The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[Lambadelta]

Originally Posted by PissedOffPeoN

Well they did respond to me yesterday saying when they were working on it and will reply when they have something to say..

sounds like a generic response.

[ApocalypseKnight]

^^ I've received the same reply on June 14th. I'll give them another week before asking for an update.

[reignofkindo]

Anyone happen to check into the discs on Funimation's re:Zero? Curious about bitrate and file size. I've got a copy, but no BD drive to check it out in.

As a sidenote, it's disturbing to see people defending this release on Funi's social media and other places, saying there's absolutely nothing wrong with it and those who think there is are idiots. Or there are others who will acknowledge that it's bad, but want to blame CR because they hold the master license. No matter that it actually looks much better when streamed on their platform. Funimation can do no wrong in some people's eyes, and it's so strange to me.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by reignofkindo

Anyone happen to check into the discs on Funimation's re:Zero? Curious about bitrate and file size. I've got a copy, but no BD drive to check it out in.

As a sidenote, it's disturbing to see people defending this release on Funi's social media and other places, saying there's absolutely nothing wrong with it and those who think there is are idiots. Or there are others who will acknowledge that it's bad, but want to blame CR because they hold the master license. No matter that it actually looks much better when streamed on their platform. Funimation can do no wrong in some people's eyes, and it's so strange to me.

It's typical nonsense out of people who don't want to feel like they've been ripped-off, or feel bad cuz they want thing but there's no other options so they take to ravenously defending thing. I mean they can do whatever they want but it looks so silly.

"Well, that's all that's available! take what you get!"
"ur spoiled! not everything can be perfect!"
"it doesn't look bad to me, so it's not! shuttup!"

[pikagreg]

There was a recent thread on r/anime too and there are just a ton of people who have no idea what they are talking about. I am no expert myself but it is hard not to notice the problems on this release.

[gundamcero]

Originally Posted by reignofkindo

Anyone happen to check into the discs on Funimation's re:Zero? Curious about bitrate and file size. I've got a copy, but no BD drive to check it out in.

As a sidenote, it's disturbing to see people defending this release on Funi's social media and other places, saying there's absolutely nothing wrong with it and those who think there is are idiots. Or there are others who will acknowledge that it's bad, but want to blame CR because they hold the master license. No matter that it actually looks much better when streamed on their platform. Funimation can do no wrong in some people's eyes, and it's so strange to me.

Can't fix stupid.

[professorwho]

I know it's 2 discs, the first is 50GB and contains Episodes 1 to 8, the second is 25GB and contains 9 to 12. Normally FUNi puts 9 episodes on the first disc, but the 8 here is the same run-time. Episode 1 of Re:Zero is 50 minutes long, so it still is mastered the same way.

Now, with 8 or 9 episodes per disc, you can still get a great looking disc, but it is more taxing on the compressionist. When aiming for a lower bitrate, it is more time consuming to produce a good result. A good example is Sentai's SNAFU releases. These are practically flawless discs with zero banding, aliasing, macroblocking and other artifacts. SNAFU S2 might be Sentai's best release in terms of PQ- it's just that good. So, it is possible to make good releases with this limited space.

Lately, FUNi has started to move away from that format when dealing with special cases. The Vision of Escaflowne had extended scenes for the Laserdisc release that were never dubbed (more about it in the link in my signature), so the show was re-dubbed and a separate video track for 7 episodes had to be created. So, the show is formatted in a 7-7-6 config for set 1 (the first 7 episodes are done twice, for the broadcast and extended versions) and 7-6 for set 2. This results in perhaps FUNi's best release in terms of PQ.

Code Geass is another interesting example. Ignoring the audio issue in R2, it is laid out in a 7-7-7-4 format due to 3 audio tracks and numerous extras for each season.

Re:Zero is up there with Steins;Gate and Psycho Pass as one of the worst releases by the company, and there's no excuse. They knew it would sell, so why not make a good product that everyone will enjoy? Other than rushing it out the door, I have no idea...

[professorwho]

Just for fun, but, how does FUNimation fare with non-anime releases?

Rurouni Kenshin Part I- Origins

Disc size:
43.2 GB

Main feature:
30.4 GB

Video:
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
27.1 mbps AVG
39 mbps MAX
25.5 GB

Audio:
Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 24-Bit 2183 kbps
English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 24-Bit 2206 kbps

I was going to do Kyoto Inferno as well, but it's probably similar in terms of stats and it takes a while to rip on my PC...

Anyways... wow. It looks great. It's a huge step-up from the UK Warner Bros BD. Bitrate is higher (27 vs 20), has more extras (52 minutes worth), has an English dub (don't know why they'd dub a live action movie, that's pointless and a waste of time/money), and the subtitles offer a more accurate translation.

The picture is sharp, with great detail, and has very few (if no) artifacts I could find. it's just really good, simply put. It's in 2.39:1 and is burnt into a 16:9 frame.

The audio is great as well. The Japanese track is clearly better (besides the fact that the English voice-work is out of place, and is badly acted), with more bass and a richer sound. The English track sounds good, technically, but just avoid it unless you can't deal with subtitles.

It's a good release, but it shows there must be different divisions within FUNi that do different authoring. Theatrical films have high bitrates and good encodes. Shin Godzilla, Your Name, Boy and the Beast, Disappearance of Haruhi, GITS Innocence... they all have great encodes with few issues... so, either they put more time into the films than TV series, or a second division has really good compressionists.

I love doing these write-ups... I'm the new BOA here (since he doesn't post here anymore...)

[reignofkindo]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Code Geass is another interesting example. Ignoring the audio issue in R2, it is laid out in a 7-7-7-4 format due to 3 audio tracks and numerous extras for each season.

