The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[Ccharmanderk]

Originally Posted by zrdb

I just got the SP bluray set and it's really pretty decent for what it is-as I have the old Bandai dvd set to compare it to I'd say on a % basis it's about 35% better pq wise compared to the dvds.

That's good to hear. I'll be picking that up as soon as I'm able, in that case.

[professorwho]

So I LITERALLY just got Koe no Katachi less than 20 minutes ago, and I'm starting to get the specs. So expect some good things later today.

First, the disc is 44.8GB- the film (video and all audio tracks) take up 42GB. We're off to a good sign.

[Vakulinchuk]

Originally Posted by Naiera

It was. Anything pre-2000 is, really. Then came digital animation, which was usually done in SD, and now it's digipaint, where they add the colours on computer but draw by hand.

Was Herlock Endless Odyssey (2003) in cels or digital?

[omarchafa]

Originally Posted by professorwho

So I LITERALLY just got Koe no Katachi less than 20 minutes ago, and I'm starting to get the specs. So expect some good things later today.

First, the disc is 44.8GB- the film (video and all audio tracks) take up 42GB. We're off to a good sign.

Of course, I expect nothing less from Pony Canyon.

[Ccharmanderk]

Originally Posted by Vakulinchuk

Was Herlock Endless Odyssey (2003) in cels or digital?

Digital.

[Oniros]

Originally Posted by omarchafa

Of course, I expect nothing less from Pony Canyon.

If only the US branch could be just as meticulous with their releases.

[professorwho]

So here's the specs:

Koe no Katachi (Japan, Pony Canyon)

Video:
AVC
Bit rate: 26.9Mbps
Maximum Bit rate: 29Mbps
1080p
23.976FPS
22.4GB

Main Audio:
Japanese LPCM 5.1
24-Bit
6,912Kbps
6.28GB

This is from my MKV rip with info from Mediainfo, so if it isn't accurate, then that's why.

[omarchafa]

Yeah, that filesize is way too small for a 2 hour movie. Is it a re-encode?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by omarchafa

Yeah, that filesize is way too small for a 2 hour movie. Is it a re-encode?

There's 5 Lossless tacks. LPCM 5.1 and DTS-HD 2.0 for the films audio. Then there's their weird track that has just ambient noise and some classical music that is supposed to mimic what it's like to be deaf, I guess? That's in BOTH LPCM 5.1 and DTS-HD 2.0 And there a commentary track. And there's some trailers and stuff.

That's the MKV file size, so perhaps MakeMKV compreswed it a little, but that's what Mediainfo says.

[Naiera]

MakeMKV does not compress.

[omarchafa]

Those bitrates are a bit low and I don't think Pony Canyon would set the max bitrate under 30Mbps. All that matters now is how does it look, and I'm sure the encode will be flawless.

[wesslan]

Any good fansubs out yet for Koe?

[professorwho]

The extras take up about 2GB, so that's not the issue. I think it's because there's 5 losless tracks all at 24-Bit. The first 2 and the commentary make sense, but the "deaf" track is something most people will never listen to, and both a 5.1 and stereo option takes up more space- around 10GB. By getting rid of both (or just keeping the stereo version) they could've easily added 6 to 10GB more for the video.

Again, it's the encode that matters more than bit rate (Though a higher bit rate helps in a better encode)- SNAFU from Sentai is Aniplex-level quality with each episode only being 3GB, with only 2.5GB being video. However, don't misquote me, people. You can make a damn good encode with little space, but because the Blu-ray format offers 50GB, high bitrates are preferred. I'd say the best way to put anime on Blu-ray is 7 episodes per disc MAX, but 5 or 6 is preferred. That ensures a healthy Bitrate, but the encoder matters more than numbers.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by wesslan

Any good fansubs out yet for Koe?

Nope. The ones out are poorly translated. Horriblesubs is releasing proper ones next Monday or so. I'm assuming they're going to be the U.K. translation from the iTunes release by Anime Limited.

[omarchafa]

There is another sub out, but it's not very good either.

[mp3dom]

Yeah, max video bitrate on the disc is 29 Mbps, this is due to the high amount of bitrate reserved for audio tracks. 2x5.1ch 24bit LPCM (total: 13.824 Kbps) and 3x2.0ch 24bit dts-HD MA tracks (it's variable bitrate, but probably around 1.5 Mbps each, so other 4.5 Mbps). This means that for the audio, 18.5/19 Mbps are needed.

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by omarchafa

Those bitrates are a bit low and I don't think Pony Canyon would set the max bitrate under 30Mbps. All that matters now is how does it look, and I'm sure the encode will be flawless.

Not at all. I literally just finished watching my copy of the film and it lived up to the quality of Kyoani's works usually output from Ponycanyon. Fine but could look a lot better. There's a lot of instances of really bad noticeable banding in the movie for a start, and whilst I'm not 100% sure of what to call it, the compression in motion doesn't always look too great (noise crawl is it?). It shares the same issues as I observed with the the Sound 2 BDMVs, so I highly doubt this is a case of "throw more bitrate at it to make it better". Either Kyoani transfers need more care or Pony need better encoders. Saying that, I did see it in the cinema and didn't notice said issues, so it probably is just the latter.

[Clark Kent]

Originally Posted by professorwho

The extras take up about 2GB, so that's not the issue. I think it's because there's 5 losless tracks all at 24-Bit. The first 2 and the commentary make sense, but the "deaf" track is something most people will never listen to, and both a 5.1 and stereo option takes up more space- around 10GB. By getting rid of both (or just keeping the stereo version) they could've easily added 6 to 10GB more for the video.

Again, it's the encode that matters more than bit rate (Though a higher bit rate helps in a better encode)- SNAFU from Sentai is Aniplex-level quality with each episode only being 3GB, with only 2.5GB being video. However, don't misquote me, people. You can make a damn good encode with little space, but because the Blu-ray format offers 50GB, high bitrates are preferred. I'd say the best way to put anime on Blu-ray is 7 episodes per disc MAX, but 5 or 6 is preferred. That ensures a healthy Bitrate, but the encoder matters more than numbers.

While a Blu-ray can hold 50 GB, American replicators don't like pushing it past 45-46 GB. Apparently anything higher creates more random rejects when pressing them. Many Hollywood studios won't press anything more than 48 GB.

[Naiera]

If you want to put more than 45-ish gigs on a disc, replicators charge you more because of those additional bad pressings that pop up.

DVD-9s hold 8.5GB, but the safe zone is 7.5GB.

[omarchafa]

I just finished watching all the Sound of the Sky BD from Nozomi. Flawless encode indeed, and worth buying it all the way. Those very dark murky scenes were simply stunning, free from any color banding at all.

I did notice a critical error during two scenes in episode 13. Either there was something wrong with the disc or something went horribly wrong with the encode. I can't really described it, so I'll post pics later.