Discussion regarding the entirety of the franchise in a general (meta) sense, including such aspects as: production, trends, merchandise, fan culture, and more.
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laserkid
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by laserkid » Tue Dec 13, 2016 2:46 am
TheGreatness25 wrote:"Watch this, read that, go here, do that." The OP Aid that he bought the Blu-ray season sets. He's set. There's no reason to do anything, he has the series. To whoever worsted that he get the singles -- why? For 4:3? Getting each one of them just mouthy cost as much as the Dragon Box for way worse quality.
Are the singles really that expensive second hand? I may have to attempt to sell mine now. >.<
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thejeremymenace
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by thejeremymenace » Tue Dec 13, 2016 1:01 pm
I think folks really overestimate the value of the DVD singles. People often sell them bundled as sagas, relatively cheaply.
What's expensive are the artboxes, particularly the Cell Games box and the Saiyaman one. The Pioneer boxes can be pricey if they're in good condition too.
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Robo4900
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by Robo4900 » Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:57 am
People often sell the DVD singles for far beyond their actual worth, thus artificially inflating the value for people who aren't in the know, and contributing to the aforementioned overestimation of the single DVDs' value. In truth, you could probably buy episodes 68 onwards from the singles, have the 4:3 frame of the Dragon Box, the Japanese audio and subtitles of the Dragon Box, and pay a fraction of the price. Video quality won't be as nice(Old digibeta transfer vs. remastered original film, and you'd get some encoding issues that most HDTVs would probably smooth over anyway), but it'll be good enough. Although the dub will have some oddities -- Half of episode 67 will be inserted into #68, it'll be the OG Funi dub, you'll have to use the Faulconer soundtrack, and the PAL DVDs of the Ginyu saga only contain the dub; no Japanese/uncut option.
Honestly, if you're only going to be watching the Japanese track with subtitles, the singles would work just fine to fill in any gaps from episode 68 onwards where you don't have Dragon Boxes.
The point of Dragon Ball is to enjoy it. Never lose sight of that.
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TheGreatness25
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by TheGreatness25 » Fri Dec 16, 2016 2:01 am
Seriously, why the overhyped of the singles? The only benefit of having the 4:3 format, even though it's still cropped (just all around instead of top and bottom). Yes, it's not as cropped (vertically) as the Blu-rays, but seriously. The picture quality itself is so poor that it's really hard for me to tell someone to get them because they're huge space wasters.
If you're a dub fan and want to hear the original "Season 3" dub out of nostalgia, knock yourself out. Mind you, this is the opinion of someone who actually bought the majority of the singles (I have all of them but already had some before) as a response to the orange bricks. But the Blu-rays are pretty damn good.
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clutchins
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by clutchins » Fri Dec 16, 2016 2:44 am
The big benefit of the singles is being a somewhat cheaper solution to watching most of the series in Japanese with a 4:3 picture, especially coupled with the Level Sets. You'd only need the first two Dragon Box sets at that point, although that is a big "only" for those without the cash for them. Still, it might be better than buying all 7 Dragon Boxes. Herms even used the singles to do his big series tweeting thing. I would recommend them over the Orange Bricks or Season Blu-rays for fans of the Japanese version of the show.
NC's resident Dragon Ball superfan
Episode Guides: [ DB | DBZ Uncut | DBZ Edited | DBGT | Movies/Specials | Kai ]
Kamiccolo9 wrote:JacobYBM wrote: Original Thread Topic wrote:Did Dragon Ball ever motivate you to exercise?
No, why would it? It's fiction. The strength of the characters is not possible to reach in reality.
I mean, you're pretty open about looking at cartoon porn. Why would you do that? It's fiction. The proportions of these women are not possible to reach in reality.
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Jinzoningen MULE
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by Jinzoningen MULE » Fri Dec 16, 2016 3:08 am
How can you recommend the singles after seeing the absurd levels of macro-blocking? If you ask me, that makes them far worse than even the bricks. Also, the singles aren't usually available from anywhere other than the online used market, meaning that no matter how cheap, you're going to end up paying a ton in shipping after all is said and done. I get that people want 4:3, but swallowing such an awful release is not the way to go about it.
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clutchins
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by clutchins » Fri Dec 16, 2016 4:26 am
Not everyone is going to be disappointed by macro blocking. I agree that it is undesirable, but someone else that is neither you nor me may not even care. And I'll argue that watching a macroblocked, original 4:3 aspect ratio picture is better than watching a grossly oversaturated, tiltscanned 16:9 picture any day of the week.
As for buying the darn things, your mileage may vary. For some, the price point is the ultimate deciding factor and they will pick the orange bricks over all else because of its infamous cheapness. For anybody that is willing to look beyond just price point, I'll recommend them any 4:3 release series configuration that works.
At the end of the day, it's only ever just a matter of opinion. And you and I will have to agree to disagree.

