Dragon Ball Movies HD Remaster - Amazon Video/Netflix Japan - Discussion Thread

[professorwho]

I'm not arguing that it's bad, or that it's not the best DB has ever look- because it is. What I'm saying is that, even if the Amazon streams didn't exist, there would still be some complaints. The DNR and edge-enhancement is easy for a videophile like me to spot, but that's because I've trained myself to look for this stuff.

All I'm trying to point out is that people will complain about anything, whether or not it's justified. Honestly, I'd give the BDs an 8/10 when comparing it to other anime restorations of series/movies from that time. The Amazon stream I'd give an 8.5/10.

[Bruma rabu]

I'm not arguing that it's bad, or that it's not the best DB has ever look- because it is. What I'm saying is that, even if the Amazon streams didn't exist, there would still be some complaints. The DNR and edge-enhancement is easy for a videophile like me to spot, but that's because I've trained myself to look for this stuff.

All I'm trying to point out is that people will complain about anything, whether or not it's justified. Honestly, I'd give the BDs an 8/10 when comparing it to other anime restorations of series/movies from that time. The Amazon stream I'd give an 8.5/10.

I get that, what I'm trying to get at is everybody seems to be clumping all of the movies together and judging them as if they are as bad as 5, when their not.

[linkdude20002001]

Is movie Five more blurry? Cuz I thot people were just complaining about Five for it's yellowish/greenish tint that makes it look very aged. But all the movies so far are equally blurry, correct?

[superfan2024]

How good of a remaster is this? Better than the Dragon Box?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCdNuT0u8ww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQOlUqktjtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuXUc1xN0jU

[Bruma rabu]

Is movie Five more blurry? Cuz I thot people were just complaining about Five for it's yellowish/greenish tint that makes it look very aged. But all the movies so far are equally blurry, correct?

I don't think any of the movies minus certain scenes in 5 are blurry. People are complaining about the DNR applied on the movies more specifically 5.

[Sani007]

Like robo said if the Amazon stream versions were never a thing nobody would be complaining about the way they look other than movie 5.

I highly doubt that. DNR is noticeable and is a sin.

Bruma rabu is right. If we never saw the streams, most people wouldn't complain, because outside of movie 5, this is still the best DB has ever looked.
Blu-ray: 8.5/10
Amazon: 9.5/10

What??? Is expensive BD release inferior quality? Damn, they're ruined it... But I expected this release. I hope that DB-DBZ-DBGT won't be released.

[DHM211]

I highly doubt that. DNR is noticeable and is a sin.

Bruma rabu is right. If we never saw the streams, most people wouldn't complain, because outside of movie 5, this is still the best DB has ever looked.
Blu-ray: 8.5/10
Amazon: 9.5/10

What??? Is expensive BD release inferior quality? Damn, they're ruined it... But I expected this release. I hope that DB-DBZ-DBGT won't be released.

Why? At "worst" it would be Kai quality, which is miles better than the Dragon Box's or Funimations Season Sets.

[superfan2024]

Like robo said if the Amazon stream versions were never a thing nobody would be complaining about the way they look other than movie 5.

I highly doubt that. DNR is noticeable and is a sin.

Bruma rabu is right. If we never saw the streams, most people wouldn't complain, because outside of movie 5, this is still the best DB has ever looked.
Blu-ray: 8.5/10


Amazon: 9.5/10

Is it just me, or does the Blu-Ray look less green.... Is that a good thing?

[DHM211]

I highly doubt that. DNR is noticeable and is a sin.

Bruma rabu is right. If we never saw the streams, most people wouldn't complain, because outside of movie 5, this is still the best DB has ever looked.
Blu-ray: 8.5/10


Amazon: 9.5/10

Is it just me, or does the Blu-Ray look less green.... Is that a good thing?

I use elmedia player for screenshots, and it kinda distorts the color. On VLC the amazon streams color is identical to the blu-ray.

[JohnnyCashKami]

Why? At "worst" it would be Kai quality, which is miles better than the Dragon Box's or Funimations Season Sets.

Agreed. I personally loved the Dragon Ball Kai remaster and it looked incredible to me, though re-watching it on DVD made me realize it looks more or less the same when I'd watch on Blu-ray which is no big deal but hardly any improvement, picture quality-wise. Course, the audio on the Blu-rays are definitely better as they're offered in lossless format.

Even with the flaws, I can't wait for TOEI to unveil what other Classic Dragon Ball media they're remastering.

[Sani007]

Bruma rabu is right. If we never saw the streams, most people wouldn't complain, because outside of movie 5, this is still the best DB has ever looked.
Blu-ray: 8.5/10
Amazon: 9.5/10

What??? Is expensive BD release inferior quality? Damn, they're ruined it... But I expected this release. I hope that DB-DBZ-DBGT won't be released.

Why? At "worst" it would be Kai quality, which is miles better than the Dragon Box's or Funimations Season Sets.

