Dragon Ball Z "Seasons" On Blu-ray: News & Discussion

[Kendamu]

I am interested in hearing the cleaned up Japanese audio. I mean, I know it'll still be mono but it'll be neat to hear it.

[Ajay]

I am interested in hearing the cleaned up Japanese audio. I mean, I know it'll still be mono but it'll be neat to hear it.

If it turns out really nice, I know I'm going to lose my life remuxing the audio with my Dragon Boxes. Can't be having great audio lost on 16:9 footage.

[eledoremassis02]

I am interested in hearing the cleaned up Japanese audio. I mean, I know it'll still be mono but it'll be neat to hear it.

This too interests me. I'm holding on getting Namek on any other release until I hear how season 1 goes (and probably season 2).

[Fulicer]

This too interests me. I'm holding on getting Namek on any other release until I hear how season 1 goes (and probably season 2).

You can only get so far if the source is the optical track. I strongly doubt the "cleaning up" will really improve fidelity, especially since we have the original broadcast to compare it with.

[dprez]

I am interested in hearing the cleaned up Japanese audio. I mean, I know it'll still be mono but it'll be neat to hear it.

Yea I'm always interested In hearing the Japanese audio of any release here in the states. They can say it's cleaned up but I don't expect much of a difference from prior releases. The picture quality will be better than the season sets, that's basically guaranteed.

[eledoremassis02]

This too interests me. I'm holding on getting Namek on any other release until I hear how season 1 goes (and probably season 2).

You can only get so far if the source is the optical track. I strongly doubt the "cleaning up" will really improve fidelity, especially since we have the original broadcast to compare it with.

Thats true. As much as i'd like original broadcast audio. I dont think we'll see an official release soon..if ever. Next best is dbox. I have to decide if i want to gt the season sets for the subtitles and get the Japanese singles for namek. Depends on how lazy I am.

[theoriginalbilis]

If the quality of the Japanese audio has been touched up, and somehow manages to exceed the Dragon Box audio, I'd say that might just be worth a purchase of these sets.

It ain't gonna happen...

[Fulicer]

Thats true. As much as i'd like original broadcast audio. I dont think we'll see an official release soon..if ever. Next best is dbox. I have to decide if i want to gt the season sets for the subtitles and get the Japanese singles for namek. Depends on how lazy I am.

Also, someone mentioned "it'll still be mono" again. Stereo has some nice effects...but just because it's mono doesn't mean that it will sound like garbage generally speaking. There are many movies and shows that were mixed in mono and sound crisp and clean. Channel count != audio fidelity, in case I am interpreting his post correctly.

For now, I'm just going to stream episodes off of daisuki.net. The only way to watch Dragon Box-quality episodes online legally. Not going to hold my breath on this release.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

I am interested in hearing the cleaned up Japanese audio. I mean, I know it'll still be mono but it'll be neat to hear it.

On a bigger note, why would they care for the Japanese track if they're releasing this in 16x9? This only makes this release even more confusing as who it's marketed towards.

Highly doubt their mass market purchases even care about the Japanese track.

Don't even care it's 16x9 at this point, what I do care about is now that they don't have to worry about "those batch of episodes" which probably is a HUGE chunk of the series they could easily continue the restoration process the same way they have been for a fortune less.

[KingofWisdom]

The Japanese audio track is obligatory for most uncut releases. However, it'll also be the best looking release of Z (not counting Kai) on the market for anyone that missed the Dragon Boxes.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

The Japanese audio track is obligatory for most uncut releases. However, it'll also be the best looking release of Z (not counting Kai) on the market for anyone that missed the Dragon Boxes.

In my opinion these will look better than Kai as I really didn't dig the soft dvnr look... And I thought the Levels were better in most cases than the Dragon Boxes and if the quality stays the same I'm okay with it just wished they tried to get better masters for batch that was well crap in their eyes to fix.

