Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series (1969-1978)

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

Why are you buying a Blu-ray set if you don't even want it to look better than a digital purchase on iTunes? Hell, it isn't even equal quality, it's worse. And they want $89.99 for it.

Because the quality looks great to me? Better than DVD and I wouldn't bother with digital one way or another. I'm not going to stop myself from buying something that I like because it isn't 100% perfection.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

The review gave the Blu-ray 4 stars, which is why I don't exactly trust that the BD-50 listing is correct.

According to the profile the disc size was set back in June, but one could assume if the disc capacity was different that it would have been corrected. Given the WAC releases use BD-50 discs and have ~9 episodes per disc and maintain a much higher bitrate per episode one does have to wonder if the Scooby set does use BD-25 since they have 10-11 episodes per disc.

I haven't found another review that has mentioned the disc size yet. But I did come across this review of the video:

Originally Posted by TheDigitalBits

That said, Scooby-Doo: Where Are You? makes the leap to high definition looking quite good, great even. Presented full frame to preserve its original aspect ratio, it’s now much clearer and sharper, while still carrying those inherent aforementioned visual flaws. The color palette is often bold, particularly the clothing on the main characters, but also on many foreground and background items. It’s also wonderfully-textured with surprising depth as every last bit of detail has been left intact. Character edges are also solid without the need for artificial sharpening. Noise is prevalent from time to time, including what some might describe as “mosquito noise,” but it appears natural to the material. It’s also worth mentioning that despite a low encode, which hovers around 10.0 to 11.0 Mbps for the majority of each episode, no obvious compression artifacts could be spotted either. To be succinct, the show has never looked better.

[Mikezilla3k]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

Because the quality looks great to me? Better than DVD and I wouldn't bother with digital one way or another.\

Not to mention that the prices for Digital are waaaaaaaaayyyyyy too overpriced. (BTW, I'm talking about Digital in general)

[DawnShadow]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

the show has never looked better.

Well that reviewer clearly never bothered to check out the HD streaming versions.

This is the #18 best-selling Blu-ray on Amazon currently. I do not understand why everyone waited until it was literally at it's highest price-point to order it. If they were waiting to see what the quality was like, does this mean they approved?

Originally Posted by Mikezilla3k

Not to mention that the prices for Digital are waaaaaaaaayyyyyy too overpriced. (BTW, I'm talking about Digital in general)

On iTunes Australia, the complete series is about $24 USD. And all you need to do to access the Australian store is switch stores and buy a gift card. You don't need a VPN, or an Australian credit card or anything like that. It's incredibly simple.

And yes, you are talking about digital in general, but how is it overpriced if it's superior to the Blu-ray? It's over $50 cheaper than the average price of the Blu-ray, and it's superior. Usually digital is overpriced, but in this scenario, the Blu-ray is overpriced, and incredibly so.

[AmishParadise]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

Why do you feel the need to have a go at everyone else who has good eyesight then?

Just enjoy your product and respect that we have good eyesight and aren't going to pretend we don't.

InuYashaCrusade has posted a single time since the DNR discussion started per the below.

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

Man, I'm glad I'm not obsessed with video/audio quality. It seems so stressful. The video quality looks great to me, no problems here.

Oh, the horror. InuYashaCrusade isn't having a go at anyone and in fact, you're the one being disrespectful.

[DawnShadow]

Originally Posted by AmishParadise

InuYashaCrusade has posted a single time since the DNR discussion started per the below.

Oh, the horror. InuYashaCrusade isn't having a go at anyone and in fact, you're the one being disrespectful.

I didn't say they posted more than once?

How is calling everyone who notices poor visual quality "obsessed", not having a go at anyone?

Please post something useful.

[AmishParadise]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

I didn't say they posted more than once?

How is calling everyone who notices poor visual quality "obsessed", not having a go at anyone?

Please post something useful.

Please post something useful? Well good job. You sure put me in my place. Pardon me for making an observation. Whether you said they posted more than once is irrelevant. I personally considered your reply to them an overreaction. If you don't feel it was fine. We can agree to disagree. See how that works. It's not that hard. And really, it's okay. Not everyone has to validate your feelings on this release. Everything will be okay. Promise.

