Funimation Dragon Ball Kai Bluray Speculation

[sangofe]

What I'm interested in knowing is how many episodes per disc, and box there will be.

[Kendamu]

Recent news said there'd be 13 episodes in the first release.

[Craddle]

Recent news said there'd be 13 episodes in the first release.

That's great news Kendamu! I was hoping they wouldn't break it down to 7-8 episodes as u speculated on the podcast.

Do you have a link to this news your speaking of? I haven't been able to find it.

[linkdude20002001]

I don't know where he got the news, but it's pretty obvious that it will be 12 or 13 just like FUNimation's other "season one - part one" blu-ray box sets for that same exact price. It wouldn't make much sense to sell Kai for the same price as their other shows, but with only half the episodes.

[Kendamu]

I don't know where he got the news, but it's pretty obvious that it will be 12 or 13 just like FUNimation's other "season one - part one" blu-ray box sets for that same exact price. It wouldn't make much sense to sell Kai for the same price as their other shows, but with only half the episodes.

Some of us didn't know exactly how it worked, though, hence my original prediction. I don't really collect a whole lot of anime.

I think the last non-Dragonball thing I picked up completely was Cowboy Bebop about 7 or 8 years ago.

[SSJSteve]

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this yet but Amazon has updated the Blu-Ray page for Dragon Ball Z Kai.

The product details on the page say:

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 2
Run time: 325 minutes

The DVD page is the same except with no Aspect Ratio details. I'm not sure if any of this has already been confirmed, sorry if it's been posted before.

[jjgp1112]

If it's 1.33:1, that would mean it's 4x3 since 3*1.33=3.99~4

[linkdude20002001]

Some of us didn't know exactly how it worked, though, hence my original prediction. I don't really collect a whole lot of anime.

I think the last non-Dragonball thing I picked up completely was Cowboy Bebop about 7 or 8 years ago.

That's better than me. Lol. All I have is a couple Yuyu Hakusho singles.

I had to do a bit of research to find out how FUNi's new box set's are released.

[Craddle]

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this yet but Amazon has updated the Blu-Ray page for Dragon Ball Z Kai.

The product details on the page say:

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 2
Run time: 325 minutes

The DVD page is the same except with no Aspect Ratio details. I'm not sure if any of this has already been confirmed, sorry if it's been posted before.

Yes! Fullscreen! I'm going to be buying this now for sure. That would have been a deciding factor for me. I hope that amazon has the correct info or I'll be psyched out for nothing.

[MajinVejitaXV]

If it's 1.33:1, that would mean it's 4x3 since 3*1.33=3.99~4

...is there anyone that didn't know this? ;p

In any case, I'll wait to see how the release looks. If FUNi does it decently, I might pick it up. Kai isn't something I'm hot on importing, so it makes the domestic releases viable to me.

[Li'l Lemmy]

Despite the loss of Stephanie Nadolny, I'll be getting Kai and I'll be getting it in Blu-ray. I had no intention of importing (given that a stateside version was inevitable anyway), but the chance to see FUNi's last-ditch effort at an accurate dub-- pass or fail-- makes the domestic release DAY ONE for yours truly.

Although bear in mind that I will quickly sell off all my Kai sets if Kara Edwards turns up missing down the line.

Think I ain't serious, FUNi? Try me.


~Da Lemmy

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

...is there anyone that didn't know this? ;p

Ummm....... Me.


On topic: The whole Fullscreen/Widescreen thing doesn't really bother me, I'm just happy that we're getting Dragon Ball Z Kai on DVD.

[LilKokuLink]

I've been keeping my eye on amazon.com for the dragonball z kai blu ray. The list price keeps changing like everyday and then today the RRP changed too. I'm sure that it's gone down and now the difference between the DVD and the blu ray is $3.
I've pre-ordered the blu-ray just incase it goes back up again because it went up to $46.99 before it came back down.
Don't want any of that now do we.

Well... me anyway...

[Rory]

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this yet but Amazon has updated the Blu-Ray page for Dragon Ball Z Kai.

The product details on the page say:

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 2
Run time: 325 minutes

The DVD page is the same except with no Aspect Ratio details. I'm not sure if any of this has already been confirmed, sorry if it's been posted before.

Damn shame, a release when widescreen would've been appropriate. Ah well, I'll still be getting it anyway.

[VegettoEX]

16:9 please.
Fill my TV with glorious goodness!

You want less picture? You actually want things removed?

It's the same as with the orange bricks -- don't make the rest of us suffer if you can't be bothered to press the "zoom" button on your remote to "fill up" your widescreen TV. Everyone wins when it's uncropped.

[Rory]

16:9 please.
Fill my TV with glorious goodness!

You want less picture? You actually want things removed?

It's the same as with the orange bricks -- don't make the rest of us suffer if you can't be bothered to press the "zoom" button on your remote to "fill up" your widescreen TV. Everyone wins when it's uncropped.

