Dragon Ball Z on Blu-ray

[GeoffOliver]

I think the best I've seen the DBZ TV series ever look is in the clips shown during Meredith McCoy's interview on the Blu-rays. Most of the clips are Level set quality footage of the Android saga (for some reason), and somehow I think it looks even better than the actual Level sets. It's always sad when the clips in the bonus features look better than the main feature, to any degree.

[ps3bd_owner]

Originally Posted by Superduper9000

I'll always find it hilarious how they posted these comparison pics expecting it would impress the fans. It's even more hilarious how Funimation gave zero shits when they were told by the fans they were supposedly catering to that the untouched images looked better. What a disaster and it's sad it's probably still the best looking release because all of the others have been terrible, or are on an inferior SD format.

I'd probably take Selecta Vision's Dragon Ball Z Blu-ray upscale over FUNimation's HD Remaster because at least it doesn't look like utter garbage.

[Show spoiler]

However, seeing how AB is doing such an amazing job with Dragon Ball they'll sooner or later cover Dragon Ball Z and that's as good as it's gonna get.

This screenshot below of the 30th Anniversary is just perfect in that it shows how much they ruined what could have been the definitive release (since TOEI won't do it themselves).

[Show spoiler]

[TravisTylerBlack]

Love checking in on this thread after several months only to find the exact same people posting the exact same handful of screenshots from the 30th transfer over and over - where’s a dead horse emoji when I need one?

That said, in regards to all the love for the new AB transfer of DB, it’s nice to see everyone actually agreeing on something for once. If this group in France can pull off remastering the entire series (without Toei ruining things) it will be a major win for the fandom to say the least.

[Vorige]

Originally Posted by ps3bd_owner

I'd probably take Selecta Vision's Dragon Ball Z Blu-ray upscale over FUNimation's HD Remaster because at least it doesn't look like utter garbage.[/spoiler]

Kindly knock it off. SV's release is just as crap as Funi's remaster, i.e smeared ass.

For billionth time, some of the kids here really need to understand even [insert not Funimation company here] can just as easily screw up a remaster project just as much as Sony-Crunchy-mation can. A bad remaster is a bad remaster is a bad remaster, Selecta included.

At least AB Group utilized an upscale method that can almost fool the untrained eye into looking like a new scan, and of course the addition of broadcast audio makes it a worthwhile enough purchase. Celebrate that, because it's a project that shows actual effort, as opposed to other releases that are merely a slap in the face (SV) instead of a kick to the jewels (Funi).

Originally Posted by TravisTylerBlack

Love checking in on this thread after several months only to find the exact same people posting the exact same handful of screenshots from the 30th transfer over and over - where’s a dead horse emoji when I need one?

You can safely lump them in with the dullards who still give Selecta Vision's trash heap a pass.

[Harvey Plissken]

I hear that Spain isn't as strict about copyright as the rest of the world is. So, what would stop a company like Resen Entertainment from taking AB's upscales and add English subtitles and the Latin-Spanish dub track?

[CrashOveride95]

You do know that DB is already licensed in Spain by Selectavision, and that they don't speak English in Spain, and that LATAM Spanish and Spain's Spanish are different in many ways?

[SpaceDandy]

Dragon Ball being licensed by Selecta Vision… and AB master being a property of AB for as long as Toei does not care about it? Weak copyrights laws don't mean they don't exist.

[zeze]

Originally Posted by gloomranger

https://www.facebook.com/CrunchyrollStore/photos/dbz-30th

Limited units available according to Crunchyroll’s Facebook. Regardless of your opinion on the release, compared to what it goes for on eBay, this is your last chance to get the 30th Anniversary Collector’s Edition at a reasonable price.

I probably would have caved and bought it if they didn't use sleeves for the discs. I'm now just waiting for the UK sets to go on sale again.

[ps3bd_owner]

Originally Posted by Harvey Plissken

I hear that Spain isn't as strict about copyright as the rest of the world is. So, what would stop a company like Resen Entertainment from taking AB's upscales and add English subtitles and the Latin-Spanish dub track?

