A very important 10 year anniversary just passed (and your opinion on it)

[GokuDaimao]

I don't own the set but this clip from YouTube user Enigmo of the orange bricks back in 2012 (before the Blu-rays were out) looks very clean and colors look well intact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBfbFgAR91Y

[Gaffer Tape]

I don't even know what to say about this thread anymore. I mean... all that stuff over the past few pages. Well, okay, I admit I found it very amusing, as bad as I felt for those involved. =P

But honestly, I just can't get over how young the demographic on these boards seems to be skewing (get off my lawn!), and, as a result, just how positive the reception to the orange bricks are. It should actually be really disheartening for anybody hoping for a quality DBZ release to see the glowing legacy of the worst release the series has ever gotten. Honestly, I think the exchange below sums it up best for me:

The Orange Bricks were very much a necessary evil. The quality of the release itself was pretty terrible in some areas, but it was still very much watchable. It was also the most convenient way to access the series for many original fans and newcomers to the show. And as a fan of Dragon Ball in the UK, it was really the only way to watch the show from beginning to end, with the original score, and at a reasonable price.

The thing is, though, the "evil" parts weren't necessary at all.

Forty episodes of Dragon Ball Z and a low price point were the only elements necessary to ensure the sets flew off the shelves.

Even if they were worried about the grainy second or third generations masters they'd been using, a much lighter hand on the DVNR settings and maintaining the 4:3 aspect ratio would have done just fine.

The legacy of the bricks should be all the terrible things they got wrong... because there was no reason for them to be that way. They divided an already fractured fandom and ensured those same mistakes would be propagated for years to come. It's really very sad. As Cipher says, all they needed was the price point and episode count. That's all it needed to be revolutionary and game changing. The fact that it had to run it through a meat grinder in the process was just so pointless, so unnecessarily divisive. It's just so depressing. That's what this anniversary is to me: depressing.

These are still the standards to which DBZ is held for home video release. After ten years, this is the standard. This is what we're stuck with. That should make everybody sad.

[MarcBigleague]

I don't even know what to say about this thread anymore. I mean... all that stuff over the past few pages. Well, okay, I admit I found it very amusing, as bad as I felt for those involved. =P

But honestly, I just can't get over how young the demographic on these boards seems to be skewing (get off my lawn!), and, as a result, just how positive the reception to the orange bricks are. It should actually be really disheartening for anybody hoping for a quality DBZ release to see the glowing legacy of the worst release the series has ever gotten. Honestly, I think the exchange below sums it up best for me:

Who said they like the orange bricks? xD

[Vorige Waffe]

Came to pop in here and Christ yet another thread ruined by users that cannot understand how the English language works.

I don't even know what to say about this thread anymore. I mean... all that stuff over the past few pages. Well, okay, I admit I found it very amusing, as bad as I felt for those involved. =P

But honestly, I just can't get over how young the demographic on these boards seems to be skewing

If the only said younger demographic actually did some research and didn't throw around how much they don't know as absolute truth then run their mouths of at people who know what their talking about.

I don't own the set but this clip from YouTube user Enigmo of the orange bricks back in 2012 (before the Blu-rays were out) looks very clean and colors look well intact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBfbFgAR91Y

Looks disgusting as per usual (and I'm not just talking about it being from the bricks themselves), I'd advise staying away from that jackass's garbage.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

These are still the standards to which DBZ is held for home video release. After ten years, this is the standard. This is what we're stuck with. That should make everybody sad.

I probably would be upset if I could be bothered to care anymore, but I can't even make myself. I've been an active fan for a long time, a fairly informed one for a year or two. I even went out of my way to start buying some of the better releases. However, once I accumulated a good bit, I realized that I wasn't having any more fun watching them than I did the worse releases.

Would I like things to be better? Yeah, but I don't actively care enough to be upset about it. The Orange Bricks were and are affordable and watchable, and even though I poke fun, even though I know they aren't good by any stretch, I just can't make myself care.

I don't own the set but this clip from YouTube user Enigmo of the orange bricks back in 2012 (before the Blu-rays were out) looks very clean and colors look well intact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBfbFgAR91Y

It's not horrible or anything, but it's not particularly impressive.

[MarcBigleague]

Came to pop in here and Christ yet another thread ruined by most likely underage users that cannot understand how the English language works.

I don't own the set but this clip from YouTube user Enigmo of the orange bricks back in 2012 (before the Blu-rays were out) looks very clean and colors look well intact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBfbFgAR91Y

Looks disgusting as per usual (and I'm not just talking about it being from the bricks themselves), I'd advise staying away from that jackass's garbage.

OMG why? What did he do? I just checked his channel and there's a video with crystal clear audio on his channel for the Jpn dub. But I won't link in case we go off topic.

