Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets) Collection Oct 29 - Page 13 - Blu-ray Forum

Weirded Wonder · 12-14-2013, 12:23 PM

Watched episodes 1 and 2 last night with my 5 year old and we loved it.

Picture and sound were amazing.

I only wish the Battle of the Planets & G-Force audio were available in some way, albeit in parts as it would not match the uncut footage.

CouncilSpectre · 12-14-2013, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beard Esquire

I only wish the Battle of the Planets & G-Force audio were available in some way, albeit in parts as it would not match the uncut footage.

Plus the missing 20-odd episodes.

The 7zark7 bits would throw things as well!

mar3o · 12-17-2013, 05:27 AM

Yeah, shame that we can't somehow get the Battle of the Planets audio worked into this, but that seems like an impossible task even for a fanedit, considering all the footage not included in Battle of the Planets, plus all the additional 7-Zark-7 footage trowing things off, and of course the missing episodes that Battle of the Planets never did.

I guess for integrity and quality, we've got this - for nostalgia we've got Battle of the Planets. Shame the series is so hard to find on DVD. I'd love to watch each episode back-to-back- Gatchaman first followed by the matching BOTP episode.

mar3o · 12-17-2013, 06:52 AM

I noticed the screenshot comparisons are up here:

http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleich...=1425#auswahl"

I'm not sure how I feel. The compression is of course far better - the DVDs are packed with compression artifacts. And the darker areas of the DVDs hide a lot of the details. The blu-rays show off a lot more shadow detail. But the color looks so incredibly under-saturated, I can't help but wonder if this is how it should look. Either every other version of Gatchaman/BOTP has been grossly over-saturated ever since the first day I saw it on tv in the 70's, or the color in this set is dialed down drastically.

Also, it appears that either the blu-rays are slightly stretched, or the DVDs were slightly crunched in, because they are not the same. The blu-rays seem to have a tiny bit more information in the frame on the left-hand side, but the image is still stretched when compared with the DVDs. One is incorrect, so which one? I would hope the blu-rays got it right, but then, the blu-rays stretched the extras, so...?

reason108 · 12-17-2013, 11:44 PM

I use to believe that what you saw on home video was what you would have seen at the theater, other than early pan&scan releases. I had no clue on how different transfers can be from one release to another. So many things tend to get messed up that should not. I know that nothing in life is perfect but when I am spending $100 for something, I would like for it to be as close to being right as it can be.

I compared youtube video of BOTP against an old dvd I made of a VHS tape that I had against the dvd and blu ray. The dvd colors do look boosted compared to the others. But, then again, the blu ray is softer in image but cleaner looking.

Underworld54 · 12-18-2013, 12:32 AM

Wow, is Joe obsessed with Bird Missles or what?!

mar3o · 12-18-2013, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reason108

I use to believe that what you saw on home video was what you would have seen at the theater, other than early pan&scan releases. I had no clue on how different transfers can be from one release to another. So many things tend to get messed up that should not. I know that nothing in life is perfect but when I am spending $100 for something, I would like for it to be as close to being right as it can be.

I compared youtube video of BOTP against an old dvd I made of a VHS tape that I had against the dvd and blu ray. The dvd colors do look boosted compared to the others. But, then again, the blu ray is softer in image but cleaner looking.

I don't know what to think of the transfer, based on the screenshots. If you type in "Gatchaman" or "Battle of the Planets" into Google image search, you can find hundreds and hundreds of images from all sources - VHS, DVD, comics, model box art, collectibles, action figures, etc. - and they all have pretty similar colors. Or type it into youtube to see tons of clips from different sources. The blu-rays looks downright pale compared to any image or clip you can find. Either every home video release ever has been wrong, including the BOTP broadcasts, and all the artists got it wrong too when they did the comics, and the artwork for various merchandising, or this blu-ray has drastically cut back on the color saturation. I believe it's the blu-rays at fault. I believe the color is more accurate, but sadly the saturation is toned down way too much. I'm really surprised they released this with such pale colors.

Yet the image is clearly superior to the DVDs in every other way.

