Are the Dragonball Z movies worth buying on Blu-ray??

[jimmymiro12]

I was wondering if there is a signficant difference between the dvds and bluray? I do have to get some of them that I havent bought before so would someone give me a suggestion of what is worth buying on bluray or dvd?

Thanks in advance

[trunksvegeta187]

well the bd sets do take up less space than the individual dvd sets, plus the bd's have 3 audio tracks, Japanese audio, english, and english w/ jap music

[AVENGED27]

ya its definitely worth it, the picture is crisp and detailed and the sound is awesome for those crazy fight sequences. BLU is always better than dvdead. ALWAYS!

[SlmShdy1]

Not always. The image is cropped on the Blu-rays. The aspect ratio is supposed to be 4:3, but they cropped the image to fit a 16:9 screen. The PQ, however, is really good.

[hche168]

Well, as long as you don't give a thing about the poor quality of the film the PQ and SQ of the blu-ray is quite satisfying. But personally i wouldn't buy a movie solely based on its video or audio quality

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by SlmShdy1

Not always. The image is cropped on the Blu-rays. The aspect ratio is supposed to be 4:3, but they cropped the image to fit a 16:9 screen. The PQ, however, is really good.

They added some material left off on the sides of the 4:3 versions though didn't they?

So the cropping probably isn't as severe as it would be had they not done that.


For those of you that have them, are there any instances of like heads being cut off or parts of the action being in the cropped areas?

I'll be picking these up on black friday.

[MOONPHASE]

I think the DBZ Blu-rays are top notch considering their age but honestly it's only for the English dub fans like myself. When Funimation says it includes the original Japanese audio they mean it literally since the Japanese audio is in it's original Mono audio.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by Diesel

They added some material left off on the sides of the 4:3 versions though didn't they?

So the cropping probably isn't as severe as it would be had they not done that.


For those of you that have them, are there any instances of like heads being cut off or parts of the action being in the cropped areas?

I'll be picking these up on black friday.

Yes they did add more picture on the sides but the movies are not as cropped as the TV Specials Bardock, History of Trunks, and the TV series they did for dvd(though they didn't crop or change the aspect ratio on Dragon Ball or GT only on Z they went the extra mile).

[Diesel]

That's good.

I'd rather have the original aspect ratio but, if there is no head chops or action missing with the crops, I'm fine with it and will definitely pick them up when they are real cheap.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by Diesel

That's good.

I'd rather have the original aspect ratio but, if there is no head chops or action missing with the crops, I'm fine with it for these.

Well the movies were I believe 16:9 so that might be the reason why the movies don't look as bad as what was on tv.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

Well the movies were I believe 16:9 so that might be the reason why the movies don't look as bad as what was on tv.

I haven't seen the dvds of the show yet, a friend of mine said they weren't terrible but he could definitely tell it wasn't supposed to be 16:9.

[DaPenguinPimP]

Are any of the dragon ball TV seasons out? or just the movies?

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by Diesel

I haven't seen the dvds of the show yet, a friend of mine said they weren't terrible but he could definitely tell it wasn't supposed to be 16:9.

With the tv show just wait till Funimation releases the new boxsets called the Dragon Box on dvd, because that's Toei Animation's official remastering job not the stuff Funimation did when remastering it so which means it's in it's original 4:3 for the tv series and remastered by Toei themselves.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by DaPenguinPimP

Are any of the dragon ball TV seasons out? or just the movies?

Just movies and the tv specials but however Japan is getting Dragon Ball Kai tv series on Blu-ray and then America soon to follow probably like next year or 2011.

[SlmShdy1]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

Well the movies were I believe 16:9 so that might be the reason why the movies don't look as bad as what was on tv.

They were shown in theaters with a 16:9 aspect ratio, but they had a 4:3 matte. When FUNimation aquired the liscense for the movies, they opened up the matte and showed the full 4:3 image. So, they were actually giving America a fuller picture than what was originally intended. I've been buying the movies on BD, but I'm holding onto my old DVD's for that reason.

