Can someone help me clear up this confusion with the Dragon Ball DVDs in the UK.

[gg132]

So I want to pick up Dragon Ball but I have no idea on which one to pick up.

According to amazon there seems to be a blue brick set and a Yellow one.

Season 5 Blue: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Season- ... l+season+5

Season 5 Yellow: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Season- ... l+season+5

Anyone mind telling me everything I need to know out these two DVDs? The only difference I can really see (Other than colour and artwork) is the rating. The 12 rating makes me think that is they uncut version But again I'm really not sure).

I'm looking for the Uncut, English (Funimation Dub) and Japanese. I read there was a problem with the subs in the fortune teller Baba saga. Once again would anyone be able to fill me in? Or would it perhaps be best to import the Blue Brinks from the US.

[sintzu]

The only thing I can think of is that there was a problem with the Yellow set and they replaced it with the Blue one. It happened with GT's complete series here in the US.

[Danfun64]

The only thing I can think of is that there was a problem with the Yellow set and they replaced it with the Blue one. It happened with GT's complete series here in the US.

What are you talking about? When was there an issue concerning the GT Series Complete Green Brick?

As for DB in the UK, the "Banana Bricks" are basically the R4 Madmen (pre-Blue Brick) DB releases changed to R2 with added Manga UK branding and no other changes. I'm assuming that the R2 Blue Bricks are basically an NTSC to PAL conversion of the R1 Blue Bricks. IIRC, the Banana Bricks are interlaced, unrestored (despite what the box says), have the English dub audio in Stereo, have multiple angles for both English and Japanese titles, have the 1995 BLT dub of Curse of the Blood Rubies as a bonus feature for the Season 1 set, and for the Season 3 set have some infamous problems with episodes 73 (dubtitles) and 81 (skipping) if you prefer watching in Japanese. The Blue Bricks should be progressive scan, zoomed in compared to the Banana Bricks, degrained, only English titles, don't have Curse of the Blood Rubies in the Season 1 set, have the English audio in 5.1 Surround, and have no issues with watching episodes 73 and 81 in Japanese.

[sintzu]

What are you talking about? When was there an issue concerning the GT Series Complete Green Brick?

All 10 discs were in one case with Goku on the front and Vegeta on the back but they stopped that and just put both season sets into the slip cover.

[90sDBZ]

So I want to pick up Dragon Ball but I have no idea on which one to pick up.

According to amazon there seems to be a blue brick set and a Yellow one.

Season 5 Blue: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Season- ... l+season+5

Season 5 Yellow: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Season- ... l+season+5

Anyone mind telling me everything I need to know out these two DVDs? The only difference I can really see (Other than colour and artwork) is the rating. The 12 rating makes me think that is they uncut version But again I'm really not sure).

I'm looking for the Uncut, English (Funimation Dub) and Japanese. I read there was a problem with the subs in the fortune teller Baba saga. Once again would anyone be able to fill me in? Or would it perhaps be best to import the Blue Brinks from the US.

The blue one is only early concept artwork that was never updated. The only actual UK Release of DB are the Yellow Bricks, so that's what you'll get regardless of which one you order.

[NitroEX]

The 12 rating makes me think that is they uncut version But again I'm really not sure).

MangaUK are too cheap/lazy to edit footage and make a censored version. They mostly just repackage anime releases that other companies make and sell them here.

[90sDBZ]

The 12 rating makes me think that is they uncut version But again I'm really not sure).

MangaUK are too cheap/lazy to edit footage and make a censored version. They mostly just repackage anime releases that other companies make and sell them here.

Well to be fair there's not really a need for a censored home release of DB in this day and age. As for Manga UK, it could very well be a case of them not having the budget or resources to make their own releases rather than them being cheap or lazy.

[NitroEX]

The 12 rating makes me think that is they uncut version But again I'm really not sure).

MangaUK are too cheap/lazy to edit footage and make a censored version. They mostly just repackage anime releases that other companies make and sell them here.

Well to be fair there's not really a need for a censored home release of DB in this day and age. As for Manga UK, it could very well be a case of them not having the budget or resources to make their own releases rather than them being cheap or lazy.