Underworld54 · 12-19-2013, 10:28 PM

Think Gatchaman II will see a blu-ray release???

reason108 · 12-25-2013, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mar3o

I don't know what to think of the transfer, based on the screenshots. If you type in "Gatchaman" or "Battle of the Planets" into Google image search, you can find hundreds and hundreds of images from all sources - VHS, DVD, comics, model box art, collectibles, action figures, etc. - and they all have pretty similar colors. Or type it into youtube to see tons of clips from different sources. The blu-rays looks downright pale compared to any image or clip you can find. Either every home video release ever has been wrong, including the BOTP broadcasts, and all the artists got it wrong too when they did the comics, and the artwork for various merchandising, or this blu-ray has drastically cut back on the color saturation. I believe it's the blu-rays at fault. I believe the color is more accurate, but sadly the saturation is toned down way too much. I'm really surprised they released this with such pale colors.

Yet the image is clearly superior to the DVDs in every other way.

Yes, but I still want to think that the dvd box sets are still the definitive version.

mar3o · 12-26-2013, 08:59 PM

Well I got my set for Christmas today and I took a quick look at disc 1 and the bonus disc, just to see how things looked.

Firstly, the quality of the transfers is excellent. There's no doubt in my mind that this series never looked as good on home video as it does here. The episodes themselves are in the original 4:3 aspect ratio. The prints look very clean and have a film-like look to them. The lines are very sharp and the brightness looks just right. Wherever those early over-bright, washed-out screencaps came from, they're far from accurate. The episodes do not look like that, at all. I can't imagine the episodes looking any better.

Regarding the color, it looks spot-on to me. I tend to keep my HDTV color saturation dialed down a tiny bit from optimal, as my personal preference, because I like skin tones in films to look natural. But when checking out the episodes here I bumped it back to where my calibration discs indicate it should be set, and with that setting, the color looks perfect. Not at all de-saturated like the screenshots appear in the review. They're certainly not over-saturated, and some may be disappointed if they're expecting the type of saturated color that we see so often these days in animated films. But I'd say the color looks just right here. With my color dialed down to where I normally keep it, it does look a tad de-saturated, but again, that's with the saturation set lower than optimal. I think most fans will be very pleased with how these look on blu-ray.

There are 2 sound options - English, and Japanese with English subtitles. That is how it is listed as options, with no separate selection for the subtitles. When English is selected, the opening song is subtitled, for the dialog, as it is sung in Japanese, but the dialog itself has no subtitles. I can't comment on the audio because I haven't watched a full episode yet so I don't have much to say, other than the English audio sounded excellent. I'm so used to the "Battle of the Planets" dubbing and these voices are very different from that, so for Battle of the Planets fans, this will something of a hurdle, but nothing of course can be done about that. The voice acting sounds good from what I've heard so far.

The bonus disc does indeed stretch the video from the original 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9, for reasons I can't even begin to understand, since the entire series is in 4:3 anyways. Very odd. Thankfully, I've confirmed that you can squish it back to the proper 4:3 aspect ratio if your HDTV has a setting for aspect ratio. My Samsung has choices like 4:3, 16:9, and image fit (1:1 pixel mapping), so by manually selecting 4:3, the image is restored to it's proper 4:3 ratio. I was afraid it wouldn't squish back just right, and might look distorted, but that's not the case - in 4:3, the image looks exactly like it should. I imagine you might be able to do the same thing with your blu-ray player if it has a similar option for aspect ratio. The text-based extras like character bios are correct in the 16:9 aspect ratio; the video interviews and other extras need to be squished back to 4:3 to look right.

The packaging is very nice. I've heard complaints that the box isn't as thick as the DVD boxes were, and that's true, but there's nothing wrong with these - I've seen far worse. These are perfectly stable. Since there is only 3 cases inside there's a lot less artwork to see compared to the DVD boxes, but the artwork used is excellent and very colorful. A booklet would have been nice but no big deal.

One other little note - the first blu-ray case in my set was broken - the little plastic tab that keeps the case closed was broken clean off and rattling around inside, so the case doesn't stay closed. I contacted Rightstuf already and explained it, and they said they will obtain a replacement case from the manufacturer and ship it to me at no charge! Excellent customer service! The set was packaged very well for shipping so I'm not sure how the tab broke off, but they're taking care of it, so it's not an issue.

