A potential 4K release of DBZ...

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Toei needs to hurry the hell up and make their own.

TOEI aren't going to do it. They didn't even do a HD remaster for the 30th anniversary last year. Kai was their attempt but they gave up because it didn't do the business they hoped it would in Japan.

Best case scenario at this rate is Funimation release an UHD Blu-Ray set with a slightly better than the 30th anniversary HD upscale in a few years from now, that's provided they don't go back to 16:9 AGAIN. Not ideal, but that's what it's come to with this franchise.

I seriously hope they don't revert to doing fake widescreen again for future releases. There's already been two in that cropped format and it took them a while to come around to doing another 4:3 version after the Level sets came and went in 2011/2012.

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

Toei needs to hurry the hell up and make their own.

TOEI aren't going to do it. They didn't even do a HD remaster for the 30th anniversary last year. Kai was their attempt but they gave up because it didn't do the business they hoped it would in Japan.

Best case scenario at this rate is Funimation release an UHD Blu-Ray set with a slightly better than the 30th anniversary HD upscale in a few years from now, that's provided they don't go back to 16:9 AGAIN. Not ideal, but that's what it's come to with this franchise.

I seriously hope they don't revert to doing fake widescreen again for future releases. There's already been two in that cropped format and it took them a while to come around to doing another 4:3 version after the Level sets came and went in 2011/2012.

Well then, what was the point of quietly cancelling the Level Sets???? Why not just continue what they were doing and once they're done, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V the process for any and all future releases? While I understand there will be more formats in the future, they can just keep upscaling the film to make it look better.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

TOEI aren't going to do it. They didn't even do a HD remaster for the 30th anniversary last year. Kai was their attempt but they gave up because it didn't do the business they hoped it would in Japan.

Best case scenario at this rate is Funimation release an UHD Blu-Ray set with a slightly better than the 30th anniversary HD upscale in a few years from now, that's provided they don't go back to 16:9 AGAIN. Not ideal, but that's what it's come to with this franchise.

I seriously hope they don't revert to doing fake widescreen again for future releases. There's already been two in that cropped format and it took them a while to come around to doing another 4:3 version after the Level sets came and went in 2011/2012.

Well then, what was the point of quietly cancelling the Level Sets???? Why not just continue what they were doing and once they're done, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V the process for any and all future releases? While I understand there will be more formats in the future, they can just keep upscaling the film to make it look better.

They really should've just done a release in more or less the same form as the Level sets, as clearly shown in the raw screen shots of their almost insulting blog post on the 30th anniversary set because those looked great and perfectly acceptable quality wise.

There was literally no need for the DNR smear fest or over sharpening.

[TheGreatness25]

Toei needs to hurry the hell up and make their own.

TOEI aren't going to do it. They didn't even do a HD remaster for the 30th anniversary last year. Kai was their attempt but they gave up because it didn't do the business they hoped it would in Japan.

Best case scenario at this rate is Funimation release an UHD Blu-Ray set with a slightly better than the 30th anniversary HD upscale in a few years from now, that's provided they don't go back to 16:9 AGAIN. Not ideal, but that's what it's come to with this franchise.

And yet... Toei was re-Tweeting all of Funimation's hype Tweets for the 30th anniversary set (if I recall correctly) and have mandated that their merchandise use Funimation's names whenever translated to English... and still, to this day, haven't given them any better quality film/copies to work with.

This is no less than Toei giving their stamp of approval on whatever Funimation is doing. So yeah, unlikely that Toei even cares. I'm sure their piece of the pie is enough.

[MasenkoHA]

Well then, what was the point of quietly cancelling the Level Sets???? Why not just continue what they were doing and once they're done, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V the process for any and all future releases? While I understand there will be more formats in the future, they can just keep upscaling the film to make it look better.

Iirc they weren’t selling well enough because your average consumer prefers what their watching to fill their entire screen. So they were cancelled in favor of the blue ray season sets.

Still seems like they could have released the last 5 episodes of season one so people who bought the leve sets weren’t forced to buy the same episodes twice but wasn’t the first time FUNimation did that.

[TheGreatness25]

Well then, what was the point of quietly cancelling the Level Sets???? Why not just continue what they were doing and once they're done, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V the process for any and all future releases? While I understand there will be more formats in the future, they can just keep upscaling the film to make it look better.

