When will Toei release all of DB again but in an HD format?

[Amiable-Akuma]

So my purist nature (just the colors being completely inaccurate is enough for me to get pissed off) and recent events have taught me that I will NEVER, and I mean "NEVER!" - see a satisfying release of the Dragon Ball property here in the US. But also, rather, that I should focus all my energy into worshipping and following what Toei does instead.

I swear to me it's like "pure quality and clarity" VS the most ignorant, trashy, consumer-unfriendly ****ing **** ever.

So with that thought in mind, and even though I already own some Dragon Boxes - I'm also thinking that I will start collecting all the single releases soon as well. Call me crazy, but I feel like this sort of move is the sanest, most-healthy, and most-satisfying thing a serious DB fan/collector can do right now.

However, I don't want to do this if there is any chance in hell that Toei will be re-releasing everything DB in a high-def format anytime soon. And what I mean by "anytime soon" is that they wouldn't do it for at least six years.

Now to clear up a misconception - anime/animation does absolutely look better and is worth the upgrade - on a high-def format. Ghost in the Shell: Innocence is out now on Blu-ray in Japan - and trust me, when I say, it blows the DVD away by a mile. It's gorgeous. A lot of people want to deny this because anime already upscales much better than live-action does on our current, best SD DVD upcoverter players out there. But so what? The former is true and pretty soon people will realize this. The revolution will come and that will be that. At the very least HD does wonders for linework clarity/resolution and color depth - at the very best it will make things like the background art of Ghibli films look like they are alive.

Now a lot of what I just said depends on how a company has a anime film property mastered, telecined, stored, and what have you. For many companies they will have to pay more money to have the show properly re-mastered from the film negative to 1080p then they did to actually create the entire show in the first place. But a lot of the larger companies have already done or are doing this. And costs will come down.

ANYWAY though, to get back to my original question, - for those who want to venture a guess/opinion - what do you think is up with Toei, their re-issue time-table, and desire/ability to get the show on to HD disc?

Thanks...

[MajinVejitaXV]

ANYWAY though, to get back to my original question, - for those who want to venture a guess/opinion - what do you think is up with Toei, their re-issue time-table, and desire/ability to get the show on to HD disc?

Thanks...

I think Toei's plan at the moment is to get shows out in SD format (DVD). I wouldn't expect DragonBall/Z/GT to hit an HD format until 5 years from now or so, when the market share is much greater and they're exhausted their catalogue in SD. Keep in mind also that they want to get the single discs out of the DragonBall trilogy, which will probably take another 2 years or so.

The real question is, are Toei's current masters in an HD format?

-Corey

[Amiable-Akuma]

The real question is, are Toei's current masters in an HD format? -Corey

You know, obviously I'm no expert on Toei's business dealings but from analyzing everything they've done so far and hearing from others on forums that followed Toei's Dragon Box projects even closer than I did at the time - the general consensus by hardcore DB/HD fans seems to be that the answer to that question is a firm: "No, they are NOT."

Most agree and would bet on the fact that what Toei did this last round was actually obtain the most pristine and accurate versions of the show possible - however, they did that to masters created and stored for 480p.

Now, assuming that's true - here's where my tech knowledge becomes funny. They did all that frame-by-frame restoration of the original negative. Probably at exhorbitant cost unless they had some great in-house re-mastering crew/unit. So if they did all that - only to have created 480 masters tapes with them - what does that mean?

Does that mean they have to go back to to original negative and go through all that clean-up hell again to get it in a 1080p resolution? Or are they also storing everything on huge digital files within hard-drives that can be mastered to any resolution or what? Who knows?

I think Toei's plan at the moment is to get shows out in SD format (DVD). I wouldn't expect DragonBall/Z/GT to hit an HD format until 5 years from now or so, when the market share is much greater and they're exhausted their catalogue in SD. Keep in mind also that they want to get the single discs out of the DragonBall trilogy, which will probably take another 2 years or so.

