What's the best quality release with Faulconer Prod. music?

[MasterVampire]

So I'm looking to expand my anime dvd/bluray collection.

Can anyone tell me whats the best release to buy for DBZ that has the american bruce faulconer music?
And I mean best picture quality. Remastered, HD, whatever.

Thanks

[Gonstead]

Your best option would be to go for the single sets, which would be what you are looking for.

Unless you wish to go with the Season Sets, but they have their own issues with being cropped to widescreen, over-saturated colours, overly bright, DVNR destroys the picture etc.

Question:What would you buy for episodes which don't contain the music you want?

[MasterVampire]

Your best option would be to go for the single sets, which would be what you are looking for.

Unless you wish to go with the Season Sets, but they have their own issues with being cropped to widescreen, over-saturated colours, overly bright, DVNR destroys the picture etc.

Question:What would you buy for episodes which don't contain the music you want?

I think season sets would be better and more complete.
What are they called that you are refering to?

[Kid Buu]

Orange Bricks.

Actually, if you watch an episode of DBZ on Hulu, I'm pretty sure that is Orange Bricks footage - so you can see for yourself. The Hulu version doesn't have Falcouner score, but the Orange Brick will.

*I dunno if regular Hulu has DBZ, but Plus does.

[90sDBZ]

I'd say it depends on what TV you have. The old Funi singles wouldn't look good on a HD TV but the Remastered sets despite their issues would still look more natural on a HD TV. I personally don't think the Orange Bricks look that bad. A lot of people like to post single-frame shots from them just to show them at their absolute worst but you really don't notice problems in a single-frame when watching. True the colours are saturated to an extent but this has never prevented me from enjoying the show and it does get a lot better in later seasons.

And I've noticed how people always seem to complain about the cropping of the top and bottom yet always fail to mention the fact that you get to see extra stuff at the side to make up for it.

Also the Bricks would be much more shelf-convenient in that they'd take up less space. And they're more affordable and easier to get a hold of. Unless you want Funi's original dub without any re-dubbed dialogue in which case the singles would be the better option.

[Gonstead]

The issue with the cropping though is that you BARELY actually get anything on the sides that would make it worth it. You lose more picture than you gain.

[Gaffer Tape]

It doesn't matter what kind of TV you have, the orange brick season sets are the worst quality of DBZ you can find short of RealPlayer encodes from 1996. Avoid them at all costs. Your picture will be substantially missing footage, and what's left will be an oversaturated mess with disappearing animation lines.

[Gyt Kaliba]

That said, if price point is a concern, I feel it's still worth pointing out that the Season Sets probably are the winner in that regard. Even at full price, which you can easily find them cheaper than that, they're only $20 a pop for just 9 sets. There's no telling what you're going to be paying to get all of the old singles. That and shelf space may be an issue where the sets are the better option too, if you'd rather conserve it.

Okay, semi-defending the Season Sets over. You guys can put away the pitchforks, I just felt like some of the few positives did need brought up as well.

[some_weirdGuy]

The one I have is the same as what's shown here:
https://webshop.cashconverters.com.au/i ... vd-box-set

Not sure if they are around any more, (and being a madman release might mean they were Australia-only), but i must admit it is pretty pricey, i think i went on amazon after buying it, just to compare prices((i found it in a country store while on holiday XD Just the one, never seen it in another store before or since)) and it worked out to cost the same as buying all the seasons seperate, but still, it's neat and convenient.). So if you can find it I definitely recommend, though being 9 seasons it's always going to be pretty expensive no matter what you go for.

I think it's kinda a scam that packs like this are so limited, forcing people to buy anime separately just so they can just up the prices and mess with availability(they certainly don't do it for the consumers benefit, and only a select few series' get box sets i notice). It's a real pain.

This 'DBZ Complete Series Remastered' has audio of:
US soundtrack with Eng, JP soundtrack with Eng, and full japanese, which is nice.

[90sDBZ]

Well I still stand by the view that the orange bricks aren't all that bad. It surely says something that the majority of people who've bought them don't even notice any problem with them and just enjoy them for the Funi dub they watched on Toonami. I'll even put my hand up and admit I didn't notice anything apart from the cropping when I first watched them. The cropping really isn't that big a deal to me personally. It's rare that you miss out on anything important.

