The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[Rosenkreutz]

Looks like Sentai is re-releasing Canaan, would it be safe to assume that this release will be exactly the same as the previous one?

Also, I noticed something strange the other day, it seems that the BD for the Vampire Hunter D OVA is up for pre-order on Rightstuf even though the previous BD isn't even out of print yet and can still be purchased through Rightstuf as well. It's especially weird because the only apparent difference between the two releases seems to be the company logo as the upcoming one is simply "Sentai" instead of "Sentai Filmworks." I was really hoping that this releases was going to include the old Streamline dub or something, but sadly that doesn't appear to be the case.

[SpazeBlue]

Originally Posted by Rosenkreutz

Looks like Sentai is re-releasing Canaan, would it be safe to assume that this release will be exactly the same as the previous one?

Sentai hardly ever use their old discs. If there's a re-release, then there's bound to at least be some improvement. Canaan's previous Blu-ray in particular was pretty poor, so there's should be some pretty nice improvements with that one.

[Rosenkreutz]

Originally Posted by SpazeBlue

Sentai hardly ever use their old discs. If there's a re-release, then there's bound to at least be some improvement. Canaan's previous Blu-ray in particular was pretty poor, so there's should be some pretty nice improvements with that one.

That's good to hear, though that still leaves me rather curious about the Vampire Hunter D OVA. I wonder what sort of potential improvements it could offer over the 2015 one.

[SpazeBlue]

Originally Posted by Rosenkreutz

That's good to hear, though that still leaves me rather curious about the Vampire Hunter D OVA. I wonder what sort of potential improvements it could offer over the 2015 one.

I believe that will be the same as the recent Steelbook. Steelbook to standard case releases use the same discs.

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by Rosenkreutz

That's good to hear, though that still leaves me rather curious about the Vampire Hunter D OVA. I wonder what sort of potential improvements it could offer over the 2015 one.

Tweaking any issues with the translation would be the main thing. Last year's SteelBook likely had a brand new disc, and the standard re-release likely is reusing that. There's likely a "Supervising Translator" credit on there.

[NLScavenger]

Dear Brother - Discotek Media BD

This title has a shorter licensing period than usual, so buy it soon if you don't want to miss out. Good thing I got mine now while it's in print because disc 2 is damaged and has read errors (RS is going to send a replacement).



Episode 01 bitrate

Disc Title: Dear Brother Disc 1
Disc Label: DEAR BROTHER DISC 1
Disc Size: 47,396,844,653 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: Episode 01
Size: 3,606,258,240 bytes
Length: 0:25:32.614
Total Bitrate: 18.82 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 16991 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   842 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   256 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitle: English / 33.884 kbps

[NLScavenger]

City Hunter - Discotek Media BD

I won't deny that the HD remaster is grain managed (I must stress that there's still some grain present), but it's still a MASSIVE improvement over the grotty old transfer on the ADV DVD with ghosting.

Another area of improvement over the ADV DVD is the translation. I was annoyed by the fact that one of ADV's translators kept hearing ビジョン (bijon = vision) instead of 美人 / 美女 (bijin / bijo = beautiful woman), which resulted in weird lines such as "She's a vision of loveliness". "Vision" has finally been eliminated in the Discotek Media BD.



Episode 01 bitrate

Disc Title: City Hunter TV Disc 1
Disc Label: CITY HUNTER TV DISC 1
Disc Size: 47,623,428,902 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: Episode 01
Size: 3,631,078,848 bytes
Length: 0:24:35.807
Total Bitrate: 19.68 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 16988 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1536 kbps / 16-bit
Subtitle: English / 36.517 kbps

[BigOnAnime]

One of? It was just one translator, according to ANN, S1 and S2 were translated by Randall Chamberlain who didn't work on many shows.
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/enc...le.php?id=6059

[NLScavenger]

Even if only one translator got credited, I doubt there was only one. The usage of "vision" was way too inconsistent.

[Kyle15]

City Hunter is inches from looking outright gross from that DNR. Oh no.

Dear Brother looks excellent though!

[SpaceDandy]

Favaroooooo !!

