The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[pikagreg]

Part of me still wants the old DVD singles set for Mushishi with the nice box but it is too pricey for something that has a BD in Japan lol

[Sendo]

So it's an SD show that's upscaled to Blu-ray. I think my Panasonic ub820 does really well at upscaling content, so I might just take my chances with the SAVE set. I also quite like the dub.

[BigOnAnime]

I want the singles with the artbox as they're beautiful. I view FUNimation singles as stuff to collect, not to actually watch. Watching would be through the re-releases on less discs, though some shows never got re-released on less discs (full list found in here). FUNimation's graphic designers were on fire in the singles era.

Mushi-shi 蟲師 Limited Edition Out of Print Anime Box Set - YouTube

[Sendo]

That is a beauty.

Geneon had awesome art boxes too. So happy I found the Gankutsuou collection in good shape for a cheap price. ADV was hit or miss imo, and I remember them doing a lot of digi packs which were just the most annoying thing in the world.

[PGW]

Originally Posted by Toad King

The Dangers in My Heart has a very soft look in general and it isn't solely because of stream quality.

My copy arrived yesterday and the softness is definitely part of the intended look of the series - nothing deficient with the disc (nor is all the artwork soft).

[kk1]

Originally Posted by CrashOveride95

Upscaled unfortunately

[Show spoiler]

Is there a list of Japanese Blu-rays that are worse rhan the DVDs?

[CrashOveride95]

Originally Posted by kk1

Is there a list of Japanese Blu-rays that are worse rhan the DVDs?

Too long to list

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by CrashOveride95

Too long to list

This, there are lots of Blu-rays than look worse than DVDs, and even sometimes LaserDiscs and VHS tapes. The blanket statement "Blu-ray is always better." couldn't be any more false. I learned Blu-ray wasn't always better back in 2011 when I saw how awful FLCL's upscale looked, and that was when I knew way less than I do now, and wasn't as good at spotting problems.

A quick lightning round of examples of stuff that looks worse on Blu-ray than DVD.

-Azumanga Daioh
-Blue Seed (Discotek went SDBD because of how bad the JP Blu-ray looked.)
-Blue Submarine No. 6 (Discotek DTS DVD uses the JP DVD masters, Bandai Entertainment DVDs look worse than the smeary Q-TEC upscale used on the JP Blu-ray and Discotek Blu-ray.)
-FLCL
-Gankutsuou
-Ikki Tousen S1
-Kaleido Star
-Love Hina (TV series)
-Master Keateon (One of the worst Blu-rays ever made.)
-Shakugan no Shana S1-S2 (Unfortunately the FUNimation DVDs for S2 are dowscaled from the Blu-rays, so you're ****ed no matter what. At least the Geneon DVDs exist for S1. The JP Blu-rays were so bad many fansubbers refused to touch them.)
-Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (It's pick your poison, but the DVD shows more stuff.)

[Sendo]

Does such a list exist? I would be interested in reading it.

[kk1]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

This, there are lots of Blu-rays than look worse than DVDs, and even sometimes LaserDiscs and VHS tapes. The blanket statement "Blu-ray is always better." couldn't be any more false. I learned Blu-ray wasn't always better back in 2011 when I saw how awful FLCL's upscale looked, and that was when I knew way less than I do now, and wasn't as good at spotting problems.

[Show spoiler]
A quick lightning round of examples of stuff that looks worse on Blu-ray than DVD.

-Azumanga Daioh
-Blue Seed (Discotek went SDBD because of how bad the JP Blu-ray looked.)
-Blue Submarine No. 6 (Discotek DTS DVD uses the JP DVD masters, Bandai Entertainment DVDs look worse than the smeary Q-TEC upscale used on the JP Blu-ray and Discotek Blu-ray.)
-FLCL
-Gankutsuou
-Ikki Tousen S1
-Kaleido Star
-Love Hina (TV series)
-Master Keateon (One of the worst Blu-rays ever made.)
-Shakugan no Shana S1-S2 (Unfortunately the FUNimation DVDs for S2 are dowscaled from the Blu-rays, so you're ****ed no matter what. At least the Geneon DVDs exist for S1. The JP Blu-rays were so bad many fansubbers refused to touch them.)
-Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (It's pick your poison, but the DVD shows more stuff.)

Let me narrow it down then, given my recent Sugura-ya kick, are there any shows without a Western release where the Blu-ray is worse, like say Macross or Maison Ikkoku?

