Do the DBZ Season Set Blu-rays use the original broadcast audio?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Also worth noting Sabat said that the broadcast audio, or more specifically the recordings of it may not be deemed legal, so even if Funimation wanted to use it for a release TOEI may not approve.

Can I get a source on that? Pretty sure I never heard him say that.

I unfortunately can't find the post anymore, I believe it was AnimeMakkuo Sabat said it to in an email, as he was the one who exchanged contacts with when he agreed to take the broadcast audio. He posted screenshots of the emails here in response to someone doubting him about being in contact with Sabat.

Obviously Sabat doesn't make any of Funimation's business decisions, so it's just an educated guess based on his knowledge of the industry, but I'd say it's a pretty reasonable one as legally TV recordings are only for personal use. All we can do is hope Funimation and TOEI see the benefits of releasing this audio and can approve of it.

[Robo4900]

I wonder if the BA for the Original Dragon Ball exists? I believe it does for the first episode and if it exists for the first episode, its pretty safe to assume that it does for the rest of the series as well. I wonder why it hasn't been found for the entire series.

About half of the first 50 episodes have been found, as has episode 153.
The search is ongoing, and the odd episode or two continue to turn up, seemingly at random, so I have faith broadcast audio of most of it will have been located eventually. But it could take some time.

Also worth noting Sabat said that the broadcast audio, or more specifically the recordings of it may not be deemed legal, so even if Funimation wanted to use it for a release TOEI may not approve.

Can I get a source on that? Pretty sure I never heard him say that.

I unfortunately can't find the post anymore, I believe it was AnimeMakkuo Sabat said it to in an email, as he was the one who exchanged contacts with when he agreed to take the broadcast audio. He posted screenshots of the emails here in response to someone doubting him about being in contact with Sabat.

Obviously Sabat doesn't make any of Funimation's business decisions, so it's just an educated guess based on his knowledge of the industry, but I'd say it's a pretty reasonable one as legally TV recordings are only for personal use. All we can do is hope Funimation and TOEI see the benefits of releasing this audio and can approve of it.

AnimeMaakuo may have been lying. I've seen him lie in regards to the broadcast audio before to suit his own narrative, and in any case, note that AnimeMaakuo never gave Sabat the audio. He was among the group that first offered to give Sabat the audio, back when Kei17 was still interested in sharing, but that first effort fell apart when Kei left, after some shit went down.
Realistically, I have no idea how good his word is, but even if I saw a screenshot of such an email in front of me, I'd be a little sceptical. The broadcast audio saga is such a mess, I honestly do not have the patience to lay out exactly who's told me what and what interactions I've had which tell me what I'm saying now, so just take my word for what it is and understand that I personally don't put much stock in his word in this one particular instance.

As for the legality of TV recordings, it's dependent on what the rightsholders decide. I'm no legal expert, but to my understanding, copyright law is generally enforced based on what the rightsholder wants to do. Paramount et al. allow non-profit Star Trek fan productions to happen as long as they follow certain guidelines, Harmony Gold outright asked fans to send them domestic home recordings of Robotech to fill in gaps in their archives, the audio for all the missing episodes of Doctor Who survive thanks to fan-made off-air cassette recordings that were graciously donated to the BBC...
Ultimately, the Dragon Ball broadcast audio is only legally a problem if Toei decide to make it a problem. As with any official release, Funi would almost certanily have to get Toei's blessing on producing it, but Toei have no reason to refuse Funi permission to use the broadcast audio. Toei have shown they don't care what Funi does in any way, by letting Funi put out shitty home video (clearly they don't care about any releases being of poor quality), and also allowing them to put out some really good releases of the show that are better than what's been available in Japan (the Levels were cancelled due to poor sales/profits. If they'd sold well, Funi would have had a complete, HD release of Z, infinitely superior to Toei's Dragon Boxes in every respect. Funi's HD releases of the Z movies, while worthy of critcism, remain about the same quality as the Blu-rays available in Japan, but have been available several years longer, etc. etc. etc. so clearly they don't care about a release being superior).
So, my conclusion is Toei don't care, and since Toei don't care, Funi are free to use the audio if they so please.

So, there is no remotely logical good-faith reason for the broadcast audio to be excluded from an official release. And yet, it doesn't seem to be being included on the new release. Realistically, the most likely cause of this is that the new set is being put together as cheaply and quickly as possible: The video filtering is the same automatic filtering as on the Season BDs but with a target AR of 4:3, and presumably all the audio tracks are exactly what was on the Season BDs, left totally untouched. Syncing up new audio tracks for 291 episodes, several of which need a few sources to be mixed to deal with buzzes and interruptions present on one recording, etc., isn't exactly the easiest task.

But that doesn't mean there's any hope of broadcast audio on a future release. Funi will likely be aiming to produce the next set they put out just as cheaply as this one, and no other relevant companies care to take the audio.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Funi's HD releases of the Z movies, while worthy of critcism, remain about the same quality as the Blu-rays available in Japan, but have been available several years longer, etc. etc. etc. so clearly they don't care about a release being superior).

You think so? I know the transfer quality changed between movies but I was kind of holding for the new Toei versions!

[Tylerman29]

You think so? I know the transfer quality changed between movies but I was kind of holding for the new Toei versions!

Yeah I'm content with FUNi's but I prefer the look of Toei's versions especially the streaming ones. Although I haven't seen too many comparison shots to say for sure (I believe the thread's images have been largely deleted at this point). The only one I can recall vividly is the shot of Broly from movie 8.

I really hope FUNi is working on a new release for the movies..I haven't seen the blu ray double features in stores for A WHILE!..just the DVD collection packs. The "double features" remaster is about as old as the orange bricks at this point. A new release is overdue.

[jaisonas]

You think so? I know the transfer quality changed between movies but I was kind of holding for the new Toei versions!

Yeah I'm content with FUNi's but I prefer the look of Toei's versions especially the streaming ones. Although I haven't seen too many comparison shots to say for sure (I believe the thread's images have been largely deleted at this point). The only one I can recall vividly is the shot of Broly from movie 8.

I really hope FUNi is working on a new release for the movies..I haven't seen the blu ray double features in stores for A WHILE!..just the DVD collection packs. The "double features" remaster is about as old as the orange bricks at this point. A new release is overdue.

Imo the quality difference is night and day, especially as far as colours go. Even in movies, Funi got 2-3rd gen prints with degraded colours.
Obviously if you want the best you can get you go for the streaming version of Toei's movies but the blurays, even with the hefty usage of DNR and slight green tint aint bad.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

I'm not finding any of the old comparison shots at a glance either. So do we think Toei assigned the movie transfers to different people across the two versions? You would think it would be easier for them to be consistent, it would be a shame if the best version really was stream only, if only for making it that much harder to add new subs and audio tracks. Uncut Ocean cast dubs with a good HD source? Yes please!

[jaisonas]

I'm not finding any of the old comparison shots at a glance either. So do we think Toei assigned the movie transfers to different people across the two versions? You would think it would be easier for them to be consistent, it would be a shame if the best version really was stream only, if only for making it that much harder to add new subs and audio tracks. Uncut Ocean cast dubs with a good HD source? Yes please!

Its the same transfer with different mastering.