Hmm, right. So I guess we can say that only a miracle from Jesus himself would allow us seeing Toei release DB in HD within 2 years. But that probably even 5 years is the minimum with which we should really expect much of anything at all. And then honestly, you can probably add another 3-5 years more before anything is certain or seems available in serious volumes.

Sounds good to me. Seems that it sort of means that I can watch all 5 of the Dragon-Boxes through at least 3 times before I need to even think about buying a re-issue again. And that's if I actually only watch everything once every two years.

Pretty cool, IYAM...

[Acid_Reign]

Much as a Toei DBZ HD set would be awesome, I really hope they don't do one. I just spent a ton of money on the SDs! And it's only one half of one of the three series (excluding the movies). I don't want to be re-buying Dragon Ball for the rest of my life here...

[ect5150]

ANYWAY though, to get back to my original question, - for those who want to venture a guess/opinion - what do you think is up with Toei, their re-issue time-table, and desire/ability to get the show on to HD disc?

How long did it take them to get DBZ on DVD after DVD came out? Wasn't 2003 when the first volume of the DragonBox released? I think DVDs started coming out in '96 (at least in the US), but then DVD was the only format.

Now you may want to wait until a leader has emerged (Blu-Ray or HD-DVD) then add 5+ years. I think it'll be some time before they do it. I really plan on just having the series to watch on my PC... so DVDs are fine with me (although I'm not ever ruling out purchasing HD in the future, but I would have to have lots of extra change to justify owning the series twice.

[ect5150]

Another way to look at it is this... they wouldn't release it until all of the DragonBall singles are released for all series I bet. So, if they release 3 discs a month, how many months is it until they release all of DB, then DBGT, then the Movies (and maybe an extra month inbetween series and an extra one for the TV specials?). You get the idea...

26 volumes of DB starting in April will last for about 9 month, then another 4 months of GT, then another 3 months for the Movies & TV Specials (assuming they release the TV Specials and Movies) ... then I'd say place in a month of releasing nothing like they did between DBZ and DB (DB starts getting released in April, but Z ends in Feb... whats going in march? nothing?).

9 + 1 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 1 = 19 Months from April. That's like November of 2008 or something ? I don't think they do it that early, but if the decision has been made to release it on HD in the future already, I don't think it would make sense for them to even announce it before then.

[Amiable-Akuma]

Thanks for your replies - that was sort of what I was looking to hear. Yeah, we're looking at several years, if ever.

You know, I was talking the subject of semi-rare/small market titles (like anime, Asian action movies, less popular TV shows, etc) coming to HD media over with several techie friends and it seems the consensus is - don't expect anything good. The costs for entering the HD market are prohibitive and there are no guarantees that even if something does get released that it won't have been re-liscensed or re-packaged/edited into something you don't prefer over your regular DVD version anyway.

The problem is often I turn in to a dreamer, selling all my SD stuff - believing that HD everything is the only true/perfect answer. That I shouldn't have to settle for less as a home theater nut who's already invested so much $ in high quality stuff.

And then, I swear, I often forget that the popularity of DVD as a format - may (probably will!?) never be replicated for a physical format/in general - for perhaps ever. I think even if the format war was over tomorrow and HD started catching on more and more easily - even the best that we could hope for then maybe is that in a few years after that point we get maybe the Studio Ghibli films on HD and some of the US studios release more semi-altered Asian films.

The days where there are 3 different boxsets out there for stuff like The Better Tomorrow Trilogy, Fist of the Northstar, old GI Joe cartoons, and less popular sitcoms like Wings are probably dying right now. If they ever really existed.

Guess I better start buying up those Premier Asia boxsets and stuff before they are so out of print that they are nothing more than a memory.

A popular video-on-demand system may come along and make it easier/cheaper for studios to get some of their rarer stuff to us. But then again us "purists" may not even like the way that product is delivered/packaged. And again, that's if a VoD system can even be properly popularized/streamlined at all - moreover, still assuming that something else unforeseen won't change everything first.