This is something neat I found, it's a color comparison of the JP and US dboxes, Kai, and the level sets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVQYcCtoGGA

The one gripe I had with the levels was they felt a bit dark but kai and the Dragon boxes were too bright, if these new sets could find a middle ground but don't go crazy and use frame by frame layer color correction (think photoshop in this case) instead of the automated process in 2007 I think it could work as long as they're not saturating and over brightening it could look neat.

[TheMajinRedComet]

Are we sure that the 16/9 is not a matted 4.3? For example many websites such as Amazon list the Yu Yu Blu-rays as widescreen when they are still 4.3 but the Blu-rays have the black pillars encoded to the video so technically it is a 16/9 encode.

Example http://www.amazon.com/Yu-Hakusho-Season ... yu+hakusho

[Daimo-Rukiri]

Are we sure that the 16/9 is not a matted 4.3? For example many websites such as Amazon list the Yu Yu Blu-rays as widescreen when they are still 4.3 but the Blu-rays have the black pillars encoded to the video so technically it is a 16/9 encode.

Example http://www.amazon.com/Yu-Hakusho-Season ... yu+hakusho

When the Yu Yu sets were coming out I was like, oh for the love of.... "widescreen" I thought they were doing their old tricks again but when ripped it's ripped in HD but the bars are part of the image so it IS possible that funimation will release it the same way as the Yuyu sets.

I even double checked, it comes up with black bars while the level sets do not unless I go full screen.

[MarcFBR]

When the Yu Yu sets were coming out I was like, oh for the love of.... "widescreen" I thought they were doing their old tricks again but when ripped it's ripped in HD but the bars are part of the image so it IS possible that funimation will release it the same way as the Yuyu sets.

I even double checked, it comes up with black bars while the level sets do not unless I go full screen.

In the words of the Ghostbusters: We're ready to believe you!

In my own words: Your computer's video player is clearly set wrong.

[Kendamu]

Are we sure that the 16/9 is not a matted 4.3? For example many websites such as Amazon list the Yu Yu Blu-rays as widescreen when they are still 4.3 but the Blu-rays have the black pillars encoded to the video so technically it is a 16/9 encode.

Example http://www.amazon.com/Yu-Hakusho-Season ... yu+hakusho

The description on the FUNimation listing says:

"And finally, our elite team of super-geniuses undertook a precise shot-by-shot reframing of the entire series to create a modern HD widescreen presentation of this legendary fan favorite. It’s time to experience Dragon Ball Z like you’ve never experienced it before!"

Nothing about that says "4:3" to me at all.

[penguintruth]

Nothing says "elite team of super geniuses" quite like cropping a 4:3 show for a 16:9 release.

[jeisurii]

Nothing says "elite team of super geniuses" quite like cropping a 4:3 show for a 16:9 release.

NIIIICE.

[MarcFBR]

Nothing says "elite team of super geniuses" quite like cropping a 4:3 show for a 16:9 release.

To a fan, no.

To someone in marketing aiming this at the audience that bought the orange brick en masse, absolutely.

[Kojiro Sasaki]

I am interested in hearing the cleaned up Japanese audio. I mean, I know it'll still be mono but it'll be neat to hear it.

There is absolutely no possibility to "clean up" optical audio track, mostly because the information we need does not exist in this source. To get better audio we need:

1. Original tape masters (they do not exist anymore)
2. New mix (voice-only tapes do not exist anymore)
3. Original broadcast audio

Ripping everything, synchronising it with video - too much work. I highly doubt that they will attempt to get better source of audio. Masters for the movies "officially" existed and they didn't use them.

[lost in thought]

Nothing says "elite team of super geniuses" quite like cropping a 4:3 show for a 16:9 release.

It does actually, when you consider how well the Orange Bricks sold, and still sell. It takes a very intelligent person to come up with such a horrible concept, and then market it so, so well. Meanwhile, their best effort failed miserably. So, yeah, this actually is genius.