Iirc they weren’t selling well enough because your average consumer prefers what their watching to fill their entire screen. So they were cancelled in favor of the blue ray season sets.

Still seems like they could have released the last 5 episodes of season one so people who bought the leve sets weren’t forced to buy the same episodes twice but wasn’t the first time FUNimation did that.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't it. Didn't they say that it was too expensive of a process, so they scrapped it until they found a more cost-effective solution? See, for the Level Sets, they went frame-by-frame to clean everything up, so their version of cost-effective, was to do another automated process that spit out the Blu-ray video.

It's certainly not because the "average consumer" preferred widescreen -- that's dumb. First of all, if this average consumer who is knowingly buying an anime from the 1990s that was made for 4:3 TVs is really all up-in-arms about it, they have a "zoom" feature on their remote...

I've never heard that and to me, it's such a laughable excuse. I know that's what they said to justify the 16:9 Blu-ray, but I've never heard them say that was the reason why they scrapped the Level Sets.

[Kuwabara]

I seriously hope they don't revert to doing fake widescreen again for future releases. There's already been two in that cropped format and it took them a while to come around to doing another 4:3 version after the Level sets came and went in 2011/2012.

I think 16:9 DBZ is a thing of the past, 4:3 has looped back around to being enough of a selling point/the 30th Anniversary footage wasn't milked enough for Funi's liking. As much as it pains me to say it, I think the best course of action would be to purchase the new steelbook releases and show that the demand for 4:3 is palpable enough to matter.

I don't know if 4K is in Z's future, somehow it seems too lofty of an undertaking. The recent controversy over Funimation's Akira 4K release also doesn't really inspire confidence, and that's just a single film... Still, it would probably be the last possible chance for a release that's finally better than R2 DVDs from 2003.

[Hellspawn28]

I personally do not understand the demand for a whole ass 4K release of Dragon Ball. It already looks fine without the HD, 4K is a bit too overboard, isn't it?

Personally I think 4K is a bit much for anything animated. I think 4K is more suitable for live action. Before we try to get Z in 4K, can we please have regular DB in just HD ?

Disctoek released Space Adventure Cobra in 4K UHD and it looks amazing. Animation can look wonderful in 4K if you know how to do it right.

[KBABZ]

I personally do not understand the demand for a whole ass 4K release of Dragon Ball. It already looks fine without the HD, 4K is a bit too overboard, isn't it?

Personally I think 4K is a bit much for anything animated. I think 4K is more suitable for live action. Before we try to get Z in 4K, can we please have regular DB in just HD ?

Disctoek released Space Adventure Cobra in 4K UHD and it looks amazing. Animation can look wonderful in 4K if you know how to do it right.

Depends on the size of the film though. Most pre-digital TV anime like Dragon Ball is gonna be on 16mm, and at that size 4K really doesn't add any extra detail over 1080. 34mm like the movies though WOULD benefit greatly from a 4K scan.

[Trachta10]

Personally I think 4K is a bit much for anything animated. I think 4K is more suitable for live action. Before we try to get Z in 4K, can we please have regular DB in just HD ?

Disctoek released Space Adventure Cobra in 4K UHD and it looks amazing. Animation can look wonderful in 4K if you know how to do it right.

Depends on the size of the film though. Most pre-digital TV anime like Dragon Ball is gonna be on 16mm, and at that size 4K really doesn't add any extra detail over 1080. 34mm like the movies though WOULD benefit greatly from a 4K scan.

but discotek upscale to get te 4K

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

[/quote]

Was a panty shot really necessary to show your point?

Also please check out the new topic Everything Wrong with Dragon Ball Super; you'll like it there

[KBABZ]

Was a panty shot really necessary to show your point?

Pretty sure that's an arm?

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

Was a panty shot really necessary to show your point?

Pretty sure that's an arm?

Oh, never noticed.

[Vorige Waffe]

I've said it before in another thread, but 4K is a waste on DBZ because it's 16mm film, and you aren't getting a noticeable upgrade in visual clarity because of that.

I personally do not understand the demand for a whole ass 4K release of Dragon Ball. It already looks fine without the HD, 4K is a bit too overboard, isn't it?

Personally I think 4K is a bit much for anything animated. I think 4K is more suitable for live action. Before we try to get Z in 4K, can we please have regular DB in just HD ?

Disctoek released Space Adventure Cobra in 4K UHD and it looks amazing. Animation can look wonderful in 4K if you know how to do it right.

