Dragon Ball Z on Blu-ray

[Harvey Plissken]

Do we know when the second box of AB's Dragon Ball Blu-Ray is coming? I sincerely hope they do the entire 508 episode run done in the same way as their beautiful upscale.

[Roge_NES]

Long shot but does anyone have any recommendation on where to get Dragon Ball DVD Seasons sets? I still need 3,4 and 5 and Ebay is full of bootlegs.

[Krycek7o2]

Originally Posted by Roge_NES

Long shot but does anyone have any recommendation on where to get Dragon Ball DVD Seasons sets? I still need 3,4 and 5 and Ebay is full of bootlegs.

Here

Crunchyroll seems to still have them in stock.

[GeoffOliver]

At the very least, I’m pretty sure Crunchyroll will eventually reissue the same 2009-2011 DVDs under the CR brand and new packaging.

Halfway through Season 3 of my blue brick watch-thru, and at this point it barely looks “remastered.” It’s clearly the old video masters with some boosted colors and that’s it.

Also, the movies (on top of the serious encoding issues with movie 2) are filthy with print damage in almost every shot, along with reel change marks. The FUNi DBZ movie transfers are the same.

[ps3bd_owner]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

At the very least, I’m pretty sure Crunchyroll will eventually reissue the same 2009-2011 DVDs under the CR brand and new packaging.

Halfway through Season 3 of my blue brick watch-thru, and at this point it barely looks “remastered.” It’s clearly the old video masters with some boosted colors and that’s it.

Also, the movies (on top of the serious encoding issues with movie 2) are filthy with print damage in almost every shot, along with reel change marks. The FUNi DBZ movie transfers are the same.

Yes, it's hard to recommend anyone to buy old releases when there are better ones out there, even if it's in foreign languages.

DB/DBZ Movies Remastered by TOEI - Available in Germany and Japan
DB Series Remastered by AB - Available in France (Part 1 so far)

Dragon Ball - Part 2 isn't on Amazon to pre-order, so have to wait a little longer until it is.

https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=dragon+bal...f=nb_sb_noss_2

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by ps3bd_owner

Yes, it's hard to recommend anyone to buy old releases when there are better ones out there, even if it's in foreign languages.

DB/DBZ Movies Remastered by TOEI - Available in Germany and Japan
DB Series Remastered by AB - Available in France (Part 1 so far)

Dragon Ball - Part 2 isn't on Amazon to pre-order, so have to wait a little longer until it is.

https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=dragon+bal...f=nb_sb_noss_2

I don’t see the point of importing those releases when there is zero English on the discs. Maybe if you speak Japanese, French, European Spanish, or German. Besides, the blue bricks are… fine. Perfect? No. Watchable and more practical to get? Absolutely.

[professorwho]

It's almost like some- not all, but some- people like importing releases from overseas that are markedly superior to domestic releases and are willing to add subtitles themselves... but, I guess that's not the case. No point in doing so, you heard it here folks!

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by professorwho

It's almost like some- not all, but some- people like importing releases from overseas that are markedly superior to domestic releases and are willing to add subtitles themselves... but, I guess that's not the case. No point in doing so, you heard it here folks!

It’s almost like some of us (actually quite a few) don’t even remotely have time, nor are tech-savy enough, for such a project. Believe it or not, some of us just buy the discs, put them in our players, and watch. And in this specific case, many of us also mostly watch the show with the English dub, so that’s more work to sync it all.

[Jackson_H]

Depends on the user but if someone rips bought imported discs to add subs (or additional audio), the physical copy of those discs then become expensive coasters or paper weights that might never be touched again unless the hard drive crashes or the person accidentally deletes the files.

Collectors should be buying legal official releases but for the same method (rip & synching) one could sail the high seas to obtain what they need and not spend anything and achieve the same end result.

Most people who buy hard copies of media actually want to physically play it instead of streaming with extra steps.

[Givemebackmygrain]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

I don’t see the point of importing those releases when there is zero English on the discs. Maybe if you speak Japanese, French, European Spanish, or German. Besides, the blue bricks are… fine. Perfect? No. Watchable and more practical to get? Absolutely.

Assuming you are tech-savvy and don't mind not playing off the disc directly, then it's relatively simple to add subtitles yourself with free tools.

A good release is worth supporting for many, the video and audio quality is the best it ever has been by far as DB is concerned on the AB groupe release and it's not difficult to imagine that some folks might want that trend to continue, so they are supporting a release, even if it doesn't have everything for every fan officially.

Many are importing for the best video and audio quality and there is nothing wrong with that.

Telling them to just stick with the DVD's is kind of missing the point.

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by Givemebackmygrain

Assuming you are tech-savvy and don't mind not playing off the disc directly, then it's relatively simple to add subtitles yourself with free tools.