Geez, come to think of it, I'll be quadruple dipping on DBZ once the Dragon Boxes come out.

[Diesel]

I hadn't even heard of the Dragon Box release. Going to have to look that up.

I probably won't ever pick up Kai. I love me some DBZ filler

My favorite scene in the entire show was the like 3 or 4 minute power up for Super Saiyan 3, the music for that scene in the American version (never saw the Japanese) was epic.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by Diesel

I hadn't even heard of the Dragon Box release. Going to have to look that up.

I probably won't ever pick up Kai. I love me some DBZ filler

My favorite scene in the entire show was the like 3 or 4 minute power up for Super Saiyan 3, the music for that scene in the American version (never saw the Japanese) was epic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWcpVP12Cqc

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWcpVP12Cqc

Can you feel the power of the dragon box?
IT'S OVER 9000!!!

[F-Man]

It's OK for some of them to be cropped as that's how they were meant to be presented in theatres. Some however were TV specials so I wouldn't touch them unless they were in 4:3.

As for which are theatrical and which are for TV, that's out of my league.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by SlmShdy1

Not always. The image is cropped on the Blu-rays. The aspect ratio is supposed to be 4:3, but they cropped the image to fit a 16:9 screen. The PQ, however, is really good.

This isn't true.

The movies were originally created for theatrical exhibition at 1.85:1. They were animated at full frame at 4:3 but the "original aspect ratio" is 1.85:1. They were created with the intended purpose of being "cropped" for widescreen exhibitions. The 4:3 versions released on home video were a compromise to fill the screen without the negative effect of pan-and-scan.

The same thing happened with Kubrick's The Shining. It was shot with the intention of being exhibited in 1.85:1 in a widescreen format, but it was shot at 4:3 full frame to avoid pan-and-scan for home video.

That doesn't mean 4:3 is right and it doesn't mean 1.85:1 (or 1.78:1 as I think is the case with DBZ movies) is wrong.

Originally Posted by Diesel

They added some material left off on the sides of the 4:3 versions though didn't they?

So the cropping probably isn't as severe as it would be had they not done that.

No, this is what happened with the TV show. They added a bit of material on the sides that was lost in the original 4:3 picture and cropped the top/bottom to get it down to 16:9. This is bad because the episodes were never meant to be exhibited this way.

For those of you that have them, are there any instances of like heads being cut off or parts of the action being in the cropped areas?

No, because like I said, the films were designed to be seen at 1.85:1.

Originally Posted by SlmShdy1

They were shown in theaters with a 16:9 aspect ratio, but they had a 4:3 matte. When FUNimation aquired the liscense for the movies, they opened up the matte and showed the full 4:3 image. So, they were actually giving America a fuller picture than what was originally intended. I've been buying the movies on BD, but I'm holding onto my old DVD's for that reason.

This is not right. You have it backwards.

The matte was opened for the 4:3 presentation. The widescreen exhibition of the films were matted from a 4:3 full frame picture.

Originally Posted by F-Man

It's OK for some of them to be cropped as that's how they were meant to be presented in theatres. Some however were TV specials so I wouldn't touch them unless they were in 4:3.

As for which are theatrical and which are for TV, that's out of my league.

History of Trunks and Bardock: Father of Goku were the TV specials (sold together as a double feature). They were cropped from the OAR to get the unnatural widescreen picture. Everything else currently on BD are movies which were produced as theatrical exhibitions and were originally intended for 1.85:1.

But yeah, the BDs are far from stellar. Better than the DVDs I'd expect, but they're not the sort of thing you'd pull out to impress your friends. In addition, I believe the only lossless audio track is the English dub with Japanese music track. The original Japanese mono is DD I think. And something else: the BDs were sourced from theater prints. They have cue marks visible in frame. In many cases, it would have been a snap to digitally paint them away, but Funimation didn't bother. Are they also visible in the recent DVDs?