Bluey: Seasons 1-3 (Blu-ray)

[kevin87]

I got this to support niche shows on HD and so now I have to watch it (I watch everything I buy to make sure it works, or why bother buying it?) lol but the length helps. Anyways.

The colors seem fine to me, though there is a bit of banding on some things like sky and such but I personally didn't find it too distracting. I've finished season 1 tonight and noticed that on the episode Kids there's a couple times the image goes darker. At 4:17 when Bluey grabs Bandit's ear and pulls him over, the scene against the toilet paper shelf is darker than the one before it and when she says Snowdrop is her favorite, the image lightens back up on Bandit's reaction shot close up at 4:34, and then darkens again when Bandit is talking to the customer at 5:27 until 5:37 after Bluey helps him get out of the toilet paper chair and it switches angles. This doesn't happen on the DVD or Disney+ versions.

The audio for the intro for Chickenrat and Teasing also seem to fluctuate. It's not a big deal though, and I wonder if it's due to them having to update the audio file because of the changed dialogue.

[Rick Grimes]

Originally Posted by hanshotfirst1138

Is the frame rate on the US release different?

Yes. Bluey (and Sherlock, since it was brought up in this thread), are created/filmed for Aussie/UK TV, at 25 frames per second.

Digital HDTV still utilises the old PAL frame rates in Australia/UK/Europe (50 interlaced frames per second), and the US utilises NTSC (60 interlaced frames per second).

Bluey’s 25fps is then broadcast with no issues at 50i in Australia. In the US, shows/films shot at 24fps (international standard for films), use 3/2 pull-down to covert to 60i broadcast in the US.

With 60i (NTSC), 2 progressive film frames are stretched over 3 interlaced frames, since 24/60 is a 2/3 fraction, which means there is no issues with the picture or audio being altered… Just a slight “judder” as 2 frames are interpolated over 3.
NOTE: With streaming, some films/shows are streamed at 24fps (especially newer/more popular series/film), so no “NTSC” judder is noticeable.

When a Aussie or UK series goes to US broadcast or vice versa, PAL speed-up or PAL slowdown occurs (25 frames converted to 24 frames means a 4 percent difference in speed/pitch). There are ways around this, which can sometimes lead to horrible consequences (one way is to add one frame of nothing, which means there is a horrible 0.04 second “jump” on Aussie TV).

The BBC seems to have some pretty good conversions for US TV and Blu-Ray. While there is the ability to create 1080i/50 transfers on Blu-Ray, 99 percent of older Blu-Ray players and/or TV’s can’t play/handle 1080i/50 encoding. Hence, with Bluey (and Sherlock), the transfer has to be converted to 1080p24 encoding, that can lead to all sorts of digital anomalies, when trying to avoid PAL slowdown (where most annoyingly, the sound and picture are 4 percent slower, creating pitch differences as well).

When done the other way, PAL speed-up is bloody annoying. With songs sped-up and half an octave higher. Voices sound squeaky and if you’re used to a song/soundtrack, hearing it 4 percent faster and half an octave higher is fracking annoying.

Best to do some more investigation into the PAL conversion process, but what I explained above is a quick summary of what happens and the pitfalls.

Hence, with Bluey transferred at 24fps onto the US BD, it has been tinkered with, to try and play at the correct speed/pitch (or so I am told), without compromising PQ.
Throw the “Disney requested” censorship into the mix and hoping/waiting for an Aussie or UK BD set, to have the show encoded at 1080i/50 (native frame rate), is preferable OR to even stick with the uncensored/upscaled Aussie DVDs (which looks worse then the ABC i-view streams), is one possible option.

[kevin87]

Originally Posted by kevin87

I got this to support niche shows on HD and so now I have to watch it (I watch everything I buy to make sure it works, or why bother buying it?) lol but the length helps. Anyways.

The colors seem fine to me, though there is a bit of banding on some things like sky and such but I personally didn't find it too distracting. I've finished season 1 tonight and noticed that on the episode Kids there's a couple times the image goes darker. At 4:17 when Bluey grabs Bandit's ear and pulls him over, the scene against the toilet paper shelf is darker than the one before it and when she says Snowdrop is her favorite, the image lightens back up on Bandit's reaction shot close up at 4:34, and then darkens again when Bandit is talking to the customer at 5:27 until 5:37 after Bluey helps him get out of the toilet paper chair and it switches angles. This doesn't happen on the DVD or Disney+ versions.

The audio for the intro for Chickenrat and Teasing also seem to fluctuate. It's not a big deal though, and I wonder if it's due to them having to update the audio file because of the changed dialogue.

