Are the Orange Bricks worth getting?

[MasenkoHA]

I'm been using FunimationNow but meh thinking of cutting internet soon so that wont be an option. Thinking of getting DBZ up till at least the Freeza saga but I dont own a blue ray player player to get the blue rays.

Are the Orange Brick sets worth it as they seem the most afforadble and easiest to obtain?

[jamiljamtheman]

I've never owned them myself, but if the green bricks (for GT) and the z movie DVDs are any indication, they should suffice just fine if Dvd is your option. Plus the price is a nice selling point. Is the streaming service you used already in that widescreen cropping so many people complain about? If that's the case then you've already seen it so the orange bricks will do well as that's the biggest complaint I hear about them

[DHM211]

If you don't have a BluRay player I would suggest getting DBZ Kai on DVD.

[DHM211]

I've never owned them myself, but if the green bricks (for GT) and the z movie DVDs are any indication, they should suffice just fine if Dvd is your option.

The remastering process for GT and the Z movies was far better then the remastering process of seasons 1 - 6 of the Orange Bricks.

[MasenkoHA]

Alternative question


Should I hold off and save up for a blue ray player and then buy the Blue Ray sets instead?

[sintzu]

No, they're not worth getting at all. The picture quality and cropping are a complete mess to say the least so you should just get Kai instead.

I've never owned them myself, but if the green bricks (for GT) and the z movie DVDs are any indication, they should suffice just fine if Dvd is your option.

The remastering process for GT and the Z movies was far better then the remastering process of seasons 1 - 6 of the Orange Bricks.

DB also had a better remaster. the reason for this is because they were released after Z so Funimation knew what they did wrong and avoided it with those 3. they still had problems of course but they weren't as bad as Z's.

[Kojiro Sasaki]

I'm been using FunimationNow but meh thinking of cutting internet soon so that wont be an option. Thinking of getting DBZ up till at least the Freeza saga but I dont own a blue ray player player to get the blue rays.

Are the Orange Brick sets worth it as they seem the most afforadble and easiest to obtain?

It totally depends on your preference.

1. If you aren't interested in stuff like picture quality, artistic integrity (from a technical perspective) and you only want to just enjoy the show, I think that $16.99 for 39 episodes is a good price. While the PQ is butchered beyond help, the sound is as good as it can (practically) be and you have 3 tracks to pick:
- English voice track with original Japanese music (Dolby Digital 5.1)
- English voice track with TV broadcast music (Dolby Digital 2.0)
- Japanese voice track with original Japanese music (Dolby Digital 1.0)

2. If you care for the PQ, artistic integrity and you are a purist, this release is not for you. They cropped the original aspect ratio of 4:3 to 16:9, which lead to loss of ~15% of the original picture. They corected the colors improperly, they overdrive the contrast and brightness which caused crushed blacks and crushed whites, they used crazy DVNR, which scrubbed out the grain along with the original detail, filters they used destroyed the original line work and classic look of the traditional animation.

3. If you are a tech geek and audio/video enthusiast, you should avoid acknowledging their existence for the sake of your mental health.

[Bajosexto]

DB also had a better remaster. the reason for this is because they were released after Z so Funimation knew what they did wrong and avoided it with those 3. they still had problems of course but they weren't as bad as Z's.

Besides being zoomed in, what other problems do the blue bricks have? I'm currently at the Red Ribbon arc and I've notice that it has crush blacks(I'm not exactly sure if I'm using the term "crush blacks" correctly. I'm guessing that crush blacks mean that details are lost on dark areas). They also look very bright.

[sintzu]

Besides being zoomed in, what other problems do the blue bricks have? I'm currently at the Red Ribbon arc and I've notice that it has crush blacks. They also look very bright.

They also don't have all the endings and the 2nd opening.

[Danfun64]

To be fair to the Blue Bricks, the DB saga sets didn't have "all the endings and the 2nd opening" either, and have the same interlacing and (to a lesser extent) macroblocking issues as the DBZ singles do, not to mention that uncut "Saga of Goku" set was only available in Australia (and even then if you wanted to get only the R4 saga sets, which replace the macroblocking with the arguably far less serious issue of ntsc to pal ghosting, the Fortuneteller Baba R4 set is infamous for certain errors when trying to watch the Japanese. Issues that the R1 set lacks...so basically you can't get uncut DB saga sets with consistent region codes).

While the Blue Bricks have slight cropping on all sides, light dvnr, and only have English titles, they otherwise have vastly superior encoding to the DB saga sets, and you're not really missing anything else (compared to the Orange Bricks lacking the original dub audio mix without any partial redubs or other small changes; and the Green Bricks missing NEPs which the DBGT singles had for both English and Japanese)

[DHM211]

Alternative question


Should I hold off and save up for a blue ray player and then buy the Blue Ray sets instead?

If you wouldn't prefer Kai, then yeah. Imo 80% of the problems on the orange bricks were corrected for the blu ray release.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

Alternative question


Should I hold off and save up for a blue ray player and then buy the Blue Ray sets instead?

If you wouldn't prefer Kai, then yeah. Imo 80% of the problems on the orange bricks were corrected for the blu ray release.

If you think that, I doubt you had a solid understanding of the problems to begin with. That's fine, most people don't, but I'd hate to see someone buy something over a tiny piece of misinformation.

