GT Blu-Ray Release

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PrinceVegetto
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GT Blu-Ray Release

Post by PrinceVegetto » Sun May 17, 2020 4:59 am

So I came across this today...

I have never seen GT in this quality. My question is: did a a fan make a 1080p upscale of the intro+ending or has GT been released on Blu-ray in some regions?

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Re: GT Blu-Ray Release

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Sun May 17, 2020 5:47 am

PrinceVegetto wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 4:59 amMy question is: did a a fan make a 1080p upscale of the intro+ending or has GT been released on Blu-ray in some regions?
Unfortunately, fan remasters are the best we can get right now. GT has aired in HD in some regions, can't name them off the top of my head but I know there is a master circulating.

No distributors have released GT on Blu-Ray other than ZIMA who put out A Hero's Legacy. There is a chance Selecta Vision may do their own DBZ Blu-Rays and then do GT after but we'll have to wait and see.
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Re: GT Blu-Ray Release

Post by Danfun64 » Sun May 17, 2020 10:44 am

Dragon Ball Ireland wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 5:47 am GT has aired in HD in some regions.
Yeah, most likely in the form of a DBox upscale.
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Re: GT Blu-Ray Release

Post by Matches Malone » Sun May 17, 2020 9:21 pm

I'm surprised GT hasn't gotten released on Blu-Ray considering how short it is compared to Z. They could easily release it in 2 sets like the Green ones or even 3 sets.

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Re: GT Blu-Ray Release

Post by Robo4900 » Mon May 18, 2020 11:44 am

The video linked is a rather poor upscale of the rather beautiful Dragon Box transfer of GT. (For all the Dragon Boxes' faults, the DBox transfer of GT looks amazing. Colours are still off, though less so than on DB and Z)
Looks nice if you're used to seeing the shitty Funimation Season DVDs, but the un-tampered-with Dragon Box footage is better.

As for the idea of GT on Blu-ray...

So far, the only avenues for genuine HD Dragon Ball content have been from Toei and Funimation.

Funimation have given us their rather decent transfers of the original 17 movies, their rather good transfer of Z (and its specials) via the Levels, and their utter ruination of that transfer in the Season BDs/30th anniversary sets (and the Blu-rays of the two TV specials).
In theory, if they were to give us a HD version of GT, it would almost certainly be just as shitty as the Season BDs and 30th anniversary sets, and thus would be significantly worse than if they just released the Dragon Box masters (which are the basis for their DVD releases, though the "Season" DVDs have a heavy spatial blurring filter to degrain them... :roll:).
But, doing GT in HD would require them to have film of GT to transfer and clean up. Funimation only have film of the original 17 movies, of the Z series, and of the two Z TV specials. So, upscales are the best they could do. And thus far, Funimation have not shown any interest in producing upscaled Dragon Ball releases (and they wouldn't be much better than the DVDs anyway; possibly worse, even).
Doing GT in HD would also require Funimation to have any interest in the non-Z content in the original run, which they have repeatedly shown they don't.

Toei have given us the rather nice HD transfers of the original 17 movies (and the less-good Blu-ray versions that have been degrained -- not to the extent of Funi, but still way too far -- and censored), and pretty good HD transfers of the two Z TV specials (they did degrain these far more than they should have, but it's more like Batman TAS's degraining, where the picture looks fine, but would be sharper, more detailed, and have more texture if they hadn't degrained it so much).
But, Toei has quite a history of not bothering to do proper HD versions of TV that's on 16mm (as Dragon Ball is for everything except about 5 episodes in the Namek arc); they either leave it in standard-def, or do upscales. It's possible they've changed their tune, but realistically, if they were going to do Dragon Ball in HD, they would have transferred all 508 episodes of the show and got it out for the Z 30th anniversary last year.

FWIW, just to nip this one in the bud -- to my knowledge, the prints that are not held by Funi or Toei are the Japanese TV release prints, and the AB Groupe prints. As far as I know, the Japanese TV release prints were sold off long ago, and the TV stations instead kept a videotape transfer of these prints that Fuji made a long time ago. Though for DB (and GT), they switched to using Dragon Box video from about 2004 or 2005 ish. So, the TV prints are unlikely to be used to create any HD transfers of anything. As for AB Groupe's prints... I don't know if those prints exist anymore, for the TV show. If they do, I don't think the French distributor has any interest in doing anything as extravagant as a HD restoration with them.
So, not only does GT not have any film outside Toei, but even if it did, there's no way this film would get used for any HD restoration.