Thomas Guycott · 12-27-2013, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mar3o

Firstly, the quality of the transfers is excellent. There's no doubt in my mind that this series never looked as good on home video as it does here. The episodes themselves are in the original 4:3 aspect ratio. The prints look very clean and have a film-like look to them. The lines are very sharp and the brightness looks just right. Wherever those early over-bright, washed-out screencaps came from, they're far from accurate. The episodes do not look like that, at all. I can't imagine the episodes looking any better.

That's a relief; for a while I was concerned you were trying to give yourself an ulcer worrying about this set.

mar3o · 12-27-2013, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Guycott

That's a relief; for a while I was concerned you were trying to give yourself an ulcer worrying about this set.

Yeah, the screenshots that have been posted have had me worried, especially since they vary so widely. I'm glad to see for myself that the episodes look great. I just watched episode 1 last night in English and I really enjoyed it. It might take a little while for me to get used to the different voice acting, character names, etc, but I'm sure I'll enjoy this series. One thing I noticed is how different the dialog is from Battle of the Planets. And much more violent too.

mar3o · 12-28-2013, 09:06 PM

Just watched episode 2 and they messed up the English subtitles during the opening song. In episodes 1 and 3 (and presumably the rest), the opening and closing songs are translated with English subtitles when English is selected. In episode 2, the subtitles are not English, though the rest of the episode's spoken dialog is. I manually checked with the subtitle button, and went through all the available choices. They just messed up the song translation with episode 2. Sloppy.

Kriztoffer Swank · 12-28-2013, 09:41 PM

My copy from ImportCDs got lost in transit. *sniff* Rather than replace it they just gave a refund.

Guess I'll wait for them or another retailer to get it down to $60 shipped again.

Thomas Guycott · 12-28-2013, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mar3o

Just watched episode 2 and they messed up the English subtitles during the opening song. In episodes 1 and 3 (and presumably the rest), the opening and closing songs are translated with English subtitles when English is selected. In episode 2, the subtitles are not English, though the rest of the episode's spoken dialog is. I manually checked with the subtitle button, and went through all the available choices. They just messed up the song translation with episode 2. Sloppy.

With a lot of anime series, the subtitles for the OP and ED alternate between English and Japanese for odd and even numbered episodes. It's just a trend by American anime distributors.

Kriztoffer Swank · 12-28-2013, 10:48 PM

Assuming they're romaji lyrics, it's a typical practice. Some openings even have the English lyrics and romaji at the same time.

mar3o · 12-29-2013, 03:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Guycott

With a lot of anime series, the subtitles for the OP and ED alternate between English and Japanese for odd and even numbered episodes. It's just a trend by American anime distributors.

No kidding? I didn't realize this. Well I guess that explains it. Do you know what the reasoning is behind this?

mar3o · 12-29-2013, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kriztoffer Swank

My copy from ImportCDs got lost in transit. *sniff* Rather than replace it they just gave a refund.

Guess I'll wait for them or another retailer to get it down to $60 shipped again.

That's a shame. Why wouldn't they just offer you a replacement at the same price? Instead you got screwed and it wasn't your fault - now you have to either spend more or wait for a drop in price or a sale. Very sorry to hear. That's always the worst thing that can happen when ordering online but usually the retailer will replace the order.

eastx · 12-29-2013, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mar3o

No kidding? I didn't realize this. Well I guess that explains it. Do you know what the reasoning is behind this?

Some people want to sing along/read along to the lyrics karaoke-style, hence the romaji lyrics. More people want a translation. Putting both the translation and romaji on-screen at once is visually distracting, so they just alternate between episodes.

Kriztoffer Swank · 12-29-2013, 08:44 AM

When I said I'd prefer the product over a refund, they replied, "Unfortunately we cannot send out replacements." My only guess is that since their site doesn't show that it's in stock, they don't want to put a replacement copy on the backburner and issued a refund to prevent any further problems; or maybe it's in their policy not to send replacements for whatever reason.

The tracking info they provided is a big, fat blank, so that doesn't give a clue as to where the set got lost—if it even left their warehouse to begin with.

As to romaji lyrics, yeah, it's just fun sometimes to see how the lyrics are pronounced. I like anime releases that alternate English and romaji lyrics in the opening/closing.

