The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[BONKERS]

Viz's Castlevania Blu Rays are quite poor as well. The amount of banding was astounding, I actually had to turn on my TV's debanding feature it was so bad. I shouldn't be surprised their encoding is still as shit as ever. I didn't realize how bad it was until I watched Castlevania:Nocturne on Netflix and was bewildered at how such a lower bit rate stream looked so much better than the Blu's of the previous seasons. I felt bad that I had waited so long to finally watch it all because I assumed the BDs would obviously look better than the streaming version. Guess I forgot it's Viz and they only hire incompetent authoring houses

[segapluto]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

Jojo Stone Ocean is another safe pickup from Viz.

Same as GW Part 2 and Kishibe Rohan, so decent encode, correct colour space and 16bit DTS-HD MA audio. It does have an oddity to it in that it retains the post OP/ED blank sponsor segments for broadcast which are not present on the JP BD, but I don't immediately have any reason to suspect it's using an inferior master (no dimming and episode 1 syncs up correctly to the JP BD). I'm also not sure if there were actually any animation changes made for the BD to begin with, as fixes were already made between the Netflix and TV Broadcast version.

Edit: It has the fixes from the Japanese BD, however there's barely any of them and they aren't major by any means.

Good to know since I wanted to own some of the jojo parts on bluray but wasn't sure with Viz's track record with home video releases.

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by segapluto

Good to know since I wanted to own some of the jojo parts on bluray but wasn't sure with Viz's track record with home video releases.

From an A/V perspective they're all fine. Parts 1 - 5 (Golden Wind Part 1) are bt.601 in error though, granted you're unlikely to notice without direct comparison. It can be fixed during playback on PC. Golden Wind Part 2, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan and Stone Ocean Part 1 are all presented correctly.

Originally Posted by BONKERS

Viz's Castlevania Blu Rays are quite poor as well. The amount of banding was astounding, I actually had to turn on my TV's debanding feature it was so bad. I shouldn't be surprised their encoding is still as shit as ever. I didn't realize how bad it was until I watched Castlevania:Nocturne on Netflix and was bewildered at how such a lower bit rate stream looked so much better than the Blu's of the previous seasons. I felt bad that I had waited so long to finally watch it all because I assumed the BDs would obviously look better than the streaming version. Guess I forgot it's Viz and they only hire incompetent authoring houses

Viz are a minefield tbh. They use two authoring houses and it's hard to tell which one will be used for each title. One screws the gamma alongside poor encoding (e.g. Jujutsu Kaisen, In/Spectre) and the other which is okay (at least now they fixed their colour space issue) provided the source is good (e.g. Boruto, Jojo). You can generally tell what sort of ride you're in for by checking the audio bit depth. The worse one uses 24bit DTS-HD MA audio whereas the better one is 16bit. I also wouldn't be that surprised if you're seeing web streams being better than BDs as CR is regularly largely better than US and even JP BDs .

[kk1]

And in case you missed it in the bargain thread, Viz titles are on sale at Gruv.com

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

I also wouldn't be that surprised if you're seeing web streams being better than BDs as CR is regularly largely better than US and even JP BDs .

Wait, what? How?

[NLScavenger]

Problems like lowpass filtering are becoming more prevalent on JP BD. iirc Frieren is a recent victim.

[Streetlight]

Lovely Complex features a very lovely upscale of a "standard definition" material. Too lovely actually.

[Tylerfan]

Speaking of, the site review just went up!

Wonder what the extras ar-

....


...heh

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by Tylerfan

Speaking of, the site review just went up!

Wonder what the extras ar-

....


...heh

Oh gawd...

On another note, he keeps doing it... I wonder what this place is called, and who browses it, much less looks at the reviews...

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (with English subtitles). The lossless audio encoding sounds impressive with nice clarity and overall detail. Dialogue is easy to understand. While a somewhat reserved sounding soundtrack, the clarity sounds nice and the sound mix works well the production. Subtitles on the Japanese language presentation version are solid with good translation and the subs impress by not having egregious spelling or grammatical errors. Certainly, a nice encode by Discotek Media on the release.

Blu-ray continues to reward audio enthusiasts with a superior audio option compared to streaming platforms – the audio quality on streaming services remains more limited with lossy (non-lossess) encoding and physical media continues to provide a higher-quality option for those who want to eek out the absolute best possible quality in their media. Every 'bit' counts and can make a difference in audio appreciation. Sometimes the difference is subtle – other times, not so subtle – but regardless it can impact enjoyment of music and the audio recording.

Video quality section did not mention it this time.

[omarchafa]

So how is Bocchi the Rock! on BD from Crunchyroll? Anybody has it?

[h264]

Originally Posted by omarchafa

So how is Bocchi the Rock! on BD from Crunchyroll? Anybody has it?

I don't see any glaring issues so far. Just banding. Rock banding.

[Naiera]

Got 'em

[SteamfloggerBoss]

Originally Posted by Streetlight

Lovely Complex features a very lovely upscale of a "standard definition" material. Too lovely actually.

I was pleasantly surprised with it given when the anime was made. I have seen much worse from that era for sure.

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Oh gawd...

On another note, he keeps doing it... I wonder what this place is called, and who browses it, much less looks at the reviews...Video quality section did not mention it this time.

Well, I already know who did the review now (not that I would expect anyone else).

[CrashOveride95]

Rose of Versailles/Lady Oscar SuperComparison™ (77 comparisons included because I'm crazy)

https://slow.pics/c/4ZcD6ncA

This compares most of the BDs worldwide of Episode 1. Notably, all international BDs use a strange "beta" version of the HD master without the scratch/dust removal and stabilization passes (most noticably in comparison 49), and optical audio from the film print instead of magnetic audio. (This was initially reported, likely for the first time publicly, by @NLScavenger)

Additionally, the USBD seems to have a little bit of a green tint compared to the others, not sure why

[Streetlight]

Originally Posted by SteamfloggerBoss

I was pleasantly surprised with it given when the anime was made. I have seen much worse from that era for sure.

Lovely Complex looks more like it came from a HD source than it did from a really good upscale of a SD one.

[Naiera]

Rabucon looks absolutely amazing on Blu-ray. Never thought something like that was possible.

[HunterKIller]

Does anyone know anything about the quality of Paprika on UHD? It's worth buying?

[SpazeBlue]

Originally Posted by HunterKIller

Does anyone know anything about the quality of Paprika on UHD? It's worth buying?

From it's thread:

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Comparison between the new BD and Manga UK BD: https://slow.pics/c/MRZKX82b

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by HunterKIller

Does anyone know anything about the quality of Paprika on UHD? It's worth buying?

Wait a while, I’ll have some things to say

[pikagreg]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Wait a while, I’ll have some things to say

But...the box is pretty!