NC's resident Dragon Ball superfan
Episode Guides: [ DB | DBZ Uncut | DBZ Edited | DBGT | Movies/Specials | Kai ]
Kamiccolo9 wrote:JacobYBM wrote: Original Thread Topic wrote:Did Dragon Ball ever motivate you to exercise?
No, why would it? It's fiction. The strength of the characters is not possible to reach in reality.
I mean, you're pretty open about looking at cartoon porn. Why would you do that? It's fiction. The proportions of these women are not possible to reach in reality.
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Jinzoningen MULE
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by Jinzoningen MULE » Fri Dec 16, 2016 4:48 am
You do realize that Funimation over-saturated and edge-enhanced the singles too, right? Also, have you actually owned the singles? Because I don't think you get how bad the encoding actually is. At best, it looks like an okayish DVD. At worst, it looks like a 240p compression from an old vhs tape with a bit rate about the size of my toe-nail, with the contrast cranked up, occasional zooming, and big squares flickering so profusely you'll think it's trying to talk to you.
Maybe I exaggerated a bit there, but you get the point. You can disagree all you want, I won't take that away from you, but to say that it's better just because it's uncropped in a series with focus largely in the center anyway is misguided. The people who take your recommendation will likely be disappointed. Besides, the JP DBoxes aren't that expensive, and they're easy enough to sync up to subtitles after a swift mkv conversion, so why not go the extra quarter mile to actually get good results?
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laserkid
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by laserkid » Fri Dec 16, 2016 3:41 pm
As someone who both owns the entire US Dragon Box release, the entire singles release, and used to own the first two orange bricks, while the singles DEFINITELY have some quality issues (Particularly in the Cell/Gohan fight with the destruction of Cell being way too hard to see with the digital artifact hell going on), they are absolutely leagues better than the orange bricks which make the picture so saturated that you can't even see the line work half the time.
I can't speak for the Blurays, and I REALLY hope they're better, but the orange bricks are the worst way to watch DBZ.
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Footlong Shoe
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by Footlong Shoe » Fri Dec 16, 2016 4:08 pm
laserkid wrote:they are absolutely leagues better than the orange bricks which make the picture so saturated that you can't even see the line work half the time.
I see people say this a lot so I can't help but point out that, while the saturation is awful, it has nothing to do with that. The reason lines disappear is because of the noise reduction filter they used which removed any black lines that only appear for a frame at a time. That's why the lines always disappear whenever they use the earthquake effect. The only disappearing details are the ones in those types of scenes.
Don't get me wrong, those DVDs are still awful and the Blu-rays are
much better, even if it's solely because they don't have that problem.
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laserkid
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by laserkid » Fri Dec 16, 2016 4:25 pm
I appreciate the correction on what causes that issue as it's good to know, so thank you on that end.
It doesn't change my mind that it's the worst way to see the show given that it's still a huge quality problem though.
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Jinzoningen MULE
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by Jinzoningen MULE » Fri Dec 16, 2016 4:27 pm
laserkid wrote:I can't speak for the Blurays, and I REALLY hope they're better, but the orange bricks are the worst way to watch DBZ.
They're usually better, although there are occasions when they brighten or over-saturate it to hell, even worse than the OB's. That's pretty rare though, I'd still recommend the Blu-ray Seasons.
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shenron002
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by shenron002 » Fri Dec 16, 2016 7:46 pm
"WE GOTTA POWER"
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hellobooboo14
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by hellobooboo14 » Fri Dec 16, 2016 11:15 pm
Does anyone know if they're going to release blu-ray version for GT? I have the blu-ray's for Kai and Z (FUNImination)
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Jinzoningen MULE
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by Jinzoningen MULE » Fri Dec 16, 2016 11:25 pm
hellobooboo14 wrote:Does anyone know if they're going to release blu-ray version for GT? I have the blu-ray's for Kai and Z (FUNImination)
The only reason they made Blu-ray's for Z is because they knew everyone would eat them up. In reality, the upscale process that they use is minuscule, and a Blu-ray release would be pointless for Funi and fans alike. The only reason Funi profits more from the DBZ Blu-rays is the superior remastering job, combined with name recognition. So no, there will probably never be a Blu-ray version for DB or GT. Not unless Toei were to give them the Kai treatment, which would be especially pointless for GT.
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hellobooboo14
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by hellobooboo14 » Fri Dec 16, 2016 11:31 pm
Damn shame, the second half of GT was actually quite good.
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Cipher
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by Cipher » Fri Dec 16, 2016 11:35 pm
If I hadn't gotten FUNimation's Dragon Boxes as they came out, I'd absolutely own the Blu-Rays now as an acceptable, if flawed, release. I love this series to death, but it isn't worth $600 just to own the nicest DVDs.
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Jinzoningen MULE
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by Jinzoningen MULE » Fri Dec 16, 2016 11:46 pm
Cipher wrote:If I hadn't gotten FUNimation's Dragon Boxes as they came out, I'd absolutely own the Blu-Rays now as an acceptable, if flawed, release. I love this series to death, but it isn't worth $600 just to own the nicest DVDs.
It really is a shame, too. Many of us fans weren't around when the Boxes were released, we never had a chance. Also, you could easily spend over $600 on the whole nowadays. The collectors are buying them all up, soon it'll be impossible to get them legally.
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Bansho64
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by Bansho64 » Fri Dec 16, 2016 11:58 pm
Wait, it took you
FIVE YEARS!!!!! And from the look of it, your efforts were definitely worth it. I gotta give you some props man, because that must've taken some effort

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laserkid
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by laserkid » Sat Dec 17, 2016 2:08 am
Jinzoningen MULE wrote:Cipher wrote:If I hadn't gotten FUNimation's Dragon Boxes as they came out, I'd absolutely own the Blu-Rays now as an acceptable, if flawed, release. I love this series to death, but it isn't worth $600 just to own the nicest DVDs.
It really is a shame, too. Many of us fans weren't around when the Boxes were released, we never had a chance. Also, you could easily spend over $600 on the whole nowadays. The collectors are buying them all up, soon it'll be impossible to get them legally.
I know that's totally true so I don't want to step on that, but damn saying that makes me feel old. The US Dragon Boxes were basically the last big thing for me before Super came out as far as Dragon Ball goes.

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