12-26-2013, 08:59 PM	#250
mar3o Banned Member since:Dec 2011 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:2	Well I got my set for Christmas today and I took a quick look at disc 1 and the bonus disc, just to see how things looked. Firstly, the quality of the transfers is excellent. There's no doubt in my mind that this series never looked as good on home video as it does here. The episodes themselves are in the original 4:3 aspect ratio. The prints look very clean and have a film-like look to them. The lines are very sharp and the brightness looks just right. Wherever those early over-bright, washed-out screencaps came from, they're far from accurate. The episodes do not look like that, at all. I can't imagine the episodes looking any better. Regarding the color, it looks spot-on to me. I tend to keep my HDTV color saturation dialed down a tiny bit from optimal, as my personal preference, because I like skin tones in films to look natural. But when checking out the episodes here I bumped it back to where my calibration discs indicate it should be set, and with that setting, the color looks perfect. Not at all de-saturated like the screenshots appear in the review. They're certainly not over-saturated, and some may be disappointed if they're expecting the type of saturated color that we see so often these days in animated films. But I'd say the color looks just right here. With my color dialed down to where I normally keep it, it does look a tad de-saturated, but again, that's with the saturation set lower than optimal. I think most fans will be very pleased with how these look on blu-ray. There are 2 sound options - English, and Japanese with English subtitles. That is how it is listed as options, with no separate selection for the subtitles. When English is selected, the opening song is subtitled, for the dialog, as it is sung in Japanese, but the dialog itself has no subtitles. I can't comment on the audio because I haven't watched a full episode yet so I don't have much to say, other than the English audio sounded excellent. I'm so used to the "Battle of the Planets" dubbing and these voices are very different from that, so for Battle of the Planets fans, this will something of a hurdle, but nothing of course can be done about that. The voice acting sounds good from what I've heard so far. The bonus disc does indeed stretch the video from the original 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9, for reasons I can't even begin to understand, since the entire series is in 4:3 anyways. Very odd. Thankfully, I've confirmed that you can squish it back to the proper 4:3 aspect ratio if your HDTV has a setting for aspect ratio. My Samsung has choices like 4:3, 16:9, and image fit (1:1 pixel mapping), so by manually selecting 4:3, the image is restored to it's proper 4:3 ratio. I was afraid it wouldn't squish back just right, and might look distorted, but that's not the case - in 4:3, the image looks exactly like it should. I imagine you might be able to do the same thing with your blu-ray player if it has a similar option for aspect ratio. The text-based extras like character bios are correct in the 16:9 aspect ratio; the video interviews and other extras need to be squished back to 4:3 to look right. The packaging is very nice. I've heard complaints that the box isn't as thick as the DVD boxes were, and that's true, but there's nothing wrong with these - I've seen far worse. These are perfectly stable. Since there is only 3 cases inside there's a lot less artwork to see compared to the DVD boxes, but the artwork used is excellent and very colorful. A booklet would have been nice but no big deal. One other little note - the first blu-ray case in my set was broken - the little plastic tab that keeps the case closed was broken clean off and rattling around inside, so the case doesn't stay closed. I contacted Rightstuf already and explained it, and they said they will obtain a replacement case from the manufacturer and ship it to me at no charge! Excellent customer service! The set was packaged very well for shipping so I'm not sure how the tab broke off, but they're taking care of it, so it's not an issue. Last edited by mar3o; 12-26-2013 at 09:05 PM.

12-14-2013, 12:23 PM	#241
Weirded Wonder Blu-ray Samurai Top contributor Member since:May 2009 Home Theater Gallery:17 4K collection:593 Blu-ray collection:1177 Trading Score:51	Watched episodes 1 and 2 last night with my 5 year old and we loved it. Picture and sound were amazing. I only wish the Battle of the Planets & G-Force audio were available in some way, albeit in parts as it would not match the uncut footage.

12-17-2013, 05:27 AM	#243
mar3o Banned Member since:Dec 2011 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:2	Yeah, shame that we can't somehow get the Battle of the Planets audio worked into this, but that seems like an impossible task even for a fanedit, considering all the footage not included in Battle of the Planets, plus all the additional 7-Zark-7 footage trowing things off, and of course the missing episodes that Battle of the Planets never did. I guess for integrity and quality, we've got this - for nostalgia we've got Battle of the Planets. Shame the series is so hard to find on DVD. I'd love to watch each episode back-to-back- Gatchaman first followed by the matching BOTP episode.