I'm not saying they should make a censored release, just that the idea of them doing so is unrealistic given the laziness of their other releases. Take for example the Blu Ray release of the first three Pokemon films, it's just a copy/paste job from the Australian release which doesn't even include the Pikachu shorts (Effectively making an older DVD/VHS release more complete aside from aspect ratio and video quality). Despite their faults, a company like Anime Limited is the more respectable UK distributor in my opinion, they actually bother to include extras in their release, such as including the original dub of Escaflowne in HD, something even the American release lacked.

[Robo4900]

The yellow bricks have better video quality, but there's a problem in episode 73 if you watch subbed, and the encoding isn't the best.

The blue bricks don't have these problems, but they're blurry. Like, really blurry. Funimation did their typical over-aggressive grain-removal, and the result isn't pretty.

I'd recommend the yellow bricks, although you might want to either switch to the blue brick for season 3, or just import the US Fortuneteller Baba single containing the problematic episodes; this single should contain the episodes in the same quality, format, etc. as the yellow bricks, but without the weird issues, although it'll be an NTSC disc.
Of course, this isn't a problem if you watch dubbed.

Both sets are uncut, with the Funimation dub, although season 1 of the yellow bricks includes the censored Ocean dub of the first movie as a bonus feature. I'm not 100% clear on why this is, but everything else is uncut and Funimation-dubbed.

[Danfun64]

The Madmen Dragon Ball sets/MangaUK Banana Bricks have better encoding, but apparently have ghosting issues due to the NTSC to PAL conversion. The R1 single sets have the advantage of being in their native NTSC format, but have severe macroblocking issues. Some say that all of Funi's DVDs before one of the later Orange Brick seasons have questionable encoding quality (can't recall which season the encoding gets competent though).

Question: I'm sure the R4 Madmen Dragon Ball GT singles look better than the R1 GT singles...but what about the audio? Does the audio have better compression? Also, I heard that at least the R1 Dragon Ball GT singles have the dub audio in 5.1 surround. Do the R4 Dragon Ball GT singles also have a 5.1 dub track?

[gg132]

The yellow bricks have better video quality, but there's a problem in episode 73 if you watch subbed, and the encoding isn't the best.

The blue bricks don't have these problems, but they're blurry. Like, really blurry. Funimation did their typical over-aggressive grain-removal, and the result isn't pretty.

Seems like there is always some issue when it comes to Dragon ball DVDs and Blu-rays huh? Makes me wish the UK had some sort of streaming service that had the entire Dragon Ball series (Dubbed and Subbed). If there is I have yet to find it and most places either don't have it in my region or will not let me watch it in my region (Looking at you US FunimationNow). I'd personally rather support the official release which is why i'm asking this in the first place. I don't suppose there is any images or footage of the following 2 sets. I checked both Google and YouTube but I have yet to find them.

I'd recommend the yellow bricks, although you might want to either switch to the blue brick for season 3, or just import the US Fortuneteller Baba single containing the problematic episodes; this single should contain the episodes in the same quality, format, etc. as the yellow bricks, but without the weird issues, although it'll be an NTSC disc.
Of course, this isn't a problem if you watch dubbed.

Which one's are those. I seems like these ones may be the way to go unless you're talking about that Episode specifically

[90sDBZ]

Regarding the issue with episode 73 on the Yellow Bricks, I'm pretty sure someone mentioned you can work around the issue by just rewinding the DVD after it skips.

[Robo4900]

The yellow bricks have better video quality, but there's a problem in episode 73 if you watch subbed, and the encoding isn't the best.

The blue bricks don't have these problems, but they're blurry. Like, really blurry. Funimation did their typical over-aggressive grain-removal, and the result isn't pretty.

Seems like there is always some issue when it comes to Dragon ball DVDs and Blu-rays huh? Makes me wish the UK had some sort of streaming service that had the entire Dragon Ball series (Dubbed and Subbed). If there is I have yet to find it and most places either don't have it in my region or will not let me watch it in my region (Looking at you US FunimationNow). I'd personally rather support the official release which is why i'm asking this in the first place. I don't suppose there is any images or footage of the following 2 sets. I checked both Google and YouTube but I have yet to find them.

