The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[Gorgon]

^^ I'm just suggesting that if a company plans to import a product and provide it as accurately as possible (let's say someone other than Funi for now) then I would think it a wise decision to have staff members that are familiar with the nuances and cultural aspects of the product.
I would think this a wise decision and I'm confident they would have little trouble finding such type employees.
Otherwise, the adage "lost in translation" is assuredly apropos.
This isn't a "race" thing, it's a "culture" thing. Something I would think beneficial.

[Girls With Guns]

But, their ultimate goal is to localize/westernize the crap out of anime, in order to get more of the generic masses to better "relate" to it... they're not really interested in the cultural aspects of anime, just how many customers they can draw in to make the most money for their business.

[Kyle15]

"You need ~Unspecific-Asian-People~ who understand {Cultural Nuances} in order to provide a specifically Japanese product without compression artifacts to a North American audience"

[Girls With Guns]

Piece of cake. Hire them!

Yeah well, that's why I personally am so absolutely intolerant of English dubs - way too many liberties taken that destroys the cultural aspects of an anime - plus the fact that it's simply not Japanese anymore.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by professorwho

It may be a 1:1 clone for all I know. It seems Nozomi's discs have a max bitrate capped around 33 mbps or so, so with a higher maximum, it could point to that.

I stand corrected. It isn't a clone. Here's the stats of the JP Disc:

Video:
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
34.6 mbps AVG
36.5 mbps MAX
16.8GB

Audio:
Japanese DTS HD-MA 2.1 24-Bit 2565 kbps
English DTS HD-MA 2.1 24-Bit 2565 kbps

While I'm at it, here's the stats for:

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt Bandit Flower (JP BD)

Video:
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
33.5 mbps AVG
35.0 mbps MAX
21.0GB

Audio:
Japanese DTS HD-MA 2.1 24-Bit 2565 kbps
English DTS HD-MA 2.1 24-Bit 2565 kbps

[professorwho]

I'm bored, so I'll rip some Blu-rays and post stats for discs that don't have any. Expect to see quite a few older titles over the next few days.

[professorwho]

Ouran High School Host Club

Disc size: 46.2GB

Main feature (episodes 1-9): 45.7GB

Episode 1: 5.1GB

Video:
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
24.9 mbps AVG
40.0 mbps MAX
4.07GB

Audio:
Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 24-Bit 764 kbps
English Dolby TrueHD 2.0 24-Bit 1551 kbps

As I think many of you know, Ouran is an upscale, and a damn good one at that. Most of it looks really good for an upscale, but certain bits (like the OP) look HD native- it's that good. I remember BOA said that FUNi's upscale looked better than the later Japanese release, and I can believe it. It's a shoujo series with gorgeous artwork that in stills could pass off as native HD, but when the series gets well animated, like Yutaka Nakamura's cut in Episode 1, it's a bit easier to tell the nature of the source. That doesn't happen much, and because the series is reliant upon stills and basic animation, it looks great.

Audio is crystal clear in Japanese, and, despite the bitrate being about half of the dub, it sounds richer. The sound levels are much clearer and less "cramped" than the dub track. The English track is very good (and the dub is surprisingly good- Haruhi is perfect, but Takami stands out as Vic Mignogna trying not to sound like Edward Elric), though, but the levels are not as good, in my opinion. The sound effects and music are softer, and the dialogue is louder. Either track is good, though. Subtitles are not in the "standard" font FUNimation would go on to use later, but it's not a big deal (some might prefer the font here).

[professorwho]

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Disc size: 33.4GB

Main feature (episodes 1-9): 32.9GB

Episode 1: 3.9GB (file sizes per episode vary between 3.1GB and 4.1GB)

Video:
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
14.4 mbps AVG
40.0 mbps MAX
2.47 GB

Audio:
Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 24-Bit 813 kbps
English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 24-Bit 3186 kbps

FMA Brotherhood is an odd case. The series was produced at 540p to save time in compositing, so that more time and money could be poured into the incredible fight animation, so it is an upscale. As Dustin points out in the site's review, bitrates massive wildly, going between 3 mbps, all the way up to 43 mbps! I feel it's a big issue, as Brotherhood has a lot of action that is insanely well animated, you need a high bitrate to maintain the detail in the visuals. Bitrates aside, it looks fine, I guess? There is some banding visible, though nowhere near as bad as Re:Zero or Psycho Pass. It clearly isn't as good as an HD native series (or as clean looking as Ouran), but it looks better than most anime upscales. The OP looks HD native, though. The brightness issue is technically present, but unless side-by-side, you wouldn't notice- the difference is virtually non existent. But the big issue is disc management. This is an older FUNi release, and so is Ouran, but only using 33GB on the disc is a bit crazy. I mean, Warner just released a Blu-ray with a bitrate of 7! mbps, but this is no excuse. If they were going to keep the file sizes the same, at least put more episodes on the disc! 12 episodes could fit here no problem, and while it would mean a bit more time in disc authoring, it saves money, in that one less disc would have been produced.

