The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Nostalgic Twilight

What’s a good alternative?

Hooking up two TVs and watching discs side by side at the same time.

[Nostalgic Twilight]

[Robbl]

Originally Posted by Nostalgic Twilight

What’s a good alternative?

https://slowpics.org

[Nostalgic Twilight]

Well, I have salvaged my Kyo Kara Maoh! comparisons because they were recent enough, but I unfortunately no longer have the DVD shots for Kimagure and Wicked City on my PC, though the BD shots are still hosted on Imgur. I've decided that I think I will go ahead and still use screenshotcomparisons.com because I am comfortable with it, but in the future, I will also be certain to upload the matching DVD shots along with the BD shots on Imgur. Thanks for the link as well, Robbl.

Kyo gallery:
https://imgur.com/a/p5gLZeC

[ChilledOctopusOnLava]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2992

[chronoclast]

Does anyone here know how the video quality is on Funi's ACCA: 13 BDs? I haven't been able to locate screenshots anywhere.

[professorwho]

In regards to Pokémon, a few things first:

The maximum video rate of the BD specifications is 40 mbps. The maximum video bitrate on DVD is around 10 mbps. Now, most western anime BDs are not encoded at around 40, but instead the 20-22 mbps range. In Japan, anime releases are encoded at 35 mbps+ with maxed out bitrates. Now, bitrate means nothing to a certain extent. I’d say the limit for acceptability of a standard BD is 15 mbps, but that is only in the hands of a capable compressionist like Justin Sevakis who has managed to pull off miracle encodes with sometimes 12 or 13 episodes per disc and have minimal or zero artifacting. Obviously the studio master is over 50 mbps, and probably closer to 100 mbps, but it’s highly illogical to have it be 40 mbps every second on a Blu-ray, as many scenes may be more demanding and require bigger spikes above 48 mbps.

Now here’s where things get complicated. Pokémon is composited by OLM (the animation studio) at slightly over 720p. So, as with 95% of all modern anime, it is slightly upscaled to hit a 1080p resolution for BD/streaming or 1080i for broadcast. Pokémon does not have any home video releases in Japan for the series so there’s nothing to compare to besides the DVDs at rental stores.

Being at such a resolution it is composited at 1.78:1 aspect ratio (which fills every pixel of your TV). Now, DVD is at a resolution of 720x480, which is 4:3 in aspect ratio- so how is a DVD widescreen? Anamorphic. A 16:9 image is squeezed into a 4:3 frame which is then stretched and un-squeezed by the DVD/BD player to fill the screen. In the screen cap you have of Pikachu being surprised, nothing has been cut off as you can see- all the image from the 720p web rip is there- the problem is that the method of un-squeezing was done incorrectly. If you view the DVD on a normal TV (which is 1.78:1) it should fill every pixel.

That said, I wouldn’t hold out hope that a BD release will fix everything. Viz Media has lots of issues in their BDs in regards to video levels and compression quality (not ignoring poor upscale work in the case of Sailor Moon, and to a lesser extent- Bleach), but it should 100% be better than their DVDs due to the requirements of the BD format.

There are BDs of XY in Germany with the English dub, but they are Region B locked, so unless you have a region free player they will not work on 98% of all North American players.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Being at such a resolution it is composited at 1.78:1 aspect ratio (which fills every pixel of your TV). Now, DVD is at a resolution of 720x480, which is 4:3 in aspect ratio- so how is a DVD widescreen? Anamorphic. A 16:9 image is squeezed into a 4:3 frame which is then stretched and un-squeezed by the DVD/BD player to fill the screen. In the screen cap you have of Pikachu being surprised, nothing has been cut off as you can see- all the image from the 720p web rip is there- the problem is that the method of un-squeezing was done incorrectly. If you view the DVD on a normal TV (which is 1.78:1) it should fill every pixel.

720x480 is 3:2, but it is scaled to 640x480 (4:3) or 853x480/864x480 (16:9)

[Yuripa]

Hey look it's your favourite nightmarish banding fes Steins;Gate!
But this time no nightmares, no fes, nothing.
Just Dynit, just Mp3dom.

The whole serie is spread on 6 BD50, each episode is around ~ 7-8GO.
No english support unfortunatly but the subtitles are not locked, so you can turn them off.

There is a re-release on standard edition (news authoring on 4BD) for less than 35$

The PQ is top notch.

Bitgraph :


Screengrabs (episode 1) : https://imgur.com/a/8hhx3Id
Mediainfo : https://pastebin.com/5J6zHMqd

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by Yuripa

Hey look it's your favourite nightmarish banding fes Steins;Gate!
But this time no nightmares, no fes, nothing.
Just Dynit, just Mp3dom.

mp3dom is a maddo saientisuto.


I prefer the VN though.

[professorwho]

I prefer neither, as I’m not a fan of S;G at all. (That said, I only own it because it was a blind buy)

[Logan Jones]

What is this "HDCAM" I keeping seeing in these threads? (Just curious.)

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Logan Jones

What is this "HDCAM" I keeping seeing in these threads? (Just curious.)

It's a format used for delivery of video content professionally. Now it's mainly digital files, but it still is used, though not as much.

[PissedOffPeoN]

Originally Posted by Yuripa

Hey look it's your favourite nightmarish banding fes Steins;Gate!
But this time no nightmares, no fes, nothing.
Just Dynit, just Mp3dom.

The whole serie is spread on 6 BD50, each episode is around ~ 7-8GO.
No english support unfortunatly but the subtitles are not locked, so you can turn them off.