So, if you ask me, we're not gonna see GT in HD unless Toei suddenly have a huge change of heart and decide to do HD restorations of all 508 original episodes (which would likely be restored in a very similar manner to the TV special HD masters we saw going around, though likely with the same censorship we see on the movies).
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Re: GT Blu-Ray Release

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Mon May 18, 2020 12:10 pm

True, because of course Toei has a track record of providing less than pristine source materials to licensors including FUNimation. Of course, the GT masters that they received back in 2002/2003 were basically early versions of the same masters later used form the Dragon Box albeit without the cleanup of the latter. Of course given how bad FUNi's previous HD releases including the 30th BD set have turned out i don't believe that they would, because again both the original series and GT are cast aside while DBZ gets front and center treatment due to its more prevalent success and popularity over the others. Also, by "same censorship as the movies" you mean as in erasing middle fingers and stuff a la Kai? I don't think that would go over well because it's arbitrary and revisionism because then it's changing something which they didn't have any issues with previously.
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Re: GT Blu-Ray Release

Post by Robo4900 » Mon May 18, 2020 6:16 pm

SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 12:10 pm True, because of course Toei has a track record of providing less than pristine source materials to licensors including FUNimation. Of course, the GT masters that they received back in 2002/2003 were basically early versions of the same masters later used form the Dragon Box albeit without the cleanup of the latter. Of course given how bad FUNi's previous HD releases including the 30th BD set have turned out i don't believe that they would, because again both the original series and GT are cast aside while DBZ gets front and center treatment due to its more prevalent success and popularity over the others.
Indeed.
Ironically, in both of those cases, a lack of care gave better results. The early GT master doesn't have the motion blur of the DBoxes, and the lack of care Funi give to DB and GT means the home media isn't quite as unpalettably godawful.
SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 12:10 pm Also, by "same censorship as the movies" you mean as in erasing middle fingers and stuff a la Kai? I don't think that would go over well because it's arbitrary and revisionism because then it's changing something which they didn't have any issues with previously.
Yes.

And, I agree it wouldn't go over well, but I don't think either Funi or Toei really care at this point, given that Toei applied that censorship to the movies BD, and to Kai (and remember, Toei considered Kai to be their HD version of Z).

People would complain, but just like with the 30th sets, the Toei movie Blu-rays, and countless other shit that Toei and Funi fucked up in the eyes of the fans... The things would still sell pretty well, so Toei and/or Funi wouldn't care.
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Re: GT Blu-Ray Release

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Mon May 18, 2020 6:28 pm

Robo4900 wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 6:16 pm
SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 12:10 pm True, because of course Toei has a track record of providing less than pristine source materials to licensors including FUNimation. Of course, the GT masters that they received back in 2002/2003 were basically early versions of the same masters later used form the Dragon Box albeit without the cleanup of the latter. Of course given how bad FUNi's previous HD releases including the 30th BD set have turned out i don't believe that they would, because again both the original series and GT are cast aside while DBZ gets front and center treatment due to its more prevalent success and popularity over the others.
Indeed.
Ironically, in both of those cases, a lack of care gave better results. The early GT master doesn't have the motion blur of the DBoxes, and the lack of care Funi give to DB and GT means the home media isn't quite as unpalettably godawful.
SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 12:10 pm Also, by "same censorship as the movies" you mean as in erasing middle fingers and stuff a la Kai? I don't think that would go over well because it's arbitrary and revisionism because then it's changing something which they didn't have any issues with previously.
Yes.

And, I agree it wouldn't go over well, but I don't think either Funi or Toei really care at this point, given that Toei applied that censorship to the movies BD, and to Kai (and remember, Toei considered Kai to be their HD version of Z).

People would complain, but just like with the 30th sets, the Toei movie Blu-rays, and countless other shit that Toei and Funi fucked up in the eyes of the fans... The things would still sell pretty well, so Toei and/or Funi wouldn't care.
That's certainly the case in those terms, because at least the work done to DB and GT for their respective season releases was certainly much less awful than the remastering of Z had been.

True, although of course when that sort of thing is done then it's no longer the product it was originally created as and aired and released multiple times before with no issues. You are indeed right that quite a few people would be rightly mad about it, especially a not so insignificant number of people here but it would still sell anyway if they took the same approach as with the movies in digitally editing things on the original run the same way they did with Kai.
DB collection related goals as of now:

1.) Find decent priced copy of Dragon Box Z Vol. 4 (Done)

2.) Collect rest of manga

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Re: GT Blu-Ray Release

Post by Ringworm128 » Wed May 20, 2020 5:33 am

Matches Malone wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 9:21 pm I'm surprised GT hasn't gotten released on Blu-Ray considering how short it is compared to Z. They could easily release it in 2 sets like the Green ones or even 3 sets.
Possibly even one set. Another advantage of Blu Ray is that they can fit more onto each disc. Hence why you sometimes see entire seasons of shows put in small cases unlike their bulky DVD counterparts

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