The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[PrimusD]

Originally Posted by zrdb

Got news for you-I have the Australian dvd set and it's the same way-it's intentional on the part of the show's creators for art's sake.

Got a quote from the creators to back that up?

Still, nice to know the quality's not like that just because of shoddy authoring on the part of Maiden Japan.

[BigOnAnime]

Sadly that's stuff you don't really see these days. You have to read interviews in Japanese anime magazines, or the booklets included with the Japanese home video release, and those aren't that common in R1 releases these days. Also Maiden Japan failed to get the video extras that are on the Australian releases as they're cheap like Sentai. Now if they were like good old ADV Films, their origins......

[zrdb]

Originally Posted by PrimusD

Got a quote from the creators to back that up?

Still, nice to know the quality's not like that just because of shoddy authoring on the part of Maiden Japan.

Sorry-no direct quote-just remember reading somewhere a few years ago that the graininess was a deliberate choice that was made during the production of the show.

[billyrox]

interesting...

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Hmm, anyone own the JPBD's for When They Cry: Kai? Sentai might have messed something up. Basically the issue has something to do with the framerate.
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post358883 (Read the rest of the thread for more)

And now there's this...

Originally Posted by Sensuifu

It's strange, because if Sentai really used the same masters from the JP BD sets, then something is off. Unless of course, the previous JP BD set is encoded in 24p, which might explain the stuttering/dropped frames. Not sure if that's the case though; I don't own those older sets, but I do have the more recent BD compilations with the 480i encode. FWIW, the Sentai BD release looks close to the original source resolution when upscaled. The problem is, there's some slight overscan while the JP retains more of the edges. There's also some minor ringing on Sentai's encode (though less obtrusive than the shimmering aliasing on the JP 480i source). The case with Ep.10 and 16, and other episodes suffer from stuttering, play smoothly on the 480i encode, albeit with some jagginess. If whatever master Sentai used really doesn't have that stuttering, then it's possible they might've applied double scanlines, made it progressive, than re-encoded it back into video..which might explain the copious amount of ghosting both Sentai sets exhibit from time to time.

A few comps-
1
2
3

http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post363635

[Mangaranga]

What happened to the real Funimation? This release is too nice for a Funi release.
Can't say I've ever heard of 96kHz audio on an anime BD outside the JP Rokka BDs either.

[Naiera]

Need proof of picture quality sufficiency. The brightness thing, you know.

[Oniros]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

What happened to the real Funimation? This release is too nice for a Funi release.
Can't say I've ever heard of 96kHz audio on an anime BD outside the JP Rokka BDs either.

Can anyone provide any info regarding TGWLTT? How does it compare to the old Bandai and Korean BDs?

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by Oniros

Can anyone provide any info regarding TGWLTT? How does it compare to the old Bandai and Korean BDs?

I'm still waiting for my copy, so I'll post a the same when I receive it if nobody else does so. No idea what the old Bandai and Korean BDs are like unfortunately as I only own the crappy UK BD.

[BigOnAnime]

Screens for Sound! Euphonium V1 and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, including a comparison with the Korean BD's from Sensuifu below.

Sound! Euphonium Volume 1
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post364085

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Originally Posted by Sensuifu

Screencaps

a few comparisons between the Korean BD release:
1
2
3
4
5

http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...084#post364084

[BigOnAnime]

He dumped more caps.

Psycho-Pass: The Movie
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post364770

The Boy and the Beast
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post364769

Also, looking a bit more closely at Sound! Euphonium, there's banding, but after going back to this review, seems the issue is source-related.

Image quality is very good, though there are some spots with banding issues. The photography techniques used by the staff are very clearly shown in contrast to the streams from Crunchyroll. The additional detail provided is very noticeable and provides a much clearer/higher contrast visual product. These are definitely the versions you want to save.

https://ultimatemegax.wordpress.com/...lume-1-review/

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

He dumped more caps.

Psycho-Pass: The Movie

I've done some comparison shots between the JP BD and some of those caps. As said before, the source isn't fantastic for this one.

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

And now there's this...http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post363635

Things just got even more interesting. (Note: Second quote from boredandlazy at the bottom came before Sensuifu quoted them. I just put it in this order so I didn't have to quote/link three posts instead of just two.)