I think DBZ Movie 5 BD looks much worse than Dragon Box or Kai. But I just saw pictures here...

[Robo4900]

How good of a remaster is this? Better than the Dragon Box?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCdNuT0u8ww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQOlUqktjtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuXUc1xN0jU

Looks pretty good. Better than DBox, I'd say.

[Bruma rabu]

How good of a remaster is this? Better than the Dragon Box?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCdNuT0u8ww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQOlUqktjtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuXUc1xN0jU

They look like they had they same treatment the movies had. Witch to me looks good.

[MadSpecialist]

The Blu-ray for Movie 5 looks like it's been through the same process that the Movie 10 did that Toei had on their 60th anniversary YouTube channel (in 480p) not too long ago:

Spoiler:

Hopefully it won't also find its way onto the upcoming physical release instead too.

[superfan2024]

How good of a remaster is this? Better than the Dragon Box?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCdNuT0u8ww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQOlUqktjtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuXUc1xN0jU

They look like they had they same treatment the movies had. Witch to me looks good.

So does that mean they could remaster the entirety of DB/Z/GT?

How good of a remaster is this? Better than the Dragon Box?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCdNuT0u8ww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQOlUqktjtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuXUc1xN0jU

Looks pretty good. Better than DBox, I'd say.

Anything you find wrong with them?

[Robo4900]

So does that mean they could remaster the entirety of DB/Z/GT?

I've been saying they will for, at this point, probably over a year. Suffice it to say, my views have not changed.

Anything you find wrong with them?

Hard to tell. Bitrate on the stream is quite low.

[Bruma rabu]

How good of a remaster is this? Better than the Dragon Box?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCdNuT0u8ww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQOlUqktjtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuXUc1xN0jU

They look like they had they same treatment the movies had. Witch to me looks good.

So does that mean they could remaster the entirety of DB/Z/GT?

Abosoluty. Will they? I don't know. From the looks of things, they might very well be in the process of doing it, but it's not entirely certain that it's happening.

How good of a remaster is this? Better than the Dragon Box?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCdNuT0u8ww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQOlUqktjtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuXUc1xN0jU

Looks pretty good. Better than DBox, I'd say.

Anything you find wrong with them?

Overall it looks good but to really pick at it we would need a direct capture. YouTube compresses the source so it'd be difficult to say anything definitely.

[Bruma rabu]

The Blu-ray for Movie 5 looks like it's been through the same process that the Movie 10 did that Toei had on their 60th anniversary YouTube channel (in 480p) not too long ago:

Spoiler:

Hopefully it won't also find its way onto the upcoming physical release instead too.

If I'm not miss remembering, didn't Toei stream upscales of all their movies on Amazon before the proper restoration one? This could be from that.

[JohnnyCashKami]

Overall it looks good but to really pick at it we would need a direct capture. YouTube compresses the source so it'd be difficult to say anything definitely.

If Fathom Events shared the original uncompressed trailer then we'd see just how good Bardock's Remastered Special looks but even from YouTube, it looks amazing to me. I read somewhere that the Bardock Special is going to air on Animax Japan, apparently.

[professorwho]

At this point, the issue isn't the scan/initial transfer without any grading/enhancements- those are good. In fact, it's rare to find a movie/series with a bad scan- even Predator, with it's AWFUL Ultimate Hunter Edition had a great scan... which was then DNR'd to death. So the scanning or restoration is by no means an issue.

What is, is colour correction and "enhancements". I put that in quotes, as they really aren't (stuff like DNR and EE), but are sold as them (TVs now have a noise reduction filter which ruins any good transfer of an older film).

Colour correction is subjective. There is NO correct answer to what is the "correct" choice. Though, what I would do, is make it as close as possible to its original release- be that theatrically or on TV. I have no idea who choose the colour correction for what Toei has done in the past- both Kai series, and the movies- but they will always have backlash to some degree. Don't make it look modern, but instead present it as close to how it was seen all those years ago,

DNR is a sin, as in EE, but sadly it's used in every remaster- yes, even ones that are 10/10 good like Lawrence of Arabia. Thing is, it's done very subtly, to the point where you wouldn't notice- and the DNR is used for, well, noise. When people say something is DNR'd, they mean it's used to remove grain- as a computer cannot tell the difference between noise and grain. If I had to guess, maybe it was the compressionist on movie 5 that did the DNR for the BD.

So, what are we left with? Good scans but not properly handled. If a better company handled the remastering after the scans, there'd be little issue- or maybe not. The colour grading can be improved, as can the removal of DNR and EE, so honestly, unless some fan works with Toei (which will never happen), we'll never get a "perfect" release. This is close, bar movie 5, but it has issues that can be improved if Toei plans to do a full remaster of the TV series (as in plural) if they want to gauge fan interest (which I doubt, because they'll keep doing haphazard remastering as long as people buy it).