The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Subtitles blocking the credits

Sadly something that's a bit common with just about everyone that did English credits instead of a separate English credit roll at the end of the disc or after the episode. This goes all the way back to the DVD era, unfortunate it keeps happening.

[NLScavenger]

Ride Your Wave GKIDS BD has banding issues and for some reason a different color temperature than JP/FR BD

https://slow.pics/c/LjYjOVMu (JP/FR BD screenshot from Prince_7's review)

Color temperature of GKIDS BD is a match with the stream on a Dutch VOD service. I wonder if anything was changed between the release of the theatrical version and home video version.

[SpaceDandy]

to delete

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Space Adventure Cobra TV series - Discotek Media BD vs Happinet BD

[Show spoiler]Comparison - expires on November 23 2024

Discotek Media BD


Happinet BD


I suspect that the Discotek Media BD is a re-encode of Happinet BD M2TS files for a number of reasons. If it's a re-encode, then it is a good one that with half the bitrate manages to pretty much look the same in motion.

Audio options are the same as on the Happinet BD:
• 5.1 - JP BD Dolby TrueHD / US BD DTS-HD MA
• Stereo - AC3 2.0 640 kbps
• Mono - AC3 2.0 640 kbps

The 5.1 and Stereo upmixes of the Mono track sound horrible. Stay away.

Haven't extensively compared the BD Mono to the Perfect Collection LD Mono, but they seem to sound similar. The major difference is that the OP and ED are in stereo on BD.

By the way, the Movie BD is a remux of the Happinet BD. You can find screenshots of the movie on caps-a-holic.

BDInfo Discotek Media - Disc 1

Disc Title: Space Adventure Cobra Disc 1
Disc Label: COBRA TV1
Disc Size: 48,118,415,699 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00000.MPLS
Size: 47,793,571,968 bytes
Length: 4:56:21.763
Total Bitrate: 21.50 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 16952 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz /  1942 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz /  1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Audio: Japanese / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   640 kbps / DN -31dB
Audio: Japanese / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   640 kbps / DN -31dB
Subtitle: English / 30.370 kbps

Bitrate Discotek Media BD episode 01


Bitrate Happinet BD episode 01

Anime Limited FR BD

Doud pointed out to me that the FR BD lacks the noise reduction and dirt removal pass (hard to miss in #20). Framing is slightly wider.

Comparison (rarely the same picture type because I didn't want to redo JP/US BD screenshots)

[CrashOveride95]

That's really interesting, I guess the French got a "beta" of the remaster or something

IMO both images "work", I do kinda prefer the DNR'd version a little but if the French version was the only option it'd still look good

[DatLOLBoi]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Anime Limited FR BD

Doud pointed out to me that the FR BD lacks the noise reduction and dirt removal pass (hard to miss in #20). Framing is slightly wider.

interesting. personally the USBD looks the best with the best encoding of the 3, but the FRBD doesn't look half bad.

[Kyle15]

French is best no question. The other two are slightly blurry which is expected with those silly DNR passes.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

French is best no question.

The encoding is atrocious in darker regions on the FR BD, so I’d have to disagree. Besides, the difference isn’t that massive.

[NLScavenger]

Yeah, the artifacting in the darker regions is quite noticeable in motion.

I'm fine with the US BD.

[Memade]

I hate how Funimation (now Crunchyroll) insist on translating credits that result in blocking more of everything.

Stop turning Japanese names into long ass English letters that literally block half the screen.

[doud]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Yeah, the artifacting in the darker regions is quite noticeable in motion.

The lacklustre encoding (done by Com'On Screen back in 2015) and the resulting artifacts are not distracting in viewing conditions on a properly calibrated TV. What the comparison tells us in my opinion is that the "adjustments" made for the JP release were unnecessary if not detrimental to this classic.

[CrashOveride95]

Originally Posted by doud

What the comparison tells us in my opinion is that the "adjustments" made for the JP release were unnecessary if not detrimental to this classic.

The DNR applied to all other releases looks completely fine, I don't really have a problem with it

[NLScavenger]

Last set of screenshots for 2022.

Zambot 3 - Dynit BD

In the late 70s Sunrise was still using 35mm film on some TV productions, most notably on The Ultraman. Unfortunately Zambot 3, like Mobile Suit Gundam, was not so lucky. The remaster is for the most part sourced from 16mm film with the exception of episodes 5-8 which are closer in line with the Daitarn 3 remaster from 35mm film, but even those episodes retain significantly less grain than Daitarn 3.

Considering Daitarn 3 remaster's fairly consistent level of quality, I can only imagine that the studio used DNR to make the quality jump between the 16mm and 35mm episodes less jarring. At any rate, I wish they didn't nuke the grain because the result doesn't look great.

Episode 1


Episode 5


BDInfo Disc 1

Disc Label: ZAMBOT 3 BD01
Disc Size: 48,164,240,904 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00004.MPLS
Size: 46,266,531,456 bytes
Length: 2:53:21.849
Total Bitrate: 35.58 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 29490 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Italian / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1362 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   640 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio: Italian / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1392 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   640 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio: Japanese / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1367 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   640 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitle: Italian / 33.162 kbps
Subtitle: Italian / 0.811 kbps

Episode 01 bitrate


Episode 05 bitrate

[NLScavenger]

Arcadia of My Youth - Discotek Media BD

Arcadia of My Youth has some noise reduction shenanigans going on with things such as static grain and some ghosting here and there (see #3), but at least the image maintains a filmic appearance with the grain unlike the strongly DNR'd 2009 BD remasters of the GE999 films. It's overall not bad and I did not find the issues to be super distracting while watching the film unlike GE999.

