The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[Rosenkreutz]

Someone told me the other day that Sony was merging Funimation and Aniplex or something like that, is that true? If so I wonder if that means that they'll eventually release the Aniplex titles under the Funimation brand for lower prices. If so I hope that they use the Aniplex masters and not the Funimation ones for the applicable series. I also wonder if that means that they'll bring back some of the BD releases for the series that have long been out of print, that be nice.

[Naiera]

You really need to read various threads here. It's a topic that's been beaten to death. In short, no, they're not merging, but FUNi is releasing at least one show (Demon Slayer) so far, with the same video quality but without physical and on-disc extras.

[kevers7290]

I reached out to MVM re: their upcoming Moribito release and they said that it will utilize the same (1080p) encode as the Sentai release, so pick your poison I guess. I have the Viz release so unless someone can convince me that the Sentai version is a marked improvement, I suppose I will just stick with what I have.

[professorwho]

Moribito is one of the few anime that was natively mixed in 5.1 surround sound, and the Sentai release has DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks, while Viz only offered stereo tracks. I don’t have a surround sound setup so it’s not a big deal for me, but if you do, it might be worth selling the Viz for the Sentai mainly for audio. I do also think the Sentai will be better encoded, but to what degree better, I don’t know.

[PissedOffPeoN]

The audio was the reason i got the upgrade and it is really good .

[NLScavenger]

Serial Experiments Lain - Dybex BD vs Geneon Universal BD (2010)

Dybex BD



Geneon Universal BD (2010)


Comparison

https://slow.pics/c/Q7ovMksD

Dybex BD doesn't have the noise reduction that the Geneon BD has in film shots, but some digital shots are filtered on Dybex BD (e.g. comparison #3 & #13). The picture on the Dybex BD is slightly darker than the Geneon BD.

There seems to be an issue with the chroma bleeding on the Dybex BD (see bleeding reds in comparison #11 and #9). I guess chroma is filtered or something?

BDInfo Dybex BD episode #1

Disc Title: LAIN BD 1
Disc Label: LAIN BD 1
Disc Size: 47,955,834,641 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00002.MPLS
Size: 5,765,462,016 bytes
Length: 0:23:56.977
Total Bitrate: 32.10 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 26993 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: French / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   781 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   384 kbps / 16-bit)
Audio: Japanese / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   777 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /   384 kbps / 16-bit)
Audio: French / DTS-HD Master Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz /  1752 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz /   768 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitle: French / 11.718 kbps
Subtitle: Dutch / 11.328 kbps
Subtitle: French / 1.371 kbps

Bitrate Geneon Universal BD (2010) episode #1

[Logan Jones]

Y'know, Lain is a visually interesting show, mixing both digital and traditional animation in the same episodes. But I have to ask, how was this show animated with these things mixed together like this? Moreover, how were they able to combine these assets together in the home video releases?

I'm still a noob at how all this stuff comes together...

[kevers7290]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Moribito is one of the few anime that was natively mixed in 5.1 surround sound, and the Sentai release has DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks, while Viz only offered stereo tracks. I don’t have a surround sound setup so it’s not a big deal for me, but if you do, it might be worth selling the Viz for the Sentai mainly for audio. I do also think the Sentai will be better encoded, but to what degree better, I don’t know.

Cool, I did not know that about Moribito. It's one of my all-time favorite anime series. That said I too have a dedicated stereo setup for my home theater (I listen to a lot of records/CDs) so surround sound is a no go for me. I'll stick with the Viz release until someone can post comparisons between Sentai and Viz PQ.

[professorwho]

So... after some delays, the Gundam Movie Trilogy 4K UHD set is out, and Schmullus from Discotek got his hands on it, and HOLY SHIT. I cannot believe this, there is actual film grain on an anime 4K UHD. There's clearly some DNR at play, but to see this much grain on an anime UHD is insane.






Album

And because it's Japan, we get a maxed out bitrate;


I'm at a loss for words. That's settled, I need to get a BD drive that's able to be Libre firmware hacked and rip MKVs of UHDs as this is too good to be real.

[Pyoko]

The Viz release of Moribito is fine in my opinion, though it does have a certain amount of quantization noise and banding which isn't perfectly rendered, so that topmost faint layer often turns into a mix of quantization and compression noise.

Even if the Sentai is better I won't bother upgrading. I don't have a surround setup either, I'm OK with the quality of the previous release and moreover the Viz has regular, thin, white subtitles which I greatly prefer, whereas Sentai will no doubt have used their usual oversized yellow ones.

