DBZ #1 Japanese Region 2 release

[MajinVejitaXV]

The link Mike posted is about as good a comparison as you'll get. Screen captures don't go the product justice though, it truly has to be seen (it looks great even on my plasma TV with upconversion to 720p).

Also, can someone confirm for me what the Z discs are (dual layer or single)? I remember the bitrates being scary low, and those screenshots make me wonder what the latest releases are. Bitrates would be nice too, or even just a x.xxGB/4.7(8.5?)GB.

Danke.

-Corey

[Tanooki Kuribo]

I remeber a time, back in 1995 or so people would pay 20 bucks for 3 episodes on VHS with horrible quality video and almost unreadable subtitles, and sometimes you didn't even get a cover (just a VHS slipcase). Now we have good picture quality DVD's with optional languages, cover art, and subtitles by someone who actually knows what he's doing and we are complaining about bitrate speed? Wow, when did we get so spoiled?

[DBW]

Wow, when did we get so spoiled?

When the spoils became a possibility.

I can't stand Goku's bright pink skin, a lot of the brightness on the images of the Japanese DVD hurt my eyes slightly

Are you joking or something? It's not like a brighter colour will shoot beams of intense light into your eyes, it's just a lighter shade. If anything, the saturation on FUNi's DVDs is more stressful on the eyes. It's very unnatural looking, whereas the R2 disks use the true colours, which actually give a much softer look when in motion.

[RC315]

I suppose there are 3 different opening videos of the 1st opening theme, Cha-la head-cha-la. Here are captures from the first opening video taken from DBZ #1.
This one here is replaced by Gohan running on Shenron on later episodes.
http://img305.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pdvd0109eh.png

This next one is replaced by Vegeta and Nappa walking in the fire, in later episodes. During the Garlic Jr. saga, it shows Kami in the dark and a robotic arm turning into a human arm. In this part, it just shows Goku on his cloud flying across from right to left.
http://img104.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pdvd0110cz.png

This part here is later replaced by Vegeta with bright aura, yellowish, flying towards the screen.
http://img49.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pdvd0133xu.png

These next three show Krillin, Tien, and Yamcha very quickly. Later episodes, I think during the Trunks saga or during the Androids sags. have Vegeta transforming into a Super Saiyan and SS Trunks slicing Mecha Freeza.
http://img487.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pdvd0176ix.png
http://img487.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pdvd0184wp.png
http://img487.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pdvd0198xu.png

And finally, this is probably the most obvious one. The cast is shown in this picture and Goku jumps in and poses with his pole. In later episodes, the cast is shown differently with Goku jumping in and then transforms into a Super Saiyan.
http://img270.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pdvd0231jc.png
http://img270.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pdvd0265op.png

[RC315]

Also, can someone confirm for me what the Z discs are (dual layer or single)? I remember the bitrates being scary low, and those screenshots make me wonder what the latest releases are. Bitrates would be nice too, or even just a x.xxGB/4.7(8.5?)GB.

The DBZ #1 DVD is 7.47 GB. The DBZ Vegeta saga vol.1 Saiyan Showdown DVD is 5.41 GB. I think the later releases of the Vegeta saga DVDs are single layer DVDs, not sure on this.

[VegettoEX]

Did some house cleaning. It should be fairly obvious what the result is.

If you can follow in the style of this thread, stay on topic, and not make me have to feel like I'm moderating a discussion from any given DBZ forum in 2000, I'd be more than happy to continue allowing and participating in the thread.

I'm sorry it even had to come to this. It's especially embarassing when this specific thread is linked in the latest update on the main page.

[denitonis]

Then I probably was the last to read this 4th page

Anyway to the subject on hand were there also comparisons done with the original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT?
Though the difference between the Dragon Ball Box and the Funimation Dragon Ball dvd's are probably quite noticeable, I heard that the Funi's GT ones actually succeeded quite nicely.
At least that the content would be on par with the Dragon Ball GT box like next epsisode preview and such.
But what about the video quality since it is the most recent one it might not needed much repairing, which means that the Box release would have less of a gap then the Funi dvd's.

[DBW]

Anyway to the subject on hand were there also comparisons done with the original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT?

FUNi's DragonBall DVDs have the darkened and saturated colours, and are zoomed in again, but otherwise they are quite good as far as grain goes.

FUNi's GT disks also look decent, except that they suffer from lots of crap on the screen (like dirt and stuff). Once again they're also over-saturated with those darkened colours (and most likely zoomed).

To give an idea of the saturation and zoom in general, here's some telling images from DBZ intro #2.

Top: FUNimation (from daizex), Bottom: Dragon Box



Look at how zoomed in this animation is. This is definately the worst case.



Unfortunately I don't have my FUNi DB and GT DVDs anymore, but if anybody wants to post some screencaps from FUNimation DVDs, I'll gladly match them with Dragon Box screencaps (just let me know where the image is from, episode#, etc.)

[desirecampbell]

This is crazy, why would FUNi zoom in like that? It can't be cheaper than not zooming.

[SuperFusion]

This is crazy, why would FUNi zoom in like that?

I also want to know this.

