The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[BigOnAnime]

More caps from Sensuifu. He also had some pretty positive things to say about Escaflowne.

Plastic Memories Volume 2
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post380284

Originally Posted by Sensuifu

I might have to take back what I said about the PQ in the past...At least from my early impression, for the most part, the PQ is nearly 1:1 identical to the Japanese set. Still, there are exceptions- by 'for the most part', I mean that disc 3 and disc 5 take a little hit because of the extras. The PQ on those discs do look close to the Japanese set, but suffer from occasional compression artifacting in some scenes due to the limited bitrate (as exampled in pic 1 of comparison 2).

Though what surprised me was how the OP and ED look better than the JP's release. I didn't think it could look clearer, but yeah, the caps speak for themselves (i.e. rug/floor on pic 3, comp2). Though it looks like there might have been two different cuts for these because the Japanese ED doesn't zoom in on some frames while the US is cropped (and has some odd analog-like noise (probably composite master due to the cropping?), notably on the frames with Hitomi and Allen kissing.

So far this looks like a solid release as far as the PQ goes. The slight compression artifacting isn't too noticeable and is only pretty much relevant to those specific discs due to the extras taking up the bitrates. Otherwise, the rest of the discs look just as good as the JP release. Audio-wise, I didn't run into anything problematic so far, but I've yet to have a thorough listen to it (will do on rewatch). And unless there's some other odd issue I've yet to run into, this is actually one of FUNi's better releases (beats Cowboy Bebop imo) as far as picture quality is concerned. Curious to see how AL's set will match up.


screencaps
Movie screencaps
screencap comparison 1
screencap comparison 2

http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post381452

[Girls With Guns]

Well, that's good to hear - that counts more than the pretty packaging, so something to look forward to even if everything else about the Kickstarter set was mangled, at least.

[Mangaranga]

Whilst I'm not going to go too far into the series to find comparison shots as I haven't seen Escaflowne before, initial impressions are quite good and it definitely looks better than Funi's release. No colour irregularities either so I can breathe easy knowing I made the right decision!

Some comparisons here (Yes I screwed up comparison 3, I'm sorry)
Additional comparison pic

Average bitrate for episode 1 is 23mbps with a 16 bit Stereo PCM JP track @ 1536kbps and a 5.1 DTS-HD (2016) English track @ 1941kbps.

I may as well also state whilst I'm here that the Outlaw Star discs look fantastic from what I've seen too.

[Naiera]

Outlaw Star has the Japanese video files, so it better look good

Great to hear that UK Esca is better than the US.

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Outlaw Star has the Japanese video files, so it better look good

Great to hear that UK Esca is better than the US.

I still haven't properly watched the show, so I still can't say anymore other than the bits I've watched look fantastic, but the BDMV sizes for each disc pretty much match the Japanese BDs. Discs 1 - 3 are ~45gb whilst disc 4 is just over 40gb. Both audio tracks are presented in 16bit LPCM whilst the dub sync issues (in episode 1 at least) appear to have been addressed and fixed this time around.

[Naiera]

[mp3dom]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

Whilst I'm not going to go too far into the series to find comparison shots as I haven't seen Escaflowne before, initial impressions are quite good and it definitely looks better than Funi's release. No colour irregularities either so I can breathe easy knowing I made the right decision!

Some comparisons here (Yes I screwed up comparison 3, I'm sorry)
Additional comparison pic

Average bitrate for episode 1 is 23mbps with a 16 bit Stereo PCM JP track @ 1536kbps and a 5.1 DTS-HD (2016) English track @ 1941kbps.

I may as well also state whilst I'm here that the Outlaw Star discs look fantastic from what I've seen too.

Why is there such "saturation" difference?

[themp3000]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Outlaw Star has the Japanese video files, so it better look good

Great to hear that UK Esca is better than the US.

Looked at the comps and I just really can't tell much of a difference on Escaflowne. So going by that, does not seem significant enough to be worth the additional $40 to $50 USD or risk of damage in transit over the pond.

[Jim Purcell]

So, I got my hands on a copy of Discotek's Getter Robo Armageddon Blu-ray release. I've been pretty excited about getting it since it was announced. Discotek's previous Getter Robo release, Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo was GORGEOUS in it's video reproduction.

After watching the first episode of Armageddon, while the video is a definite improvement over previous DVD releases, I think it might be DNR'd? Black levels are really good, but other colors seem kind of washed? There are flecks of film damage that pop up periodically, but no film grain to speak of.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by Jim Purcell

So, I got my hands on a copy of Discotek's Getter Robo Armageddon Blu-ray release. I've been pretty excited about getting it since it was announced. Discotek's previous Getter Robo release, Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo was GORGEOUS in it's video reproduction.

