AB Video to release original Dragon Ball on Blu-Ray

[Scsigs]

Hmm. I may just opt to buy the DB Kai DVDs or Blu Rays for Z and wait until Z gets a proper release.

Kai IS a good way to watch Z.Less filler, decent remaster, great English dub. I think it's a perfectly acceptable way to watch the show, even if some people in the fandom don't. The only real problem is that The Final Chapters didn't cut out as much filler, mainly the few Hell scenes they left in, but it's still paced better than the original anime for the most part & the dub helps deal with that for me. Not to mention that it's permanently cropped to 16:9, unfortunately. But, I'd rather take The Final Chapters than the shitty season Blu-Rays from 9-10 years ago or the Orange Bricks from 16 years ago.

[Flameo Hotman]

Hmm. I may just opt to buy the DB Kai DVDs or Blu Rays for Z and wait until Z gets a proper release.

Kai IS a good way to watch Z.Less filler, decent remaster, great English dub. I think it's a perfectly acceptable way to watch the show, even if some people in the fandom don't. The only real problem is that The Final Chapters didn't cut out as much filler, mainly the few Hell scenes they left in, but it's still paced better than the original anime for the most part & the dub helps deal with that for me. Not to mention that it's permanently cropped to 16:9, unfortunately. But, I'd rather take The Final Chapters than the shitty season Blu-Rays from 9-10 years ago or the Orange Bricks from 16 years ago.

As a german I habe a few options for the original Dragonball. Either the Blue Bricks, the new Selecta Vision Blu Rays or the old german dragonball dvd, which were agruably as bad as the orange bricks or worse.

Really not sure if the Selecta Vision Blu Rays are better or worse than the Blue Bricks.

[simtek34]

Really late to the game on this, but whatever. But goddamn, this release looks beautiful! Amazing! It's probably the best we're gonna get unless Toei rescans all 153 episodes of the Dragonball anime. Wonderful packaging, A GOOD upscale, proper color correction, the fucking BROADCAST AUDIO, something that just a few years ago, we didn't have for the vast majority of Dragonball. Who would've thought. I can't wait to see how episodes 69-153 look. Hopefully the AB Group is able to use the raw Dragon Box files from Toei for their upscale for the rest of the series instead of DVD rips, since they're not on a time crunch, doing it in under two months after changing their minds on using Selecta Vision's botched upscale from Spain.

And of course, ditto on the possibility of Crunchyroll licensing this release for a domestic release (AS-IS) in North America once AB Group finishes their upscale and release. I say as is, because I assume all of agree that we don't want the corpse of FUNimation touching/fucking up the footage in any way.

[Flameo Hotman]

Really late to the game on this, but whatever. But goddamn, this release looks beautiful! Amazing! It's probably the best we're gonna get unless Toei rescans all 153 episodes of the Dragonball anime. Wonderful packaging, A GOOD upscale, proper color correction, the fucking BROADCAST AUDIO, something that just a few years ago, we didn't have for the vast majority of Dragonball. Who would've thought. I can't wait to see how episodes 69-153 look. Hopefully the AB Group is able to use the raw Dragon Box files from Toei for their upscale for the rest of the series instead of DVD rips, since they're not on a time crunch, doing it in under two months after changing their minds on using Selecta Vision's botched upscale from Spain.

And of course, ditto on the possibility of Crunchyroll licensing this release for a domestic release (AS-IS) in North America once AB Group finishes their upscale and release. I say as is, because I assume all of agree that we don't want the corpse of FUNimation touching/fucking up the footage in any way.

I don't believe Crunchyroll will release the AB Group Upscale anytime soon. In Germany they are the ones that use the Selecta Vision Upscale for our new Blu Rays that come out this year.

I would assume they will do the same for the US and UK

[eledoremassis02]

Honestly, if we're going to get any upscale, I would just rather prefer a SD-Bluray or HD-SD source. The Dragon Box, scan wise, already looks really good and with some color correction (and the broadcast audio) would be the best (and arguably most authentic) way to watch the series.

[Traveller]

Honestly, if we're going to get any upscale, I would just rather prefer a SD-Bluray or HD-SD source. The Dragon Box, scan wise, already looks really good and with some color correction (and the broadcast audio) would be the best (and arguably most authentic) way to watch the series.

I actually decided to pop on a DVD from the Dragon Box release, honestly it held up pretty well on my 4K TV, very watchable still. A decent upscale and some other additions would be alright.