[SpaceDandy]

Originally Posted by AreaFive

They are, well, about as good as you can expect a DVD to be. Comparative quality aside, it's an an easy decision however, as it's the only readily available western release of a phenomenal series.

I'd love to one day see it come to blu-ray (along with the excellent season two and OVAs) but it doesn't seem particularly likely any time soon.

Mushishi has received a very solid BD release in France; it was properly detelecined from 1080i to 1080p by the skilled, now defunct, IDP Home Video authoring lab (we commonly referred to them as our very own MediaOCD ).

If you are fine with overseas releases, I would definitely recommend it over the US DVD or the JP BD.

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by kk1

Let me narrow it down then, given my recent Sugura-ya kick, are there any shows without a Western release where the Blu-ray is worse, like say Macross or Maison Ikkoku?

No idea about Macross, but I know like Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku was treated with love and care. There were old comparisons here (found in my years out of date index linked in my signature) which are now lost, but they showed it was a massive upgrade over the DVDs. Here's screenshots.

Originally Posted by WTK

via Mania.com forums

https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...882#post368882

This may be of interest, this is a list of cel-animated anime where the Blu-ray was an upscale instead of a remaster. Note that this doesn't automatically mean the Blu-ray is worse. Like in the case of Slam Dunk, despite the DNR and such, it still looked better than the DVDs which were already pretty terrible to begin with.
https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...lm-based-anime

Oh yeah, this now reminds me, another example of a show where the Blu-ray is worse and it doesn't have a western release is Magical Angel Creamy Mami. The Blu-ray is a smeary upscale. The best release of the show is the OOP Anime Sols DVDs, which looked better than the Japanese DVDs. Only 500 copies of the final 2 sets were made instead of 1,000, so yeah. I'd wait for Discotek to hopefully get it, if magical girl stuff manages to sell for them (Ex: Buy Nanoha and Saint Tail).

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

[Quoted screenshots that are now dead links]

Well, now I can not only say that Anime Sols DVDs have better quality than the R2 DVDs, but better quality than the JP Blurays as well!

I did happen to know that they were just an upscale from the exact same digibeta masters we used by the way.... but I couldn't say anything at the time.

https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...037#post407037

[AreaFive]

Originally Posted by SpaceDandy

Mushishi has received a very solid BD release in France; it was properly detelecined from 1080i to 1080p by the skilled, now defunct, IDP Home Video authoring lab (we commonly referred to them as our very own MediaOCD ).

If you are fine with overseas releases, I would definitely recommend it over the US DVD or the JP BD.

That is a nice looking release and I certainly don't mind region B discs, unfortunately it apparently only has French subtitles.

[kk1]

Thanks BOA and I have the Sols Creamy Mami dvds

[kk1]

Originally Posted by AreaFive

That is a nice looking release and I certainly don't mind region B discs, unfortunately it apparently only has French subtitles.

If the only other option is a Japanese release that also lack subs, I'd rather have the better authored discs.

Given this forum's area of expertise we really should have a sticky thread of the "best" looking disc for everything.

[SMD88]

Originally Posted by kk1

Let me narrow it down then, given my recent Sugura-ya kick, are there any shows without a Western release where the Blu-ray is worse, like say Macross or Maison Ikkoku?

Macross is gorgeous, as is Maison Ikkoku (along with UY, RANMA and cel INUYASHA as pointed out already). If you have the UY BDs, you already have an idea of what an incredible job WB did on the 80's trio. They royally fu**ed up with the UY movie box (and never fixed it!), but the series and OVAs are amazing. As are the same for MI and Ranma. Huge jump from the old LD master DVDs.

The UY "High Vision" DVDs are a big step up from the composite LD master DVDs, but at the same time, the colour is quite "off" compared to the colour corrected BDs. If the BDs were 4:3 and had the "no cut-ban" of Only You, AS ADVERTISED, they would be the ultimate versions.

Just a shame they have not kept them in print. Very glad I bought the UY, MI and Ranma boxes before they sky rocketed in price. I adore MI and LOVE UY! Ranma.... hmmm, I thought it took a huge dive after the initial 18 episodes. The "rejig" had some of the worst TV animation I have ever seen. Plus I found the repetitive nature of the characters and stories annoying. Very annoying main characters. Loved the original OVAs, though. "Super" was okay...

I bought the Macross L.E box on release (and the DVD box before that, naturally!) and was very happy with it. I actually just finished re-watching it last week. It is my favourite series of all time, DYRL? being my favourite movie.