Originally Posted by Logan Jones

Y'know, Lain is a visually interesting show, mixing both digital and traditional animation in the same episodes. But I have to ask, how was this show animated with these things mixed together like this? Moreover, how were they able to combine these assets together in the home video releases?

I'm still a noob at how all this stuff comes together...

The film parts would have been produced and shot as normal and then telecined to video. Then the digital portions would have also been converted to video and the whole thing edited together in the video realm. Considering the amount of digital stuff in it and the fact that it was relatively new I suppose it's also possible the entire thing was edited together digitally and only exported to a video master at the very end, though I wouldn't bet on it. Though I seem to recall the original master being component instead of composite, which was a rarity for something of that vintage.

On some older shows the digital shots and effects may have been recorded out to film and edited in that way instead. This was the case for Escaflowne for example, with the introductions that precede the episodes, or the dragon shots in the first episode.

The interesting thing about the Blu-ray master for Lain is that the various digital effects and text and display shots that turn up here and there were redone in HD; I think they managed to dig up a lot of the old project files and re-render them, maybe some effects were recreated as well. Many of the normal digitally-animated shots also look way sharper than what would have ever been possible with an upscale from SD, so I suspect they managed re-composite and re-render those as well.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by professorwho

So... after some delays, the Gundam Movie Trilogy 4K UHD set is out, and Schmullus from Discotek got his hands on it, and HOLY SHIT. I cannot believe this, there is actual film grain on an anime 4K UHD. There's clearly some DNR at play, but to see this much grain on an anime UHD is insane.






Album

And because it's Japan, we get a maxed out bitrate;


I'm at a loss for words. That's settled, I need to get a BD drive that's able to be Libre firmware hacked and rip MKVs of UHDs as this is too good to be real.

Wow big Twilight Zone moment, that looks awesome!

[Naiera]

Please spoiler those pics!

[NLScavenger]

Takarajima (Treasure Island) - Anime Limited France

Not so great encode of a not so great transfer with scanner noise.

Japanese and French OP and ED are encoded once and linked to the episodes via branching.



BDInfo episode #1

Disc Title: L'ILE AU TRESOR - BD1
Disc Label: L ILE AU TRESOR BD1
Disc Size: 47,568,948,473 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00018.MPLS
Size: 4,894,162,944 bytes
Length: 0:24:09.281
Total Bitrate: 27.02 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 21860 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: French / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1606 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Audio: Japanese / DTS-HD Master Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1850 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz /  1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitle: French / 30.126 kbps
Subtitle: French / 4.509 kbps

Bitrate in the graph is slightly different because I did not include the 1 second of black video at the end

[Member-571539]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Please spoiler those pics!

Make ‘em bigger!

[UniSol GR77]

Do the blu-ray of animes look WIDESCREEN in a natural way, or they crop the picture and create a fake widescreen?

For instance, DAIAPOLON has been transferred from the original negatives, and it looks widescreen.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by UniSol GR77

Do the blu-ray of animes look WIDESCREEN in a natural way, or they crop the picture and create a fake widescreen?

For instance, DAIAPOLON has been transferred from the original negatives, and it looks widescreen.

Do you know how film works? I'm actually being serious, here. If not, there are countless articles on how widescreen works when something was shot on film.

The show you mentioned, UFO Senshi Dai Apolon is from 1975, and is not meant for widescreen, and because it was shot with the intent of being presented in 1.33:1, a widescreen presentation would be a crop.

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Do you know how film works? I'm actually being serious, here. .

Hey Prof, relax. Just asking.

We don't know. Maybe they shot it with the intent of having a "film-like quality". I will do a comparison with the DVD.

P.s: 1976, not 1975.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by UniSol GR77

Do the blu-ray of animes look WIDESCREEN in a natural way, or they crop the picture and create a fake widescreen?

The majority of cel-animated anime (and for the majority of "pre-HD" television in general) was composed and framed for 1.33 as that was the standard. Most "safeproofing" of widescreen was usually reserved for TV movies because they could potentially be released theatrically outside of their native broadcast country (ex: "Duel").

[professorwho]

Screencaps of Boruto's Dad's Blu-ray from Viz

Spoiler alert: Viz messed it up, big time, as was expected

[UniSol GR77]

Confirmation:

UFO SENSHI DAIAPOLON (1976) is presented in true widescreen, no picture cropping. I compared the blu-ray image with the DVD version (4:3) and even the old TV footage (registered on VHS).
It's safe.