The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[NLScavenger]

^The Japanese boxset version does not have English subs. Only individual volumes have English subs.

Originally Posted by Ajc228

Does anyone know if the U.K. release of Space Dandy has better video quality than the U.S. release? I suspect it's a one to one duplicate of the U.S. release but I'm not sure.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comp...3356/picture:0

There does not seem to be a huge difference, but there is slightly more banding on the UK release. On the plus side the UK release has Japanese on screen credits instead of the translated ones on the US release.

[Ajc228]

Thanks guys.

[Ccharmanderk]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

^The Japanese boxset version does not have English subs. Only individual volumes have English subs.


http://screenshotcomparison.com/comp...3356/picture:0

There does not seem to be a huge difference, but there is slightly more banding on the UK release. On the plus side the UK release has Japanese on screen credits instead of the translated ones on the US release.

That first screencap is pretty alarming, though. Anime Limited version has a very pronounced quilting effect in Dandy's hair.

[SnowWarren]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

^The Japanese boxset version does not have English subs. Only individual volumes have English subs.


http://screenshotcomparison.com/comp...3356/picture:0

There does not seem to be a huge difference, but there is slightly more banding on the UK release. On the plus side the UK release has Japanese on screen credits instead of the translated ones on the US release.

Just curious, how is having credits you can't read a plus?

[svenge]

Originally Posted by SnowWarren

Just curious, how is having credits you can't read a plus?

Depends if there's a clean OP/ED available or not.

Typically if there is one to go off of then the end result of creating localized credits is usually reasonably close to the original and not that visually offensive, as shown by that Space Dandy comparison. But if there isn't one, then making hard-translated credits almost always screws up either the composition or the legibility of the original artwork.

One notorious example was Funi's release of Birdy the Mighty, which shunted the Japanese ending into a tiny window in the corner of the video and had the dub credits rolling on most of the screen. Another is the ED credits for Funi's Evangelion 1.11 and 2.22 BDs, which replaced the beautifully scrolling Japanese text using nice rainbow effects with a very bland (and rather sparsely-populated) English language credit roll that used a standard font and no effects.

[Footlong Shoe]

Originally Posted by svenge

One notorious example was Funi's release of Birdy the Mighty, which shunted the Japanese ending into a tiny window in the corner of the video and had the dub credits rolling on most of the screen. Another is the ED credits for Funi's Evangelion 1.11 and 2.22 BDs, which replaced the beautifully scrolling Japanese text using nice rainbow effects with a very bland (and rather sparsely-populated) English language credit roll that used a standard font and no effects.

Another example would be the second opening of Attack on Titan. Where the Japanese credits were CG'd into the animation, the English credits were just standard text placed onscreen.

[FeelsBDMan]

Wondering if people are curious about Anime Limited's Tatami Galaxy release before I compress it to a smaller MKV?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by FeelsBDMan

Wondering if people are curious about Anime Limited's Tatami Galaxy release before I compress it to a smaller MKV?

Yeah. I'd like to know the stats, and if it's good or not. (It's the only English release of the series, so of course I'd like to know.)

[Naiera]

Yes please.

[Ajc228]

I've read that the old Geneon DVD release of Black Lagoon and Samurai Champloo look better than the funimation blurays. If this is true, can anyone think of other instances where the DVD looks better than bluray?

[omarchafa]

Originally Posted by Ajc228

I've read that the old Geneon DVD release of Black Lagoon and Samurai Champloo look better than the funimation blurays. If this is true, can anyone think of other instances where the DVD looks better than bluray?

Shana seasons 1 and 2. They were horribly re-mastered with DNR. The studio is to blame here and not Funimation.

[Ccharmanderk]

Originally Posted by Ajc228

I've read that the old Geneon DVD release of Black Lagoon and Samurai Champloo look better than the funimation blurays. If this is true, can anyone think of other instances where the DVD looks better than bluray?

Can't speak for those, but the old Sailor Moon uncut DVDs from ADV (original season and R) and Pioneer/Geneon (S and SuperS) look a fair bit better than Viz's current Blu-rays.

Mind you, this largely only extends to the TV series, I was actually pretty pleased with their Sailor Moon R: The Movie BD. Though one could argue the benefits of the original full frame DVD from Pioneer/Geneon, the movie was designed to be viewed in either aspect ratio, so it's ultimately a matter of preference there.

Originally Posted by omarchafa

Shana seasons 1 and 2. They were horribly re-mastered with DNR. The studio is to blame here and not Funimation.

I will be forever baffled at the practice of utilizing noise reduction on digital-native series.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by Ajc228

I've read that the old Geneon DVD release of Black Lagoon and Samurai Champloo look better than the funimation blurays. If this is true, can anyone think of other instances where the DVD looks better than bluray?

I don't think either look better on DVD. Not even close. At all.

[zrdb]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Yeah. I'd like to know the stats, and if it's good or not. (It's the only English release of the series, so of course I'd like to know.)

WRONG-there was an earlier english dvd release from Beez (the defunct european arm of Bandai)-I have a copy of the damn thing.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by zrdb

WRONG-there was an earlier english dvd release from Beez (the defunct european arm of Bandai)-I have a copy of the damn thing.

Oh yeah, there was. I completely unaware. Thanks for the info.

[SeaFox]

Originally Posted by Naiera

I don't think either look better on DVD. Not even close. At all.

The Funimation blu-ray release of Black Lagoon is brightness boosted, which brings out some banding that can only be seen faintly in the Geneon release.

[omarchafa]

Originally Posted by Naiera

I don't think either look better on DVD. Not even close. At all.

DNR was applied on Samurai Champloo to make it look cleaner at the cost of losing detail and the original film grain filter that was meant to be there. The re-release fixed it though, but still not worth getting it over the Geneon release.

[Jim Purcell]

DVD can't look as good as Blu-ray, compression affects everything. Even with bad DNR, color correction, or what have you its still going to look better because your blacks will be black instead of digitally artifact'd grey.

[omarchafa]

Anybody got their hands on Gosick yet? How did the release turned out? I like to see some screenshots of that.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by SeaFox

The Funimation blu-ray release of Black Lagoon is brightness boosted, which brings out some banding that can only be seen faintly in the Geneon release.

That doesn't mean it isn't better than the DVD. I have the FUNi Blu-rays and there's no way a DVD can do better.