Frame by Frame Re-mastering? (Warning: Semi-Ranty)

[zeldarocks]

Having viewed the Dragon Box footage, I was shocked to find multiple instances of left-over damage in the film... One glaring example is the scene where Goku blasts off to Namek in Box 2, there's a very prominent black dot appearing out of nowhere... What happened? I thought they remastered EVERYTHING frame by frame, I was expecting NO damage whatsoever...

[Kendamu]

Well, I looked through the scene just now. I didn't see it. Maybe you could take a screenshot?

[zeldarocks]

I'll try taking a screenshot momentarily, but to clarify, I'm referring to the set of frames where Goku is actually blasting off and leaving the Earth behind, in the distance one could see said dot...

[MajinVejitaXV]

Eh, even frame-by-frame restorations occasionally miss something. What other instances are you referring to, and can you take screenshots?

[The Time Traveller]

I remember seeing cracks 'n' fizzles or what ever they're called in this scene, try and spot it! I remember it appears when Goku is flying at some point...

Also, more stuff like this keeps happening, in Next Episode Previews, mostly...



It's much worse other times...

[rereboy]

Nothing is perfect.

[The Time Traveller]

No one said the Dragon Box is perfect, but it's definitely amazing, for DBZ fans at least.

[Captain Awesome]

On FUNimation's masters every single time there was a cut of any sort you could see a bunch of glue at the top of the frame, the Dragonbox for the most part did a fantastic job at removing it.

Anyway, something is always going to slip by, but it's the most rampant in the episode previews.

[zeldarocks]

Is it really the 'definitve' set?

[MajinVejitaXV]

Is it really the 'definitve' set?

Nope! It is the definitive set though! ;p

Seriously, unless you count Kai as being the same thing (which, in my mind, it isn't with the redrawing/censorship/etc), this is as good as the original DragonBall Z anime is going to get. It's been out for 7 years in Japan now and there's nothing to indicate anything better is getting released. And really, there's not much need for anything better in my opinion.

[Gaffer Tape]

Yeah, small amounts of film damage have never really bothered me. Nothing's perfect. I don't think you can find any so-called restoration of anything that doesn't have some scratch or dirt or something. It's not at all exclusive to the Dragon Box. But I'd much rather have those scratches than have someone go hyper crazy on removing them and end up screwing up the picture (a la the season sets).

[Ketchup_Revenge]

Meh...I don't think it's worth it for the price they're asking for. Unless it had some really cool special features like a documentary on the cover drawings done by Toriyama, I'm comfortable with the lesser quality season sets even though the widescreen crap is redonkulous.

[Gaffer Tape]

I certainly can't complain in getting the 2nd one for under $40. Less than a dollar an episode.

[MajinVejitaXV]

Meh...I don't think it's worth it for the price they're asking for. Unless it had some really cool special features like a documentary on the cover drawings done by Toriyama, I'm comfortable with the lesser quality season sets even though the widescreen crap is redonkulous.

Seriously, what is a show worth these days then? A ~20 episode TV show is about $40-60 a season. ~40 episodes of DragonBall Z aren't worth $40-50?

How easy people have it these days. With us poor bastards who dealt with 3-6 episodes for $25-30 back in the day... ;p

[Craddle]

Meh...I don't think it's worth it for the price they're asking for. Unless it had some really cool special features like a documentary on the cover drawings done by Toriyama, I'm comfortable with the lesser quality season sets even though the widescreen crap is redonkulous.

You can get the Dragon Boxes for almost the same price as the season sets and the Dragon Boxes have more episodes. I'm not even going to get into the quality or widescreen issues since you're willing to admit they're existent.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Having viewed the Dragon Box footage, I was shocked to find multiple instances of left-over damage in the film... One glaring example is the scene where Goku blasts off to Namek in Box 2, there's a very prominent black dot appearing out of nowhere... What happened? I thought they remastered EVERYTHING frame by frame, I was expecting NO damage whatsoever...

Don't worry; just wait until Dragon Ball Z Kai gets released on Blu-ray and get that. It will look 10 times as better.

[MCDaveG]

Don't worry; just wait until Dragon Ball Z Kai gets released on Blu-ray and get that. It will look 10 times as better.

Yeah, if you don't count that due to cuts of filler and re-drawns, every animation and art is different after each cut and looking on Kai, it's actually pain for my eyes. In quality I really prefer Z series. Kai is like pizza with skittles, It looks good and colorful on first view, but try to eat it, Hawai with pineapple is definitely better.

[Kendamu]

Is it really the 'definitve' set?

Yes, it is. It's a near-perfect DVD release of a show that's over 20 years old. No other long animated series I've seen that's around the same age looks anywhere near as good as Dragonbox DBZ. It's extremely well-done and it's leaps and bounds over everything else I've seen from that era.

I understand that you're trying to rally us up to nerd rage in the most ironic way possible, but it's not gonna happen.

Heck, you didn't even provide a screenshot of what you were complaining about after we asked you for one!

Meh...I don't think it's worth it for the price they're asking for. Unless it had some really cool special features like a documentary on the cover drawings done by Toriyama, I'm comfortable with the lesser quality season sets even though the widescreen crap is redonkulous.

$35 for 42 episodes being delivered to you half a month before street date (RightStuf) is too much for you? The Japanese discs of the same footage costs around $2000 to buy new. Here in the US we're looking at getting it for roughly around $300 depending on where you buy it.

That's an even better deal than the Orange Bricks if you would've bought them as they were coming out and the Orange Bricks are already dirt cheap.

I can understand not wanting to double-dip if you already got the Orange Bricks or if you're waiting for Kai to come out, but if you want Dragonball Z and you don't have it yet then you're not going to find a better deal in the near future.

Don't worry; just wait until Dragon Ball Z Kai gets released on Blu-ray and get that. It will look 10 times as better.

Now that I can understand.

[russ869]

Heh, that's nothing. You should see the HD remastered Macross DVDs. The film splices are pretty obvious on that.

The Dragonboxes may not look as good as film masterings of more recent TV series, but their level of quality is practically unheard of for a 16mm TV anime this old.

[Ketchup_Revenge]

Meh...I don't think it's worth it for the price they're asking for. Unless it had some really cool special features like a documentary on the cover drawings done by Toriyama, I'm comfortable with the lesser quality season sets even though the widescreen crap is redonkulous.

Seriously, what is a show worth these days then? A ~20 episode TV show is about $40-60 a season. ~40 episodes of DragonBall Z aren't worth $40-50?

How easy people have it these days. With us poor bastards who dealt with 3-6 episodes for $25-30 back in the day... ;p

You can remaster it in any way possible that you want, but it's still has the exact same content of the box set you bought three years ago that's sitting on your shelf collecting dust.
I'm just getting so sick of the series simply being re-re-re-re-re-released by Funimation. That's why I hold so much resentment toward the Dragon Box. If they had a feature on the Dragon Boxes that was something like pop-up trivia about Toriyama, the series, Toei, or Funimation while you watched the thing, I would be sold. Period. That would make it worth collecting for me, and I'd be all over it like a fly on a hot load.

In other words, I couldn't give a flying flip about enhanced picture quality. Enhanced picture quality is hardly a reason to convince me to by these things when I have the exact same thing sitting in my DVD cabinet.

Also I don't see the point in getting the series again when I already have the orange bricks, regardless if I can get the Dragon Boxes at $35 at RightStuf, because even if I did, I know I wouldn't be able to sell my Orange Bricks for half of what I even paid for them in the first place.