I also love Macross 7 and naturally, Plus. I watched Macross 7 before Macross. Should have watched them in order. Really need to drag out my Mac7 CDs, too! Love the Fire Bomber stuff, most of the best songs were not in the show.

For anything Bandai Visual that had an HD remaster DVD box, you are almost always safe with the BDs. Shows such as Escaflowne, Gundam W, Cowboy Bebop, Macross/7/Plus, were put on BD without being altered too much. I *think* Macross had some grain reduction vs the DVDs, but I have not compared. It still has plenty of grain, though. I cannot think of a HD remaster with a BD other than those. Others such as Aika and Mahou Tsukai-tai! are strangely absent on BD.

Edit: Should have said that my only issue with Macross HD is that BV were too cheap and lazy to fix the splice marks on the DVD remaster. Instead, they zoomed the picture in. Very obvious when compared to the LDs, old composite DVDs and Animeigo box. Animeigo DID remove the splice marks. Really need to compare some shots with the BD to see if it is the same as the HD DVD box. Too bad "fixed" home versions were not really a thing in 1982-3. They could have fixed those god-awful Korean "Anime Friend" episodes. Although, they did complete *some* animation for ep11 after the terrible broadcast version. But there were circumstances there.

[AreaFive]

Originally Posted by Misioon_Odisea

For anybody with the new Blue Giant disc and the appropriate sound equipment, how's your experience with the Dolby Atmos audio track going? Any observations or comments? How does it compare to at least the other audio options available on the disc (5.1 and 2.0)? Really curious to know how the Atmos track fares in general for this movie.

I just finished watching this and have a lot of thoughts. In the interest of keeping it brief (which is difficult as I have an incredible fondness and close relationship to jazz and watching fiction about it can be interesting) I'll keep this limited to your question.

The overhead channels in this are utilized to be sure but not generally in the discrete "ah, there's rain coming from the Atmos speakers" sense. More often than not they are used to create a lovely extension of the front and surround speakers. This is used most effectively when the music is at its height emotionally. Stand-out moments include the pianist's solo while he's

[Show spoiler]sitting in with the other group

, the smoking 6/8 afro-Cuban piece the sax and drummer play together

[Show spoiler]at their final gig, and the final performance of the film.

Whether in Atmos or lower there is a lot to like here with crystal clear dialogue and well-timed, easily readable subs. Surround channels are used nicely and again primarily as extension. Their finest moment is during a piano solo when there is a "spinning effect" around the viewer which was remarkably effective. LFE is there but could have been stronger.

This was definitely an entertaining and captivating watch that ended stronger than I initially suspected it would. Not without a few arguable misteps, it had lots of heart and, much like the musicians whose story it told, delivered in the end.

[peppapigstan]

imo the UY/Ranma/Maison Ikkoku HD remasters are pretty good for the time but I wouldn't say they don't hold up that well, older 16mm remasters like GaiGaoGar's or Bakusou Kyoudai's have aged better

[sorelcrow]

I have read somewhere that Suzume´s german blu ray release has english dub audio? Could someone confirm this? Thanks.

[Misioon_Odisea]

Originally Posted by AreaFive

I just finished watching this and have a lot of thoughts. In the interest of keeping it brief (which is difficult as I have an incredible fondness and close relationship to jazz and watching fiction about it can be interesting) I'll keep this limited to your question.

The overhead channels in this are utilized to be sure but not generally in the discrete "ah, there's rain coming from the Atmos speakers" sense. More often than not they are used to create a lovely extension of the front and surround speakers. This is used most effectively when the music is at its height emotionally. Stand-out moments include the pianist's solo while he's

[Show spoiler]sitting in with the other group

, the smoking 6/8 afro-Cuban piece the sax and drummer play together

[Show spoiler]at their final gig, and the final performance of the film.

Whether in Atmos or lower there is a lot to like here with crystal clear dialogue and well-timed, easily readable subs. Surround channels are used nicely and again primarily as extension. Their finest moment is during a piano solo when there is a "spinning effect" around the viewer which was remarkably effective. LFE is there but could have been stronger.

This was definitely an entertaining and captivating watch that ended stronger than I initially suspected it would. Not without a few arguable misteps, it had lots of heart and, much like the musicians whose story it told, delivered in the end.

Fascinating, thanks a lot for your insight. Let's keep seeing later how Atmos continues to evolve and develop in future Anime releases that use it.