12-17-2013, 06:52 AM	#244
mar3o Banned Member since:Dec 2011 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:2	I noticed the screenshot comparisons are up here: http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleich...=1425#auswahl" I'm not sure how I feel. The compression is of course far better - the DVDs are packed with compression artifacts. And the darker areas of the DVDs hide a lot of the details. The blu-rays show off a lot more shadow detail. But the color looks so incredibly under-saturated, I can't help but wonder if this is how it should look. Either every other version of Gatchaman/BOTP has been grossly over-saturated ever since the first day I saw it on tv in the 70's, or the color in this set is dialed down drastically. Also, it appears that either the blu-rays are slightly stretched, or the DVDs were slightly crunched in, because they are not the same. The blu-rays seem to have a tiny bit more information in the frame on the left-hand side, but the image is still stretched when compared with the DVDs. One is incorrect, so which one? I would hope the blu-rays got it right, but then, the blu-rays stretched the extras, so...?

12-17-2013, 11:44 PM	#245
reason108 Blu-ray Samurai Top contributor Member since:Mar 2013 Blu-ray collection:- Blu-ray reviews: 8	I use to believe that what you saw on home video was what you would have seen at the theater, other than early pan&scan releases. I had no clue on how different transfers can be from one release to another. So many things tend to get messed up that should not. I know that nothing in life is perfect but when I am spending $100 for something, I would like for it to be as close to being right as it can be. I compared youtube video of BOTP against an old dvd I made of a VHS tape that I had against the dvd and blu ray. The dvd colors do look boosted compared to the others. But, then again, the blu ray is softer in image but cleaner looking.

12-18-2013, 12:32 AM	#246
Underworld54 Blu-ray Count Member since:Dec 2008 Location:Albany NY Blu-ray collection:163 Blu-ray reviews:4 Trading Score:15	Wow, is Joe obsessed with Bird Missles or what?!

12-19-2013, 10:28 PM	#248
Underworld54 Blu-ray Count Member since:Dec 2008 Location:Albany NY Blu-ray collection:163 Blu-ray reviews:4 Trading Score:15	Think Gatchaman II will see a blu-ray release???

12-28-2013, 09:06 PM	#253
mar3o Banned Member since:Dec 2011 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:2	Just watched episode 2 and they messed up the English subtitles during the opening song. In episodes 1 and 3 (and presumably the rest), the opening and closing songs are translated with English subtitles when English is selected. In episode 2, the subtitles are not English, though the rest of the episode's spoken dialog is. I manually checked with the subtitle button, and went through all the available choices. They just messed up the song translation with episode 2. Sloppy.

12-28-2013, 09:41 PM	#254
Kriztoffer Swank Blu-ray Guru Top contributor Member since:Nov 2008 Location:Minnesota 4K collection:3 Blu-ray collection:1275 DVD collection:45 Trading Score:3	My copy from ImportCDs got lost in transit. sniff Rather than replace it they just gave a refund. Guess I'll wait for them or another retailer to get it down to $60 shipped again.

12-28-2013, 10:48 PM	#256
Kriztoffer Swank Blu-ray Guru Top contributor Member since:Nov 2008 Location:Minnesota 4K collection:3 Blu-ray collection:1275 DVD collection:45 Trading Score:3	Assuming they're romaji lyrics, it's a typical practice. Some openings even have the English lyrics and romaji at the same time.

12-29-2013, 08:44 AM	#260
Kriztoffer Swank Blu-ray Guru Top contributor Member since:Nov 2008 Location:Minnesota 4K collection:3 Blu-ray collection:1275 DVD collection:45 Trading Score:3	When I said I'd prefer the product over a refund, they replied, "Unfortunately we cannot send out replacements." My only guess is that since their site doesn't show that it's in stock, they don't want to put a replacement copy on the backburner and issued a refund to prevent any further problems; or maybe it's in their policy not to send replacements for whatever reason. The tracking info they provided is a big, fat blank, so that doesn't give a clue as to where the set got lost—if it even left their warehouse to begin with. As to romaji lyrics, yeah, it's just fun sometimes to see how the lyrics are pronounced. I like anime releases that alternate English and romaji lyrics in the opening/closing.

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