Originally Posted by Sensuifu

I suspected this earlier and have tested it myself to find this is exactly what happened. I believe they really used the original 480i/1080i source but decided to tinker with the aliasing, thinking deinterlacing (linear blend type) it first would make the PQ better. It does to an extent, but for some reason they auto-flagged the frame output to 24p, which was obviously encoded back into 29.97/video. Thus the blended frames pass off as ghosting since they've already been hardcoded into progressive frames in the previous step. Can't understand why they couldn't just upscale and have the player do the deinterlacing work. I'm guessing they used an automated preset to encode this 'DVD' source, and forced 1080i (for consistency sake) on the the final encode, thus the result we got. Not that it's any better than the original source resolution, but in many cases, the stuttering can be more annoying than the aliasing. The good thing is that Sentai doesn't apply gimmicky filters that mess with everything else. They just scewed up with this framerate because the PQ is otherwise identical to the 480i JP source.

http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post365246

Originally Posted by boredandlazy

I can't be 100% sure, but I can tell you that the Australian DVD release which has been out for a few years has none of the issues of the Sentai Blu-Rays. It is PAL sped up to 25fps, but every frame is progressive with the no blending so therefore a master does in fact exist somewhere which isn't messed up. To be perfectly honest I find it hard to believe that Japan would send the master in it's current state anywhere especially as the first season was fine(although still 1080i), and my guess is that it's Sentai that's messed up. Hence their comments about 'fixing it up' as mentioned earlier.

http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post365216

[Naiera]

Holy crap. Good thing I can't really afford the three sets right now anyway.

[Mantis128]

I've heard Madman's releases are usually downgraded in terms of picture, is this true?

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by Mantis128

I've heard Madman's releases are usually downgraded in terms of picture, is this true?

It really depends on the release. To save money, Madman tends to share the costs of disc authoring with other companies that do decent encodes, such as Anime Limited in the UK. For example: Space Dandy UK release boots up with Madman logo, and booting the Warner Bros US release of Rick and Morty S1 and Adventure Time S4 on a region B player will show the Madman logo during boot up. When Madman doesn't have this luxury, they author their own discs and those tend to be a bit underwhelming, such as Fate/Zero, Madoka TV series, and even their very recent non-anime release of Steven Universe S1.

[Sylontack]

Originally Posted by Mantis128

I've heard Madman's releases are usually downgraded in terms of picture, is this true?

As NLS has already stated, they rarely produce their own discs so for the most part they're as good as the UK or US equivalent. That's just referring to BDs though, I only see issues on their DVDs if it's data starved garbage. If this is referring to Higurashi though, that's not even a Madman release so this is all moot. Siren's releases are usually quite good. (Re:The Penguindrum BD you've likely seen me bring up at every given chance)

[BigOnAnime]

Another post of caps. This is going to make updating the index I made more fun....

Belladonna of Sadness
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post368888

Also relevant...

Originally Posted by Sensuifu

No, I didn't notice any compression artifacting. The video bitrate averages around 27mbps, with that particular scene in question actually hitting around 36mbps. And really though, the average is a bit misleading because much of the active video does hover around the 30s. The points where the bitrate drops are either static, low detailed scenes, or fades.
I think he's confusing it with the slight blurriness due to the focus, which does fluctuate from time to time. Some scenes are clearly-focused/sharper than others, but that's not unusual to come across, especially with filmed work.

http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post369042

Gourmet Girl Graffiti
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post368885

Love Live! The School Idol Movie
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post366488

Lucky*Star | This is 1080i like the JP release. JP BD vs. US DVD
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post368889

Otaku no Video
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post366180

Sound! Euphonium Volume 2
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post368756

Wake Up, Girls! TV
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post368887

When They Cry: Rei
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post366646

Yurikuma Arashi
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post366645

Also while looking through his posts to see if I missed anything, I noticed he dumped caps for a few JP releases.

Aria the Animation (I'm just going to quote his posts)...

Originally Posted by Sensuifu

The Animation screencaps - not exactly a good-looking upscale, but it is what it is.
The Avvenire ep1 screencaps

http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post342024

Originally Posted by Sensuifu

Screencaps from Aria The Natural Boxset -

Avvenire Ep.2

The Natural

The OVA ~ Arietta ~

http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post353612

Originally Posted by Sensuifu

screencaps Aria The Origination Boxset

The Avvenire Ep. 3

http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post366418

Girls und Panzer Movie

Originally Posted by Sensuifu

finally got around to watching the movie...what a visual and aural spectacle. This film has some really nice LFEs and the surround sound is on par with Hollywood's best. Visually, it's equally impressive. I can understand why so many theater goers returned for repeat viewings...it's a very fun popcorn flick that takes the best of the series and kicks up all the action a few notches. It's literally a non-stop, action-comedy tour de force; almost like a Michael Bay romp, only cuter. :P

http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post366563
(The thing was a hit at the Japanese box office and is STILL playing in theaters. http://www.someanithing.com/268)

Also, from the person that did that Lucky*Star comparison...

Myriad Colors Phantom World Volume 1

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Also relevant...

I see some clearly visible compression issues in some of the screenshots on the Blu-ray.com review, such as screenshot 16. The Blu-ray.com screenshots are lossy, but I doubt that makes much of a difference.

[BigOnAnime]

Cross Ange Collection 2
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post370680

Macross Delta Volume 1
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post370682

Plastic Memories Volume 1
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post370681

Punch Line
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/...l=1#post370679