Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

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JustAlex1997
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Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by JustAlex1997 » Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:09 pm

While there isn't a huge amount of discussion around them, Dragon Ball Z is getting new 4:3 Blu-ray steelbooks. Using the same remaster found on the 30th Anniversary set, these steelbooks may finally allow people outside of the U.S. another chance at owning Dragon Ball Z in 4:3. And while the internet really tore this remaster apart, it's a no-brainer: if you own the Orange Bricks or 2014 Blu-rays, these are a significant upgrade.

The steelbooks on Funimation's website: https://www.funimation.com/shop/home-vi ... blr-00677/

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:20 pm

That's quite true, and it gets DBZ in 4:3 out there to fans in another form that isn't as part of an expensive limited collector's edition set though of course the video quality leaves much to be desired. Agreed if you're someone who has either of the two fake widescreen releases, and if that bothers you enough to want to upgrade to a version that presents the series in more or less the correct aspect ratio.

Still though, i have all but one of the domestic FUNi Dragon Boxes so there's really not much need for me to get this as i've already got my personal preferred format for watching the series. If i didn't have them however i'd take this release over the Orange Bricks and Season BD's even with the lacking quality of the remastering.
Last edited by SuperSaiyaManZ94 on Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:02 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by MasenkoHA » Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:43 pm

*Stares longingly and sadly at Dragon Ball only having the Blue Bricks DVDs while DBZ is on like its 6th re-release*
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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by KBABZ » Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:43 pm

We already have quite a lengthy discussion on this in the original 30th Anniversary set thread!

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by SuperSaiyanPan » Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:49 pm

I feel like this deserves it's own thread seeing as how it's a different entity.

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by mute_proxy » Tue Aug 18, 2020 1:03 am

There is a huge amount of discussion around them on the 30th anniversary set topic, considering it's most likely the same thing

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=43623

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by Robo4900 » Tue Aug 18, 2020 12:50 pm

FWIW:

These are the same as the 30th anniversary sets, which are the same shit as the godawful season BDs but with a 4:3 frame. As AnimeAjay laid out in both of his videos on the subject:
The frame itself is quite small in the image, the DNR is still ugly as fuck, the colours still suck, and on top of what he says, the dub audio is still awful (crappy redubs, mixing errors, missing lines, no voice filters, the Faulconer track uses some very wrong song placements constantly), the Japanese audio is still shit despite Funi having the broadcast audio... In fact, the audio and subtitles are directly ported from the Season BDs as-is.

... This is NOT a good release.
It is currently the least-shitty widely-available set, however it's very expensive right now, and it's still not very good, so to anyone interested in buying:

1. Do not buy them at full price, they are just not worth it. They'll stay in stock for years, don't worry, you won't miss your chance. And if you have FuniNow, you'll probably be kicking yourself in a few months if you buy these anyway, since this will likely become the new video master on there.
2. Don't buy these steelbooks in the first few weeks. These sets are shit, and shouldn't get any preorders or early sales. In particular, if the early sales are very poor, you may see a price drop.
3. Go into this fully expecting a slightly better release than this to release in about 5 years or so. Anyone who rejects this idea has clearly not looked at Funi's history with re-releasing DBZ at least once every few years with some level of marginal improvement over the last time.
4. If you own any prior releases of DBZ, then honestly, this set is almost certainly not worth upgrading to.
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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by Kendamu » Tue Aug 18, 2020 2:25 pm

Thanks for your opinion!

We're talking about it quite a bit over in another thread if you wanna join us

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=43623
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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by JustAlex1997 » Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:48 pm

Robo4900 wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 12:50 pm FWIW:

These are the same as the 30th anniversary sets, which are the same shit as the godawful season BDs but with a 4:3 frame. As AnimeAjay laid out in both of his videos on the subject:
The frame itself is quite small in the image, the DNR is still ugly as fuck, the colours still suck, and on top of what he says, the dub audio is still awful (crappy redubs, mixing errors, missing lines, no voice filters, the Faulconer track uses some very wrong song placements constantly), the Japanese audio is still shit despite Funi having the broadcast audio... In fact, the audio and subtitles are directly ported from the Season BDs as-is.