The orange bricks are bad I agree but that video by Goku Daimao doesn't look as bad as how I remember the orange bricks...weird. I don't own the orange bricks either so can't check that episode. Oh well we have Dragon Box for now xD

[theoriginalbilis]

I still feel the audio options make them a worthwhile purchase if someone wants to own the entire series with the Japanese audio affordably.

But yeah, they look like crap (especially on a larger TV.)

Luckily, the Blu-Rays are at least a lil' better, eh?

[Vorige Waffe]

Came to pop in here and Christ yet another thread ruined by most likely underage users that cannot understand how the English language works.

I don't own the set but this clip from YouTube user Enigmo of the orange bricks back in 2012 (before the Blu-rays were out) looks very clean and colors look well intact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBfbFgAR91Y

Looks disgusting as per usual (and I'm not just talking about it being from the bricks themselves), I'd advise staying away from that jackass's garbage.

OMG why? What did he do? I just checked his channel and there's a video with crystal clear audio on his channel for the Jpn dub. But I won't link in case we go off topic.

The orange bricks are bad I agree but that video by Goku Daimao doesn't look as bad as how I remember the orange bricks...weird. I don't own the orange bricks either so can't check that episode. Oh well we have Dragon Box for now xD

Long story short: Enigmo comes here, shows off his rather weak color grading skills, we tell him it sucks, offer constructive criticism on what to do better, he runs his mouth off at everyone without listening, continues to post trash work, we tell him stop, he gets permabanned, end of story. The guy's a petulant little kid who's more about flagrant self-promotion who can't listen to criticism. And again, his ""remastering"" sucks as he reduces the grain to nothing and desaturates everything for some half-assed "TV look".

Luckily, the Blu-Rays are at least a lil' better, eh?

Little being the operative term here.

[MarcBigleague]

Luckily, the Blu-Rays are at least a lil' better, eh?

I think in some essence the blurays are worse. They look even more artificial than orange bricks from what I have seen xD

[Jinzoningen MULE]

Luckily, the Blu-Rays are at least a lil' better, eh?

I think in some essence the blurays are worse. They look even more artificial than orange bricks from what I have seen xD

The Blu-rays have far worse backgrounds, since the image is over-DNR'd and then even further over-sharpened for the purposes of simulating higher resolution. This also creates the "Flash Cartoon" look that everyone hates. In addition, earlier on in the Blu-ray, the characters' skins phase in and out of a yellowish tint. The Namek Arc on Blu-ray is dangerously close to the Orange Bricks. The oversaturation combined with the Super-DNR brought out the absolute worst of their remastering process. The backgrounds are beyond oil, they're just totally melted. The humans are usually a ghostly white (but still occasionally yellow).

However, even at their worst, the colors, contrast, cropping, line-work, etc. are universally better than the Bricks.

[sangofe]

My opinion? I think it matters not. Nothing at all.

[NitroEX]

It's a garbage release that doesn't deserve an anniversary celebration.

Even before I knew the horrors of their poor "remaster" job, with the missing linework and cropping (which I originally thought was the fault of Youtubers), I still recognized that the color correction was awful. You could just tell something was off, especially in the later sagas with the sky being a dark shade of blue and the skin tones being as pale as they were, it just looked like it was handled by an amateur who foolishly thought they could make the image "better". Something tells me I'm not far off from the truth with that assessment.

The English dub with Japanese BGM is not something I consider a victory at all. All it does is further expose how amateurish the in-house cast was at the time, not to mention the dub direction wasn't catered to that score (or vice versa) so it just sounds awkward. I'm not a fan of Faulconer's BGM but at the very least it helps distract from the monotone lines, Kikuchi does not, especially with all that silence. I'm not even going to get into my problems with the stylistic clash of southern drawl mish-mashed with an oriental style musical score, just bad in my opinion.

Worst of all was MangaUK deciding to import those shoddy releases to the UK in 2014! What a cruel joke that was, to finally have DBZ on store shelves, only for it to be the worst possible version. Either Toei forced them to do it, or that company is run by morons.

At the end of the day I never have and never will pay money for these awful releases. I refuse to support such egregious practices with the footage but I guess the masses have already done that for me (and them some, with the UK release) so Funimation has unfortunately continued this trend with the Blu Rays. Sad

[MarcBigleague]

So I decided to go and buy season 1 of Dragon Ball Z Orange bricks.

Here is a comparison between the orange brick (top), and blurays (bottom)
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]

Haha I never thought I would be defending orange bricks in 2017 xD But I can't deny in this comparison that orange bricks look better than the blurays. The orange bricks look more organic (haha I know this sounds like juxtaposition xD) than the Blurays. The colours are similarly bleached on both in my opinion but the blurays are worse because the whites have been turned into a yellow tint (and I believe this occurred after the bleaching process).