So I guess the moral of the story is: Buy the content you know you will always love ASAP. Do so especially if said content is in a small market genre. And do so especially if it's the best version of that small market title that you've ever seen.

Makes sense!

[Acid_Reign]

The HD movement is a very exciting one. As an early adopter, I can easily see it becoming the standard in the not-too-distant future, and I can definitely identify with the indulgence of upgrading your home theater and collection.

But the format still has a long way to go. I'd say that plain ol' DVD still has a lot of fight left in it. HD still needs to grow its wings. As of now we haven't perfected the bandwidth issues that are associated with what most people call "True HD" (1080p/60fps). Blu-ray is supposed to be able to output at that size and framerate, but so far no consumer TV set is capable of it, and no camera can record it.

There are other high-definition formats to use in the meantime, but I think that until the full spectrum of it is supported it'd be safer to wait some things out. Especially when thinking about upgrading your entire collection. Red-laser DVDs still produce fantastic pictures, and seeing as there will always be a new format being pushed once you're done re-collecting, I'd say to just enjoy them as they are now. (With the exception of FUNi sets :P)

[Tenken]

IF this comes out, it will probably be on Blu Ray. BR is kicking HD-DVD's royal ass in japan.

[Emerald]

Damn, I was a step from ordering single DVD's of DBZ from Amazon, but I thought to myself: "wait a moment, maybe I will better wait for the DB on HD DVD / Blu-Ray ?" And I start thinking that it would be awesome if Toei (in 5-10 years) would done a release like that. I don't really care about even better quality than Dragon Box (it just don't have to be any better in my opinion). But to get all the DB, DBZ and Movies on 10-15 Disks would be so much better then getting it on ~80 DVD's. And I think that the price would be a little lower then it is now.
The best what they could do (in my opinion) would be to do a huge box with all the DB series. It would be the same as Dragon Box but on 10-15 Disks. I would be thrilled to get something like that. And I think I will wait for this to happen. If, after lets say 2 years after the last single DVD will be released they won't say anything about it (and say that they definitly won't do it in future) I will probably start collecting single releases. But after all I live in hope to get all the series on HD / Blu Ray format.

Oh and maybe I will send an e-mail to Toei (if I will find one ) and ask them if this is possible.

[ect5150]

Damn, I was a step from ordering single DVD's of DBZ from Amazon, but I thought to myself: "wait a moment, maybe I will better wait for the DB on HD DVD / Blu-Ray ?" And I start thinking that it would be awesome if Toei (in 5-10 years) would done a release like that. I don't really care about even better quality than Dragon Box (it just don't have to be any better in my opinion). But to get all the DB, DBZ and Movies on 10-15 Disks would be so much better then getting it on ~80 DVD's. And I think that the price would be a little lower then it is now.
The best what they could do (in my opinion) would be to do a huge box with all the DB series. It would be the same as Dragon Box but on 10-15 Disks. I would be thrilled to get something like that. And I think I will wait for this to happen. If, after lets say 2 years after the last single DVD will be released they won't say anything about it (and say that they definitly won't do it in future) I will probably start collecting single releases. But after all I live in hope to get all the series on HD / Blu Ray format.

Keep in mind that videos shown in HD (or on BluRay) are done at a higher resolution than current DVDs. So even though the HD formats have more capacity, the episodes take up more space as well. I highly doubt you'd see everything on 10 discs. Hell, just DBZ is 291 eps, so if its 10 discs, that's ~29 episodes per disc. If each episode is roughly 23 minutes that's just over 11 hours of HD video on a single disc alone.

The thing to do is to look at how full the current BluRay and HD-DVD discs currently are. If they are filling the discs by placing the standard 2-3 hour movies on there, don't bet on a lower disc count. (I will lsay I have no idea how much space is being used on the current discs, if it turns out only a fraction of it is being used, then its possible).