... This is NOT a good release.
It is currently the least-shitty widely-available set, however it's very expensive right now, and it's still not very good, so to anyone interested in buying:

1. Do not buy them at full price, they are just not worth it. They'll stay in stock for years, don't worry, you won't miss your chance. And if you have FuniNow, you'll probably be kicking yourself in a few months if you buy these anyway, since this will likely become the new video master on there.
2. Don't buy these steelbooks in the first few weeks. These sets are shit, and shouldn't get any preorders or early sales. In particular, if the early sales are very poor, you may see a price drop.
3. Go into this fully expecting a slightly better release than this to release in about 5 years or so. Anyone who rejects this idea has clearly not looked at Funi's history with re-releasing DBZ at least once every few years with some level of marginal improvement over the last time.
4. If you own any prior releases of DBZ, then honestly, this set is almost certainly not worth upgrading to.
Maybe they'll be around for years, maybe they'll pull a Dragon Box. Maybe they'll be replaced with something better, maybe they'll pull a Level Set. I'm just happy it's in 4:3 and of acceptable video quality (minus some earlier episodes, apparently). As someone with the Orange Bricks, I'll take these any day.

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by MasenkoHA » Tue Aug 18, 2020 4:02 pm

JustAlex1997 wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:48 pm maybe they'll pull a Level Set
Cancel a release before finishing a season thereby wasting the money of the people buying those sets?


Imagine pulling that stunt twice

Oh, wait....

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by Robo4900 » Tue Aug 18, 2020 5:00 pm

JustAlex1997 wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:48 pm Maybe they'll be around for years, maybe they'll pull a Dragon Box. Maybe they'll be replaced with something better, maybe they'll pull a Level Set. I'm just happy it's in 4:3 and of acceptable video quality (minus some earlier episodes, apparently). As someone with the Orange Bricks, I'll take these any day.
If they were going to Dragon Box it, they would have announced it in advance. Just like the 30th sets (and the Dragon Boxes), they would want to maximise sales of the limited numbers.

If they're going to Levels it, then arguably it's better to wait so you don't buy into a doomed product.
MasenkoHA wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 4:02 pm Cancel a release before finishing a season thereby wasting the money of the people buying those sets?


Imagine pulling that stunt twice

Oh, wait....
:lol:
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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by Kendamu » Tue Aug 18, 2020 5:50 pm

Robo4900 wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 5:00 pm
JustAlex1997 wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:48 pm Maybe they'll be around for years, maybe they'll pull a Dragon Box. Maybe they'll be replaced with something better, maybe they'll pull a Level Set. I'm just happy it's in 4:3 and of acceptable video quality (minus some earlier episodes, apparently). As someone with the Orange Bricks, I'll take these any day.
If they were going to Dragon Box it, they would have announced it in advance. Just like the 30th sets (and the Dragon Boxes), they would want to maximise sales of the limited numbers.

If they're going to Levels it, then arguably it's better to wait so you don't buy into a doomed product.
MasenkoHA wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 4:02 pm Cancel a release before finishing a season thereby wasting the money of the people buying those sets?


Imagine pulling that stunt twice

Oh, wait....
:lol:
I think not buying it is kinda how a product gets doomed in the usual sense, but I don't think that was really the case with either DBZ release that was cancelled.

It'll be interesting to see if this one actually gets released to the very end.
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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by KBABZ » Wed Aug 19, 2020 4:53 am

What I find odd is that the sets from Saiyan up to Namek are just automatically available. That's HALF of that portion of the show!

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by TheSeductiveTomato » Wed Aug 19, 2020 12:12 pm

Kendamu wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 5:50 pm
Robo4900 wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 5:00 pm
JustAlex1997 wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:48 pm Maybe they'll be around for years, maybe they'll pull a Dragon Box. Maybe they'll be replaced with something better, maybe they'll pull a Level Set. I'm just happy it's in 4:3 and of acceptable video quality (minus some earlier episodes, apparently). As someone with the Orange Bricks, I'll take these any day.
If they were going to Dragon Box it, they would have announced it in advance. Just like the 30th sets (and the Dragon Boxes), they would want to maximise sales of the limited numbers.

