Funimation's 30th anniversary collectible home video release

[PremiumSalt]

Threw together a comparison with the screengrab Ajay posted:

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compa ... n/DWPLGNNX

[simtek34]

Threw together a comparison with the screengrab Ajay posted:

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compa ... n/DWPLGNNX

Wow. That is just bad. Especially when being compared to the unfortunately canceled Level Blu-ray sets. I understand why FUNi has to do a little bit of coping, to hide things like curved edges, tears, tape marks, and whatnot, but when being compared to the Level footage, it shows that FUNi cropped WAY too much of the top and bottom off "to maintain a 4:3 ratio"

[Scsigs]

Yep, legit trash. Quelle surprise.

[samuraix123]

Threw together a comparison with the screengrab Ajay posted:

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compa ... n/DWPLGNNX

Good lord have mercy! I'm not gonna lie, I ordered this new set because I wanted it but Jesus Christ. The difference between the Dragonboxes and any other release is just shocking to me. I have seen comparisons and stuff but man...I'm definitely never getting rid of my Dragonboxes. I doubt there will ever be a release like it again in our lifetimes. I'm thinking about selling my 16x9 sets anyways because I don't need a million releases of Z anymore and I just wanted Funimation's version. I still believe the Dragonboxes are as good as it gets.

[Robo4900]

Comparison time! Not to be outdone by the speed of the above, this one should win by comparing EIGHT distinct sources, all at full 1080p size, including both widescreen and fullscreen Kai, both flavours of Season release from Funi, UUE, DBox, and of course, the main event of Level and 30th anniversary.
Truly, this is the ultimate way to understand precisely why and how the 30th anniversary edition sucks. The way it was meant to be seen, if you will.

Also, as a bonus, here's a comparison of the title cards Funi have put on their releases since 2005.

[PremiumSalt]

Comparison time! Not to be outdone by the speed of the above, this one should win by comparing EIGHT distinct sources, all at full 1080p size, including both widescreen and fullscreen Kai, both flavours of Season release from Funi, UUE, DBox, and of course, the main event of Level and 30th anniversary.

Also, as a bonus, here's a comparison of the title cards Funi have put on their releases since 2005.

Well Jesus dude, didn't need to show me up THAT badly

On a different note I can't decide if the Season or 30th Title Card is worse (also good lord what even IS that UUE one?)

[Robo4900]

Comparison time! Not to be outdone by the speed of the above, this one should win by comparing EIGHT distinct sources, all at full 1080p size, including both widescreen and fullscreen Kai, both flavours of Season release from Funi, UUE, DBox, and of course, the main event of Level and 30th anniversary.

Also, as a bonus, here's a comparison of the title cards Funi have put on their releases since 2005.

Well Jesus dude, didn't need to show me up THAT badly

Hey man, I've got a reputation to uphold.

On a different note I can't decide if the Season or 30th Title Card is worse (also good lord what even IS that UUE one?)

I think the 30th is worse. At least the Season BDs put in the effort of italicising its super-bland font of choice, and putting an outline around the lettering. The 30th edition... It's just so bland and plain.

Funny thing about UUE is it looks just like the font they later used in Kai.

[DHM211]

How much picture you gain/lose with each of Funimation's blu-ray releases (not counting Kai).

[jjgp1112]

Absolute trash. And to make matters worse, it has the least amount of footage of all of them! So much for 4:3

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

How much picture you gain/lose with each of Funimation's blu-ray releases (not counting Kai).

Good lord, they cut off way too much of the image on all four sides. It's the most cramped framing that i have ever seen on a 4:3 presentation and looks simply atrocious.

[DHM211]

How much picture you gain/lose with each of Funimation's blu-ray releases (not counting Kai).

Good lord, they cut off way too much of the image all around. It's the most cramped I've ever seen a 4:3 presentation and looks simply atrocious.

