ABED wrote:The same problem that happened with Buffy happened with Friends. You are seeing more of the frame than you should, so things like boom mics are showing up in shots, or in some cases, you see stand ins instead of the actors.
The point is, since Friends is a multi-cam show generally assembled with much freer-flowing cameras, and with wider sets and filming-safe areas, you'll never see anything you're not supposed to unless you're freeze-framing looking for this stuff. It's easy to find a bunch of screenshots that say "look! you can see this in hd! literally unwatchable!!", but in reality, it's like the moving bloodstain in Wrath Of Khan; you'll won't really notice it unless you're looking for it.
Buffy, being a single-camera effects-heavy fantasy/horror drama, constantly has lighting equipment, stand-ins, edges of sets, lack of SFX, etc. in the expanded viewing area. Hell, in at least one case, a guy who's "turned invisible" is literally just standing outside of the standard frame... But inside the expanded widescreen frame. So unlike Friends, Buffy doesn't work expanded out. And even if it did work, the widescreen presentation barely scratches the surface of the sheer incompetence pervading every level of Buffy's HD master.
Though even with all this considered, the first season of Buffy isn't expanded out. At least, not all of it. A significant portion is cropped down, as are various sections of later seasons, due to the fact large-format elements don't exist for the whole run; even for episodes shot like that, they don't always have those elements in existence. Hell, a lot of the SFX shots are simply upscaled & cropped from the original 4:3 finished SD masters.
Buffy being bad in HD is an entirely different issue from whether or not Friends' HD masters were all that well done. Hell, at least with Friends' HD masters, you could make the argument that you could just crop it down and fix the only potential criticism; Buffy, not so much.
One thing I would say for Buffy's HD master is that it was probably done like it was because it was produced as a TV HD master by Fox, so they wanted it widescreen for TV purposes, since basically any TV station will only air something if it fits a full widescreen frame; even reairing an older 4:3 show, most western TV crops down to widescreen. Some British TV just stretches the image out, in fact!
And all the general issues of incompetence involved in Buffy's HD master, such as the missing SFX, lack of post-production colour-correction in shots(Such as day shoots that are supposed to appear as night), the over-DNRing, even the lack of consideration done in the widescreen expansion, can all be attributed to it being done as cheaply as possible as a TV-only HD master. Meanwhile, Friends' restoration, as well as Next Gen's, Batman: The Animated Series', etc. were done as definitive HD restorations for home release, streaming, future TV airings, the works.
Funimation's cropped masters of Z were done as cheap cash-ins so they could market it as "WIDESCREEN HD MASTERS!!!!!!!! UNCUTT!!!!" all that edgy nonsense. And of course, cropping down also means they don't have to deal with the tape marks and glue.
You'll notice this with a lot of HD masters; if it's a badly widescreen-converted one, it's probably a crappy, cheap, rush job. Meanwhile, if it's kept its original framing, or often if it's a sitcom with an expanded frame, it'll usually be a more proper restoration.
So... That's my uhh... many, many cents on the subject. I think I went a bit stream of consciousness there.
The point of Dragon Ball is to enjoy it. Never lose sight of that.