Can anyone explain to me why The Path To Power didn't get the Bluray treatment?

[PhoenixEX]

The 13 Z films received the Bluray treatment...but The Path To Power didn't. Why is that? It released after Wrath of the Dragon, no?

[phattangent]

The 13 Z films received the Bluray treatment...but The Path To Power didn't. Why is that? It released after Wrath of the Dragon, no?

I rewatched this movie yesterday, and it made me think of this. It released on March 2, 1996 which is after Wrath of the Dragon (July 15, 1995).

[TheGreatness25]

That's because "Path to Power" is Dragon Ball and they only did Blu-ray for Dragon Ball Z. They seem to be under the impression -- and since they have all of this information, it might be backed up by sales figures -- that "Z" is the big money-making property that they have. Dragon Ball GT came out after "Z" too, but they didn't do a Blu-ray release for "GT."

[Gaffer Tape]

I was always under the impression that it was less of a popularity thing and more that they probably don't have any sources (such as film masters) that can be used for a high definition transfer for anything outside of Z. Granted, popularity might be the reason they haven't tried to obtain those sources, but at any rate, there's little point in making a high definition video release using digibetas.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

I was always under the impression that it was less of a popularity thing and more that they probably don't have any sources (such as film masters) that can be used for a high definition transfer for anything outside of Z. Granted, popularity might be the reason they haven't tried to obtain those sources, but at any rate, there's little point in making a high definition video release using digibetas.

It wouldn't be much of an upgrade, but I wouldn't mind an upscaled version that looked a tad clearer on my TV.

[TheGreatness25]

I was always under the impression that it was less of a popularity thing and more that they probably don't have any sources (such as film masters) that can be used for a high definition transfer for anything outside of Z. Granted, popularity might be the reason they haven't tried to obtain those sources, but at any rate, there's little point in making a high definition video release using digibetas.

Would you argue that they had a better master for Dragon Ball Z? Besides the fact that they had horrible masters for "Z," they then used their "Super Duper Clean-o-matic 9000" to "clean it up." I would argue that their masters for "Path to Power" were better than the ones for Z, and even so, they could've put the "Path to Power" masters that they had through the "Super Duper Clean-o-matic 9000" as well (just not done the 16:9 hack-job). I think it does come down to popularity.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

I was always under the impression that it was less of a popularity thing and more that they probably don't have any sources (such as film masters) that can be used for a high definition transfer for anything outside of Z. Granted, popularity might be the reason they haven't tried to obtain those sources, but at any rate, there's little point in making a high definition video release using digibetas.

Would you argue that they had a better master for Dragon Ball Z? Besides the fact that they had horrible masters for "Z," they then used their "Super Duper Clean-o-matic 9000" to "clean it up." I would argue that their masters for "Path to Power" were better than the ones for Z, and even so, they could've put the "Path to Power" masters that they had through the "Super Duper Clean-o-matic 9000" as well (just not done the 16:9 hack-job). I think it does come down to popularity.

As Gaffer Tape said, they only had digibeta's. They don't have "masters" for PtP in the same way that they do for DBZ.

[TheGreatness25]

I'm not that technically savy to put up any sort of argument; I'm just saying that I don't think that they ever had "Z" footage that looks any better than anything from "GT" or "Path to Power," so I don't see why it would work for "Z" but not for "Path to Power." Digibetas or masters, their "Z" footage never looked better on DVD than "Path to Power."

[Jinzoningen MULE]

I'm not that technically savy to put up any sort of argument; I'm just saying that I don't think that they ever had "Z" footage that looks any better than anything from "GT" or "Path to Power," so I don't see why it would work for "Z" but not for "Path to Power." Digibetas or masters, their "Z" footage never looked better on DVD than "Path to Power."

That's because they've never put out their footage on DVD without dumping (metaphorical) watercolor paint all over the release (Except for the old singles, which arguably looked even worse for different reasons). But take a look at the old Level Sets, a release where Funimation worked towards putting DBZ out properly. Even if you were to scale what they did down to the same resolution as PtP, the Level Sets would have been almost incomparably better in video quality.

[TheGreatness25]

Personally, I have the Level Sets and I don't see what's so phenomenal about the way they were done, but I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about the Season Sets that Funimation put out on Blu-ray, which come from that awful footage that they used in the Season Set DVDs (orange bricks). They were so confident to put out a subpar version of the "Z" series on Blu-ray, but not something like Path to Power. I wasn't talking about the Level Sets. So that's why I think it's a popularity thing.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

Personally, I have the Level Sets and I don't see what's so phenomenal about the way they were done, but I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about the Season Sets that Funimation put out on Blu-ray, which come from that awful footage that they used in the Season Set DVDs (orange bricks).

I know you aren't talking about them, that's why I am. Also, the Levels came from the same footage as the Bricks and the later Season Sets, you can tell from the similar crushed blacks.

As for what's so special about them, they look good, better than any other release of Dragon Ball ever made. My point was that the source from Path to Power can't compare to a properly handled DBZ. You said that PtP looked better than anything in DBZ, that's just wrong, unless you're just ignoring the video source. Or are you talking about the character designs, or the palette, or the animation?