[DBW]

This is crazy, why would FUNi zoom in like that?

It's possible that FUNimation zoomed in extra in this case (since it is rather extreme here), but for the most part it's technically Toei's fault. FUNimation's DVDs are based off the original masters of the series, which were also used for the original Japanese TV broadcast, etc. The Dragon Box DVDs are based off of a brand new prints.

Basically, if you were to look at the individual frames on the 16mm film, you'd see that the core image is much larger than what you see on TV. Before putting the film into cold storage, they make "master" copies which only capture essentially the centre of the core image. This makes certain that no unwanted portion of the image (such as the edge of a cel or background) get into the film. This is the master that all previous DBZ footage was based off of (from 1989 to 2003).

For the Dragon Boxes they went back to the original 16mm film, and re-framed a brand new master print that would capture more of the core image. The downside to this is that they had to correct any errors (like seeing the edge of a cel) by compensating with more upper, lower, left-side, or right-side portion of the image. For example, if you could see the bottom of a cel in one frame, then they had to find that specific frame and re-photograph it with an upward frame-shift. (Now imagine doing this with the entire series).

The only way to get this new print is either through Dragon Box or the new single releases. So it's not really FUNimation's fault here, but for the sake of direct comparison between the two releases, it's obviously still noteworthy.

[Eclipse]

This is quite strange but...

Why do they have English text? (Not the logos or anything, but the text in the left corner)

[lost in thought]

This is quite strange but...
<clipped><image></clipped>
Why do they have English text? (Not the logos or anything, but the text in the left corner)

Haven't you noticed? The Japanese are very fond of the English language, and for this, tend to use it in damn near anything (much like Americans missuse Japanese.)

What gets me more than them using it, is just how well its been used. Like the text you were talking about, Eclipse:

"A journey that begins long ago in a place neither near, nor far...
A story of heroes, passed down through the ages...
Until now. This is our story. These are our heroes."

That right there is as far from Eng(r)ish as I've ever seen on ANYTHING Japanese. I am completely amazed and appauled at the same time. It's also incredibly amusing.

Edit:
Also, just commenting on the image above, I really like the font used for the episode names, that are adjacent to the display pictures for each episode.

[DBW]

A journey that begins long ago in a place neither near, nor far...

"A journey that began long ago, in a place neither near nor far..."

Their English is better than yours.

Anyways, yeah, this is like the new motto for DBZ. It's on all the packaging, menus, etc.

[B-kun]

Hell, for a long while, I wasn't sure about my Naruto 2004 calendar. The only thing assuring me it was from Japan was "Konoha-Gakure".

And I'm surprised Lost didn't bring up things like Sentai - if you watch Power Rangers SPD and watch the S.W.A.T. mode transformations in slow-mo, you can see various Dekaranger terms in the background in English, including names (like "SEN-CHAN")/

[denitonis]

FUNi's DragonBall DVDs have the darkened and saturated colours, and are zoomed in again, but otherwise they are quite good as far as grain goes.

FUNi's GT disks also look decent, except that they suffer from lots of crap on the screen (like dirt and stuff). Once again they're also over-saturated with those darkened colours (and most likely zoomed).

Well I guessed so.
I myself too bought the Japanese Dragon boxes up untill now I have them all but since I bought Funi's discs prior to buying the boxes I also have the these.
Though I never bought a GT disc and read somewhere that there was practically no difference between the Japanese and American releases so that's why I wondered.
If really needed to I could compare the original Dragon Ball series myself since I did buy a few Funi discs of those too since I really was curious about Piccolo.

[lost in thought]

A journey that begins long ago in a place neither near, nor far...

"A journey that began long ago, in a place neither near nor far..."

Their English is better than yours.

*Stamps Failure on DBW's forehead.* Welcome to dunce cap land friend.

To elaborate, you've totally missed the mark, since my problem rests firmly in being damn near blind, and having difficulty reading that tiny text. But thanks for correcting my mistake, anyway.

[Mr. Robot]

Actually, a "tale that begins long ago" is fine English, if I'm not mistaken. While you generally use the past tense here, there is a style called the "Historical Present"--used according to each author's stylistic preferences.

Off topic, I know, but I couldn't resist. Sorry.

[M-Vegeta]

I'm really tempted to buy these now. They look great on screen, menus, picture quality, and the cases and packaging are tremendous! And in the future, I can always reauthor them, adding my own subtitles by using FUNimations translations. I wounld watch the backups primarily, why not try and keep the masters as close to mint as possible.

Also, does Amazon JP have a conversion device - ¥ to $ Or am I on my own, here. I asked a Japanese friend on-line what the conversion would be in dollars.

How much is ￥3,192 to $ amount?

(￣(エ)￣)ゞ クマッタナねぇ　樹庭夢くん says:
about 32 dollars (118.92 yen 1 dollar)

(￣(エ)￣)ゞ クマッタナねぇ　樹庭夢くん says:
and shipping

I'm guessing most of you ordering know Japanese good enough to translate the page. I might have to try Altavista, or something.

[VegettoEX]

The current ratio seems to be ￥1 = $0.00843953 U.S. Therefore, ￥3,192 is about $27.