The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[SeaFox]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

Here's another kicker, it also compares unfavorably to the CR stream... Have another one.

LOL. That means people watching pirated copies by one of the fastest, low effort rippers during the original airing of the show will get a better picture than people paying for the home video release.

[Ccharmanderk]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

Here's another kicker, it also compares unfavorably to the CR stream... Have another one.

God almighty, how can a company as large, active, long-running and prolific as Funimation screw up a major Blu-ray release THAT badly? I want to know who exactly authored this disc, put it through QC, gave even the barest glance at it and said "yeah that looks good".

I think this is actually the worst Blu-ray Funimation has ever put out. And possibly the worst US Blu-ray for an anime I've ever seen.

[lunamaria87]

I wOnder if its too late to cancel my order with cruncyro for Re Zero. I was hoping for good things from this BD. Guess not now. If enough ppl complain. Is there a possibility they will do replacement discs?

[professorwho]

Unless we all call FUNimation out, and major reviewers do as well (which you know won’t do anything)... F**K NO they won’t. They’re probably never going to.

They’re a bunch of idiots. At this point, either go with a foreign release (not UK or Australia- they’re using the same discs) or forget it.

[lunamaria87]

Its sad that this has to happen. I dont mind buying JP releases. But also picky in which ones I purchase. Might just cancel the FUNi and check out the JP release.

[pikagreg]

Looks like Justin is looking for more anime QC people

https://twitter.com/worldofcrap/stat...48132521979905

[SirYodaJedi]

Originally Posted by pikagreg

Looks like Justin is looking for more anime QC people

https://twitter.com/worldofcrap/stat...48132521979905

As is Sentai:

https://twitter.com/sentaifilmworks/...604024832?s=21

[NLScavenger]

Just received the Anime Limited Gundam Origin set. mediaOCD is credited with disc authoring.

Unfortunately the makeMKV beta key has expired and a new key hasn't been posted yet.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Just received the Anime Limited Gundam Origin set. mediaOCD is credited with disc authoring.

Unfortunately the makeMKV beta key has expired and a new key hasn't been posted yet.

Here are the stats I posted of the US Nozomi/Sunrise release that you can compare back to.

[professorwho]

Anime Limited in response to Re:Zero Complaints:

Right now effectively what you are saying is you'll be buying nobody's release then English speaking, meaning all you hurt is the brand itself long term then right now as the Funimation version is definitely the same.

To re-iterate for folks too and cover some other points out:

Why did we release the US version, not use the FR one? Simply put - you the fans decided it for us. We've taken a strong stance to bring delays down to a minimum and to guarantee day & date with the USA matching their master was the safest route. The secondary benefit is this also meant we just had stock in time for MCM Comic Con (literally on the day, which is why we found out first from yourselves than anything else).

To re-iterate these are the steps that we're taking right now re RE:ZERO now that I am back:
Speaking with both the licensor and the authoring company to investigate the issue.

Running our own checks on the UK discs we have here too.
Once we've done those things we'll come back on it to folk about it as and when we can - but it'll likely be a few weeks before I can do that as I prefer to understand the full situation and if there even if a solution first before doing anything.

Please note too for those talking replacements: Every time we have done a replacement scheme it has been for an experience that completely impairs your viewing and there is something we can do about it. Here as a reminder is the list again:
Cowboy Bebop (2013, replaced 2014) - Visual glitches due to capture errors on Part 1. This impaired the experience to watch and was not in the original master and while small errors, we replaced them as respect for those who supported us on our first release ever and set a good pattern in my opinion for which frankly I have only ever received grief for (this latest burst says it all).

Durarara!!! (2014, replaced 2015) - Discs were botched in multiple ways by Siren at the time, we re-authored and replaced off our own back. Probably our most expensive replacement scheme by the by too.

Gurren Lagann digipacks (2014) - This was an issue completely outside our hands which was frustrating after the delays in approval. This resulted in an entire printer being blacklisted by our production company actually. Probably the one we feel worst about still as it was never really resolved in terms of a fix except for a chunky voucher for the store.

Kill la Kill Part 1 (2014, replaced 2014) - Small audio desynchronisation issue found at MCM Comic Con time. We replaced this within the same year again for anyone impacted.