After watching the first episode of Armageddon, while the video is a definite improvement over previous DVD releases, I think it might be DNR'd? Black levels are really good, but other colors seem kind of washed? There are flecks of film damage that pop up periodically, but no film grain to speak of.

It's upscaled.

[UseY0ur1llusi0n]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

Whilst I'm not going to go too far into the series to find comparison shots as I haven't seen Escaflowne before, initial impressions are quite good and it definitely looks better than Funi's release. No colour irregularities either so I can breathe easy knowing I made the right decision!

Some comparisons here (Yes I screwed up comparison 3, I'm sorry)
Additional comparison pic

Average bitrate for episode 1 is 23mbps with a 16 bit Stereo PCM JP track @ 1536kbps and a 5.1 DTS-HD (2016) English track @ 1941kbps.

I may as well also state whilst I'm here that the Outlaw Star discs look fantastic from what I've seen too.

Definitely much better. Looks like I won't have to put up with Funi's banding-filled, bitstarved shite after all, nice...

The Outlaw Star JP master looks really good aside from the few upscaled SD scenes that appear throughout the last 2 episodes.

[SlaughterX]

Ehhh, honestly I am more satifised with the prices of complete series on BD now compared to how the DVDs were priced way back when. ANiplex releases are a rip off, plain and simple. I'm not willing to spend hundreds of dollars for a short series, and Funimation does a good job of making it affordable, so I am happy.

[Girls With Guns]

Affordable at an unacceptable cost to everything else, you mean. No thanks, I'll keep buying AoA titles without hesitation, and buying as few Funimation titles as possible.

[zrdb]

Originally Posted by Girls With Guns

Affordable at an unacceptable cost to everything else, you mean. No thanks, I'll keep buying AoA titles without hesitation, and buying as few Funimation titles as possible.

F**k aniperplexing-over priced crap for the most part. For people who have the money to buy their junk-"A fool and their money are soon parted".

[Pyoko]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

Whilst I'm not going to go too far into the series to find comparison shots as I haven't seen Escaflowne before, initial impressions are quite good and it definitely looks better than Funi's release. No colour irregularities either so I can breathe easy knowing I made the right decision!

Nice, a lot less blocking in the dark regions, time to order. Does it use Japanese or English credits for the OP/ED?

Unrelated but browsing the AL site I noticed they released Gankutsuou a while back, anyone know what it looks like? Is it the same rubbish, filtered master as the Japanese BD or a more pure upscale?

[Sylontack]

Originally Posted by Pyoko

Unrelated but browsing the AL site I noticed they released Gankutsuou a while back, anyone know what it looks like? Is it the same rubbish, filtered master as the Japanese BD or a more pure upscale?

I believe it pretty much mirrors the JP BD (same disc count too I think). Although I haven't actually seen anything indicating as such. AL would have likely made a big deal about it if they were working on their own upscale/using one Japan didn't use.

[Pyoko]

Originally Posted by Sylontack

I believe it pretty much mirrors the JP BD (same disc count too I think). Although I haven't actually seen anything indicating as such. AL would have likely made a big deal about it if they were working on their own upscale/using one Japan didn't use.

I also figure the chances of it being something unique would be very low, I'll just stick with my Geneon set.

[Naiera]

Outlaw Star looks GREAT on Blu-ray. Just over 44GB on the first disc with 6.1GB being the smallest episode on there; 6.3 being the largest. Video is sharp and detailed, and it seems they left all the grain in there. It reminds me of Tenchi on FUNi Blu-ray, but without the brightness boost. The show itself also reminds me of a less serious Bebop with some Tenchi sprinkled over it MediaInfo in the spoiler.

[Show spoiler]
File size : 5.76 GiB
Duration : 24mn 7s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 34.2 Mbps
Movie name : Outlaw Star D1
Encoded date : UTC 2016-11-05 01:47:38
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.10.2 darwin(x86-release)
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Video
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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
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Audio #1
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Title : Stereo
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Audio #2
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ID in the original source medium : 4353 (0x1101)
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Codec ID : A_PCM/INT/LIT
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Channel(s) : 2 channels
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Frame rate : 30.000 fps (1600 spf)
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Text #1
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[SlaughterX]

Outlaw Star is a good, fun series. I'll look into double dipping when the price is right if it's noticeably better than the DVDs.

[Naiera]

I don't see how the price is not right already. It looks MILES better than the DVDs.

I can easily say that without ever having watched the DVDs, too.