The only problems that were sufficiently resolved in the Blu-ray Seasons were disappearing lines and erasure of shading. Every other issue is still there to varying degrees, and the Blu-rays even have new problems of their own, such as the destruction of textures that go beyond what the Orange Bricks could even dream of, the recurring yellow tint over the picture, disproportionately blurred lines (which despite popular belief, is a problem throughout the release, not just Season 6), etc.

In response to the other guy: If you're planning on getting a Blu-ray player just for DBZ, don't! If you're getting a Blu-ray player anyway, I actually would recommend holding off until you can get the Blu-rays, not because they have less problems, but because they have a similar price tag, more interesting extras, better cover art (I think so, anyway), as well as standard benefits of Blu-rays, such as durability, more episodes per disk, etc.

[Kojiro Sasaki]

If you wouldn't prefer Kai, then yeah. Imo 80% of the problems on the orange bricks were corrected for the blu ray release.

If you think that, I doubt you had a solid understanding of the problems to begin with. That's fine, most people don't, but I'd hate to see someone buy something over a tiny piece of misinformation.

The only problems that were sufficiently resolved in the Blu-ray Seasons were disappearing lines and erasure of standing. Every other issue is still there to varying degrees, and the Blu-rays even have new problems of their own, such as the destruction of textures that go beyond what the Orange Bricks could even dream of, the recurring yellow tint over the picture, disproportionately blurred lines (which despite popular belief, is a problem throughout the release, not just Season 6), etc.

In response to the actual topic: If you're planning on getting a Blu-ray player just for DBZ, don't! If you're getting a Blu-ray player anyway, I actually would recommend holding off until you can get the Blu-rays, not because they have less problems, but because they have a similar price tag, more interesting extras, better cover art (I think so, anyway), as well as standard benefits of Blu-rays, such as durability, more episodes per disk, etc.

Well explained! Kojiro approves!

Should I hold off and save up for a blue ray player and then buy the Blue Ray sets instead?

If you think about getting the Blu-rays, I strongly recommend reading reviews on blu-ray.com: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dragon-Ba ... serReviews (the ones rated 50% and more)
People there know what they are saying! (excluding...maybe...me )

[DHM211]

Alternative question


Should I hold off and save up for a blue ray player and then buy the Blue Ray sets instead?

If you wouldn't prefer Kai, then yeah. Imo 80% of the problems on the orange bricks were corrected for the blu ray release.

If you think that, I doubt you had a solid understanding of the problems to begin with. That's fine, most people don't, but I'd hate to see someone buy something over a tiny piece of misinformation.

Nah I actually understand all of the "issues" yet most of them aren't issues to me. Yeah the picture is kinda fuzzy but I never notice that when I'm sitting more then 5 feet away from the TV. Also 80% of the time the wide screen never bothers me.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

If you wouldn't prefer Kai, then yeah. Imo 80% of the problems on the orange bricks were corrected for the blu ray release.

If you think that, I doubt you had a solid understanding of the problems to begin with. That's fine, most people don't, but I'd hate to see someone buy something over a tiny piece of misinformation.

Nah I actually understand all of the "issues" yet most of them aren't issues to me. Yeah the picture is kinda fuzzy but I never notice that when I'm sitting more then 5 feet away from the TV. Also 80% of the time the wide screen never bothers me.

Not caring about or not noticing the problems doesn't make them not problems. Enjoying something doesn't make it good. Feel free to enjoy it, but let's not get under any misapprehensions here.

[Zillamon51]

Should I hold off and save up for a blue ray player and then buy the Blue Ray sets instead?

Yes, you should have a Blu-ray player anyway. It will give you more and better options for everything, not just DB. You can get a basic one for around $50 nowadays.

[Robo4900]

I'm going to go with my old standby of: If you want the series in the best way possible, get the Dragon Boxes. Realistically, this isn't an option, so the next best thing is the singles, since they're pretty cheap these days, they're 4:3, and they have all the original title cards... But they only have episode 68 onwards(People also like to complain about macroblocking, but it's largely unnoticeable in motion. Screenshots, sure, but when you're actually watching it, it looks fine, particularly if you have a nice player or TV that filters it out). Ideally, the thing to do is to get the first two Dragon Boxes, and then get the singles for the rest of the series. Another possibility is to get the "Season" DVDs or Blu-Rays up to #67, and then switch to the singles for #68 onwards.

Another option is to import the Japanese DBox(Its singles are still in print, so it shouldn't be too expensive), and then use the Dragon Radar project to import subs from the Orange Bricks.

[TheGreatness25]

If you are willing to get a Blu-ray player, I'd say get the Blu-rays. If not, and you know what you're in for, then yeah, get the orange bricks. If you just want the series and don't really care about the quality, then that's exactly what this set is all about. If you don't want to get singles with 3-4 episodes per disc (and they're not the greatest quality either) that take up a ton of shelf space, then yeah. Why not? Lots of people have them, there's nothing wrong with that. If you're looking for a 100% "way it was meant to be seen" experience, then obviously you should avoid them like the plague. But if you just want to own the whole thing and quality is secondary (or not considered at all), go for it.

[Dbzfan94]

I have the orange bricks and they've been fine for me. I know they're far from a great release but they work for me.

But one of my discs is all messed up. for some reaosn Episode 67 is suuuper glitchy and keeps freezing (on all 3 audio tracks.) everything else works fine.

[Danfun64]

Since the Orange Bricks transfer was apparently done in 1080p, I'd like to see some of that transfer without the DVD downscaling, especially during the Boo saga stuff. For all we know, the original 1080p transfer might look better than the Season Blu-Rays transfer on some of those episodes.