Kill la Kill Part 3 (2015, replaced 2015) - Box issue with tightness found at MCM Comic Con. We replaced this within the same year for anyone impacted).

Escaflowne (2016, replaced 2016) - Issue on an episode not being rendered properly for BD that manifested only on the final BD so we replaced that to ensure nobody's experience was ruined.

Your Lie in April Part 1 (2016, replaced 2017) - Issue on soft touch cover and soft touch inner making the box impossible to remove, revealing something nobody knew about printing (inc the printers!) Was replaced as soon as we knew the fix!

Your Name (2017, replacement due within Q3 2018 latest) - This one was a personal call in the end and ultimately was audio induced (as it turned out the 5.1 channels were borked). While video quality was disappointing but certainly not defective - the clear defect in the audio was a real disruption to the experience. For those wondering, we've revised masters now and are running final checks before we release it into the wild here over the next months.
So in this case with Re:Zero - while it strongly falls into disappointing for us too, it is not at least the common vernacular definition of defective for us. It totally deserves to be in the disappointing category though and we are looking into it as we love this show a whole bunch too (Andy has single handedly helped prop it up based on the large REM figure on his desk...which I can't help but notice isn't quite as nice as some of the Emilia figures out there...)

Best,

AP

It's nice they made a huge response, but it doesn't confirm or refute anything, really. Still, a good confirmation that the people over at Anime Limited are actual humans (unlike those plebs at FUNimation)...

(They're still wrong about Your Name's picture quality, it's terrible no matter how you look at it- thank God they're continuing replacements...)

[Gorgon]

^^ That's a pretty impressive response!
I can imagine the development and subsequent release of certain cherished titles that meet a large fan base's expectations can be difficult to pull off but I also recognize that no one is doing it for free, serious coin is spent by both avid fans and casuals when a highly anticipated title comes to market.
A thick skin is required in any development market so I'm at least happy to see in this case, he didn't lose his mind from the feedback and just stated his case.
That certainly can't be said about some "Hollywood" artists...

edit: oh, meant to ask, what was the issue with the "Your Name" release and did it affect other country releases as well (i.e. the Korean release by Kimchi and Nova) ?

[Naiera]

What does the first sentence mean?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Gorgon

what was the issue with the "Your Name" release and did it affect other country releases as well (i.e. the Korean release by Kimchi and Nova) ?

It was just the UK and Australia. Madman, who did the authoring, did a terrible job, with tons of compression artifacts not on the Japanese disc (the USA, French and Italian releases all use different masters and each one of them is way better than Madman's work).

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Naiera

What does the first sentence mean?

Right now effectively what you are saying is you'll be buying nobody's release then English speaking, meaning all you hurt is the brand itself long term then right now as the Funimation version is definitely the same.

you'll be buying nobody's release then English speaking Not buying an English release.

all you hurt is the brand itself long term It hurts Anime Limited as a brand.

right now as the Funimation version is definitely the same Currently AL is using the FUNimation master.

My god, whoever wrote it is horrible.

[Gorgon]

^^ Thanks PW, I essentially got the same idea from what was written.
I always try to cut some slack to those whom may not be well versed in English as a second language but... most company suits don't write these missives sitting in the bathroom either and will have someone proof-read their message before release. Not always the case I suppose.

[Naiera]

If you’re this bad at English then you shouldn’t be in charge of writing stuff in English for an ENGLISH company.

[Azar-]

That's Andrew Partridge (Founder/President of AL) who wrote that. He's obviously a very busy man, yet he still finds the time to visit AUKN and answer all of our questions on an almost daily basis. Give the guy a break!

[professorwho]

It’s more of a joke, really. Not an attack on the guy himself.

Anime Limited is a great company. Sure, we joke about how many errors they make, and how the logo looks weird, and so forth... but, they’re human. You can actually tell someone wrote that. I would rather take a poorly written thing like that over a generic PR response.

[dan2026]

Why do these companies struggle so much with video encoding?
I've dabbled with it a bit myself and it's not exactly rocket science.

Do they not watch what they have encoded to check if it's actually ok?

[DaBawss]

At least for funimation, I believe it is more about quantity of quality.