Best Way to Own the Movies in 4:3?

[DBZfan29]

I don't care about the audio or subtitles, so any international release would do. But what countries have the movies in full screen that have a pretty good quality? Do FUNimation's old DVDs have the same quality as any other region? I don't know if this is a weird question. I own the Dragon Box, so I'm interested in owning the full screen version as well.

[kei17]

My answer is "Get FUNi's old singles."
As you know, there are dozens of DB dubs around the world, but there aren't many unique video sources because most dubs share the same dubbing materials imported secondarily from the most influential country in their region. From what I know, the followings are the unique sources of 4:3 video footage of the movies:

• Japan
  DB 1, 2, 3 / DBZ 1, 2, 3
  Pros: good colors, very few dust and scratches, NTSC playback speed, Japanese titles and credits
  Cons: very blurry, released only on VHS and Betamax
  Available in: Japan (VHS/Betamax)
• The United States
  DB 1, 2, 3 / DBZ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 / Path to Power
  Pros: sharp, NTSC playback speed, Japanese titles and credits
  Cons: extreme contrast, block artifacts due to heavy compression (US release), rainbows caused by composite video mastering
  Available in: The United States (NTSC DVD), Australia (PAL DVD)
• France
  DB 1, 2, 3 / DBZ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 / Path to Power
  Pros: widely available, good compression on DVD
  Cons: blurry, washed out colors, PAL playback speed, lack of Japanese credits (only DBZ 12, 13), rainbows caused by composite video mastering
  Available in: France (PAL DVD) and many other European countries
• Hong Kong
  DB 1, 2, 3 / DBZ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (There can be more, but I haven't seen them.)
  Pros: good colors, NTSC playback speed
  Cons: No NTSC DVD releases, replaced Cantonese titles
  Available in: Hong Kong (VCD, LaserDisc), Malaysia (VCD, PAL DVD)
• Mexico
  DB 1, 2, 3 / DBZ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 / Path to Power
  Pros: good colors, NTSC playback speed, original titles and credits
  Cons: blurry, only a few movies officially released on DVD
  Available in: some South American countires including Brazil (NTSC DVD, only DBZ 3 and 11 as far as I know)

[Puto]

The second French DVD boxset (containing movies 7 and on) actually looks really, REALLY good, with no composite artifacts at all.




Also:
· The colours are seriously dark on movies 7 through 9 for some reason.
· Movies 10 through 13 have no credits whatsoever, except movie 12 which has French opening credits and no ending credits at all.
· Movies 12 and 13 primarily recycle their older masters with some filtering, so they don't look anywhere near as good (but to me, they still look slightly better than the FUNi singles), and there are abrupt quality changes whenever any scene censored in the original French dub comes up, as they had to rescan those.
· PAL speed.

That said, I still consider these the best 4:3 release of these movies available as far as I know.

...But that box just contains the second half of the Z movies: the first box was in 16:9 and looked atrociously terrible.

Do you have any screenshots of those Malaysian DVDs? I'm curious about those.

[sintzu]

You can get the Dragon Box singles on Amazon Japan for 17$-20$ each.

[Ajay]

You can get the Dragon Box singles on Amazon Japan for 17$-20$ each.

They're 16:9. OP wants 4:3. Moreover, he said he already owns the Dragon Box.

[eledoremassis02]

I would try tracking the Big Green dub for some of the movies!

[Kakacarrottop]

I would try tracking the Big Green dub for some of the movies!

In terms of picture quality, a lot of the BG movies were similar to FUNi's singles, except much older looking overall. On the Tree of Might in particular there's this greyish yellow tint which makes the film look like it's from the 60s or something.

[Nightmare Wheel]

I would try tracking the Big Green dub for some of the movies!

I'm pretty sure the Big Green DVDs are just a low quality VHS scan. They certainly look like it anyway if you've ever seen it in motion.

[genjosanzo8]

In France only box 2 are in 4/3 so only
Dragon Ball z tv spec 1 + 2
Dragon Ball GT tv special
Dragon Ball Z movies 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 are in 4/3 and like kei17 says, 12 and 13 have french credits
the box 1 is 16/9 and path to power too

the best 4/3 versions i saw are the funimation dvd set..... it is so bad that even with the 4/3 master HD they don't sell it.....


the big green dub use french old master use for old vhs..... the movie 2 don't have the japanese title screen and there is much blur