[DawnShadow]

Originally Posted by AmishParadise

Please post something useful? Well good job. You sure put me in my place. Pardon me for making an observation. Whether you said they posted more than once is irrelevant. I personally considered your reply to them an overreaction. If you don't feel it was fine. We can agree to disagree. See how that works. It's not that hard. And really, it's okay. Not everyone has to validate your feelings on this release. Everything will be okay. Promise.

Thank you, I feel better now

[AquaticPickel]

Wow those caps look bad, shame.

[guzzlamiamor]

I don't have the Blu Ray set yet, but I did compare the 1080p screen caps in the review to S1E1 specifically the scene where they are behind the museum. To me the colors on the Blu Ray screen cap were much more vibrant than the iTunes HD version that I downloaded to my computer for comparison. It was enough to sell me on keeping the Blu Ray set once it arrives, colors really looked a lot better.

[JurassicBD]

Originally Posted by ArnoldLayne56

"Are they actually BD-25s? The review doesn't make mention of this."

But the listing data is four BD-50

All four in our set have a single barcode. I assume they still use a separate barcode per data layer, but never understood why such was necessary in the first place and haven't cared enough to find out.

Originally Posted by ArnoldLayne56

The DNR allows the lower bit rate by removing the high frequency information- in the case of this type of animation, firstly the grain, secondly sharp edges.
This reminds me of the first 2001 Blu-ray- DNR'd the grain away, then encoded it at less than 13 mb/s. And compared to DVD it was great!

Easier/better compression used to be Warner's principle motivation for filtering or DNR. Though, it's worth noting that most producers regard the majority consumer as being unreasonably critical of any noise in their media. And they're not wrong. Sadly, studios have always dumbed down their product for the least savvy of consumer AND the lowest quality components available (edge enhancement, DNR, remixing multi-channel tracks so it sounds better via TVs and soundbars). I'm not being cynical, that's literally how the industry works. Even today, they fiddle with higher profile releases far more than lower profile ones, as evidenced by all the perception in this very discussion about WAC doing a better job. The lack of extras from WAC is indicative of how little they fiddle with the video too.

Looking at the screenshots I've seen so far, I'd be tempted to speculate that in this case their motivation might have been more restorative, with the expectation that the collector (aka physical) market would be more critical of the final result than the rental (aka digital) market. Unfortunately, it's not the videophile they're most concerned about.

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

It's not worth it. You'll get better quality buying it on Amazon Video, probably even iTunes.

And you'll own NOTHING! Even if you save it to your own expensive server (assuming they're any more reliable than the cheap ones) with multiple redundancies should a file become corrupted on one, after the vendor you bought it from has had their license pulled by the studio who wants to keep more profit for themselves and can easily do so in a digital world, you've got something you can't resell ever should they come out with a superior version you want to upgrade to, should you need money for retirement, medical expense, kids college, etc, or once it's OOP and worth a LOT more than even the current full SRP. Putting one's faith in an industry that has been EXTREMELY vocal for decades about how little regard they have for consumers rights to their properties...

[JurassicBD]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

How sturdy is that house? It looks kinda fragile, made of thin cardboard, like a cereal box.

It's actually pretty solid, as evidenced by almost miraculously surviving amazon's absurd packaging. The house itself looks pretty much pristine, and should make for a nice decoration this Halloween. But the clear plastic outer box - which has some artwork on it as well that might be important to some, and a cardstock backdrop of the night sky - was crushed in several places, split on one side and open on both ends with VERY heavy scuffing. There was enough pressure that both factory seals on the sides had pulled away, leaving the box looking like it had been previously opened. Glad this wasn't purchased as a gift.