You might say "But Marc, they did not "turn" it yellow, this is film fading that they failed to fix" But that is incorrect, I am sorry to inform you haha.

So my verdict today is that the orange bricks are better than the season blurays. But this can change if I come across more examples later on the road.

Here are two screenshotcomparison.com. I know it is only my opinion but the orange bricks are OP compared to season blurays ;P

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/201292
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/201293

Also Bulma is top-tier waifu in this episode XD haha

[TheUltimateNinja]

So I decided to go and buy season 1 of Dragon Ball Z Orange bricks.

Here is a comparison between the orange brick (top), and blurays (bottom)
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]

Haha I never thought I would be defending orange bricks in 2017 xD But I can't deny in this comparison that orange bricks look better than the blurays. The orange bricks look more organic (haha I know this sounds like juxtaposition xD) than the Blurays. The colours are similarly bleached on both in my opinion but the blurays are worse because the whites have been turned into a yellow tint (and I believe this occurred after the bleaching process).

You might say "But Marc, they did not "turn" it yellow, this is film fading that they failed to fix" But that is incorrect, I am sorry to inform you haha.

So my verdict today is that the orange bricks are better than the season blurays. But this can change if I come across more examples later on the road.

Here are two screenshotcomparison.com. I know it is only my opinion but the orange bricks are OP compared to season blurays ;P

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/201292
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/201293

Also Bulma is top-tier waifu in this episode XD haha

Man, that's a really bad shot of Bulma.

[MarcBigleague]

So I decided to go and buy season 1 of Dragon Ball Z Orange bricks.

Here is a comparison between the orange brick (top), and blurays (bottom)
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]

Haha I never thought I would be defending orange bricks in 2017 xD But I can't deny in this comparison that orange bricks look better than the blurays. The orange bricks look more organic (haha I know this sounds like juxtaposition xD) than the Blurays. The colours are similarly bleached on both in my opinion but the blurays are worse because the whites have been turned into a yellow tint (and I believe this occurred after the bleaching process).

You might say "But Marc, they did not "turn" it yellow, this is film fading that they failed to fix" But that is incorrect, I am sorry to inform you haha.

So my verdict today is that the orange bricks are better than the season blurays. But this can change if I come across more examples later on the road.

Here are two screenshotcomparison.com. I know it is only my opinion but the orange bricks are OP compared to season blurays ;P

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/201292
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/201293

Also Bulma is top-tier waifu in this episode XD haha

Man, that's a really bad shot of Bulma.

Check 2nd screenshotcompare.com link. She looks tired like she wants me to massage her feet XD HAHAH

[Footlong Shoe]

So my verdict today is that the orange bricks are better than the season blurays. But this can change if I come across more examples later on the road.

I'm not going to argue about those colors, but I will show you the sole reason I prefer the Blu-ray seasons over the Orange Bricks.


(Dragon Box on the left, Brick on the right)

The Bricks had such a strong layer of DVNR that the automated process would process lines as dirt during scenes where the screen either shakes, or rapidly flashes. Those lines would then be removed, such as in the image above. I think this example in itself is a testament to how half-assed this DVD was, and how unacceptable it is to release this as a finished product.

The Blu-rays don't have this issue.

[MarcBigleague]

So my verdict today is that the orange bricks are better than the season blurays. But this can change if I come across more examples later on the road.

I'm not going to argue about those colors, but I will show you the sole reason I prefer the Blu-ray seasons over the Orange Bricks.


(Dragon Box on the left, Brick on the right)

The Bricks had such a strong layer of DVNR that the automated process would process lines as dirt during scenes where the screen either shakes, or rapidly flashes. Those lines would then be removed, such as in the image above. I think this example in itself is a testament to how half-assed this DVD was, and how unacceptable it is to release this as a finished product.

The Blu-rays don't have this issue.

So you are going to dismiss an entire 291-episode release because a few frames of certain episodes had computing issues? https://youtu.be/yWDAw2nsIjw

[ABED]

So you are going to dismiss an entire 291-episode release because a few frames of certain episodes had computing issues?

That's not the only issue nor example of that issue.

[MarcBigleague]

So you are going to dismiss an entire 291-episode release because a few frames of certain episodes had computing issues?

That's not the only issue nor example of that issue.

Yeah but let us confront the issues I showed in the comparisons of the orange bricks vs blurays. Which were:

A) Orange Bricks somehow look more organic than the Blurays
B) Season Blurays have defied logic and managed to look both bleached and faded at the same time

[ABED]

I haven't watched the blu rays.