The Japanese audio doesn't sound good just like GE999 and just like GE999 it should not be possible to sync the audio drama to BD due to the difference in runtime. Toei's disregard towards audio doesn't extend to just TV productions.

The main feature seems to be remuxed from Toei BD, whereas the Fullscreen version is an x264 encode by MediaOCD.

HD Widescreen


SD Fullscreen


BDInfo HD Widescreen

Disc Title: Arcadia of my Youth
Disc Label: Arcadia of my Youth
Disc Size: 47,848,169,212 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 01000.MPLS
Size: 38,883,661,824 bytes
Length: 2:10:00.042
Total Bitrate: 39.88 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 32988 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1536 kbps / 16-bit
Audio: Japanese / Dolby TrueHD Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz /  1430 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Embedded: 5.1 / 48 kHz /   640 kbps / DN -27dB)
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   256 kbps / DN -31dB
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   192 kbps / DN -31dB
Subtitle: English / 26.939 kbps
Subtitle: English / 0.449 kbps

BDInfo SD Fullscreen
23.976fps soft-pulldown

Disc Title: Arcadia of my Youth
Disc Label: Arcadia of my Youth
Disc Size: 47,848,169,212 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 01003.MPLS
Size: 6,451,546,752 bytes
Length: 2:09:59.341
Total Bitrate: 6.62 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 5000 kbps / 480i / 29.970 fps / 4:3 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   256 kbps / DN -31dB
Audio: Japanese / Dolby Digital Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz /   448 kbps / DN -31dB
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   256 kbps / DN -31dB
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   192 kbps / DN -31dB
Subtitle: English / 12.166 kbps
Subtitle: English / 0.171 kbps

[SeaFox]

Originally Posted by Memade

I hate how Funimation (now Crunchyroll) insist on translating credits that result in blocking more of everything.

At least they do paging credits now, and try to align them the similar to how the original Japanese credits were laid out. They used to do scrolling credits that sometimes were just lazy center-aligned over everything.

I am annoyed when they take something that has dual-language OP credits as it was originally made in Japan, and then feel the need to do their own credits in a larger font.

[PondaBaba]

Originally Posted by Pyoko

Though I seem to recall the original master being component instead of composite

Noob/clueless with this stuff also so can i ask for clarification too - i'm familiar with composite/component etc. being referred to in the context of video signal between hardware components, i.e. a player/source machine of some sort and and display of some sort, whereas if i understand correctly 'master' is just the final output/product from which copies for distribution are made(?), i.e. you could say then analogous to the 'software' in contrast to the hardware so to speak.

How are masters 'component' or 'composite' if this understanding is correct? I'm thinking you don't get other types of software that are 'component' or 'composite' like BD's so why would masters be classed in this way? TIA

[CrashOveride95]

Originally Posted by PondaBaba

Noob/clueless with this stuff also so can i ask for clarification too - i'm familiar with composite/component etc. being referred to in the context of video signal between hardware components, i.e. a player/source machine of some sort and and display of some sort, whereas if i understand correctly 'master' is just the final output/product from which copies for distribution are made(?), i.e. you could say then analogous to the 'software' in contrast to the hardware so to speak.

How are masters 'component' or 'composite' if this understanding is correct? I'm thinking you don't get other types of software that are 'component' or 'composite' like BD's so why would masters be classed in this way? TIA

Component and composite are types of analog video signal. All video in those days was analog, and editing was done to component or composite videotape, and video would be edited through machines that handled either analog component or composite video. Each format had pros and cons, component due to separating the parts of the signal through multiple separate connections provided better video quality, but consequently was a more complex signal to edit and store, and was much more expensive than Composite. Composite contained all parts of the video signal through one connection, and as a result had more issues with quality than component such as rainbowing and dotcrawl. However, as it was a smaller signal it was much cheaper to edit and store on tape.

[PondaBaba]

Originally Posted by CrashOveride95

and video would be edited through machines that handled either analog component or composite video

hmm interesting thanks, using 'composite or component BDs' as an example was silly of me because i'm fully aware we're talking analogue signals and so wouldn't in any usual circumstance be utilising that sort of video signal for BD display output (i'm familiar with them from gaming in the 90s and 00's, though component was barely a thing in the UK that i recall until the xbox360 and think prior to this RGB via SCART was effectively our version of it to an extent whereas US folks had component - maybe over YbBr or whatever the connectors were called?) but thinking about it your post made it very clear that in the process of creating masters and transferring and recording etc etc. ofc there had to be video signals going between the tech (hardware) used for this and so naturally the 'software' (tape etc.) would be the result of said composite or component video signals, and so makes sense to refer to such masters etc. that way. very helpful thanks

[NLScavenger]

If you want a grainy release of Arcadia of My Youth, you'll have to buy the French release

9 frames back-to-back: https://slow.pics/c/XKpIJBCR (FR BD screenshots provided by Prince_7)

FR BD


JP/US BD

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Arcadia of My Youth - Discotek Media BD

The Japanese audio doesn't sound good just like GE999 and just like GE999 it should not be possible to sync the audio drama to BD due to the difference in runtime. Toei's disregard towards audio doesn't extend to just TV productions.

I just popped in the KR BD of GE999 and I misremembered the sound quality because it's quite good in fact (but not as good as the Audio Drama). My bad. Arcadia of My Youth still sounds bad though.