Dragon Ball Z "Seasons" On Blu-ray: News & Discussion

[Kendamu]

I keep seeing this sentiment that a 4:3 Blu-ray can't be zoomed to 16:9 because of the black bars being built in or whatever. That's totally not the case. Here's a quick video of me doing it with the Kai Blu-rays.

[Black_Anime_Fan]

So at the end, this is exactly the same as to what TV zoom is doing quality wise, only the TV is doing it in a non-destructible way.

Except you forgot to mention that you actually lose more picture by stretching/zooming in a 4:3 picture to fill your screen. Picture quality is also reduced noticeably by doing this.
(Note: Thank Corpsecreate for the pic)

[Kendamu]

That's because FUNi has more frame to work with when they're cutting it down to 16:9. Also, even modern TVs have an Overscan setting that you can turn off. Lastly, most people I've seen who prefer 16:9 care more about having their TVs filled than they are about "losing a bit of hair, you haters."

[qjz123]

If you really want to talk technical, then I'll talk technical.
And technically, these season blu-ray set are also upscale from whatever remaster they used. They are not new raw scans.

The first 34 episodes were made from the level set remaster, and the later ones were made from the orange brick remaster that they made back in 2006 2007. This mean that the actual source resolutions are most likely be in 1440x1080 already. And to make a 1920x1080 cropped version off that, they HAVE TO upscale.

The first 39 episodes were remastered for the level sets but from what we saw in the remastering featurette they showed a scene of trunks from when he fights Freeza http://imageshack.com/a/img513/4112/mi33.png. So while that obviously doesn't mean they remastered that far we can assume that they scanned at least that far which is about episode 120. Stop making BS assumptions about Funimation using the orange brick master for this set unless you have some actual evidence.

[Black_Anime_Fan]

I keep seeing this sentiment that a 4:3 Blu-ray can't be zoomed to 16:9 because of the black bars being built in or whatever. That's totally not the case. Here's a quick video of me doing it with the Kai Blu-rays.

Nice pizza.

[darkknightkryta]

Le sigh, I bought the sets because I wanted to check them out with my own eyes. I was just noticing little things (Frame shaking wasn't mentioned much, but the grain wobbling was) and I was going into more depth (Frame fading wasn't mentioned, let alone that the colours are changing during still sequences).

Forgot about how my T.V. causes colours to bleed. I adjusted that just now. Red doesn't bleed in Kai, but it's not quite red (borders pink), just like the dragon boxes, but more intensified. (I haven't watched the season set on that T.V. though, I'll compare the colour saturations later, but the level sets do not have this problem).

Raditz hair is quite black in all other releases (I know I have all but singles). It's a bit shaded blue in the Dragon Boxes, but debating the colours for those is a completely different thread. Kai takes it to a new level though (Way worst than the dragon boxes). I was just mentioning the brightness levels in Kai are a bit higher than they should be and this set doesn't have that problem.

Kai's BGM replacement takes the more intense scores from the Cell saga, I actually have no complaints about that... at all. The earlier stuff is in Kai though, all of it, just not used as much. Plus, I mentioned that as a way of saying the market for these season sets may not actually exist... at least as big as Funimation wants it to be. Like, if someone really wants the "classic" DBZ Japanese only, then Kai should be picked up instead (Unless you like the fillers, as I've mentioned. Though the orange bricks would be a better buy at this point for those people). The young-ins who watched Dragon Ball on T.V. only have Kai to watch; which means Kai should be the main purchase. What fanbase is left for this set other than people who have to have every release of DBZ (Like me )?


@qjz
It's the top 5 for "anime" which has become very niche. It being top 5 on Amazon also doesn't mean much(Especially considering Amazon's sales don't account for a great deal compared to retail). I have no clue if Funimation really believes it will sell like the orange bricks, but I highly doubt that it will. Plus I don't think any retailer is going to let Funimation stuff the channels again like they did with the orange brick release. I mean, Futureshop and Best Buy up here in Canada were full out clearing those sets for 15 bucks a pop for a good year to clear out inventory (Even at those low prices it took that long). No retailer is going to let that happen, considering the current state of home media. Which begs the question "Who did Funimation make this release for?", if that market isn't big enough(As I've mentioned Kai takes care of most of that) This set was made even more cheaply than the orange bricks, but will it bring Funimation the money they want? Will it cancelled after the third set if it doesn't bring in the dough?

Edit: With people talking about the scans, I suspect they made a new scan. They're at least, not working with the work done to the Level sets. Though they made a new scan of the opening and I'm not sure where they got the footage for it (The Level set most likely used the movie scans for those, plus the of higher quality so it's most likely 35mm film).

[qjz123]

Edit: With people talking about the scans, I suspect they made a new scan. They're at least, not working with the work done to the Level sets. Though they made a new scan of the opening and I'm not sure where they got the footage for it (The Level set most likely used the movie scans for those, plus the of higher quality so it's most likely 35mm film).