Rage of Bahamut Genesis / Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis (France - Dybex)
Authoring: IDP Home Video
Episode 5 gallery

Bitrate (Avg: 20.34, Max: 44.02 Mbps)
MediaInfo:

[Show spoiler]

General
File size                                : 5.31 GiB
Duration                                 : 23 min 42 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 32.1 Mb/s

Video
ID                                       : 1
ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 23 min 36 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 21.0 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 31.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Standard                                 : Component
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.422
Stream size                              : 3.45 GiB (65%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 144
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=1 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / minigop=1 / stitchable=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=2 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=1 / weightp=1 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=1 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=24 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=21000 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=31000 / vbv_bufsize=30000 / nal_hrd=vbr / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : DTS XLL
Format/Info                              : Digital Theater Systems
Commercial name                          : DTS-HD Master Audio
Codec ID                                 : A_DTS
Duration                                 : 23 min 35 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 4 171 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : C L R Ls Rs LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Stream size                              : 704 MiB (13%)
Title                                    : Surround 5.1
Language                                 : Japanese
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : DTS
Format/Info                              : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID                                 : A_DTS
Duration                                 : 23 min 35 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 509 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : C L R Ls Rs LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 255 MiB (5%)
Title                                    : Surround 5.1
Language                                 : Japanese
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #3
ID                                       : 4
ID in the original source medium         : 4353 (0x1101)
Format                                   : DTS XLL
Format/Info                              : Digital Theater Systems
Commercial name                          : DTS-HD Master Audio
Codec ID                                 : A_DTS
Duration                                 : 23 min 42 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 4 053 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : C L R Ls Rs LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Stream size                              : 687 MiB (13%)
Title                                    : Surround 5.1
Language                                 : French
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #4
ID                                       : 5
ID in the original source medium         : 4353 (0x1101)
Format                                   : DTS
Format/Info                              : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID                                 : A_DTS
Duration                                 : 23 min 42 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 509 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : C L R Ls Rs LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 256 MiB (5%)
Title                                    : Surround 5.1
Language                                 : French
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Text #1
ID                                       : 6
ID in the original source medium         : 4608 (0x1200)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 23 min 32 s
Bit rate                                 : 29.4 kb/s
Count of elements                        : 590
Stream size                              : 4.95 MiB (0%)
Language                                 : French
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Text #2
ID                                       : 8
ID in the original source medium         : 4609 (0x1201)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 23 min 28 s
Bit rate                                 : 332 b/s
Count of elements                        : 8
Stream size                              : 57.2 KiB (0%)
Language                                 : French
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Menu
00:00:00.000                             : en:Chapter 01
00:02:47.876                             : en:Chapter 02
00:04:17.757                             : en:Chapter 03
00:11:53.421                             : en:Chapter 04
00:21:30.038                             : en:Chapter 05
00:23:00.420                             : en:Chapter 06
00:23:24.986                             : en:Chapter 07

Seems to be a solid encode for a demanding show and in a great boxset, with an artbook and even a CD for the soundtrack.

––––––––––––

Unrelated to Bahamut but definitely on subject for this topic: Japanese Aquatope Blu-Ray is full of gross colorbanding.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by SpaceDandy

Unrelated to Bahamut but definitely on subject for this topic: Japanese Aquatope Blu-Ray is full of gross colorbanding.

Not the first time that DMM Pictures released a poor quality Blu-ray. Sentai's BD of Domestic Girlfriend was superior to DMM Picture's BD https://slow.pics/c/COSWx7vN

[NLScavenger]

Sword of the Stranger - Bandai JP / Bandai US / Beez / Funimation / Anime Limited UK+FR https://slow.pics/c/bCDDS2Sc

AL screenshots by Yuripa.

Do not bother with the Funimation or Anime Limited BDs. Just get the region free Bandai US BD, which is still readily available brand new for ~$10.

If you have the Beez UK/FR BD, you may want to check if your copy is still working. Mine has become the victim of tainted resin.