To be honest, yeah I do! It isn't cropped the way the bricks were (losing heads etc), it's actually cropped specially for each scene. It's a shame we're going to lose this aspect ratio, just pressing the "zoom" button makes the image look stretched and horrible.
Opinions Mike, s'all about opinions. Obviously it's in 4:3 anyway, so you guys don't need to worry.

[VegettoEX]

To be honest, yeah I do! It isn't cropped the way the bricks were (losing heads etc), it's actually cropped specially for each scene. It's a shame we're going to lose this aspect ratio, just pressing the "zoom" button makes the image look stretched and horrible.
Opinions Mike, s'all about opinions. Obviously it's in 4:3 anyway, so you guys don't need to worry.

"Zoom" is not the same thing as "stretch". There is a perfectly fine "zoom" button on every modern TV that will do the appropriate zooming and cropping to bring a 4:3 image up to 16:9 by removing the top and bottom ~20% of the image (sound familiar...?) and pulling in forward. It's mostly used for non-anamorphic, letterboxed video sources so as to avoid double-pillaring -- the underlying video is 16:9, so zooming it up and performing some upscaling can avoid the pillar bars and provide no loss of actual "video".

It's got nothing to do with "opinions". It's the exact same thing as before. You can have your beautifully filled widescreen TV if that's such a deal-breaker for you (oh noez left/right pillars!) without compromising the image for anyone else. Learn how to use what you purchase instead of ruining the image for everyone else.

You're right in that there does appear to be a difference between the crop used on TV broadcast for Kai (selectively shifting scenes up and down) and what was done with the FUNimation orange bricks (though that doesn't change the fact that image is being removed, and other fans who know and prefer better shouldn't have to suffer because of it). Can anyone confirm that this selective-shifting doesn't carry over to the 4:3 image, though? Are there essentially two different "image masters", one that's selectively-shifted for the 16:9 DVDs, and one that is center-framed from the original film for the 4:3 Blu-rays...?

[LilKokuLink]

I thought stretching 4:3 to 16:9 was going to make it look bad, but blu-ray players make it seem like there's no difference . In a way, I'm getting 16:9 with no cropping - because after all if I'm not losing any footage and cannot tell that it's been stretched, then psychologically it's 16:9 right?
I personally don't like zooming because with quality you can tell the difference, and with zooming I think picture is lost too.
I watched both GT sets stretched and on the last episode I put it in 4:3 to check, and to me it didn't look that stretched but in fact it looked like the 4:3 characters looked really thin. So if I'm used to the stretched then I shouldn't be feeling any difference . Quality wise - unless I stand really close to the TV, I can't tell the difference.
If it's able to do that with the GT season sets then I'm sure it's the same here, I don't know the technical stuff in the stretching but I think it's different to just a standard stretch to the picture both ways. Now I wish the Z season sets weren't cropped widescreen then it would have been consistent!
Damn it!

I have a question though, I'm not sure if anyone actually knows yet but if they could give me an idea that'll be fine. My friend has a Playstation 3, I don't know whether there are European versions/American versions of them but if there are then his would be European. So does anyone have any idea which regions FUNimation is likely to or will release the blu-rays in? I'm also unsure whether PS3's are multi-region too, so if anyone could help that would be appreciated.

[VegettoEX]

I have a question though, I'm not sure if anyone actually knows yet but if they could give me an idea that'll be fine. My friend has a Playstation 3, I don't know whether there are European versions/American versions of them but if there are then his would be European. So does anyone have any idea which regions FUNimation is likely to or will release the blu-rays in? I'm also unsure whether PS3's are multi-region too, so if anyone could help that would be appreciated.

PS3s are indeed region coded -- for certain things.

PS3s will only play PS1 and (if it was one of the first models) PS2 games from that same region; for example, I can't play Legends on my American PS3.

It is also region coded appropriately for DVDs; for example, I can't just pop in my raw JP Dragon Box discs into my American PS3 and play them.

It is also region coded appropriate for Blu-rays; for example, I can't pop in a "Region B" Blu-ray and play it on my American PS3. Thankfully, the US and Japan happen to both be within "Region A", so Japanese Blu-ray discs will play just fine on an American PS3. You Europeans are out of luck, though. Of special note are the Japanese Kai Blu-ray releases, which appear to be region-free.

PS3 games, themselves, also appear to be region-free. You can play any PS3 game from any territory. Am I correct on this? I think we've been over this a few times before...

I don't have any FUNimation Blu-ray releases of my own yet (Kai will probably be the first if I don't get Evangelion before then), so I can't speak from experience on this. I'm assuming they have released and will only release for "Region A".

[Rory]

Learn how to use what you purchase instead of ruining the image for everyone else.

I'm not ruining anything! I don't make the big choices here, I'm just saying what I'd like to see, because:

You're right in that there does appear to be a difference between the crop used on TV broadcast for Kai (selectively shifting scenes up and down) and what was done with the FUNimation orange brick

There is a difference, and the widescreen is largely appropriate (it's a HD product in 2010, I do expect good looking wide screen, sorry if that upsets anybody, it's just my way of thinking).