I've posted about this previously I still think they're using Steve Franco's color corrected film scan the same one used for the level sets they're just filtering the hell out of it.
Raw film scan cropped to 16:9
http://imageshack.us/a/img21/4544/fnhh.png
Season 1 blu ray
http://imageshack.us/a/img24/7311/e4z1.png
and here it is uncropped
http://imageshack.us/a/img51/9107/2c0h.png

@qjz
It's the top 5 for "anime" which has become very niche. It being top 5 on Amazon also doesn't mean much(Especially considering Amazon's sales don't account for a great deal compared to retail).

Again what are you basing this on? I can't remember the last time I bought anime from a retail store, and regardless of whether or not anime has become very niche thing it doesn't change the fact that Dragon ball z is a 25 year old anime that is out selling almost all of the newer anime on amazon.

[Metalwario64]

Raditz hair is quite black in all other releases (I know I have all but singles). It's a bit shaded blue in the Dragon Boxes, but debating the colours for those is a completely different thread. Kai takes it to a new level though (Way worst than the dragon boxes). I was just mentioning the brightness levels in Kai are a bit higher than they should be and this set doesn't have that problem.

It's blue because that's the way it's colored in the cels. It's black in FUNi's releases because they've always had crappy film with crushed blacks.

The reason you can see the blue more plainly in Kai is because the footage has much better dark detail than any other Z master. It's not due to brightness. Even the Dragon Boxes have some issue with dark colors, which is why Raditz' hair is very dark blue.

[lansing]

Stop making BS assumptions about Funimation using the orange brick master for this set unless you have some actual evidence.

you may want to refresh yourself from some previous replies on the season 2 trailer:
http://www.kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtop ... 00#p741404

[Metalwario64]

Stop making BS assumptions about Funimation using the orange brick master for this set unless you have some actual evidence.

you may want to refresh yourself from some previous replies on the season 2 trailer:
http://www.kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtop ... 00#p741404

Even the season 1 Blu-ray's colors were extremely close to the orange bricks. That doesn't mean they're the same masters.

Orange Brick:


vs. a downscaled BR shot:

[final_flash]

I keep seeing this sentiment that a 4:3 Blu-ray can't be zoomed to 16:9 because of the black bars being built in or whatever. That's totally not the case. Here's a quick video of me doing it with the Kai Blu-rays.

That's because FUNi has more frame to work with when they're cutting it down to 16:9. Also, even modern TVs have an Overscan setting that you can turn off. Lastly, most people I've seen who prefer 16:9 care more about having their TVs filled than they are about "losing a bit of hair, you haters."

No one ever said you couldn't zoom a 4:3 picture because of black bars. First off we were discussing how if you zoom a 4:3 picture you will lose some resolution in the picture. Second off if you knew how to read, you'd see Black_Anime_Fan said your picture quality will be reduced as well as losing some of the picture. Third off if you're gonna make a crappy video to prove a point about something no one even said. Next time try not to shack the camera so much like you're nervous or something.
Sorry about the negative comments guys. But this guy saying "you haters" at the end of his quote, kind of annoyed me. It was very ghetto and disrespectful. All of us DBZ fans spend a lot of money on these releases. We have a right to say how we feel. There are no "haters" here.

[Attitudefan]

This is a production cel; Raditz hair is coloured blue. The FUNi sets have crushed dark colours so dark blue/brown/red get crushed to black. Dragonball Kai had the closest colours to the actual production cels. Some VHS recordings might not pick up on the blues for each recording loses detail, and, Televisions, especially old ones, show less colour than a computer screen for example. Do your reserach! It bugs me when people outright state something without any knowledge of what they are talking about. I took film classes and was a film major. I know what I am talking about. I do animation too

[final_flash]

Raditz hair is quite black in all other releases (I know I have all but singles). It's a bit shaded blue in the Dragon Boxes, but debating the colours for those is a completely different thread. Kai takes it to a new level though (Way worst than the dragon boxes). I was just mentioning the brightness levels in Kai are a bit higher than they should be and this set doesn't have that problem.

It's blue because that's the way it's colored in the cels. It's black in FUNi's releases because they've always had crappy film with crushed blacks.

The reason you can see the blue more plainly in Kai is because the footage has much better dark detail than any other Z master. It's not due to brightness. Even the Dragon Boxes have some issue with dark colors, which is why Raditz' hair is very dark blue.

I definitely like how you can see the most dark detail in Kai. But there's this weird thing going on with the dark detail. It seems to stand out in the foreground, as if it was drawn on after the picture was made. For instance in the pic above where the holes, chips and shadowing are on the rocks. Did anyone else notice this with Kai?

[JackyBoi99]

These sets don't look too promising

[qjz123]

I keep seeing this sentiment that a 4:3 Blu-ray can't be zoomed to 16:9 because of the black bars being built in or whatever. That's totally not the case. Here's a quick video of me doing it with the Kai Blu-rays.

That's because FUNi has more frame to work with when they're cutting it down to 16:9. Also, even modern TVs have an Overscan setting that you can turn off. Lastly, most people I've seen who prefer 16:9 care more about having their TVs filled than they are about "losing a bit of hair, you haters."