There are distributors who have included Latin Spanish dubs, but they are under no obligation to do so since they are in a different country and continent. Plus, Spain has a total of about five languages (Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Basque, Valencian) which makes things harder.



English Title - Horus: Prince of the Sun

[ps3bd_owner]

Originally Posted by Vorige

Kindly knock it off. SV's release is just as crap as Funi's remaster, i.e smeared ass.

It's bad, but not horribly unwatchable. I'm not trying to defend it either way.

Originally Posted by Vorige

You can safely lump them in with the dullards who still give Selecta Vision's trash heap a pass.

ResetEra/Kanzenshuu users have made their way to other communities and unnecessarily insult people. Smh.

Toxic communities, toxic users.

[TravisTylerBlack]

Originally Posted by ps3bd_owner

ResetEra/Kanzenshuu users have made their way to other communities and unnecessarily insult people. Smh.

Toxic communities, toxic users.

The echo chamber culture @ Kanzenshuu is on an entirely different level from the (mostly) inane back and forth in this thread, I’ll give you that.

According to certain longtime admins over there we don’t really need DBZ in HD because “old cartoons” were never meant to be viewed in such clarity.

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by TravisTylerBlack

The echo chamber culture @ Kanzenshuu is on an entirely different level from the (mostly) inane back and forth in this thread, I’ll give you that.

According to certain longtime admins over there we don’t really need DBZ in HD because “old cartoons” were never meant to be viewed in such clarity.

If DBZ had a proper, beautiful remaster from Toei like Evangelion, Utena, Ranma 1/2, etc, they’d be singing a different tune.

[batman2000]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

If DBZ had a proper, beautiful remaster from Toei like Evangelion, Utena, Ranma 1/2, etc, they’d be singing a different tune.

Especially if toei would actually let a studio properly remaster series , movies and specials from their film prints with no bad grain reduction etc. with the broadcast audio cleaned up without the buzzing and any other issues with the audio.

[ps3bd_owner]

Super Hero movie is going around the web and I just had to check out what the movie looks like! Oh my God, I absolutely love it!

The art style makes it look like a crossover of a video game with a comic book!

I really hope Crunchyroll gets a non-green tint version of the movie and seriously, how does that keep happening. It happened with Kai TFC, Super Broly, and now Super Hero.

[Zeruel84]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

If DBZ had a proper, beautiful remaster from Toei like Evangelion, Utena, Ranma 1/2, etc, they’d be singing a different tune.

Too bad Eva's remaster has atrocious colors and less shadow detail than 20 year old DVDs. The movies are no better either, with Death being filled with film artifacts and EoE (despite being filmed on 35mm VistaVision film according to the Ultimate Edition booklet) having less clarity than the tv series. Some sequences in EoE also look like they weren't color corrected at all when compared to original production cels. I guess new members can't post imgur links so I have no way of posting the countless examples of these issues.

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by Zeruel84

Too bad Eva's remaster has atrocious colors and less shadow detail than 20 year old DVDs. The movies are no better either, with Death being filled with film artifacts and EoE (despite being filmed on 35mm VistaVision film according to the Ultimate Edition booklet) having less clarity than the tv series. Some sequences in EoE also look like they weren't color corrected at all when compared to original production cels. I guess new members can't post imgur links so I have no way of posting the countless examples of these issues.

I just finished watching my GKIDS Blu-rays, and honestly, I think they looked gorgeous. The colors really popped, the grain looked natural, and I could spot almost every piece of dirt on the cels. If only DBZ was treated like that.

[zakurowrath]

Originally Posted by Zeruel84

Too bad Eva's remaster has atrocious colors and less shadow detail than 20 year old DVDs. The movies are no better either, with Death being filled with film artifacts and EoE (despite being filmed on 35mm VistaVision film according to the Ultimate Edition booklet) having less clarity than the tv series. Some sequences in EoE also look like they weren't color corrected at all when compared to original production cels. I guess new members can't post imgur links so I have no way of posting the countless examples of these issues.

