The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[Naiera]

Below is the data from one of the eps on disc 1 of the UK release of Gargantia. It didn't look terrible on my expertly calibrated 108" and the numbers don't look terrible either

[Show spoiler]General
Unique ID : 208670239000666756178256653384688048706 (0x9CFC6D1A178E367ED80CC7372EC39A42)
Complete name : /Users/kristianmeller/Desktop/Gargantia_On_The_Verdurous_Planet_D1_t03.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 4.95 GiB
Duration : 24mn 3s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 29.5 Mbps
Movie name : Gargantia On The Verdurous Planet D1
Encoded date : UTC 2015-01-09 02:52:43
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.8.14 darwin(x86-release)
Writing library : libmakemkv v1.8.14 (1.3.0/1.4.1) darwin(x86-release)

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 24mn 3s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Maximum bit rate : 35.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Codec ID : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration : 24mn 3s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Title : Stereo
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : PCM
Codec ID : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration : 24mn 3s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Title : Stereo
Language : Japanese
Default : No
Forced : No

Text
ID : 4
Format : PGS
Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 00
00:00:21.312 : en:Chapter 01
00:04:52.041 : en:Chapter 02
00:12:05.057 : en:Chapter 03
00:19:20.159 : en:Chapter 04

[Naiera]

I axed neoz to have the name of the thread changed so we can use it to discuss the video (and audio) quality of all anime Blu-ray releases

[SeaFox]

I recently watched Psycho-Pass and think I may want to pick it up at some point in the future (when a complete collection release comes out), so I'd like to know about the video quality on it.

It seems like everyone bought it back when it came out, given all that grousing about the crooked LE chipbox, so I figured I'd ask here.

I'd specifically like to avoid what happened with my Steins;Gate purchase (brightness boosting and banding in lower-contrast scenes).

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by SeaFox

I recently watched Psycho-Pass and think I may want to pick it up at some point in the future (when a complete collection release comes out), so I'd like to know about the video quality on it.

It seems like everyone bought it back when it came out, given all that grousing about the crooked LE chipbox, so I figured I'd ask here.

I'd specifically like to avoid what happened with my Steins;Gate purchase (brightness boosting and banding in lower-contrast scenes).

I wondered if it was just me. The blu-ray reviews for anime aren't to on point on this site.

[SeaFox]

Originally Posted by Gamma_Winstead

I wondered if it was just me. The blu-ray reviews for anime aren't to on point on this site.

Well, I think some of it has to do with how much you watch. Reviewing a movie is a 2-4 hour affair. But an anime series is a lot more material to watch, and I don't know that the reviewers here are doing a full-on viewing of the show before doing their writeups because that would take a while to get through.

Steins;Gate looked good, in the first half especially with the bright, higher contrast scenes, but in later episodes and during some more muted indoor shots is where you start to see the issues. The reviewer may not have seen these specific scenes.

I notice the reviewers gave Penguindrum 4.5/5 for video on both parts.

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by SeaFox

Well, I think some of it has to do with how much you watch. Reviewing a movie is a 2-4 hour affair. But an anime series is a lot more material to watch, and I don't know that the reviewers here are doing a full-on viewing of the show before doing their writeups because that would take a while to get through.

Steins;Gate looked good, in the first half especially with the bright, higher contrast scenes, but in later episodes and during some more muted indoor shots is where you start to see the issues. The reviewer may not have seen these specific scenes.

I notice the reviewers gave Penguindrum 4.5/5 for video on both parts.

I think it's also just a lack of high expectations and knowledge too. I know we don't have full on anime only reviewers here, and as such, anime isn't their main hobby. There's a lack of knowledge as to what constitutes a good looking anime release vs what's not.

[K i r a]

Originally Posted by UseY0ur1llusi0n

Always got a good laugh outta this.

Ugh. Every link not in OP is 404 error broken. Anyone got the Steins;Gate comparisons?

[vincentric]

Just now discovered thread. Hope you all don't mind me resurrecting it.

Am looking to pick up Blue Exorcist and was looking at the Aniplex and UK releases. I thought for sure that AoA would have the easy technical advantage but after some quick research, both releases for the first set use three BD50s and have the same episode layout - 5/4/3.

Very interesting.

Does anyone own either the UK or AoA release, and or both? Am curious if the UK release actually looks just as good as the AoA version considering that both use the same amount of discs and episode layout?

Edit: And for any UK or AoA owners of Blue Exorcist who won't mind doing so, can you quickly check with MakeMKV to see how much space each disc is using? That would be much appreciated.

[Naiera]

I have the UK release and this is how it looks in MakeMKV at first glance:



As you can see, the disc seems to have the same file structure as Aniplex discs. I'll get you the MediaInfo later; that's more than 40 minutes away, since I can't do just one episode

[Naiera]

And here's the MediaInfo. It does look rather Aniplex-like.

[Show spoiler]File size : 34.8 GiB
Duration : 2h 2mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 40.8 Mbps
Movie name : Blue Exorcist D1
Encoded date : UTC 2015-04-02 14:41:49
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.9.1 darwin(x86-release)
Writing library : libmakemkv v1.9.1 (1.3.0/1.4.1) darwin(x86-release)

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 2mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Maximum bit rate : 40.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Codec ID : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration : 2h 2mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Title : Stereo
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : PCM
Codec ID : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration : 2h 2mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Title : Stereo
Language : Japanese
Default : No
Forced : No

[vincentric]

Thanks for that.

I actually took a blind leap and already ordered both parts of the UK set last night ($60 shipped for both!).

After a little more research, the second part also contains the same amount of discs (three BD50s) and episode layout (5/4/4) as the AoA release. Same audio, as well.

