The old two-disc DB sets. Worth it anymore?

[Levlik]

I stumbled upon a good amount of these babies at my local FYE a couple of days ago and contemplated getting them. They were going for roughly $15, except for one, believe of may have been one of the Piccolo Jr sets for $20. It was volume 6, 7, 8.1, 9.1, and 9.2, so pretty much the Uranai Baba arc all the way up to the end. I only own FUNi's new Season 1 set of DB right now and have been thinking about picking up the others, but they're rather expensive still going for roughly $40 wherever I see them. So if I picked these up tonight (If they're even still there) I'd be paying roughly $90-ish for the latter half of the series. Basically my question is whether it's even worth it to get these sets to begin with or just hold out until the season sets get cheaper. I know that these DVDs are nowhere near as valuable as they were, say, three to four years ago (I remember the Piccolo sets and the Tournament Saga in particular going for $100 each back then) but how is the video and audio quality? Obviously I'm missing out on the 5.1 mix of the dub which honestly isn't all that big of a deal to me, but I'd just like to know if there's any big jump in video quality from these old masters to the new ones. I recall the old Z DVD singles being incredibly grainy and poorly compressed, with artifcats everywhere, so I'm curious if these sets got the same shabby compression.

[Nuova]

You can by the new Dragonball blue bricks for roughly $20 now at amazon.com.

[xzero]

Not a big jump in quality, but the video is noticeably better on the season sets.

Also, consider this. You can probably get the season sets for $30 each if you know where to look. You already have Season 1, so there are 4 outstanding. That's $120 at most. If you got the old 2-disc sets, you're looking at $150-170, depending on individual pricing. So the higher quality season sets may be a bit cheaper. Amazon has all of them for less than $30, as Nuova pointed out.

As for rarity, it's possible some of them are rare or valuable, but I believe their value dropped quite a bit after the season sets came out.

[TheGreatness25]

I just like having every version that came out (in the US anyway), so for me they were totally worth it. Maybe not in today's age because I enjoyed them for two years, if not more before the Season Sets came out. Then again, I got the whole thing for $200, so it was practically a steal for that time, where the Piccolo Jr. Part 2 DVD was averaging $70 on Ebay. I wonder if they've cooled off on those prices or if they're the same/higher now.

[linkdude20002001]

The two-disk sets had the original Japanese video as an alternate angle, and they're less zoomed in. But overall, the quality is better on the blue bricks.

[Choice195]

Not worth it, Just buy the remastered sets or wait for FUNi to release the Dragonball : Dragonbox.

[TheLegendary117]

I think it is but thats just me.

[Gaffer Tape]

I'd say it depends on how cheaply you can get them. If you can get them for a substantially better value than the blue bricks, and you can't wait for the possibility of a DBox, go for it, as they both have their flaws.

[Son Satan]

Like Gaffer Tape said, it all depends on the value.

Compared to the bricks, the video sees a jump, and the remastering doesn't suck like the Z bricks. Personally, I'd buy the season sets, because of the better deal, and the prices on the singles/2 discs dropping. (EX: Even though they weren't as sought-after, I got the final GT single for $10 at Borders)

[Cipher]

The two-disk sets had the original Japanese video as an alternate angle, and they're less zoomed in. But overall, the quality is better on the blue bricks.

Can I see some confirmation of this? I always thought the footage was exactly as zoomed in as it was on the two-disc sets.

Also, I'm going to go with what others have said. The video is indeed a marginal improvement on the season sets. Unless you really hate the smoothed-over look of DVNR (which is used sparingly).

[Levlik]

Yeah, I remember hearing something about the sets being zoomed in as well.

...and after looking around I found a few shots, but only two of the exact same frames to compare:

"Saga" DVDs
"Season" DVDs

That's a pretty big jump if you ask me. In any case, I did end up buying them out of sheer impulse only to instantly regret it the moment I come home to find out that I can get Seasons 2, 3, 4, and 5 on Amazon for LESS than what I paid for these at FYE. Just need to wait until Friday when I get paid since I don't have all that much in my checking out (Partly why I decided on getting these in the first place, I must admit). I'm not a hardcore DB collector, so I'm definitely returning them. Thankfully I didn't remove them from their pseudo-seals FYE puts on them. I just kind of wish FYE had a more lenient return policy on their used stuff like how Gamestop lets you do whatever within seven days and then return them, because I'm really hankering to watch these now. Oh well. Haven't seen the show since the Tenshinhan episodes aired on Cartoon Network. It was around that time that I just grew tired of the dub, so I just stopped watching, and never bothered with the DVDs since I was 14 when they first came out and had no job. And yes, I'm saying I've never ever seen the Daimao or Jr arcs in my life. Had the manga for years, but I've never seen how the show handled it.

[TheGreatness25]

Hey don't regret it. You're owning a very rare piece of the Dragon Ball franchise. You own less zoomed in footage and the original Japanese title cards and whatnot. You now own individual art for the DVDs too. You shouldn't regret it. The Season sets may be a better move if you're sitting down and thinking which you should buy over the other, but you should not regret owning something rare and... well... Dragon Ball.

For me, I'd still want it even if I got it after the Season sets. I mean I went back and got the Pioneer DVDs after getting the rest of the series. Heck, I got the Cell Games Saga (singles) for like $75 after I got Season 5 (or whatever it was in the Z sets) just to have it.

[MugiMikey]

Yeah, I remember hearing something about the sets being zoomed in as well.

...and after looking around I found a few shots, but only two of the exact same frames to compare:

"Saga" DVDs
"Season" DVDs

Can I contribute?

I took these screenshots from my original Tournament Saga set and my Season One blue brick set.

Tournament Saga set
Season One blue brick set

That always bothered me. A lot. Not to mention the timing on the opening and ending songs are off on the blue bricks and timed perfectly on the original Saga sets.

[jpdbzrulz4sure]

Tournament Saga set
Season One blue brick set

That always bothered me. A lot.

Same here.

One reason why DB needs a stateside Dragon Box release.

[kingvegito]

Aren't both missing the next episode previews as well as several opening and ending animations?

[jpdbzrulz4sure]

Aren't both missing the next episode previews as well as several opening and ending animations?

Yeah, they are.

A couple more reasons why DB needs a DBox.

[Gaffer Tape]

That always bothered me. A lot. Not to mention the timing on the opening and ending songs are off on the blue bricks and timed perfectly on the original Saga sets.

They are on that too?! Geez, didn't FUNimation learn their lesson? I remember DBZ season 2 had the timing of the opening way off on every episode of that set.

[jpdbzrulz4sure]

That always bothered me. A lot. Not to mention the timing on the opening and ending songs are off on the blue bricks and timed perfectly on the original Saga sets.

They are on that too?! Geez, didn't FUNimation learn their lesson? I remember DBZ season 2 had the timing of the opening way off on every episode of that set.

I think MugiMikey was talking about the English songs. The Japanese ones are timed perfectly on the blue bricks.

Still...

[MugiMikey]

That always bothered me. A lot. Not to mention the timing on the opening and ending songs are off on the blue bricks and timed perfectly on the original Saga sets.

They are on that too?! Geez, didn't FUNimation learn their lesson? I remember DBZ season 2 had the timing of the opening way off on every episode of that set.

I think MugiMikey was talking about the English songs. The Japanese ones are timed perfectly on the blue bricks.

Yeah. The timing for the English AND Japanese songs are timed perfectly on the original Saga set DVDs. Nothing to worry about.

On the blue brick sets, the timing for the English songs are off but the timing for the Japanese songs are perfect.