[jjgp1112]

It doesn't matter what kind of TV you have, the orange brick season sets are the worst quality of DBZ you can find short of RealPlayer encodes from 1996. Avoid them at all costs. Your picture will be substantially missing footage, and what's left will be an oversaturated mess with disappearing animation lines.

The portion of the sets that have the Faulconer music are signifcantly better looking than the Seasons 1 and 2 releases, and seasons 6-9 don't even have the disappearing line problems.

[Gaffer Tape]

I don't deny that it gets "better," but that's a very relative term when talking about these, and at no point do they fix the biggest problem... the fact that you're missing a huge chunk of the picture! And so even with those "improvements," "seasons" 6-9 still have the worst video quality of any release of those episodes.

[penguintruth]

Any release where you can't hear it is the best one.

[The Tori-bot]

Any release where you can't hear it is the best one.

He's here all week, ladies and germs.

[Dalesy]

Any release where you can't hear it is the best one.

I clicked on this thread knowing this would be here. Well done.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

Manga UK has announced plans to bring out a complete set around Christmas time containing all 9 Orange Bricks (likely based on the Madman one put out a few years ago), but this could potentially set you back a good couple of 100 dollars.

[Famicon3DS]

I would say the singles, VHS or DVD (VHS would probably be cheaper)

[Taku128]

Any release where you can't hear it is the best one.

Fuck man how do you come up with this material?! You are too goddamn funny! Hey, remember that other post you made that other time in that other topic, where you implied something in the dub was shit? I forget which topic it was in but it cracked me the hell up! Never change man, never change!

"Any release where you can't hear it", ahahahahaha! Too good!

[Avenged]

Any release where you can't hear it is the best one.

Yet I am sure you got into DBZ thanks to FUNimation and Faulconer. And it's obvious you secretly prefer FUNimation's version, otherwise you wouldn't go out of your way to insult it every time someone mentions that dub. You're like a little girl who has a crush.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Well, MasterVampire, here are your two options:

1) The Season Sets (nicknamed the "Orange Bricks" their......um......orange.....brick-like.....appearance), of which there are nine.* They have the American broadcast music.** They're also very affordable, and they have the most options when it comes to audio tracks (English dub with American broadcast music, English dub with original Japanse music, and original Japanese audio). The downside is that, visually, they really look...kinda bad. How bad they look depends on who you ask. If you ask me, they look kinda bad. If you ask most people on this forum, they look horrendous. Buying these sets is a "you get what you pay for" kind of deal...but based on what you said you're looking for, these sound like your best bet.

2) The Single DVDs. Before FUNimation was releasing box sets, they were releasing single DVDs with a few episodes per disc. They look better than the Season Sets. The problem is, they're no longer in print, some discs are harder to find than others, there's a *TON* of them, and in the long run it could quite possibly end up costing you more than if you just got the Season Sets. Furthermore, I don't believe all of DBZ was consistently released this way. Finally, on top of that, they don't have as many audio tracks. True, they have the American broadcast music track, which is what you really wanted, but...y'know. Just saiyan.

Technically, you do have more than two options, but these two are really the only two that you would be interested in based on what you're looking for. The other options have different kinds of shortcomings. For example, the DVD box sets known as the "Dragon Boxes" look much better than the Season Sets, but they're much more expensive, no longer in print, and don't have the American broadcast music audio track. Then, there's the Blu-ray sets, which look even better than the Dragon Boxes AND have all three of the possible audio tracks....but FUNimation only released a few of these before cancelling them (most likely due to poor sales). If they had completed the Blu-ray release line, I would have recommended that for you, but....alas....

Then there's the VHS releases. I think all those releases are edited, not uncut. On top of that, you have all the problems with the Single DVDs, but even worse.

*Technically, "seasons" are not accurate when describing how DBZ was divided up, but Season 1 and most of Season 2 don't have Bruce Faulconer's score.

**I use the term "American broadcast music" rather than "Bruce Faulconer's music" because Season 1 and most of Season 2* feature American broadcast music by another composer who wasn't Bruce Faulconer, and you can tell because the music is stylistically very different (and, in my opinion, a good opportunity for you to give the Japanese music a chance). The English dubbing history of DBZ is VERY convoluted and complicated, but basically, Season 1 and most of Season 2 were the last things that FUNimation dubbed with their in-house, Texas-based cast. By the time they went back to redub those episodes (as they had already been dubbed by the Ocean Group voices), FUNimation was no longer working with Bruce Faulconer.