Space Adventure Cobra is printed on 35mm film and can benefit from the 4K upgrade. But even then the 4K boost is moot because TMS slathered DNR over it and smudged out a lot of the grain, similar to what Funi has done to DBZ.

Disctoek released Space Adventure Cobra in 4K UHD and it looks amazing. Animation can look wonderful in 4K if you know how to do it right.

Depends on the size of the film though. Most pre-digital TV anime like Dragon Ball is gonna be on 16mm, and at that size 4K really doesn't add any extra detail over 1080. 34mm like the movies though WOULD benefit greatly from a 4K scan.

but discotek upscale to get te 4K

That's their Astrores technology and it's still very new. Moreover, it's being for 1080p upscales, not 4K.

[Char Aznable]

A 4K release of any Dragon Ball series is never, ever, ever going to happen. Period. Period, period, period. You can only milk this thing so many times before people get fed up, the fate of the Level Sets are proof enough of that. Toei certainly isn’t going to do it, and FUNimation isn’t going to do it either, even taking the existing remaster they’ve done and putting it on UHD Blu-ray is just going to be a waste of time and effort, nobody is going to buy it. Even new anime series don’t see a 4K release, everything comes out on standard Blu-ray if it gets a physical release at all. If FUNi took either one of their subpar remasters, shoved it on UHD Blu-ray, and tried to charge $29.99 per volume they’d be laughed out of the room and I think they know it.

The movies are another matter, I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon if at all but it’s certainly possible. Classic anime films get 4K remasters all the time. Off the top of my head there’s Ghost in the Shell (I just picked this up yesterday actually), Akira, I know Weathering With You and Your Name got 4K releases but I don’t think those left Japan, and the two Gundam films Char’s Counterattack and Gundam F91 got 4K remasters in Japan only. For movies it does happen, and I could see it potentially for at least the more popular movies maybe not necessarily all of them. This can go in either direction - either a copy-paste quick buck (sadly more likely) or a careful remaster.

Actually, now that I think about it, if FUNi took the untouched versions of the Toei movie remasters, upscaled them to 4K, and put those out it wouldn’t be ideal but they may actually sell and look somewhat decent.

[Lightningexpose]

All I'm gonna say is, you shouldn't dismiss 16mm anime in 4K til you've actually seen it done right.

On a 4K screen I'd rather see animation on 16mm with 4K-scanned grain than 2K grain upscaled to 4K.

The detail under the grain isn't going to be razor sharp, sure, but if the grain is left intact then what you're watching is 4K scanned film and it's still a pleasant experience.

If you think DB Kai is what 16mm looks like under grain (as I have seen some users on this forum state in the past), then yeah you're in for a surprise.

edit: also not to mention just in terms of encoding/authoring, UHD BDs tend to have less compression artefacts and compression-led detail loss than normal BDs. So, I'd welcome 16mm on 4K for this reason alone tbh.

But even then the 4K boost is moot because TMS slathered DNR over it and smudged out a lot of the grain, similar to what Funi has done to DBZ.

Eh...this isn't really true. The DNR and sharpening process is indeed as hideous as Funimation's Season Sets approach. But, the 4K version has a lot more detail than the 2K BD despite this.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I think a HD on UHD Blu-Ray Dragon Ball Z release would be more marketable than any upscaled UHD set. They could put full "seasons" on a single disc and it would be the most shelf friendly release yet.

Sadly it's extremely unlikely to happen, as Funimation doesn't even do SD on Blu-Ray.

[KPike87]

In all honesty, if they don't do a 4K release, I don't know what would motivate them to do another release. Every release brought something to the table; OB's were the first full set (plus remastered garbage), DB's were pretty much the Japanese version in it's entirety plus artbooks, Level and Season sets made the jump to Blu Ray, and 30th/steel books are the return of 4:3. The only other thing I can see them doing is not messing with the color or grain, but I don't see why they would do that, Funi probably thinks we're greedy and unthankful for their 4:3 release despite the rest of it being terrible.

Honestly, I can see them doing a non DNR'd release but it's widescreen or some other monkey's paw ass issue with it, 4K or not. I would say we should make our voices heard or something, but since hardcore fans make up a relatively small portion of their bottom line, they probably wouldn't care if we all just boycotted Funi until it happened, they'd just keep selling their eye bleeding releases and most people wouldn't care.