Yeah, agreed. The yellow bricks are the official release here, so that's the one to go for.
As for images, here are some...

This set is a comparison. The large image frame is from the Dragon Boxes, the red lines surround where the DVD singles and the yellow bricks are, the yellow lines surround where the blue bricks are(A little confusing, I know)...
[spoiler][/spoiler]

And here's one that just compares the Dragon Box to the single/yellow brick...
[spoiler][/spoiler]

And here's a comparison of just the single/yellow brick vs the blue brick:
[spoiler]YELLOW BRICK/SINGLE:


BLUE BRICK:
[/spoiler]

These comparisons aren't perfect(In fact, I think that last one with Piccolo uses different frames), but it's pretty clear the yellow bricks are less zoomed in.
As for the actual picture quality, these once again don't do a great job of showing what it looks like(In particular, they actually look a lot better in motion than they do in stills), but you can get a rough idea of what you're getting.

I'd recommend the yellow bricks, although you might want to either switch to the blue brick for season 3, or just import the US Fortuneteller Baba single containing the problematic episodes; this single should contain the episodes in the same quality, format, etc. as the yellow bricks, but without the weird issues, although it'll be an NTSC disc.
Of course, this isn't a problem if you watch dubbed.

Which one's are those. I seems like these ones may be the way to go unless you're talking about that Episode specifically

Volume #6 - Fortuneteller Baba Saga is the one. Disc 1 includes episode 73, which has dubtitles on the yellow bricks(Dubtitles are where the subtitles are simply the English dub script, rather than actual translations of the Japanese), and disc 2 includes episodes 81-83, which don't play correctly on the yellow bricks, if you select the Japanese language option. So, you'll only have to switch to the NTSC DVD single for four episodes.
This should be what you're looking for, although I'm certain you can find it cheaper if you look around a little.

Regarding the issue with episode 73 on the Yellow Bricks, I'm pretty sure someone mentioned you can work around the issue by just rewinding the DVD after it skips.

It's a little more complicated than that...

Banana Bricks

Pros
+ Japanase episode title cards The blue bricks don't have the Japanese title cards; they only have Funimation's ones.
+ Grain The blue bricks blurred the image in an attempt to remove the grain. The yellow/banana bricks didn't do this.
+ Unzoomed (as much as FUNimation's footage would show up) The blue bricks are significantly more zoomed in than the yellow ones. The yellow ones, comparatively, are only a little more zoomed in than the Dragon Boxes for the most part, as the yellow ones use the full frame of the DigiBeta masters Funimation were given by Toei.

Cons
- 8 to 9 episodes per disc (this is bad because if you pause sometimes you'll notice the compression which affects the episodes' picture quality) In motion, modern TVs smooth over this, and as-is, it isn't easy to notice anyway, but freeze-frames can be a little ugly.
- Episode 57 has English title card only This is more of a mild annoyance than anything else, but it is worth noting.
- Episode 73 only has dubtitles for the Japanese audio track This can only be avoided by importing the corresponding Fortuneteller Baba DVD single
- Episode 81 through its second part skips to Episode 83 on the Japanese side because whoever was in charge of authoring the disc messed up big time Again, this only applies if you're watching in Japanese. I don't know whether this is possible, but you might be able to rewind back to the beginning of episode 83, but that still leaves the second half of 81, and all of 82 unseen. I'm not sure if it is possible to just select episode 82, and watch it standalone.

(My notes are in bold. The cons section is the bit I direct you to look at for what's up. I've added notes to the whole thing for the benefit of gg132, so they know what they're getting)

[Danfun64]

From the pics you posted, the Blue Brick zoom doesn't seem as bad as you make it out to be (eyecatch notwithstanding)...odd.

[Robo4900]

From the pics you posted, the Blue Brick zoom doesn't seem as bad as you make it out to be (eyecatch notwithstanding)...odd.

It's a little inconsistent.

Anyway, the weird blurriness is still a problem. Plus, it's more expensive to import the Blue Bricks than it is to just buy the yellow ones. It might work out cheaper to just import the Blue Brick for the season that includes the erratic four episodes, but given how much the prices of the DVD singles fluctuate, I'm not so sure.