[Ccharmanderk]

Discotek tweeted some screencaps from their upcoming Blu-ray version of Appleseed OVA.

https://twitter.com/discotekmedia/st...432607744?s=20

Justin Sevakis also confirmed that this remaster of Appleseed OVA is a result of the same excursion that led to the 35mm negatives of Project A-ko being found.

https://web.archive.org/web/20211105...04962835193858

[keitaro]

Wouldn't it be hilarious if Discotek found the film negatives to The Guyver OVAs? One can only hope.

[Kyle15]

Those Appleseed caps look absolutely stunning. Really, really good stuff.

[SpaceDandy]

Shinsekai Yori / From the New world - French & Japanese BD comparison

Comparison (Ep. 1)

https://slow.pics/c/K1vL0GYU

JP Bitrare (Ep. 1)

MediaInfo:

[Show spoiler]

General
Format                                   : BDAV
Format/Info                              : Blu-ray Video
File size                                : 6.17 GiB
Duration                                 : 22 min 40 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 38.9 Mb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate                 : 48.0 Mb/s

Video
ID                                       : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : 27
Duration                                 : 22 min 41 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 35.1 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.706
Stream size                              : 5.56 GiB (90%)

Audio
ID                                       : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Big / Signed
Muxing mode                              : Blu-ray
Codec ID                                 : 128
Duration                                 : 22 min 41 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 2 304 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Stream size                              : 374 MiB (6%)

Lab: Q-Tec

FR Bitrate (Ep. 1)

MediaInfo:

[Show spoiler]

General
File size                                : 4.20 GiB
Duration                                 : 22 min 41 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 26.5 Mb/s

Video
ID                                       : 1
ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 22 min 41 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 25.0 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 35.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Standard                                 : Component
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.503
Stream size                              : 3.95 GiB (94%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 148
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=1 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / minigop=1 / stitchable=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=2 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=1 / weightp=1 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=1 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=24 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=25000 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=35000 / vbv_bufsize=30000 / nal_hrd=vbr / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio
ID                                       : 2
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little / Signed
Codec ID                                 : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration                                 : 22 min 41 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 30.000 FPS (1600 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 249 MiB (6%)
Title                                    : Stereo
Language                                 : French
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Text
ID                                       : 3
ID in the original source medium         : 4608 (0x1200)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 22 min 14 s
Bit rate                                 : 37.8 kb/s
Count of elements                        : 611
Stream size                              : 6.02 MiB (0%)
Language                                 : French
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Menu
00:00:00.000                             : en:Chapter 01
00:07:18.938                             : en:Chapter 02
00:11:23.974                             : en:Chapter 03
00:20:54.753                             : en:Chapter 04
00:22:24.801                             : en:Chapter 05

Authoring: IDP Home Video

In general it is visually identical to the japanese BD. Banding may be more or less apparent in given scenes, but nothing of value.

There's a catch though, the ending, and only it, shows some horizontal line pattern in a specific set of colors (dark blues) on the french version. On some scene of the ending, the pattern is very apparent, on other, invisible. Some colors are slightly different too (either due to or at the origin of this artifact). I wonder how that happened. Maybe degraded material ?

[NLScavenger]

The horizontal lines may be some kind of bit depth problem, for example from an improper ProRes export.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by SpaceDandy

There's a catch though, the ending, and only it, shows some horizontal line pattern in a specific set of colors (dark blues) on the french version. On some scene of the ending, the pattern is very apparent, on other, invisible. Some colors are slightly different too (either due to or at the origin of this artifact). I wonder how that happened. Maybe degraded material ?

I believe that's a screen capture issue. I primarily use VirtualDub2 and noticed something very similar to that when I took my caps for UK Planetes, but when viewed in MPC or MPV, it wasn't there. It's also why I never posted my review of UK Planetes, as I still need to re-do those shots in MPC.

Also for anyone interested, Isuggest watching the ViCklatereur review of the Dybex release. Fantastic video as always.

[SpaceDandy]

I took all captures with mpv, with the default settings except the chroma upscaling, as recommended by Scavenger. I'll check on my Blu-Ray player tomorrow and report if anything is different.

EDIT: and while you mention Vick, he reviewed Shirobako as well and it also has ringing. So that is yet another degraded international master and not Sentai fault. Bitrate is also higher than JP BD apparently.