Level 1.1 back...in stock?

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eledoremassis02
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Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by eledoremassis02 » Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:04 pm

According to amazon March 11th. Even tho I already own a copy. Bought one for curiosity's sake.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005E ... UTF8&psc=1

Edit: Maybe if we flood the sales on this (if there was found stockpile or something) it might get the word across

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by KBABZ » Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:11 pm

eledoremassis02 wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:04 pm Bought one for curiosity's sake.
Guess you'll find out if it's a bootleg or not!

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by Metalwario64 » Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:14 pm

KBABZ wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:11 pm
eledoremassis02 wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:04 pm Bought one for curiosity's sake.
Guess you'll find out if it's a bootleg or not!
Well, it's directly from Amazon, so it's highly doubtful, but in the past I have ordered items that were swapped by the buyer and returned, which Amazon then resold as new (a GPU which was swapped with a very old 3DFX one a couple of years ago).

It was clearly opened, but Amazon sold it as new anyway. They should always check the item, then list them in the warehouse deals if they're viable. That left a very sour taste in my mouth.
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eledoremassis02
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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by eledoremassis02 » Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:17 pm

KBABZ wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:11 pm
eledoremassis02 wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 9:04 pm Bought one for curiosity's sake.
Guess you'll find out if it's a bootleg or not!
Ture, and if it's used or bootleg I can easily return it. But it might be a chance to do something (or get it if you missed it). But I'll keep you guys updated (for those that don't end up buying one)

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eledoremassis02
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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by eledoremassis02 » Fri Mar 06, 2020 12:54 am

level 1.2 went back in stock briefly earlier today apparently. Tho I missed that window.

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Thu Mar 12, 2020 9:46 am

Level 1.1 back in stock on March 22nd for anyone interested.

Pleasantly surprised this is the real deal, even if it's just warehouse leftovers.
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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by eledoremassis02 » Thu Mar 12, 2020 10:33 am

Dragon Ball Ireland wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 9:46 am Level 1.1 back in stock on March 22nd for anyone interested.

Pleasantly surprised this is the real deal, even if it's just warehouse leftovers.
Hopefully more 1.2 will become in stock. Very odd but it'd be nice to have both new and sealed :D

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by Robo4900 » Thu Mar 12, 2020 11:56 am

I'm really surprised by this. I thought it was bootlegs, but it sounds like these are legit...?

Warehouse leftovers sounds... Weird. The Levels were nine years ago. This is a really frickin' odd time for them to suddenly pop back up.

Either way, any of you Americans even vaguely interested, I suggest you hurry up and buy them before they sell out; this may be your last chance to get the first 17 episodes of DBZ in a good format for a very, very long time.

And who knows, maybe a lot of demand would lead to 1.2 going back in stock or something? Maybe some unsold, early-run copies of 2.1 would go on sale? (I heard 2.1 had begun duplication before it was canned. IIRC 2.2's master copies had been sent out to be duplicated, but had not actually had any copies produced)
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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by KBABZ » Thu Mar 12, 2020 2:32 pm

Are these region-free?

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by Xell » Thu Mar 12, 2020 2:52 pm

Imagine if this is Funimation quietly testing the waters to see if the demand has increased for these sets.

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by 10gigtriforce » Thu Mar 12, 2020 3:00 pm

Xell wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 2:52 pm Imagine if this is Funimation quietly testing the waters to see if the demand has increased for these sets.
2.1 and supposedly 2.2 are technically ready to go. I cant imagine they are happy about not making any money from their work. but i dunno probably wishful thinking

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by Robo4900 » Thu Mar 12, 2020 3:05 pm

10gigtriforce wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 3:00 pm
Xell wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 2:52 pm Imagine if this is Funimation quietly testing the waters to see if the demand has increased for these sets.
2.1 and supposedly 2.2 are technically ready to go. I cant imagine they are happy about not making any money from their work. but i dunno probably wishful thinking
They did make money from that work. Not only did they use it for the Season BDs, but they actually fixed a few minor errors from the Level cleanup process. But they also had the additional step on the end where they applied the DNR & crop, and they had some people work on doing a shot-by-shot reframing to make the cropping not quite as awful as it was on the Season DVDs.

Not only were the Season BDs almost certainly mastered using the same rigorous processes (just with a couple of extra steps on the end that totally ruin the picture), but they would've almost certainly spent more on producing them than the Levels thanks to the shot-by-shot reframing. And yet, they charged less for more episodes, released them in a far more convenient format, and released them far more quickly.

I don't think Funi ever had any intentions of completing the Levels line.
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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by SpiritBombTriumphant » Thu Mar 12, 2020 9:23 pm

Robo4900 wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 3:05 pmNot only were the Season BDs almost certainly mastered using the same rigorous processes (just with a couple of extra steps on the end that totally ruin the picture), but they would've almost certainly spent more on producing them than the Levels thanks to the shot-by-shot reframing. And yet, they charged less for more episodes, released them in a far more convenient format, and released them far more quickly.
Wrong as usual, Mr. Jones. I've seen you say this a lot the past few months so I need to explain the difference between a frame-by-frame hand-done remaster vs a 100% automated remaster.

I'm sure you've seen it, but in case you haven't here is the video explaining the remastering process used for the level sets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moAy02J2fd8

What you seem to miss is that everything they do there (nearly everything anyway) is done by hand, frame-by-frame. That is time consuming and costly, especially if paying per hour (IDK how they paid for this). The season sets and 30th simply took the film reel and automated everything. The season sets had someone manually go in and reframe it, but that isn't nearly as time consuming or costly as what is explained in the video for the level set remastering.