If they're going to Levels it, then arguably it's better to wait so you don't buy into a doomed product.
MasenkoHA wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 4:02 pm Cancel a release before finishing a season thereby wasting the money of the people buying those sets?


Imagine pulling that stunt twice

Oh, wait....
:lol:
I think not buying it is kinda how a product gets doomed in the usual sense, but I don't think that was really the case with either DBZ release that was cancelled.

It'll be interesting to see if this one actually gets released to the very end.
For the Special Uncut edition, the idea of buying a disc with 3 episodes on it every month was kinda played out by then. If you weren't producing seasonal box sets then you just weren't with the times.

As for the Level Sets (which I'm still holding out for to this day) I think people were just sick of buying the series every year. Obviously that hasn't changed, but I wish they'd just do one good proper remaster of Z and move tf on.

I am conflicted. If this does poorly, they'll just say "welp we tried but I guess people don't like 4:3 ratio afterall" and use it as an excuse to give up but at the same time... I reeeeally don't want to reward mediocrity when we know they can do better. But honestly it probably is best to hold off and keep spamming negative reviews until we get what we've been asking for. They've been ignoring us for 13 years, they won't listen until their sales reflect our demands.

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by MasenkoHA » Wed Aug 19, 2020 12:17 pm

They should have released the Ultimate Uncut in 2 season boxsets. Individual dvds with 3 episodes per set was an outdated model by 2006 sure. Buuut stopping your release before even finishing a saga and then rereleasing the first season as a 16 x 9 boxset , thereby making people buy the same show twice is just bad form.

Of course there’s a lot of things Funimation should have done.

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by Robo4900 » Wed Aug 19, 2020 1:09 pm

TheSeductiveTomato wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 12:12 pm
As for the Level Sets (which I'm still holding out for to this day) I think people were just sick of buying the series every year. Obviously that hasn't changed, but I wish they'd just do one good proper remaster of Z and move tf on.
There is no evidence that the Levels didn't sell well, nor have we ever heard any official word that suggests this. Similar to people (completely wrongly) assuming that the Season BDs were cheaper to remaster than the Levels (they actually underwent the same process, in fact), it's something the fans assumed after they were cancelled.

My pet theory has become that the sales were a lot better than Funi thought they would be, so rather than releasing the Levels as a premium product at a super-high price, they thought they should aim it more at a mass market... And then some high-ups started interfering, pushing for heavy DNR and cropping "to appeal to the mass market."
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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by JustAlex1997 » Wed Aug 19, 2020 7:34 pm

TheSeductiveTomato wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 12:12 pm
Kendamu wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 5:50 pm
Robo4900 wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 5:00 pm
If they were going to Dragon Box it, they would have announced it in advance. Just like the 30th sets (and the Dragon Boxes), they would want to maximise sales of the limited numbers.

If they're going to Levels it, then arguably it's better to wait so you don't buy into a doomed product.


:lol:
I think not buying it is kinda how a product gets doomed in the usual sense, but I don't think that was really the case with either DBZ release that was cancelled.

It'll be interesting to see if this one actually gets released to the very end.
For the Special Uncut edition, the idea of buying a disc with 3 episodes on it every month was kinda played out by then. If you weren't producing seasonal box sets then you just weren't with the times.

As for the Level Sets (which I'm still holding out for to this day) I think people were just sick of buying the series every year. Obviously that hasn't changed, but I wish they'd just do one good proper remaster of Z and move tf on.

I am conflicted. If this does poorly, they'll just say "welp we tried but I guess people don't like 4:3 ratio afterall" and use it as an excuse to give up but at the same time... I reeeeally don't want to reward mediocrity when we know they can do better. But honestly it probably is best to hold off and keep spamming negative reviews until we get what we've been asking for. They've been ignoring us for 13 years, they won't listen until their sales reflect our demands.
You're right that they can do better as they have done better. However, from clips on YouTube, the remaster on these steelbooks looks perfectly watchable. People say they're the same as the 2014 Blu-rays, but I just don't see it. Even if Funimation were to continue the Level Sets afterwards, I'd probably be perfectly happy with these.