And the MKV numbers you provided seemingly prove (we still need someone to open up their AoA copy w/makemkv) that the Aniplex and UK sets are identical.

Once I get my UK discs, I'll try nitpicking for video flaws.

[StefaanD]

Well that is very nice to see the results here. In fact this week i was in the same boat as vincentric. Dabbling about getting the expensive Aniplex release or the much cheaper UK release.

Seems it has been decided for me

Although would like to see the results from someone who has the Aniplex release of Blue Exorcist.

[Naiera]

The stats on that Blue Exorcist disc look almost exactly like that of a Gurren Lagann disc. I think it's pretty safe to say that we're dealing with some great discs, if not literal copies of the US ones.

[Sylontack]

I'm told the Australian Madman release is literally just a repackage of the AoA discs, and they'd use whatever the UK release used so I think it's the AoA discs.

Although 5/4/3 episode distribution for part 1? Do you mean 5/4/4? Because the Australian Volume 3 says it has 4 episodes, which if the UK/AoA doesn't then that's where it gets confusing :P

I still need to pick that show up too...

[vincentric]

I watched an unboxing vid for the UK release that showed a 5/4/3 layout for part 1, and 5/4/4 for part 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch4fkAYUmQ8

Fandom reviews for the AoA sets mention the same layout:

http://www.fandompost.com/2013/07/26...-anime-review/
http://www.fandompost.com/2013/10/04...-anime-review/

I'll closely nitpick the UK transfer for any flaws once I get my copies in hand but for now, together with Naiera's stats, I think we may be looking at AoA quality with this much cheaper UK release.

[Girls With Guns]

I guess I'll join in here with the disc quality convo - I like good quality discs, but I'm not quite as nit-picky as some of you guys with PQ - I don't want to be too critical of the PQ or AQ of an anime release, or else I wouldn't be able to sit down and enjoy watching it at all, and that's no fun...

Stefaan asked me to get the stats for AoA release of Blue Exorcist, so I'll have to download makeMKV and mediaInfo this evening, as I have only ever used BDInfo for my scans.

I also own the three JP BD-Box sets of Gargantia (and the first OVA set, too), if anyone wants stats from those. The US Viz set from what I understand, are very "JP-unfriendly", in that the BD authors screwed up both the JP audio track levels AND the English subs as well - so those of us who totally abhor ever watching anime with an English dub will not be very happy with the Viz release. But, me being me, I bought the Viz release too - just in case I want to show the series to a friend who can't do subs... Lol, a lot of my friends seem to be remedial readers...

[Girls With Guns]

So mediainfo doesn't look like it's for scanning blu-rays directly - only files and folders. I'm not going to rip anything...

So, I'm running a BDinfo scan on the first disc of the AoA Blue Exorcist - should be done in about 45 minutes.


QUICK SUMMARY:

Disc Title: Blue Exorcist Disk 1
Disc Size: 42,960,273,715 bytes
Protection: AACS
BD-Java: No
Playlist: 00000.MPLS
Size: 39,264,276,480 bytes
Length: 2:02:07.820
Total Bitrate: 42.87 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 36243 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: English / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Audio: Japanese / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitle: English / 8.383 kbps
Subtitle: English / 45.474 kbps

Blue Exorcist Disk 1 Complete BDInfo File

[Z-95]

I've got the AoA ones too--I split my eps out though, here is ep 1:

General
Unique ID                                : 199554177431271288934635368472480940889 (0x9620BC90C8FA8E3396925873D98D8359)
Complete name                            : M:\Anime\Blue Exorcist (2011)\01 - The Devil Resides in Human Souls.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4 / Version 2
File size                                : 7.61 GiB
Duration                                 : 25mn 32s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 42.7 Mbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 2015-03-23 01:31:03
Writing application                      : mkvmerge v7.6.0 ('Garden of Dreams') 64bit built on Feb  8 2015 13:04:34
Writing library                          : libebml v1.3.1 + libmatroska v1.4.2
DURATION                                 : 00:25:17.933000000
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES                         : 921
NUMBER_OF_BYTES                          : 4538799
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP                  : mkvmerge v7.6.0 ('Garden of Dreams') 64bit built on Feb  8 2015 13:04:34
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC             : 2015-03-23 01:31:03
_STATISTICS_TAGS                         : BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 25mn 32s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Maximum bit rate                         : 40.0 Mbps
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings, Endianness              : Big
Codec ID                                 : A_PCM/INT/BIG
Duration                                 : 25mn 32s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings, Endianness              : Big
Codec ID                                 : A_PCM/INT/BIG
Duration                                 : 25mn 32s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Language                                 : Japanese
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #1
ID                                       : 4
Format                                   : PGS
Muxing mode                              : zlib
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Title                                    : Forced
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : Yes

Text #2
ID                                       : 5
Format                                   : PGS
Muxing mode                              : zlib
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : The same subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Menu
00:00:00.000                             : en:Chapter 1
00:01:40.016                             : en:Chapter 2
00:03:10.064                             : en:Chapter 3
00:13:25.012                             : en:Chapter 4
00:23:45.048                             : en:Chapter 5
00:25:15.055                             : en:Chapter 6

Edit: Threw disc 1 back in the drive:

[Naiera]

So, not the same. But close. Closer than UK Lagann vs. Aniplex Lagann.

[vincentric]

Excellent feedback everyone, we're looking at very similar, if not identical copies between the UK and AoA sets as far as numbers are concerned, the main 36.5GB file in particular looks very similar to one another.

Which leads to another question - how were they able to do this for Blue Exorcist and not for other titles such as Gurren and Fate Zero where the AoA versions for those have a clear advantage?