[TheGreatness25]

No, I was talking about any release save for maybe the Dragon Box (subjective) and Level Sets. I meant that Path to Power looked a lot better than the Z Season Sets or singles and Z got the full Blu-ray treatment using the same footage as the Season Sets.

Then again, I haven't seen Path to Power in a while, maybe it wasn't as polished as I remember it.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

No, I was talking about any release save for maybe the Dragon Box (subjective) and Level Sets. I meant that Path to Power looked a lot better than the Z Season Sets or singles and Z got the full Blu-ray treatment using the same footage as the Season Sets.

Then again, I haven't seen Path to Power in a while, maybe it wasn't as polished as I remember it.

It's very polished, but that isn't the point, at least from my understanding.

I want to get this straight, maybe I'm just getting confused. Are you saying that PtP looks better than Z in that it has a better video source? Or that it looks better in how it was put together?
Also, why are you comparing how one source looks based on a decent release vs. how another source looks based on a bad release? I don't get your point at all.

[TheGreatness25]

I'm talking about the picture quality, smoothness, colors, etc.

My point is this:

Path to Power looks better than the Z Season Sets
Funimation felt confident in putting out a Blu-ray release based on the Z Season Sets
Funimation chose not to put the better looking Path to Power on Blu-ray
Thus, Funimation didn't think it was worth putting Path to Power out on Blu-ray, my theory, because it isn't "Dragon Ball Z."

[Gaffer Tape]

With the exception of the Dragon Boxes, every U.S. Z release starting with the orange bricks has used a film source, seemingly the same film source or the same initial masters they made from that film source. They really talk up the fact that they have film prints in the season set DVD special features. That was the only reason they've been able to do high definition releases of Z. Even the master they made for the orange bricks was high def, although obviously the limitations of that format meant the actual product wasn't. FUNimation's "handiwork" afterwards was their own decision, so while I agree with you that their results look worse, it's really not relevant to this discussion. It had nothing to do with the materials they got ahold of, although you could argue that a film source gave them enough extra resolution to work with that they could zoom in to a 16:9 frame while still maintaining a high enough resolution to be acceptable on whatever format they were working with.

That said, we are talking about the movies, and I really don't know much about those releases. But I feel I've consistently heard around here that they are true HD releases and not upscales, so they'd have to have some kind of source with a high enough resolution to make an HD release. So that does continue to follow the pattern of the TV series: that they have film for Z but still only digibetas for the other two. And as long as that remains the case, for whatever reason, a true HD release by FUNimation is not going to be possible.

[TheGreatness25]

I see. Yeah, I know nothing about this stuff, so I'm just throwing out very amateur inquiries.

But it does make me wonder: Could an argument be made that Funimation went out of their way to purchase the masters from Toei for "Z" but didn't even bother with Dragon Ball, GT, or the Dragon Ball movies because they didn't think that they'd sell like "Z" does?

[Jinzoningen MULE]

I'm talking about the picture quality, smoothness, colors, etc.

That doesn't really clear anything up, but I don't think you get the difference, which is totally fine.

Path to Power looks better than the Z Season Sets
Funimation felt confident in putting out a Blu-ray release based on the Z Season Sets
Funimation chose not to put the better looking Path to Power on Blu-ray
Thus, Funimation didn't think it was worth putting Path to Power out on Blu-ray, my theory, because it isn't "Dragon Ball Z."

Okay, point by point:

-Yes
-The Orange Bricks were made in the height of DB popularity, and sold well because of it. Naturally, they'd try to replicate that.
-They didn't necessarily "choose" not to put in on Blu-ray. The source doesn't allow for any useful form of upscaling. Even if the (relative) lack of name recognition played a factor, a Blu-ray release could only have been the exact same thing as the DVD, only more pricey. It would have flopped.

I see. Yeah, I know nothing about this stuff, so I'm just throwing out very amateur inquiries.

But it does make me wonder: Could an argument be made that Funimation went out of their way to purchase the masters from Toei for "Z" but didn't even bother with Dragon Ball, GT, or the Dragon Ball movies because they didn't think that they'd sell like "Z" does?

Yes, DBZ is what sells in America. The rest of the series, for all intents and purposes, is supplementary.

[Captain Awesome]

at any rate, there's little point in making a high definition video release using digibetas.

Look no further than the Trunks/Bardock blu ray disc, if Funimation had a 16mm master then they did a fantastic job of making it look like they had something worse.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

at any rate, there's little point in making a high definition video release using digibetas.

Look no further than the Trunks/Bardock blu ray disc, if Funimation had a 16mm master then they did a fantastic job of making it look like they had something worse.

That release came just a little while after the Orange Bricks, they had no idea what they were doing. The same goes for all the movie Blu-rays, they're just Super Orange Bricks, as opposed to the slightly improved Season Blu-rays.

Not saying that I know which source they used for that release, just that the process they used would have given a similar result either way.

[sangofe]

I was always under the impression that it was less of a popularity thing and more that they probably don't have any sources (such as film masters) that can be used for a high definition transfer for anything outside of Z. Granted, popularity might be the reason they haven't tried to obtain those sources, but at any rate, there's little point in making a high definition video release using digibetas.

But they released it in HD digitally online...