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by eledoremassis02 » Wed Aug 19, 2020 7:41 pm

JustAlex1997 wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 7:34 pm
TheSeductiveTomato wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 12:12 pm
Kendamu wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 5:50 pm

I think not buying it is kinda how a product gets doomed in the usual sense, but I don't think that was really the case with either DBZ release that was cancelled.

It'll be interesting to see if this one actually gets released to the very end.
For the Special Uncut edition, the idea of buying a disc with 3 episodes on it every month was kinda played out by then. If you weren't producing seasonal box sets then you just weren't with the times.

As for the Level Sets (which I'm still holding out for to this day) I think people were just sick of buying the series every year. Obviously that hasn't changed, but I wish they'd just do one good proper remaster of Z and move tf on.

I am conflicted. If this does poorly, they'll just say "welp we tried but I guess people don't like 4:3 ratio afterall" and use it as an excuse to give up but at the same time... I reeeeally don't want to reward mediocrity when we know they can do better. But honestly it probably is best to hold off and keep spamming negative reviews until we get what we've been asking for. They've been ignoring us for 13 years, they won't listen until their sales reflect our demands.
You're right that they can do better as they have done better. However, from clips on YouTube, the remaster on these steelbooks looks perfectly watchable. People say they're the same as the 2014 Blu-rays, but I just don't see it. Even if Funimation were to continue the Level Sets afterwards, I'd probably be perfectly happy with these.
Going back to the levels (or better) is the only way I'll re-buy the series, and even then I might be too far in the future for me to care. Either way, I'm happy with these, flaws and all.

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by jelleline89 » Wed Aug 19, 2020 8:41 pm

TheSeductiveTomato wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 12:12 pmI am conflicted. If this does poorly, they'll just say "welp we tried but I guess people don't like 4:3 ratio afterall" and use it as an excuse to give up but at the same time... I reeeeally don't want to reward mediocrity when we know they can do better. But honestly it probably is best to hold off and keep spamming negative reviews until we get what we've been asking for. They've been ignoring us for 13 years, they won't listen until their sales reflect our demands.
If you're confident there are enough people unhappy with this release, you shouldn't need to spam negative reviews. Just look at Pokémon Sword & Shield, tons of negative reviews were spammed but that didn't stop them from selling over 17 million copies, which is huge in the scope of Pokémon's sales history.

If this situation is any similar, there's only a vocal minority that refuse to buy these Steelbooks. Casual fans won't care at all, and many fans who held out for a good release may just settle for this. It's better than the Orange Bricks and earlier Blu-rays. Dragon Boxes have their positives, but good luck buying them now. In my opinion, it's very unlikely FUNi will go back and remaster DBZ again. As time goes on, more and more fans who bought the existing releases may be unwilling to double-dip, and it's unclear how many people are actually holding out for this "perfect" release. It could end up being the Level Sets all over again.

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Re: Dragon Ball Z 4:3 Steelbooks

Post by JustAlex1997 » Wed Aug 19, 2020 9:19 pm

jelleline89 wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 8:41 pm
TheSeductiveTomato wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 12:12 pmI am conflicted. If this does poorly, they'll just say "welp we tried but I guess people don't like 4:3 ratio afterall" and use it as an excuse to give up but at the same time... I reeeeally don't want to reward mediocrity when we know they can do better. But honestly it probably is best to hold off and keep spamming negative reviews until we get what we've been asking for. They've been ignoring us for 13 years, they won't listen until their sales reflect our demands.
If you're confident there are enough people unhappy with this release, you shouldn't need to spam negative reviews. Just look at Pokémon Sword & Shield, tons of negative reviews were spammed but that didn't stop them from selling over 17 million copies, which is huge in the scope of Pokémon's sales history.

If this situation is any similar, there's only a vocal minority that refuse to buy these Steelbooks. Casual fans won't care at all, and many fans who held out for a good release may just settle for this. It's better than the Orange Bricks and earlier Blu-rays. Dragon Boxes have their positives, but good luck buying them now. In my opinion, it's very unlikely FUNi will go back and remaster DBZ again. As time goes on, more and more fans who bought the existing releases may be unwilling to double-dip, and it's unclear how many people are actually holding out for this "perfect" release. It could end up being the Level Sets all over again.
Agreed completely.

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