We must have made someone mad at amazon: This was the first order in over a month that actually arrived when it was supposed to. One of which didn't even ship until a week after it was due, despite their site showing 4 in stock the entire time. In addition to being late our last two BD purchases arrived in busted cases thanks to amazon's latest trash mailers, that aren't even recyclable as they claim, at least our county won't take them due to the dabs of foam-like glue they use in between the brown paper layers that I assume are supposed to be what they think passes for padding. We also received 3 supposedly brand new BDs (shipped AND sold by amazon itself, not warehouse deals or third party vendors) that had been previously opened as evidenced by the already redeemed digital codes in two and the retail stickers on the other that were underneath the actual shrinkwrap!

I don't know what's going on with amazon, but we're starting to virtually dread buying anything from them, especially Blu-rays. Making their customer support more and more automated just ads to the frustration of increased need for returns.

[Member-425016]

I was ready to jump in the hate train, but I just did a side by side comparison.
No contest, the Blu-Ray set crushes the DVD by a mile. It is pretty gorgeous.
Colors are velvety rich, and vibrant. Not over saturated, but bright, and beautiful.

DNR is nowhere near as bad as some Disney animated classics.

Too bad the sound isn't an upgrade, but I think this is as close to perfect as we will ever get with Scooby Doo. And I'm OK with that.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

Because the quality looks great to me? Better than DVD and I wouldn't bother with digital one way or another. I'm not going to stop myself from buying something that I like because it isn't 100% perfection.

Wanting something that doesn't look bad isn't an expectation of 100% perfection and you know that. Come on now.

[UseY0ur1llusi0n]

Wow -- nasty f*cking DNR. Not really surprising after their comments about Batman Beyond... but yeah, Warner has lost all dignity IMHO.

[DawnShadow]

Did people actually think it would look WORSE than the DVD?

Looking better than the DVD doesn’t make it impressive, that’s the bare minimum that a Blu-ray should achieve.

[Member-425016]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

Did people actually think it would look WORSE than the DVD?

Looking better than the DVD doesn’t make it impressive, that’s the bare minimum that a Blu-ray should achieve.

I didn't think it would look worse than the DVD, but I actually didn't expect it to look so much better. You can hate it all you want, but in the end you will be missing out.

[DawnShadow]

Originally Posted by Filmfan73

I didn't think it would look worse than the DVD, but I actually didn't expect it to look so much better. You can hate it all you want, but in the end you will be missing out.

How am I missing out if the iTunes files that I have are visually superior? How would I gain anything from owning inferior copies on disc?

[StarDestroyer52]

Okay so I just watched the whole first disc and the PQ for me is just fine considering the budget given as Scooby Doo Where Are You? was a cheap, affordable Saturday morning cartoon. Those expecting this to look like Jonny Quest don't understand that no matter what this isn't going to look as good as JQ due it being a Primetime show with a big budget one of the reason was why it lasted just one season going way overbudget every episode.

The audio on this is average. Not unlistenable by any means but not anything super spectacular. Though, it gets the job done. Would it be nice if WAC released this instead of WHV? Sure, but I'm not really sure some here were ever serious about buying this regardless of the price as much as there harping about the digital. JurassicBD summed it up:

Originally Posted by JurassicBD

And you'll own NOTHING! Even if you save it to your own expensive server (assuming they're any more reliable than the cheap ones) with multiple redundancies should a file become corrupted on one, after the vendor you bought it from has had their license pulled by the studio who wants to keep more profit for themselves and can easily do so in a digital world, you've got something you can't resell ever should they come out with a superior version you want to upgrade to, should you need money for retirement, medical expense, kids college, etc, or once it's OOP and worth a LOT more than even the current full SRP. Putting one's faith in an industry that has been EXTREMELY vocal for decades about how little regard they have for consumers rights to their properties...

But by all means to those saying I have the digital, so I'm not missing out don't complain when Warner takes that as an excuse not to give us anymore Scooby on BluRay. Or when companies don't bother to release animated cartoons on Blu.

[Member-425016]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

How am I missing out if the iTunes files that I have are visually superior? How would I gain anything from owning inferior copies on disc?

You like what you like, and I will as well. I think the color(the lifeblood of animation) is more striking and vibrant on the BD. Therefore, I think it is better.

So if you're so happy with what you have, why complain about this set? You're happy, and so am I.