Audio is the reverse of what I talked about with Ouran. The dub track is stellar. Not just in terms of voice acting (one of the few dubs that comes close to the Japanese), but in terms of sound quality. The Japanese track is perfect, though, despite the bitrate being less than 1/3 that of the dub. Sound is crystal clear and there are no compression issues. The dub, though... it's noticeably more aggressive. Music levels are about the same, though the sound effects are way louder. On my computer and TV speakers, the JP track sounds better, as they're in stereo, but if I had a 5.1 set up, I might say otherwise.

(I do have a headset for my PS4 that emulates 7.1 surround, but it's a mixed bag. Most likely due to the disc, to which I found The Lord of the Rings is the best use of surround, Helm's Deep is so epic!)

FMA Brotherhood is a mess of a Blu-ray, but it looks better than the DVD, so it's worth it. While it's out of print in the US, its still in print in the UK and Australia, so I'd say it's worth the import.

[pikagreg]

Were the same discs used as the single volumes vs the 2-set release from Funi?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by pikagreg

Were the same discs used as the single volumes vs the 2-set release from Funi?

I'm using FUNi's 2 set release. While the number of discs is different, the video is exactly the same.

[professorwho]

Now, here's where things get interesting... as it uses the same encodes done on the volumes, and the encodes get better as the show goes along.

Disc 2 of set 1 (the re-release with 33 episodes) is about the same in terms of file size, though slightly higher, but not by much... Disc 3 is where it goes higher. File sizes range between 4.2GB and 5GB per episode, mostly sticking around 4.8GB per episode. Disc 4 is more of the same.

[professorwho]

The Vision of Escaflowne Disc 1 Uncut Version

Disc size: 45.3GB

Feature size: 44.8GB (episodes 1-7)

Episode 1: 6.3GB (file sizes per episode vary between 6GB and 6.5GB)

Video:
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
30.0 mbps AVG
39.0 mbps MAX
5.10GB

Audio:
Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 24-Bit 762 kbps
English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 24-Bit 1951 kbps

How did this pass quality control? How? Like, you know how FUNimation produces lackluster Blu-rays for TV anime, while the films get good encodes? Well, this is the rare instance when the TV anime gets the proper treatment. It's so good looking I can't believe it's FUNimation. The same company responsible for Re:Zero, Psycho Pass and Steins;Gate produced this?

I am blown away. Escaflowne is FUNimation's crowning achievement. While the Kickstarter was rocky, and had a lot of failures, the end result is nothing short of unbelievable. It isn't technically perfect, as mp3dom found some flaws, including a single shot that was upscaled, though it only lasts for a few seconds, so it's hardly noticeable. He also noted that grain levels are unbalanced, so look there for more details. I'm not the biggest video snob here, but I couldn't notice, so I wouldn't say it's an issue.

The OP is actually sharper than the UK and even the Japanese releases! It uses the creditless master, so it looks better than the one used in the film scan of the episodes. The video in this set... It's just really, really good.

The audio is excellent. Crystal clear and perfect. Both the Japanese and dub tracks are about the same. Sound effects, music, dialogue... it all is equal in balance, and sounds great. Subtitles are good, and it does not have the issues Anime Limited had in their release, so no replacement discs are needed.

More qualified people could find flaws in the release, but from where I sit, it's near perfect. The UK set is ever so slightly better in terms of PQ, but if you're in the US, I wouldn't bother importing if you can find a deal on FUNi's release.

[Yuripa]

Screengrab from Sensuifu for Re:Zero : https://imgur.com/a/Q6X6dbm
Good lord...

[professorwho]

There's banding in almost every shot... HOW DO YOU F**K UP THAT BADLY?!

[Gouki]

Because Funimation.

[professorwho]

[kevers7290]

I watched Afro Samurai recently and was seriously distracted by the amount of banding on that release. I'm willing to cut Funimation some slack because that was one of their first Blu-ray releases and the format was still relatively new. This is inexcusable in 2018.

[Naiera]

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is 7 eps per disc I haven’t had either disc in my computer, so I’m not sure what exactly it means.

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Disc size: 33.4GB

Main feature (episodes 1-9): 32.9GB

Episode 1: 3.9GB (file sizes per episode vary between 3.1GB and 4.1GB)

Video:
1080p MPEG-4 AVC
14.4 mbps AVG
40.0 mbps MAX
2.47 GB

As you point out, the brightness is indeed increased on FMA:B which causes visual problems, however interestingly enough I seem to recall the encodes on Netflix don’t actually have this issue. In regards to the file size, I recently noticed that the Soul Eater BDs have small filesizes, again ranging from as low as 3gb. Another thing I also noticed recently is that the ending sequence only of Samurai Champloo suffers from black crush on both the BD and Netflix.

Originally Posted by Naiera

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is 7 eps per disc I haven’t had either disc in my computer, so I’m not sure what exactly it means.

It certainly doesn’t mean that they used the Japanese encodes if that’s what you’re hoping for, as the OP/ED have replaced credits .

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by Gouki

Because Funimation.