There is a re-release on standard edition (news authoring on 4BD) for less than 35$

The PQ is top notch.

Bitgraph :


Screengrabs (episode 1) : https://imgur.com/a/8hhx3Id
Mediainfo : https://pastebin.com/5J6zHMqd

This the Italian release?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by PissedOffPeoN

This the Italian release?

Yes.

[PissedOffPeoN]

Did anyone get the madman re zero releases? I wonder how it compares to funimations disaster.

[Lambadelta]

Originally Posted by PissedOffPeoN

Did anyone get the madman re zero releases? I wonder how it compares to funimations disaster.

Its believed the replacement discs are the same master Madman used for part 1

[ChilledOctopusOnLava]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Now, bitrate means nothing to a certain extent.

I wouldn't say it means nothing as the higher the bitrate, the less compression artifacts you get on your image. Eventually, of course, you get to the point that any higher rate will result in no visual difference. Of course mathematically this would be incorrect, but if no one can see the difference, at least according to the editor or whoever is hired to take care of the authoring, then that is okay in their books...

Originally Posted by professorwho

I’d say the limit for acceptability of a standard BD is 15 mbps, but that is only in the hands of a capable compressionist like Justin Sevakis who has managed to pull off miracle encodes with sometimes 12 or 13 episodes per disc and have minimal or zero artifacting.

What show(s) is(are) this(these) that has the lowest bitrate yet still look good at (F)HD resolution size? I would very much like to see his works....

Originally Posted by professorwho

Obviously the studio master is over 50 mbps, and probably closer to 100 mbps, but it’s highly illogical to have it be 40 mbps every second on a Blu-ray, as many scenes may be more demanding and require bigger spikes above 48 mbps.

Doesn't UHD blurays use more than that.....every second?

Originally Posted by professorwho

Now here’s where things get complicated. Pokémon is composited by OLM (the animation studio) at slightly over 720p. So, as with 95% of all modern anime, it is slightly upscaled to hit a 1080p resolution for BD/streaming or 1080i for broadcast. Pokémon does not have any home video releases in Japan for the series so there’s nothing to compare to besides the DVDs at rental stores.

That's 720p 16:9 yes? or something aspect ratio with 720 height? Either way, that means I should have waited for a bluray release of it all(If they even come...) then since they run minimum 720 height and whatever adjusted width with or without black bars to keep the aspect ratio correct....?

Originally Posted by professorwho

Being at such a resolution it is composited at 1.78:1 aspect ratio (which fills every pixel of your TV). Now, DVD is at a resolution of 720x480, which is 4:3 in aspect ratio- so how is a DVD widescreen? Anamorphic. A 16:9 image is squeezed into a 4:3 frame which is then stretched and un-squeezed by the DVD/BD player to fill the screen. In the screen cap you have of Pikachu being surprised, nothing has been cut off as you can see- all the image from the 720p web rip is there- the problem is that the method of un-squeezing was done incorrectly. If you view the DVD on a normal TV (which is 1.78:1) it should fill every pixel.

So apparently this is best viewed on a dedicated DVD player and TV screen and *not* a DVD drive on a computer and whatever monitor I have....?

Originally Posted by professorwho

There are BDs of XY in Germany with the English dub, but they are Region B locked, so unless you have a region free player they will not work on 98% of all North American players.

I can work with Region B, I'm from Australia and our region is B for bluray and 4 for DVD.....are these German ones VIZ media or some other company?

[Pyoko]

Originally Posted by ChilledOctopusOnLava

Doesn't UHD blurays use more than that.....every second?

Correct, UHD BDs go up to over 100Mbps, but higher resolutions require higher bitrates.

For reference an uncompressed 24fps HD master with 10bit color depth (which is a very standard configuration) is about 1400 Mbps, masters that get sent out to third parties though would most likely use something like ProRes compression, which is over 250 Mbps with full color resolution for the same configuration.

So apparently this is best viewed on a dedicated DVD player and TV screen and *not* a DVD drive on a computer and whatever monitor I have....?

The only reason a DVD would be better in a stand-alone player is if the disc is encoded with interlaced video, because software DVD players have always been notoriously bad at handling that type of disc. Other than that it's not going to make much of a difference.

Apart from the compression issues your Pokemon screenshots show a lot of jagged edges and some ghosting and looks very much like interlaced video being de-interlaced poorly by the player, so that probably doesn't help.

DVD is just not very good. The bitrate is too low, the codec used for compression is old and inefficient, the resolution is low which means that when you scale it up to cover the screen all the compression artifacts are scaled up and enhanced as well. On top of that I suspect DVD production got lazier and lazier when Blu-ray came around, no point in trying to do a good job when it's going to be vastly inferior to Blu-ray no matter what.

[SirYodaJedi]

Originally Posted by Pyoko

The only reason a DVD would be better in a stand-alone player is if the disc is encoded with interlaced video, because software DVD players have always been notoriously bad at handling that type of disc.

Um, I was under the impression that all DVDs were interlaced (except for the rare 240p disc). Progressive scan players just deinterlaced the footage.

Originally Posted by Nostalgic Twilight

What’s a good alternative?

Imgsli

Originally Posted by Naiera

Minor banding is everywhere, except when mp3dom spends a lot of time and effort removing as much as he can.

Is there any type of banding removal that doesn't involve introducing noise, though? (Referring to after the image is already posterized, of course. If it isn't posterized yet, then of course you can just dither it.) Subtle noise is more bearable than prominent banding, but I'm very sensitive to noise/grain (and I'm too young to have nostalgia for film grain, which too many a digital cinematographer is).