Doing (nearly) everything by hand for every frame is very costly, so when Funi automates everything it saves that money but we get shit like the 30th and the season sets. Funi would never pay to have a level-style remaster done for the film because it costs so much. They definitely wouldn't pay to have it done only to immediately undo all of it with their automated filters they apply (DNR, color "correction," etc.). For the reframing, they could simply pay someone minimum wage to do it until it's done. That isn't an issue at all.

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by SuperSaiyanPan » Thu Mar 12, 2020 10:21 pm

Oh yeah definitely worth it for 375 $ just for one volume.

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Fri Mar 13, 2020 3:20 am

SuperSaiyanPan wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 10:21 pm Oh yeah definitely worth it for 375 $ just for one volume.
Level 1.1 was $22.40 when it suddenly went back in stock. I bought it at that price, but, yeah, hard to imagine anyone would be willing to pay the current price for a used copy with 17 episodes :shock:
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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by MasenkoHA » Fri Mar 13, 2020 9:48 am

I can’t track of all these different Funi releases.

How do these level sets differ from the orange bricks?

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Fri Mar 13, 2020 9:55 am

KBABZ wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 2:32 pm Are these region-free?
They are Region AB
MasenkoHA wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 9:48 am I can’t track of all these different Funi releases.

How do these level sets differ from the orange bricks?
To sum it up:

1080p vs 480p
4:3 as opposed to 16:9
Light DNR rather than heavy DNR and bleaching
Fake grain instead of no grain
No crop
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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by MasenkoHA » Fri Mar 13, 2020 10:00 am

So better than the orange brick and blue rays but worse than Dragon Box sets and singles?

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by eledoremassis02 » Fri Mar 13, 2020 10:47 am

MasenkoHA wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 10:00 am So better than the orange brick and blue rays but worse than Dragon Box sets and singles?
This will give you the info you need, plus screen caps :D
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dragon-B ... ray/26859/

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Re: Level 1.1 back...in stock?

Post by Robo4900 » Fri Mar 13, 2020 11:10 am

SpiritBombTriumphant wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 9:23 pm The season sets and 30th simply took the film reel and automated everything. The season sets had someone manually go in and reframe it, but that isn't nearly as time consuming or costly as what is explained in the video for the level set remastering.

Doing (nearly) everything by hand for every frame is very costly, so when Funi automates everything it saves that money but we get shit like the 30th and the season sets. Funi would never pay to have a level-style remaster done for the film because it costs so much. They definitely wouldn't pay to have it done only to immediately undo all of it with their automated filters they apply (DNR, color "correction," etc.). For the reframing, they could simply pay someone minimum wage to do it until it's done. That isn't an issue at all.
And I presume you have even a shred of proof behind this?

No?

I do.

Unlike you, I actually did my research, rather than assuming conventional internet wisdom was right (which it often isn't). "The remastering of the Levels was too expensive and the Season BDs/30th sets were cheaper" is purely an invented reasoning people came up with when Funi cancelled the Levels, but it's never been something backed up by any facts.

Let's start with the tape marks cleanup, which you'll also find an example of with this and this. It's been stated by the remastering engineers who've worked on this material that the tape marks are generally the majority of the work, and as we see here, this stuff was cleaned off.

And if you still don't believe me, here's a quote from the horse's mouth; Matt O'Hara, a home video lead, who said this about the remastering of the Season BDs on a remastering feature that's on the Season BDs:
The software tool allows us to go through frame by frame. So we're using a combination of paint tools, which we refer to as "dust and fix". We have 5 engineers working all the time. This is a process that...just that manual process of going through and evaluating and identifying where there may be a frame that needs to be painted over or we need to borrow some information from another frame and correct a scratch or dust or a blemish on the film. That process can take over a week just for one engineer to work on
Sounds very, VERY time-intensive and expensive, no? In fact, Anyone who's seen the Level remastering feature will find this description very familiar. To quote that video:
Christopher Brian wrote:The first filter we use is the dust filter. Because we're working with animated material, the filter's kinda prone to removing stars from the sky, or peoples' pupils, so we have to remove it from specific parts of specific scenes before we send it off to the fix pass.
Brittany Smith wrote:So, after the dust pass, we move on to doing the fix pass, painting out any blemishes, abnormalities, even hairs, blemishes, or bodily fluids... [laughs] Frame by frame, frame by frame, frame by fr-ick-in' frame!
Just basically anything that is abnormal -- tape marks, tape marks, also tape marks, between the scenes.
And it is the most time consuming of all the processes.
The reason the Season BDs and 30th sets look bad isn't because of an automated cleanup process -- the automated cleanup process is why the Season DVDs looked bad, that's why we got the disappearing lines, the cleanup saw linework as dirt -- the Season BDs and 30th sets look bad because Funi applied an atrociously-strong DNR filter with a ridiculously-strong sharpening filter on top of it. The image underneath is well remastered, the cleanup was an expensive, intensive process requiring months of work from five engineers, but the shitty filtering at the end ruined it.

Now...
You compare me to Alex Jones for talking about this, but Alex Jones is most famous for denying truth, and spreading comfortable (often insane), unsubstantiated lies to his viewers, in the face of evidence to the contrary, without providing any kind of rebuttal aside from "No, you're wrong!!". So, you'll find that in this case, YOU sir, are the ones most similar to Alex Jones. You make various unsubstantiated assumptions, and totally ignore evidence of anyone who comes to a different conclusion.

Now get off my case, please, unless you have something of actual substance to say in regards to my findings.
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