Speaking of, I waited to buy my release until Rightstuf received their corrected discs and edited the description to say "This reprinted Collector's Edition has corrected audio" because I really didn't want to deal with the hassle of an exchange. This was a year or so ago, and I bought it right after watching the series again for the nth time, so I never watched my copy of the CE once I got it in. Well.. just put R2 in yesterday, and it's in mono. Checked the disc numbers - yep, all the original pressings. I doubt anyone here is as silly as me and didn't check their copies, but just in case.. even if Rightstuf said they were corrected sets, they may not have been.

[pikagreg]

Originally Posted by reignofkindo

Speaking of, I waited to buy my release until Rightstuf received their corrected discs and edited the description to say "This reprinted Collector's Edition has corrected audio" because I really didn't want to deal with the hassle of an exchange. This was a year or so ago, and I bought it right after watching the series again for the nth time, so I never watched my copy of the CE once I got it in. Well.. just put R2 in yesterday, and it's in mono. Checked the disc numbers - yep, all the original pressings. I doubt anyone here is as silly as me and didn't check their copies, but just in case.. even if Rightstuf said they were corrected sets, they may not have been.

Funimation never fixed the audio on the CE sets since they only had one print run of them (that is one of the reasons the fixed sets use the sku from the standard edition)

I would think that Rightstuf would have just sent the fixed discs with the LE discs but it could also be a miscommunication on their end since afaik they never handled the replacements like Funi did.

[reignofkindo]

Originally Posted by pikagreg

Funimation never fixed the audio on the CE sets since they only had one print run of them (that is one of the reasons the fixed sets use the sku from the standard edition)

I would think that Rightstuf would have just sent the fixed discs with the LE discs but it could also be a miscommunication on their end since afaik they never handled the replacements like Funi did.

That's odd. The Rightstuf page still says it's the reprinted set with corrected audio even now.

I emailed Funimation prior to Rightstuf changing their description to say that, asking them if it would have the corrected discs if I bought it from them. They told me they couldn't guarantee that, but if it had the uncorrected discs, I could simply send them in to them to get the corrected ones. Which I thought was asinine. But you would think they would have just offered to send along replacement discs if there was only the faulty edition, or to open it and swap the discs.

[pikagreg]

Originally Posted by reignofkindo

That's odd. The Rightstuf page still says it's the reprinted set with corrected audio even now.

I emailed Funimation prior to Rightstuf changing their description to say that, asking them if it would have the corrected discs if I bought it from them. They told me they couldn't guarantee that, but if it had the uncorrected discs, I could simply send them in to them to get the corrected ones. Which I thought was asinine. But you would think they would have just offered to send along replacement discs if there was only the faulty edition, or to open it and swap the discs.

Maybe Funi made some copies just for Rightstuf? I ordered the LE set from Amazon when they had that price error almost a year later and it did not have corrected discs and ended up getting a second replacement from Funi.

[tglover79]

If there is a Funimation Blu-ray I'm disappointed in, it's Lucky Star. Like, did the master they had was from the previous Bandai releases, just upscaled? It does not look good on a screen like 26" or more. The very least is that the set has a ton of extras (most of them from Bandai's releases).

[professorwho]

Yeah. Lucky Star is an upscale. FUNi used the same master but compressed it even more, thus the mess we got.

[kk1]

Originally Posted by reignofkindo

Speaking of, I waited to buy my release until Rightstuf received their corrected discs and edited the description to say "This reprinted Collector's Edition has corrected audio" because I really didn't want to deal with the hassle of an exchange. This was a year or so ago, and I bought it right after watching the series again for the nth time, so I never watched my copy of the CE once I got it in. Well.. just put R2 in yesterday, and it's in mono. Checked the disc numbers - yep, all the original pressings. I doubt anyone here is as silly as me and didn't check their copies, but just in case.. even if Rightstuf said they were corrected sets, they may not have been.

I got it from Amazon when it was the price error and still never checked it (or opened it) I don't even know how to check.

[kk1]

Originally Posted by tglover79

If there is a Funimation Blu-ray I'm disappointed in, it's Lucky Star. Like, did the master they had was from the previous Bandai releases, just upscaled? It does not look good on a screen like 26" or more. The very least is that the set has a ton of extras (most of them from Bandai's releases).

Yeah I'd rented and burned the old DVDs from Netflix and thought the Blu-rays looked worse. Are the Japanese (or any other countrie's) Blu Rays better?

[reignofkindo]

Originally Posted by kk1

I got it from Amazon when it was the price error and still never checked it (or opened it) I don't even know how to check.

If the numbers on your R2 discs start with DV-07350 they are the old ones with mono audio. The new ones start with DV-07354

[husky1993a]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Lately, FUNi has started to move away from that format when dealing with special cases. The Vision of Escaflowne had extended scenes for the Laserdisc release that were never dubbed (more about it in the link in my signature), so the show was re-dubbed and a separate video track for 7 episodes had to be created. So, the show is formatted in a 7-7-6 config for set 1 (the first 7 episodes are done twice, for the broadcast and extended versions) and 7-6 for set 2. This results in perhaps FUNi's best release in terms of PQ.
.

When I got the Escaflowne set, I was genuinely surprised and happy that they were splitting the episodes as 7-7-6 for part 1 and 7-6 in part 2. I would honestly pay more for them to split the discs up more if it means better PQ.

[pikagreg]

Is the AL set the same master as Funi for Lucky Star? I have both but haven't rewatched it yet lol

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by pikagreg

Is the AL set the same master as Funi for Lucky Star? I have both but haven't rewatched it yet lol

Same discs.