Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

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Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by SuperCyan2 » Thu Mar 15, 2018 8:49 pm

I feel someone may make a Betamax joke but serious here, were there actually any, somewhere in the world? That would have been kind of cool and interesting as Betamax are better than VHS cassettes (from what I've read).
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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by Hujio » Fri Mar 16, 2018 2:28 am

Yes. In Japan all the Dragon Ball movies and the first Dragon Ball Z movie were released on Betamax, VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film. Following that, they were released on VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film.
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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by Bruma rabu » Fri Mar 16, 2018 9:38 pm

Hujio wrote:Yes. In Japan all the Dragon Ball movies and the first Dragon Ball Z movie were released on Betamax, VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film. Following that, they were released on VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film.
Would betamax have better or the same audio to laserdisc?
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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by snaku » Fri Mar 16, 2018 11:05 pm

Bruma rabu wrote:
Hujio wrote:Yes. In Japan all the Dragon Ball movies and the first Dragon Ball Z movie were released on Betamax, VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film. Following that, they were released on VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film.
Would betamax have better or the same audio to laserdisc?
LD would have better audio.

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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by Bruma rabu » Fri Mar 16, 2018 11:31 pm

snaku wrote:
Bruma rabu wrote:
Hujio wrote:Yes. In Japan all the Dragon Ball movies and the first Dragon Ball Z movie were released on Betamax, VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film. Following that, they were released on VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film.
Would betamax have better or the same audio to laserdisc?
LD would have better audio.
I see, witch would be easier to rip?
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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by Danfun64 » Sat Mar 17, 2018 1:43 pm

I'm not sure which is easier to rip, but laserdisc has better quality all around.
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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by Bruma rabu » Sat Mar 17, 2018 6:37 pm

I guess I'll be investing in laser disc.
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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by SuperCyan2 » Sat Mar 17, 2018 6:46 pm

Bruma rabu wrote:I see, witch would be easier to rip?
LaserDisc is easier to rip as long as you have a suitable capture card, the actual LaserDisc Player and all that. The tough part is just hunting down all of the LaserDiscs and for a good price.
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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by dougo13 » Mon Mar 19, 2018 2:14 am

Might be difficult to find after all these years and you have to worry about things like laser rot, not to mention low pressings. I have a lot of catalogs from late 1980s to about 1995 and none of them list Dragonball. Toei's own publication New Disc Press from April/May 1995 doesn't have ANY DB discs in it, so either they were released earlier or were already out of print. I only have a couple hand bills with DB even mentioned. But lots of other Toei stuff was out including Sailor Moon, Galaxy Express, etc. as well as many 1970s works.

Best way to transfer is by LD to computer using a Hauppage or other transfer device through the component outputs of the player to the same inputs on the Hauppage. A bud of mine uses one of my units to transfer films that were never released on DVD that way. Picture is quite nice.

As for tape, those deteriorate after awhile. I have many old tapes where the magnetic particles have flaked from the tapes rendering them unplayable. It was never meant to be an archival format.

But a lot of video restoration really depends on how much you wish to spend. And if you are going to buy an LD player try to get a restored one instead of one off eBay that is "tested working". At least the refurbished will have things that might be problematic replaced like bad capacitors in the electronics section (also a problem with any old used electronics) or belts or gears that need to be replaced. It's pretty hard to get this old equipment repaired anymore and you really have to know what you are doing to attempt repairs yourself.

Good luck!

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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by dougo13 » Mon Mar 19, 2018 2:18 am

Hujio wrote:Yes. In Japan all the Dragon Ball movies and the first Dragon Ball Z movie were released on Betamax, VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film. Following that, they were released on VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film.
Not 8mm FILM. But 8mm tapes I could see. Maybe even VCD, though that was more a thing in China. I do remember seeing some stuff released on that format but not DB specifically...

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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by Bruma rabu » Mon Mar 19, 2018 4:17 pm

dougo13 wrote:Might be difficult to find after all these years and you have to worry about things like laser rot, not to mention low pressings. I have a lot of catalogs from late 1980s to about 1995 and none of them list Dragonball. Toei's own publication New Disc Press from April/May 1995 doesn't have ANY DB discs in it, so either they were released earlier or were already out of print. I only have a couple hand bills with DB even mentioned. But lots of other Toei stuff was out including Sailor Moon, Galaxy Express, etc. as well as many 1970s works.

Best way to transfer is by LD to computer using a Hauppage or other transfer device through the component outputs of the player to the same inputs on the Hauppage. A bud of mine uses one of my units to transfer films that were never released on DVD that way. Picture is quite nice.

As for tape, those deteriorate after awhile. I have many old tapes where the magnetic particles have flaked from the tapes rendering them unplayable. It was never meant to be an archival format.

But a lot of video restoration really depends on how much you wish to spend. And if you are going to buy an LD player try to get a restored one instead of one off eBay that is "tested working". At least the refurbished will have things that might be problematic replaced like bad capacitors in the electronics section (also a problem with any old used electronics) or belts or gears that need to be replaced. It's pretty hard to get this old equipment repaired anymore and you really have to know what you are doing to attempt repairs yourself.

Good luck!
How do you rip the digital audio of laserdisc? I know for video all you need is composite but most of the devices that rip composite don't usually come with a digital coaxial/toslink. I've seen a few sound cards that come with toslink input, would that work?
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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by Robo4900 » Mon Mar 19, 2018 4:32 pm

dougo13 wrote:Not 8mm FILM. But 8mm tapes I could see. Maybe even VCD, though that was more a thing in China. I do remember seeing some stuff released on that format but not DB specifically...
Yes 8mm film. 8mm tape isn't really a thing, as far as I know.