A good release is worth supporting for many, the video and audio quality is the best it ever has been by far as DB is concerned on the AB groupe release and it's not difficult to imagine that some folks might want that trend to continue, so they are supporting a release, even if it doesn't have everything for every fan officially.

Many are importing for the best video and audio quality and there is nothing wrong with that.

Telling them to just stick with the DVD's is kind of missing the point.

I know there’s a small group of diehard fans willing to spend money on non-English-friendly releases, and rip the discs to make their own version that they’d keep on a hard drive, but the average person will not do such a thing, so casually mentioning the releases as a practical option makes zero sense. Also, those releases are upscales, which do look better than the DVDs, but aren’t some revolutionary new HD scan or anything, let’s not kid ourselves.

And I’m sure I could figure out how to add subtitles and sync the dub (which is what I stick with for Dragon Ball), but I have better things to do with my time than to do that for the whole series. I’m sure there will be a torrent out there with the dub synced to the European master, but then that’s piracy, with zero reason to even buy the discs.

[Givemebackmygrain]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

I know there’s a small group of diehard fans willing to spend money on non-English-friendly releases, and rip the discs to make their own version that they’d keep on a hard drive, but the average person will not do such a thing, so casually mentioning the releases as a practical option makes zero sense. Also, those releases are upscales, which do look better than the DVDs, but aren’t some revolutionary new HD scan or anything, let’s not kid ourselves.

And I’m sure I could figure out how to add subtitles and sync the dub (which is what I stick with for Dragon Ball), but I have better things to do with my time than to do that for the whole series. I’m sure there will be a torrent out there with the dub synced to the European master, but then that’s piracy, with zero reasons to even buy the discs.

I'm not sure why you brought up torrents. which have nothing to do with what I've said. Like yeah, there will probably be a torrent of everything out there at some point but we are going by the assumption that this hypothetical buyer would like to do this legally and support the release, so there is more incentive for future releases to be just as good if not better.

But addressing the rest of your post; I get what you're saying to an extent that not everyone will want to do it. (syncing audio and adding subtitles) but I see no harm to inform as many people about ALL the options available, making the assumption that the person doesn't know how to do it, or doesn't understand Japanese, or French, or even cares that there is English or not on the disc.

A badly encoded and remastered DVD from the early 2000s (Blue Bricks) doesn't hold a candle to the AB release, upscaled or not. It's zoomed in, bad colors, is full of dirt and scratches, has excessive dnr, low bitrate, missing original title cards, missing neps, low-quality JP audio...etc

Many might find these aspects far more detrimental to the experience than subtitles or english audio missing from the AB release.

To your other point about this "just being an upscale"

And again, I get it to an extent, but as much as I would love for Toei to eventually remaster the series, I don't think that will ever happen. It's far too expensive to restore such an old film and long show, Even if they were to do it, there is every chance they could screw that process up. This might be different if it were a movie or two, but a full-length series spanning hundreds of episodes? I just don't see it...

So, whether we like it or not, Ai upscales are here to stay and are likely going to keep getting better. Might as well support the companies that do it well, as of yet, nobody has really topped or matched what AB has done with DB because they used tools that are likely not available to the general public. They even went to the trouble to color-correct the series to an acceptable level of quality and the level of detail dwarfs any DVD or fan upscale. Not to mention, it's for the first time a way to own OBA legally. So just shrugging it off as just another run-of-the-mill upscale, is just a tad disingenuous, and to suggest that people here shouldn't recommend it or talk about it, just because for the fact that some may find it inconvenient seems insane to me.

I can't help but also get a bit of a vibe from these kinds of posts, like "only releases released in the US should count and be discussed." Maybe that's not the intention but that's what it comes across.

From my perspective, even if it isn't the most convenient thing ever for every fan, it is definitely worth getting and supporting over anything else that is out there and I don't feel bad about recommending them to anyone, especially with such an affordable price. Going around and hunting for ancient and kind of bad DVD's and running the risk of getting bootlegs instead, seems like a bad idea to me.

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by Givemebackmygrain

I'm not sure why you brought up torrents. which have nothing to do with what I've said. Like yeah, there will probably be a torrent of everything out there at some point but we are going by the assumption that this hypothetical buyer would like to do this legally and support the release, so there is more incentive for future releases to be just as good if not better.

But addressing the rest of your post; I get what you're saying to an extent that not everyone will want to do it. (syncing audio and adding subtitles) but I see no harm to inform as many people about ALL the options available, making the assumption that the person doesn't know how to do it, or doesn't understand Japanese, or French, or even cares that there is English or not on the disc.

A badly encoded and remastered DVD from the early 2000s (Blue Bricks) doesn't hold a candle to the AB release, upscaled or not. It's zoomed in, bad colors, is full of dirt and scratches, has excessive dnr, low bitrate, missing original title cards, missing neps, low-quality JP audio...etc

Many might find these aspects far more detrimental to the experience than subtitles or english audio missing from the AB release.