Ok, since now I've finished the whole thing... some more bad stuff.

The intros are weird for basically all of season 2. The music keeps distorting throughout, going up and down, almost sounds like somebody's walking far away and coming back. Not sure what's up with that. Also, Sleepytime. Man, the banding really didn't bother me throughout the series since it was mostly background like the sky or fleeting background images... but Sleepytime, the imagery is a big part of it since it's mostly light on dialogue and the banding just really ruins it

And then season 3, the intros are fine now, and the banding seems to blend in a bit more... the only time it was egregious was during the episode at the beach when the scenery is more than just standard background. There's also a weird glitch in the episode Ragdoll at 4:16, there's a small orange rectangle that pops up near Bandit's head. This is even present on the D+ stream. Also not a big deal, but Turtleboy is listed as "Turtle Boy", and Chili seems a bit pinker than in 1-2.

Those 3 (maybe 4, but the beach banding is more acceptable than Sleepytime) are the only real problems.

It's not a problem but it is unfortunate that they only include 10 out of 22 Bonus Bits, I can understand not doing the minisodes or the newest Christmas Bonus Bit that just came out, but why not be as complete as possible?

[Ace77]

Can anyone comment on if it plays the theme song/music before each episode like it does if you are streaming it? He enjoys hearing the music before each episode, so was just curious. Thanks!

[Sillydillo]

Originally Posted by Ace77

Can anyone comment on if it plays the theme song/music before each episode like it does if you are streaming it? He enjoys hearing the music before each episode, so was just curious. Thanks!

It does! Each episode has the theme, as it would on streaming. Each disc also starts with the theme, which plays before the menu appears.

[Jr7936]

$27.99 as a prime deal for prime day

[hanshotfirst1138]

Originally Posted by Rick Grimes

Yes. Bluey (and Sherlock, since it was brought up in this thread), are created/filmed for Aussie/UK TV, at 25 frames per second.

Digital HDTV still utilises the old PAL frame rates in Australia/UK/Europe (50 interlaced frames per second), and the US utilises NTSC (60 interlaced frames per second).

Bluey’s 25fps is then broadcast with no issues at 50i in Australia. In the US, shows/films shot at 24fps (international standard for films), use 3/2 pull-down to covert to 60i broadcast in the US.

With 60i (NTSC), 2 progressive film frames are stretched over 3 interlaced frames, since 24/60 is a 2/3 fraction, which means there is no issues with the picture or audio being altered… Just a slight “judder” as 2 frames are interpolated over 3.
NOTE: With streaming, some films/shows are streamed at 24fps (especially newer/more popular series/film), so no “NTSC” judder is noticeable.

When a Aussie or UK series goes to US broadcast or vice versa, PAL speed-up or PAL slowdown occurs (25 frames converted to 24 frames means a 4 percent difference in speed/pitch). There are ways around this, which can sometimes lead to horrible consequences (one way is to add one frame of nothing, which means there is a horrible 0.04 second “jump” on Aussie TV).

The BBC seems to have some pretty good conversions for US TV and Blu-Ray. While there is the ability to create 1080i/50 transfers on Blu-Ray, 99 percent of older Blu-Ray players and/or TV’s can’t play/handle 1080i/50 encoding. Hence, with Bluey (and Sherlock), the transfer has to be converted to 1080p24 encoding, that can lead to all sorts of digital anomalies, when trying to avoid PAL slowdown (where most annoyingly, the sound and picture are 4 percent slower, creating pitch differences as well).

When done the other way, PAL speed-up is bloody annoying. With songs sped-up and half an octave higher. Voices sound squeaky and if you’re used to a song/soundtrack, hearing it 4 percent faster and half an octave higher is fracking annoying.

Best to do some more investigation into the PAL conversion process, but what I explained above is a quick summary of what happens and the pitfalls.

Hence, with Bluey transferred at 24fps onto the US BD, it has been tinkered with, to try and play at the correct speed/pitch (or so I am told), without compromising PQ.
Throw the “Disney requested” censorship into the mix and hoping/waiting for an Aussie or UK BD set, to have the show encoded at 1080i/50 (native frame rate), is preferable OR to even stick with the uncensored/upscaled Aussie DVDs (which looks worse then the ABC i-view streams), is one possible option.

DVD/Blu can’t play 50i though, can it? My TV still says 60p when I play PAL DVDs, even though I can see that the speed up has changed the runtime. How does it work? Not trying to be a pain, I’m just genuinely confused!