No one ever said you couldn't zoom a 4:3 picture because of black bars. First off we were discussing how if you zoom a 4:3 picture you will lose some resolution in the picture. Second off if you knew how to read, you'd see Black_Anime_Fan said your picture quality will be reduced as well as losing some of the picture. Third off if you're gonna make a crappy video to prove a point about something no one even said. Next time try not to shack the camera so much like you're nervous or something.
Sorry about the negative comments guys. But this guy saying "you haters" at the end of his quote, kind of annoyed me. It was very ghetto and disrespectful. All of us DBZ fans spend a lot of money on these releases. We have a right to say how we feel. There are no "haters" here.

Relax he's not calling us haters his quote "losing a bit of hair, you haters." is referring to what causal fans who want a cropped release say.

[Kendamu]

I keep seeing this sentiment that a 4:3 Blu-ray can't be zoomed to 16:9 because of the black bars being built in or whatever. That's totally not the case. Here's a quick video of me doing it with the Kai Blu-rays.

That's because FUNi has more frame to work with when they're cutting it down to 16:9. Also, even modern TVs have an Overscan setting that you can turn off. Lastly, most people I've seen who prefer 16:9 care more about having their TVs filled than they are about "losing a bit of hair, you haters."

No one ever said you couldn't zoom a 4:3 picture because of black bars. First off we were discussing how if you zoom a 4:3 picture you will lose some resolution in the picture. Second off if you knew how to read, you'd see Black_Anime_Fan said your picture quality will be reduced as well as losing some of the picture. Third off if you're gonna make a crappy video to prove a point about something no one even said. Next time try not to shack the camera so much like you're nervous or something.

Thanks for your private message pointing me to this reply, final_flash.

Within 176 pages I had seen that sentiment a few times. Sorry I couldn't find the exact posts for you but this thread is very long. Also, I'm sorry that I didn't put my phone on a tripod to record like I normally do with my longer videos. I didn't think it would throw anyone into such a rage. I just wanted to make a quick demonstration. I'll use more professional techniques next time.

Sorry about the negative comments guys. But this guy saying "you haters" at the end of his quote, kind of annoyed me. It was very ghetto and disrespectful. All of us DBZ fans spend a lot of money on these releases. We have a right to say how we feel. There are no "haters" here.

That statement was in quotes to demonstrate some of the types of comments I've seen since 2007 that attack people who prefer DBZ in 4:3 to 16:9. It's not how I actually feel. Please read more carefully next time as to catch the entire meaning of my message before prematurely judging.

Lastly, this isn't the type of community where we appreciate such attacks on other members. Let's be friendly to each other in the future.

[final_flash]

That statement was in quotes to demonstrate some of the types of comments I've seen since 2007 that attack people who prefer DBZ in 4:3 to 16:9. It's not how I actually feel. Please read more carefully next time as to catch the entire meaning of my message before prematurely judging.

Lastly, this isn't the type of community where we appreciate such attacks on other members. Let's be friendly to each other in the future.

No matter who you're talking about there is no need to call anyone a hater when taking about a show. Its ghetto and disrespectful.

[Ajay]

That statement was in quotes to demonstrate some of the types of comments I've seen since 2007 that attack people who prefer DBZ in 4:3 to 16:9. It's not how I actually feel. Please read more carefully next time as to catch the entire meaning of my message before prematurely judging.

Lastly, this isn't the type of community where we appreciate such attacks on other members. Let's be friendly to each other in the future.

No matter who you're talking about there is no need to call anyone a hater when taking about a show. Its ghetto and disrespectful.

Dude, what are you doing? Stop it. He's literally just clarified his point and tried to play nice and that's your retort?

"It's ghetto and disrespectful" - What does that even mean?! You literally went off a damn tirade over your misunderstanding.

I'd say refer back to his last line and take that on board before calling someone disrespectful.

[Kendamu]

That statement was in quotes to demonstrate some of the types of comments I've seen since 2007 that attack people who prefer DBZ in 4:3 to 16:9. It's not how I actually feel. Please read more carefully next time as to catch the entire meaning of my message before prematurely judging.

Lastly, this isn't the type of community where we appreciate such attacks on other members. Let's be friendly to each other in the future.

No matter who you're talking about there is no need to call anyone a hater when taking about a show. Its ghetto and disrespectful.

Again, please read more carefully. I wasn't actually calling anyone a hater. The quotation marks around the statement are there to show that I was imitating the common behavior of people I've seen arguing in favor of 16:9 DBZ. That statement I no way reflects my feelings on the matter. That's why it was in quotes. I'm not really known as the type of person who uses the word "hater."

[final_flash]

"It's ghetto and disrespectful" - What does that even mean?! You literally went off a damn tirade over your misunderstanding.

I'm sure you know what disrespectful means. I said its "ghetto" cause he used the word "hater". Talking ghetto is an ignorant disrespectful way of talking. Like using the word nigga, or making fun of someone in a generalized way, by using slang like n00b and words to that effect.

That's because FUNi has more frame to work with when they're cutting it down to 16:9. Also, even modern TVs have an Overscan setting that you can turn off. Lastly, most people I've seen who prefer 16:9 care more about having their TVs filled than they are about "losing a bit of hair, you haters."

Well the way you wrote it looked like you were trying to emphasize the last part about haters.