How are the Japanese Kai DVDs and/ Blu rays?

[Bansho64]

I've been looking at different dvds to buy for my new Sony Trinitron and I thought about gettin' the Japanese Kai dvds since I'm learning Japanese and Kai would be good for my immersion. Anyways, I was wondering how do they look and how they might stack up against the english ones. Also, some high-quality screenshots would be appreciated if it ain't any trouble.

[theoriginalbilis]

This article does a pretty decent job of comparing the various releases of Kai and their video quality (thanks and shout-out to MarcFBR): http://www.fanboyreview.net/2010/05/05/ ... omparison/

From that article and various posts of this forum, it's been said that basically the Japanese and US Blu-Rays are almost identical on the video-front (the US release seems to be a tad more bright and saturated), whereas the Japanese DVDs are mediocre (cropped 16:9 picture/poor encode.) The American DVDs I think were fine though, since they were sourced from the Kai Blu-Ray footage (4.3).

My recommendation for AJATT? Just buy the US Kai Blu-Rays or DVDs and then turn on the Japanese audio but with subtitles off.

[Bansho64]

Thanks man! I appreaciate it. I definitely won't be getting the Japanese DVDs or Blurays now. Them things cost way too dang much. Ain't nobody got time to be spending thousands of dollars on those.

[Danfun64]

Could be wrong, but aren't the Japanese Blu-Rays in stereo...and if you're lucky and find old enough copies, have more Yamamoto scored episodes than the US sets...while the US Blu-Rays only have the Japanese in Mono and of course, start having the Kikuchi replacement score at an earlier point?

[Ajay]

Could be wrong, but aren't the Japanese Blu-Rays in stereo...and if you're lucky and find old enough copies, have more Yamamoto scored episodes than the US sets...while the US Blu-Rays only have the Japanese in Mono and of course, start having the Kikuchi replacement score at an earlier point?

Both regions have stereo Japanese audio.

As for the replacement music:



Source.

[Bansho64]

Geez, I'm actually considering buying the Japanese dvds now. I kinda wanted the 16:9 footage to be honest. I would buy the original Z but the audio on there is just so muffled while Kai is much clearer and easier to comprehend. But the Japanese dvds are high priced as heck. Oh well.

[Danfun64]

If you want 16:9, the French or German Blu-Rays would probably be a better source.

[VegettoEX]

If you want 16:9, you can just use the "Zoom" button on your remote or menu screen. This accomplishes the same thing.

[Bansho64]

If you want 16:9, you can just use the "Zoom" button on your remote or menu screen. This accomplishes the same thing.

Oh yeah! I never thought about that. Sorry, I'm a bit on the naive side when it comes to Blu rays (just got one). Thanks. You guys probably just saved me months of saving money.

[simtek34]

If you want 16:9, you can just use the "Zoom" button on your remote or menu screen. This accomplishes the same thing.

Oh yeah! I never thought about that. Sorry, I'm a bit on the naive side when it comes to Blu rays (just got one). Thanks. You guys probably just saved me months of saving money.

I'm not so sure, because the Japanese, German, etc... They are selectively cropped frame by frame. While the tv zoom button just cuts the top and bottom. Like the orange bricks. So I think that the other versions are better. But if you want that in English, watch the Japanese footage with the English dailoude playing?