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[AnimeMaakuo]

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[Tanooki Kuribo]

Insert "there's a site too" joke here.

http://www.daizex.com/general/reviews/d ... bz_1.shtml

Maybe it's just me but, I don't think it's worth pointing out.

[Pokewhiz7]

The US Dragon Boxes also have a slightly lower bit rate just because they added a dub track.

[AnimeMaakuo]

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[jjgp1112]

The US Dragon Boxes also have a slightly lower bit rate just because they added a dub track.

...and because they have 1 episode more per disc than the Japanese sets.

[Zestanor]

But we've seen that Toei's DVD encoders hadn't the slightest clue of what they were doing, because they encoded the video and audio at the max bit-rate possible. (448kbps for mono? come on!) Any degradation of video and audio quality came from the transfer on digibetas (that's how it was transferred, right?), not from lowered bit-rate. And the degradation is almost nonexistent. There are a few instances when you can see that the R2s are a tiny hair (literally, you can only tell the difference on very fine hairs) sharper.

[Puto]

...because they encoded the video and audio at the max bit-rate possible.

That's not a bad thing. If you have the space, you might as well use it.

[KiddoCabbusses]

...because they encoded the video and audio at the max bit-rate possible.

That's not a bad thing. If you have the space, you might as well use it.

For video, I can understand.

For their crummy audio masters, though? They didn't have to be FAUX-STEREO. That was entirely a waste of disc space.

[Krycek7o2]

...because they encoded the video and audio at the max bit-rate possible.

That's not a bad thing. If you have the space, you might as well use it.

For video, I can understand.

For their crummy audio masters, though? They didn't have to be FAUX-STEREO. That was entirely a waste of disc space.

Calm down, its just a cartoon in the end. Toei and Pony wanted near lossless audio on their discs. I much prefer that than the dub on the American sets.

[VegettoEX]

There's no need to tell someone to "calm down". I don't see exaggerated posts in all-caps with plots for mass destruction.

"Calm down, it's just a cartoon" is likely the most bullshit response to anything ever. Yeah, we could say that in response to just about any conversation on this entire forum... but why would we? We're all here to have a good time with the series and analyze every little nook and cranny of it.

[KiddoCabbusses]

Calm down, its just a cartoon in the end. Toei and Pony wanted near lossless audio on their discs. I much prefer that than the dub on the American sets.

(I'm not necessarily flipping out or anything; I just tend to use caps to empathize a point. But yeah, on to the actual reply)

If Toei wanted lossless audio, they would've had better audio masters. Zing-a-ding!
And besides that point, that doesn't explain the faux-stereo; does that do anything at all for the audio besides redundancy? While I don't have any JP DBoxes, I have heard that the US DBoxes JP Mono track doesn't sound much different quality-wise from the JP ones, and yet uses up a lot less space simply because it's true mono, rather than the faux-stereo the JP DBoxes have.

[GizmoKSX]

As long as the constant bit rate audio wasn't getting in the way of the variable bit rate video (and seeing as the Dragon Boxes are lauded for great video quality, I'd say it wasn't), there's no harm in maxing it out. As for the US release, assuming a decent encoder, 96 kbps is fine for mono. It would have been nice if it was mastered just a little bit louder, but it's a very minor inconvenience to turn the volume up a tad for Dragon Boxes. It's interesting to note, but it's no problem in either case.

As for picture comparison, when the third FUNi DBox was released, Metalwario64 found macroblocking in fast-paced scenes in the SSJ Goku vs. Freeza fight: http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopi ... &start=221
Whereas the shot of Nappa in the first set was macroblocked in both R1 and R2 sets, Krycek7o2 confirmed that the distortion was less prominent or nonexistant in the Japanese sets, depending on the shots: http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopi ... &start=435 (The latter screencaps aren't available anymore, so either take our discussion as proof or have someone reupload those shots from the Japanese DBox.)

[Zestanor]

...Metalwario64 found macroblocking in fast-paced scenes in the SSJ Goku vs. Freeza fight: http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopi ... &start=221... Krycek7o2 confirmed that the distortion was less prominent or nonexistent in the Japanese sets, depending on the shots: http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopi ... &start=435...

You know, yesterday I had the urge to watch the episodes where Shen Long and Polunga do their thing and revive and teleport everyone to earth. Episode 102 was on this set. I had not read your post when I watched it, and therefore was not looking for macro-blocking during that scene. And I was watching on my computer too, so any errors should have been more obvious. I did not notice it in this case. I guess that goes to show that it was onscreen for such a short time (3-4 frames is an 8th to a 6th of a second.) Or maybe I wasn't paying attention enough, because the entire 5 minute battle is made up of similar flying-punching scenes.

If you were to freeze-frame on that frame on a CRT set, would the macro-blocking be noticeable?

[GizmoKSX]

It is noticeable on a CRT set (which is how I was watching the show when I found that Nappa shot from the first set), but it flies by very quickly. Unlike that still-frame Nappa shot—where it's obvious when the picture breaks up—it's less jarring during the fast-paced action of the Goku vs. Freeza fight, so it's understandable (and ideal for normal viewing) that you'd miss if you weren't looking for it.