I'm almost positive this is exclusively an episode 1 problem. As soon as someone posts pictures from later episodes I'll put together another comparison.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

How much picture you gain/lose with each of Funimation's blu-ray releases (not counting Kai).

Good lord, they cut off way too much of the image all around. It's the most cramped I've ever seen a 4:3 presentation and looks simply atrocious.

I'm almost positive this is exclusively an episode 1 problem. As soon as someone posts pictures from later episodes I'll put together another comparison.

That's what i've heard, apparently Z episode 1 is hands down the worst looking quality wise out of the entire 291 on FUNi's masters and that's been the case on every release utilizing said multi generation prints. One thing's for sure, i'm definitely holding tight to my Dragon Boxes because it seems FUNi just won't make the effort to put out an acceptable release of the series that isn't utter garbage in terms of the aspect ratio and video quality.

[Robo4900]

Well, if anyone wants to put up a screenshot from later in the series, I'm willing to put together more of my insane comparisons.

If I may, I kindly request a screenshot that was present in the original Saban dub (since that would add at least one more additional source to compare). Perhaps one from the Namek arc?

Say, this one? (I think this is in the Saban dub?) Which is one of the very few frames of the Levels we have from the Namek arc (thanks to the behind-the-scenes feature on Level 1.1).

I believe this is from when the Ginyus were fighting Gohan and Kuririn.

[eledoremassis02]

On the plus, maybe someone can take these and edit a HD cut of the ocean dub in 4x3

[Captain Awesome]

I didn’t think these would ever be any good after the initial reveal but I did hope for a subtle improvement.

But nope they’re irredeemable trash.

[Robo4900]

On the plus, maybe someone can take these and edit a HD cut of the ocean dub in 4x3

No. These sets are terrible. If you want to improve the visuals of the Ocean dubs, use the Dragon Boxes or the Levels. (Or the original DVD singles, assuming you're talking about the Westwood dub)
This set has such terrible visuals, there's probably more visual detail in the Dragon Boxes, even.

I didn’t think these would ever be any good after the initial reveal but I did hope for a subtle improvement.

But nope they’re irredeemable trash.

Yep. Really, we shouldn't be surprised at this kind of shit by now.

[Captain Awesome]

This set has such terrible visuals, there's probably more visual detail in the Dragon Boxes, even.

Probably?

There’s no question - even if you ignore the black crush that Funimation love to do there is significantly more detail in the Dragon Boxes than in these sets. Especially the R2s with their maxed out bitrates.

[Metalwario64]

It seems they zoomed it in so much that they could say "See? We told you the widescreen gained more footage overall!"

[PacificOceanDub]

Got my set this afternoon. First impressions about the packaging are that it’s very pretty in some regards, but also really quite cheap looking in others, particularly the images of characters on the “pages” of the BD books. The outer box is beautiful though, as are the images of Vegeta, Freeza, Cell and Boo on the fronts. The art book is pretty boring and disappointing, I was honestly expecting more out of it. I like the title card font way better than the Season BDs. I almost feel like it looks like the OG DB titles from Toonami

[Tylerman29]

I asked on Reddit and found out I am not the only one who received a wrong tracking number in the E-Mail. Instead I got the Airport Label ID from where it is shipping from. So I am unable to track my package right now, It's still shipping I just can't follow it.

Is anyone else having this problem?

That explains why I havn't been able to track it for the past couple days...the "airport label" number started with DFW so I wonder if it is shipping from Dallas Fort Worth airport(6 hour drive away). Well I doubt funi support will get back to me before it arrives so I guess its just a waiting game. I expect it Monday...hopefully.

As for the comparisons, I'll withhold judgement until I see stuff from later in the series. It already looks better than the season sets which I never bought (outside of season 1) so I will be satisfied either way. I do wanna hear if there is any noticeable difference in the audio quality between these and the seasons.

Also what do the menus look and sound like? Funi had really cool main menu music and visuals for the season blu rays.