Ill likely continue sticking with these until maybe one day a better HD release comes.

[Javaki]

Can you please make direct screen capture comparisons between Selecta, German and French sets?

I unfortunately still didn't receive my German copy yet But I'll do French/German comparisons once I do.

I finally got my German copy Here are a few comparision shots from the first episode: https://slow.pics/c/2FqafK7Z

[DB1984]

I just might get this one day. And kudos for not doing that "Season" crap like FUNImation has done. This show didn't have "seasons". It was like game shows and Daytime Soaps in those days.

[DB1984]

I'm surprised AB Video didn't try to fix the order of the ending (NEP first, then credits). Must be a lot harder than it seems.

Some vintage Toei Animes have kept the original order on DVDs. Here's which ones I know for sure:

GeGeGe no Kitaro (1968-1969 and 1971-1972 versions)
Sakigake!! Otokojuku (1988)

[Raki]

It's a shame that everyone except Funimation can do a proper release of the franchise. Even Yu Yu Hakusho has received better releases over DragonBall.

[DB1984]

Two things:

1) Now that I have access to the original broadcast audio for DB/DBZ/DBGT, I can't imagine why anyone would wanna go back to the Dragon Box audio. Though I'd imagine that once AB Video reaches episode #079, they will probably have to use the Dragon Box audio in some spots due to joining in progress in the original airing.

2) Is MKVToolNIX GUI effective in putting the NEP back to where it was originally? Re-timing the subtitle track could be very complicated. That's probably why nobody's ever tried it in fan restoration projects (iKaos; no disrespect intended towards him, of course).

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

1) Now that I have access to the original broadcast audio for DB/DBZ/DBGT, I can't imagine why anyone would wanna go back to the Dragon Box audio. Though I'd imagine that once AB Video reaches episode #079, they will probably have to use the Dragon Box audio in some spots due to joining in progress in the original airing.

Same here, i have ripped copies of all three series from the Dragon Box with the broadcast audio synced to them and it's really awesome being able to watch the OG anime run with the amazing sounding audio they originally aired with. There's no way in hell i could bring myself to go back to listening to that muffled low quality ass audio ever again.

[Pride9000!!!]

Can you please make direct screen capture comparisons between Selecta, German and French sets?

I unfortunately still didn't receive my German copy yet But I'll do French/German comparisons once I do.

I finally got my German copy Here are a few comparision shots from the first episode: https://slow.pics/c/2FqafK7Z

The more I look at this Blu-ray the More I like it. I still can't believe that a official release gave us this kind of quality.

[Cold Skin]

^ The German Blu-ray or the French Blu-ray? Because it's a comparison shot, so which one are you talking about here when you say "I can't believe an official release gave us this kind of quality"?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

No news on second Blu-Ray set, but nothing denied either.

Personally I see no reason to worry, it will come.

[coola]

Just hope Toei won't complain about broadcast audio...would be a real d.ck move to have 1st box with broadcast audio only to have it switched to DBOX for rest...

[Scsigs]

Just hope Toei won't complain about broadcast audio...would be a real d.ck move to have 1st box with broadcast audio only to have it switched to DBOX for rest...

I doubt if Toei allowed them to use it for the first set, they wouldn't do the same for future ones.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Just hope Toei won't complain about broadcast audio...would be a real d.ck move to have 1st box with broadcast audio only to have it switched to DBOX for rest...

I doubt if Toei allowed them to use it for the first set, they wouldn't do the same for future ones.

I wouldn't be surprised if TOEI were oblivious to the broadcast audio being used. If they could be ignorant of Manga UK using the Yamamoto score on their Kai Blu-Rays in 2015 it's not out of the question they would also be the same way regarding the use of higher quality Japanese audio.

[sangofe]

No news on second Blu-Ray set, but nothing denied either.

Personally I see no reason to worry, it will come.

It just says "not yet". The picture of vegeta hints at "not yet DBZ release I'd say". The graphical designer of the sets has confirmed he finished the design of the second DB box. For the record AB announced the release of the first DB boxset just a few weeks before they actually released.

[Gilby1385]

I'm surprised AB Video didn't try to fix the order of the ending (NEP first, then credits). Must be a lot harder than it seems.

Some vintage Toei Animes have kept the original order on DVDs. Here's which ones I know for sure:

GeGeGe no Kitaro (1968-1969 and 1971-1972 versions)
Sakigake!! Otokojuku (1988)

The Slump Boxes did this too, at least with some of the Hoyoyo discs.