Never knew VistaVision film was used to photograph EoE, that's pretty cool to be honest, curious what it would look like on 4K Blu-Ray.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

The Evangelion movies were from the same rights holder as the series, though Toei distributed them theatrically in Japan.

Death and EoE were much earlier HD transfers than the series, hence their mastering issues being noticeable compared to more recent transfers.

[Zeruel84]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

I just finished watching my GKIDS Blu-rays, and honestly, I think they looked gorgeous. The colors really popped, the grain looked natural, and I could spot almost every piece of dirt on the cels. If only DBZ was treated like that.

The colors are just generally pretty poor throughout the show, but at the very least I expect the whites to be balanced. The first two episodes have an ugly green tint, and in the fifth you can actually see four individual color casts (yellow, blue, green and red), none of which are an artistic choice or part of the lighting. It's a major problem for me, but like I say in my first post this Blu-ray "remaster" has less detail than the early 90's transfer, or even the original broadcast. At around 7 minutes into episode 20, Misato's figure is barely visible on the Blu-rays, where as her entire body can be seen in both the archival broadcast DVDs and the original DVD/LD releases. It's almost unfair for me to mention this with how comically bad it is, but this issue affects the entire show. There's many more minor issues like obvious blocking in episode 2 or a shot in episode 23 being poorly scanned to the point where the neighboring frames are visible at the top, but those are fixable where as detail being completely crushed to pure black is not. It's very likely that Eva's HD remaster was (at least partly) made around the year 2001/2002, given how the renewal DVDs are identical to the 2015 BD aside from when the DVDs actually have less DNR/remastering errors. Saying DBZ should get a remaster like Eva is like saying the rest of the series should be done like the level sets. Is it better than what we have now? Obviously, but just because it's better doesn't mean there isn't massive room for improvement.

Originally Posted by zakurowrath

Never knew VistaVision film was used to photograph EoE, that's pretty cool to be honest, curious what it would look like on 4K Blu-Ray.

Sony PCL mentioned the idea of a future 4K release back in 2015, but I don't really see it happening or even being being done right when the 1080p release is so poor. It's a shame because of how how beautiful the art is, I wish it'd be able to match the quality of other 35mm anime films.

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by Zeruel84

The colors are just generally pretty poor throughout the show, but at the very least I expect the whites to be balanced. The first two episodes have an ugly green tint, and in the fifth you can actually see four individual color casts (yellow, blue, green and red), none of which are an artistic choice or part of the lighting. It's a major problem for me, but like I say in my first post this Blu-ray "remaster" has less detail than the early 90's transfer, or even the original broadcast. At around 7 minutes into episode 20, Misato's figure is barely visible on the Blu-rays, where as her entire body can be seen in both the archival broadcast DVDs and the original DVD/LD releases. It's almost unfair for me to mention this with how comically bad it is, but this issue affects the entire show. There's many more minor issues like obvious blocking in episode 2 or a shot in episode 23 being poorly scanned to the point where the neighboring frames are visible at the top, but those are fixable where as detail being completely crushed to pure black is not. It's very likely that Eva's HD remaster was (at least partly) made around the year 2001/2002, given how the renewal DVDs are identical to the 2015 BD aside from when the DVDs actually have less DNR/remastering errors. Saying DBZ should get a remaster like Eva is like saying the rest of the series should be done like the level sets. Is it better than what we have now? Obviously, but just because it's better doesn't mean there isn't massive room for improvement.

It's all subjective. I personally didn't find anything to complain about when I watched it. The only other version I had seen were the ADV Platinum DVDs, which looked very similar, so I guess I'm very used to that master. I'm not saying it's 100% perfection (even aside from episode 17's elements issues), but I'm not lying when I say I was consistently in awe at what I was watching, unlike the DBZ 30th Blu-rays, where I sometimes have to heavily compromise and ignore certain things just to avoid distraction.