discotek titles, since Righstuf has better prices than Amazon.

[BuccoBruce]

Originally Posted by Prince_7

Adding to everything that was said above, they'd also probably do rec.709 and that's a big no no considering the mess it is for entry level UHD players.
Just try out the UHD of Evangelion 3.333 and you'll see what I mean, a lot of players putput it in the wrong color space because of how unusual it is to have SDR rec.709 on a UHD disc.

I thought that disc was SDR BT.2020? I've yet to actually come across any commercially produced SDR, 1080p, HEVC Main10, Rec.709 content, especially not on a UHD BD. It's all either stuff I or someone else encoded.

Color primaries                : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics       : BT.2020 (10-bit)
Matrix coefficients            : BT.2020 non-constant

[Prince_7]

Originally Posted by BuccoBruce

I thought that disc was SDR BT.2020? I've yet to actually come across any commercially produced SDR, 1080p, HEVC Main10, Rec.709 content, especially not on a UHD BD. It's all either stuff I or someone else encoded.

Color primaries                : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics       : BT.2020 (10-bit)
Matrix coefficients            : BT.2020 non-constant

My bad yeah, I always forget which is the problematic one.
I believe it will forever be an issue on UHD players so I hope they don't ever try to pull that off again, it's a real pain to fix.

I even tried streaming the movie through Plex and it output it in the wrong colorspace too.

[jsevakis]

Our UK release of Millennium Actress is rec.709 UHD. Some forthcoming discs as well.

[Prince_7]

No issues with SDR rec.709, I have the UK disc of Millennium Actress and it works just fine on my Sony UBP-X700.
Evangelion 3.333 though, because it is SDR rec.2020, makes the player panic and go "it's SDR so it must be rec.709 surely" and outputs it in the wrong colorspace (or maybe in DCI-P3, my testing haven't been that conclusive, but it sure as hell is not being output in rec.2020).

[The Collector FX]

Originally Posted by Prince_7

No issues with SDR rec.709, I have the UK disc of Millennium Actress and it works just fine on my Sony UBP-X700.
Evangelion 3.333 though, because it is SDR rec.2020, makes the player panic and go "it's SDR so it must be rec.709 surely" and outputs it in the wrong colorspace (or maybe in DCI-P3, my testing haven't been that conclusive, but it sure as hell is not being output in rec.2020).

Would turning off HDR on your UBP-X700 player rectify the problem?

[NLScavenger]

Astro Boy - Discotek Media BD vs King Records BD vs Manga DVD

Comparison

The Discotek Media BD holds up remarkably well against the King Records BD, even with its significantly lower video bitrate. Some sacrifices were made to make the episodes fit on the discs, mainly to the preservation of detail in the low luma range (see #2), but the artifacting is imo not very conspicuous in motion. The two BDs look for the most part similar to each other in motion.

Discotek's release is good and one that I can recommend picking up, especially if you already have the incomplete Manga DVD.

Discotek Media BD


King Records BD


Manga DVD


King Records BD bitrate episode 01
MPEG-4 AVC 30918 kbps, LPCM 2.0 16-bit (Note: episodes 3 - 52 include English dub)


Discotek Media BDInfo Disc 1 - Japanese version playlist (episodes 1-11)

DISC INFO:

Disc Title:     Astro Boy 1980 - Disc 1
Disc Label:     ASTRO BOY 1980 DISC 1
Disc Size:      44,992,389,112 bytes
Protection:     AACS
BDInfo:         0.7.5.8

PLAYLIST REPORT:

Name:                   00003.MPLS
Length:                 4:26:27.137 (h:m:s.ms)
Size:                   40,872,557,376 bytes
Total Bitrate:          20.45 Mbps

VIDEO:

Codec                   Bitrate             Description     
-----                   -------             -----------     
MPEG-4 AVC Video        16998 kbps          1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1

AUDIO:

Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description     
-----                           --------        -------         -----------     
DTS-HD Master Audio             English         761 kbps        2.0 / 48 kHz /   761 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   256 kbps / 24-bit)
DTS-HD Master Audio             Japanese        695 kbps        2.0 / 48 kHz /   695 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   256 kbps / 16-bit)
DTS-HD Master Audio             Japanese        695 kbps        2.0 / 48 kHz /   695 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   256 kbps / 16-bit)

SUBTITLES:

Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description     
-----                           --------        -------         -----------     
Presentation Graphics           English         0.702 kbps                      
Presentation Graphics           English         32.097 kbps                     
Presentation Graphics           English         32.097 kbps

[Ccharmanderk]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

A bit sooner: https://slow.pics/c/8eF931AM (US BD / JP BD / IT BD / HIDIVE)

Sweet Jesus. The 16mm source might look rough on Discotek and HIDIVE's releases, but it's just been screwed to hell in the JP and especially IT releases.

I can't imagine how anybody on the production team for these releases thought this was a suitable improvement. Discotek had the right approach here overall, I think.

[vincentric]

Apologies if already answered/mentioned (didn't do a detailed search), how is the video quality for the Anime Limited UK release of Gundam Seed? Is it an improvement over the corrected US release or is it pretty much the same encode(wrong black levels, corrupted frames)?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by vincentric

Apologies if already answered/mentioned (didn't do a detailed search), how is the video quality for the Anime Limited UK release of Gundam Seed? Is it an improvement over the corrected US release or is it pretty much the same encode(wrong black levels, corrupted frames)?

Exact same discs.

[Kyle15]

Those Japanese Lupin discs are abominable. Note the missing hat brim in cap number 1! Ew! Oversaturated color too. Discotek wins the day again!