Anyway, yes, it was most likely Super-8, which was a fairly well-used standard before VHS and Betamax killed it off. I know Disney released a lot of their cartoon shorts on Super-8, and several distributors put some movies out on it.
Standard-8 was also somewhat well-used at one time, but Super-8 mostly killed it off, from what I understand.
(For reference, the difference between Super and Standard 8 is that Super-8 uses smaller sprocket holes, which allows for a larger picture. Generally, sound would be put on a magnetic strip along the side, using the same technology as cassette tapes)

I'd love to own some Dragon Ball on 8mm, but I imagine it'd be pretty costly. Import costs alone would be pretty huge. :(
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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by dougo13 » Mon Mar 19, 2018 4:59 pm

Just use the stereo inputs. You aren't going to get better than stereo sound. The cables on the Hauppage cover all that anyway...

See the connections for the HDPVR2 here:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/hauppauge/manu ... hdpvr2.pdf

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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by dougo13 » Mon Mar 19, 2018 5:19 pm

Robo4900 wrote:
dougo13 wrote:Not 8mm FILM. But 8mm tapes I could see. Maybe even VCD, though that was more a thing in China. I do remember seeing some stuff released on that format but not DB specifically...
Yes 8mm film. 8mm tape isn't really a thing, as far as I know.

Anyway, yes, it was most likely Super-8, which was a fairly well-used standard before VHS and Betamax killed it off. I know Disney released a lot of their cartoon shorts on Super-8, and several distributors put some movies out on it.
Standard-8 was also somewhat well-used at one time, but Super-8 mostly killed it off, from what I understand.
(For reference, the difference between Super and Standard 8 is that Super-8 uses smaller sprocket holes, which allows for a larger picture. Generally, sound would be put on a magnetic strip along the side, using the same technology as cassette tapes)

I'd love to own some Dragon Ball on 8mm, but I imagine it'd be pretty costly. Import costs alone would be pretty huge. :(
Yeah, it was...back in the 1960s and early 1970s before videotape killed it off. Now 8mm prerecorded tapes *might* have come out when that format was popular in the mid 1980s when shows like DB were on. I never saw any listed in magazines of the time though. The only thing I ever saw on 8mm film in the 1980s was in toys like the Fisher-Price Movie Viewer Theater which had releases in Japan as well as the U.S. I'm looking at one I own right now with silent film cartridges of Mazinger Z and several Disney films. But sound 8mm films? I never collected them as the cost was prohibitive. 16mm was even worse but several of my friends collected a lot of cartoons that way before video tape releases. TV prints of various shows could be bought on the collector's market and in publications like Film Collector's World. But I never saw any Japanese sourced 16mm prints in that publication. I'd assume Japanese collectors could get them as that was their home country but it would have been an expensive hobby...

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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by clutchins » Mon Mar 19, 2018 6:03 pm

Hujio wrote:Yes. In Japan all the Dragon Ball movies and the first Dragon Ball Z movie were released on Betamax, VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film. Following that, they were released on VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film.
Never seen any laserdiscs for the DB films or proof that they even exist, apart from the 10th anniversary movie.
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Kamiccolo9 wrote:
JacobYBM wrote:
Original Thread Topic wrote:Did Dragon Ball ever motivate you to exercise?
No, why would it? It's fiction. The strength of the characters is not possible to reach in reality.
I mean, you're pretty open about looking at cartoon porn. Why would you do that? It's fiction. The proportions of these women are not possible to reach in reality.

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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by Bruma rabu » Mon Mar 19, 2018 8:19 pm

dougo13 wrote:Just use the stereo inputs. You aren't going to get better than stereo sound. The cables on the Hauppage cover all that anyway...

See the connections for the HDPVR2 here:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/hauppauge/manu ... hdpvr2.pdf
Really? Damn, so the anolog signal has CD quality?
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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by dougo13 » Mon Mar 19, 2018 9:47 pm

clutchins wrote:
Hujio wrote:Yes. In Japan all the Dragon Ball movies and the first Dragon Ball Z movie were released on Betamax, VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film. Following that, they were released on VHS, LaserDisc, and 8mm film.
Never seen any laserdiscs for the DB films or proof that they even exist, apart from the 10th anniversary movie.
New Disc Press March/April 1993 Vol. 19

All DBZ:

LSTD01005; LSTD01011; LSTD01016; LSTD01022; LSTD01030; LSTD01039; LSTD01039

I don't read Japanese, so I don't know what the titles say...

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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by dougo13 » Mon Mar 19, 2018 10:10 pm

Image

Image

VHS

Image

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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by clutchins » Mon Mar 19, 2018 10:40 pm

I specifically meant DB films, not Z. I should have made that more clear so my bad.
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Kamiccolo9 wrote:
JacobYBM wrote:
Original Thread Topic wrote:Did Dragon Ball ever motivate you to exercise?
No, why would it? It's fiction. The strength of the characters is not possible to reach in reality.
I mean, you're pretty open about looking at cartoon porn. Why would you do that? It's fiction. The proportions of these women are not possible to reach in reality.

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Re: Were there any Dragon Ball releases on Betamax?

Post by dougo13 » Mon Mar 19, 2018 11:31 pm

clutchins wrote:I specifically meant DB films, not Z. I should have made that more clear so my bad.
No problem. At least if anyone is looking for the old LDs, they now have something to go on. As far as Dragon Ball itself, there is nothing in my LD catalogs spanning 1986 - 1996. But I might have some other handouts that I missed. Or, they might have been in the magazines from 1988 - 1993. Might take awhile to have a look (I have pretty well all the mags like My Anime, Animedia, Animage, New Type, etc. from 1980 - 2000)...

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