To your other point about this "just being an upscale"

And again, I get it to an extent, but as much as I would love for Toei to eventually remaster the series, I don't think that will ever happen. It's far too expensive to restore such an old film and long show, Even if they were to do it, there is every chance they could screw that process up. This might be different if it were a movie or two, but a full-length series spanning hundreds of episodes? I just don't see it...

So, whether we like it or not, Ai upscales are here to stay and are likely going to keep getting better. Might as well support the companies that do it well, as of yet, nobody has really topped or matched what AB has done with DB because they used tools that are likely not available to the general public. They even went to the trouble to color-correct the series to an acceptable level of quality and the level of detail dwarfs any DVD or fan upscale. Not to mention, it's for the first time a way to own OBA legally. So just shrugging it off as just another run-of-the-mill upscale, is just a tad disingenuous, and to suggest that people here shouldn't recommend it or talk about it, just because for the fact that some may find it inconvenient seems insane to me.

I can't help but also get a bit of a vibe from these kinds of posts, like "only releases released in the US should count and be discussed." Maybe that's not the intention but that's what it comes across.

From my perspective, even if it isn't the most convenient thing ever for every fan, it is definitely worth getting and supporting over anything else that is out there and I don't feel bad about recommending them to anyone, especially with such an affordable price. Going around and hunting for ancient and kind of bad DVD's and running the risk of getting bootlegs instead, seems like a bad idea to me.

The releases are definitely worth mentioning, discussing, and comparing, and there’s nothing wrong with anyone purchasing them if they want for whatever reason, but it just seems a bit condescending to imply that the blue bricks (from 2009-2010 BTW) aren’t worth getting solely because there’s an upscale available in non-English speaking territories overseas. I’ve already said why it’s not a practical option for the average person here. It would be more understandable if they were at least available in the UK or Australia with English audio/subtitles (even region B), but they aren’t. And the blue bricks, while definitely far from perfect, are at least more than watchable. If you want another option, the saga sets aren't hard to find, and arguably better (with the Madman Australian set for Vol. 1).

And the upscale looks fine (though probably not as nice as an AstroRes upscale), but IMO, not nearly enough to go through all the trouble of importing them and syncing the dub for all 153 episodes. I mentioned torrents because it would be by far the easiest way to get the dub with the upscale, but what would be the point of buying any release if you have that (aside from the guilt of piracy)?

The whole argument is similar to suggesting the DBZ Blu-rays aren't worth getting because the Dragon Boxes exist, assuming we're willing to pay over a grand to actually buy then.

[LordCrumb]

Aye yai yai...

[veritas]

Originally Posted by Givemebackmygrain

I'm not sure why you brought up torrents. which have nothing to do with what I've said. Like yeah, there will probably be a torrent of everything out there at some point but we are going by the assumption that this hypothetical buyer would like to do this legally and support the release, so there is more incentive for future releases to be just as good if not better.

What you suggest would not be legal since you would need to circumvent the drm on the blu ray.

Originally Posted by Givemebackmygrain

From my perspective, even if it isn't the most convenient thing ever for every fan, it is definitely worth getting and supporting over anything else that is out there and I don't feel bad about recommending them to anyone, especially with such an affordable price. Going around and hunting for ancient and kind of bad DVD's and running the risk of getting bootlegs instead, seems like a bad idea to me.

I would not call the release affordable if you want people to put a ton of work into it. You could buy a car for 5 grand that normally costs 10 grand but the cars missing an engine. if you put 15 grand worth of your time into it you can get that car working but its not really affordable at that point is it.

[DigitalDeluge24]

If you have time to argue with strangers on the internet, you have time to add subtitles to a superior release.

[eledoremassis02]

Originally Posted by DigitalDeluge24

If you have time to argue with strangers on the internet, you have time to add subtitles to a superior release.

If one has time to do both, then I really envy them lol

[Nothing371]

Originally Posted by Jackson_H

Most people who buy hard copies of media actually want to physically play it instead of streaming with extra steps.

Still laughing at this. well said.

[Kriztoffer Swank]

Been thinking about buying the '90s DBZ movies. Noticed that Manga UK put out a Blu-ray box set with all 13 films plus the two TV specials. Anyone know if the transfers are essentially the same as Funimation's? I have a region-free BD player so if the quality is comparable, I may as well go for the box since it's cheaper and more convenient.

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by Kriztoffer Swank

Been thinking about buying the '90s DBZ movies. Noticed that Manga UK put out a Blu-ray box set with all 13 films plus the two TV specials. Anyone know if the transfers are essentially the same as Funimation's? I have a region-free BD player so if the quality is comparable, I may as well go for the box since it's cheaper and more convenient.

Yes, they’re the same.