FUNimation DBZ TV Blu-ray Official On-Going Thread

[OneDragonZwill]

found this very useful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0sK3ekm ... ideo_title

Damn that was one good review.
Ill be picking these up when Funimation re-releases them.

[DanielGClapp]

found this very useful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0sK3ekm ... ideo_title

Damn that was one good review.
Ill be picking these up when Funimation re-releases them.

Yeah. BDUB is legit!

[funrush]

Dude, I love that guy! Very extensive review.

[rereboy]

Its a nice review but he should have mentioned the Dragon Boxes being on DVD (instead of Bluray) as a con, since Bluray is the better format and will remain current in the near future while DVD will not.

There was nothing stopping Funimation from releasing the Dragon Boxes in DVD and in Bluray or just Bluray, so the Dragon Boxes being in just DVD is definitely a con, especially compared to these new Bluray sets.

[bkev]

...except that, uh, the masters TOEi gave them for the dragon boxes are probably standard-definition? We don't even know if the final restored product was rendered in HD on the pony canyon computers, or however they restored the film. Putting standard-definition movies on blu-ray would be mostly arbitrary.

[Levlik]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the Dragon Boxes were remastered in anything but 480p. Bear in mind they were done in 2003. For FUNi to release the Dragon Boxes on Blu-Ray would've simply been an upscale, much like the Double Feature Blu-Rays if I'm not mistaken, and pointless because of that. A true HD remastering would've required an entirely new process from scratch, which is exactly what FUNi has done here. I think it's pretty remarkable that disregarding things like the lack of Japanese title cards, which is a shame but forgivable since I watch Marathon Mode anyway, the Blu-Rays look great. Damn great. When these were announced I expected nothing better than an upscaled Orange Brick in 4:3. What we got is something that gives the Dragon Box some stiff competition. I mean, it certainly says something about the remastering process that the only negative thing about it is that it's a bit dark.

And then there's the grain. Some people love it and some people hate it -- and I happen to fall into the former group -- but whatever the case, the grain IS the image. To remove it digitally would've tarnished the whole look and I commend FUNi for staying true to the film here. It's the polar opposite of what we got in 2007 and I think is very much worthy of the "Dragon Ball Z on Blu-Ray" title. We've come a long way in the last four years.

[Puto]

For FUNi to release the Dragon Boxes on Blu-Ray would've simply been an upscale, much like the Double Feature Blu-Rays if I'm not mistaken, and pointless because of that.

Double Feature Blu-rays weren't upscales. Rest is true though.

[jjgp1112]

The Double Features, technically speaking, were the same case as this. They used a 35mm film master and "remastered" it in 1080p and downscaled it for Standard DVD.

Edit: Ninja'd

[Levlik]

For FUNi to release the Dragon Boxes on Blu-Ray would've simply been an upscale, much like the Double Feature Blu-Rays if I'm not mistaken, and pointless because of that.

Double Feature Blu-rays weren't upscales. Rest is true though.

Ah, okay, thank you. I remember reading mixed reports about them back when they came out and was unsure of exactly how they were done. I only have the Movie 1 Blu-Ray that came with the PS3 version of Burst Limit and I don't think it looked all that good. Makes me hope FUNi rereleases the movies with this style of remastering.

[DanielGClapp]

There was nothing stopping Funimation from releasing the Dragon Boxes in DVD and in Bluray or just Bluray, so the Dragon Boxes being in just DVD is definitely a con, especially compared to these new Bluray sets.

Funimation promised Toei that they wouldn't fuck up the DBox footage, and putting the masters that Toei gave them on blu-ray without making any alterations would look terrible. The masters that Toei gave them are perfectly suited for DVD format, whereas the blu-rays that are currently in production have to go through a whole process before they are even rendered acceptable in blu-ray standards. The Dragon Box and blu-ray releases are two different standalone entities, each with their own unique qualities. The series can only look so good.

[jjgp1112]

There was nothing stopping Funimation from releasing the Dragon Boxes in DVD and in Bluray or just Bluray, so the Dragon Boxes being in just DVD is definitely a con, especially compared to these new Bluray sets.

Funimation promised Toei that they wouldn't fuck up the DBox footage, and putting the masters that Toei gave them on blu-ray without making any alterations would look terrible. The masters that Toei gave them are perfectly suited for DVD format, whereas the blu-rays that are currently in production have to go through a whole process before they are even rendered acceptable in blu-ray standards. The Dragon Box and blu-ray releases are two different standalone entities, each with their own unique qualities. The series can only look so good.

huh?

[Puto]

I don't recall anything ever being stated about FUNimation promising Toei anything.

FUNimation said they didn't do anything to the footage used in the US DBoxes, (which they didn't, barring the 10% brightness increase), but that's completely different from promising/contractually agreeing with Toei on anything.

Anyway, yeah. DBox masters on Blu-ray would be a terrible idea.

[DanielGClapp]

I don't recall anything ever being stated about FUNimation promising Toei anything.

FUNimation said they didn't do anything to the footage used in the US DBoxes, (which they didn't, barring the 10% brightness increase), but that's completely different from promising/contractually agreeing with Toei on anything.

Anyway, yeah. DBox masters on Blu-ray would be a terrible idea.

I was over-exaggerating, but I'm pretty sure it was part of the agreement of Funimation being able to use the DBox masters.

[Puto]

Nothing like that was ever officially stated. I don't even know why people think that...

[DanielGClapp]

Nothing like that was ever officially stated. I don't even know why people think that...

Hmmm.... then I've been completely misinformed....

[enapace]

Yeah from what I remember of watching an expo video they said something similar that they obtained the masters so they could release in America but toei wanted strict requirements. The choice of these blu-rays is matter of personal opinion if you are a proper fan of the Japanese version and do not care about falconer than Dragon Boxes are the best there is no doubt there as they have NEP the title cards etc which the blu-rays don't and also the colours look better to me. But if you want it on blu-ray to keep for the future get them, or if you want a good release that has the falconer music, to replace your crappy 16:9 orange bricks get these it it a personal choice I know I made the right choice with my DBOX and won't regret. Whatever they do I doubt DBZ will ever look better than the blu-rays or DBOX. the show is to old even with millions spent on remastering. Pick your side DBOX or Blu-ray and be happy with it you will get a good release either way it what you want that matters.

[Puto]

They said they didn't do anything to them because it's what the FANS wanted. Nothing was stated about Toei requiring anything, and even if they HAD required it, FUNimation don't typically discuss the details of their contracts anyway.

[enapace]

Not saying they do discuss I just saying they weren't edited. They are both good remasters it depends on preference I explained this better in the above post which I just edited.

Its a nice review but he should have mentioned the Dragon Boxes being on DVD (instead of Bluray) as a con, since Bluray is the better format and will remain current in the near future while DVD will not.

There was nothing stopping Funimation from releasing the Dragon Boxes in DVD and in Bluray or just Bluray, so the Dragon Boxes being in just DVD is definitely a con, especially compared to these new Bluray sets.

I have got to disagree with that the Dragon Box being on DVD is not a con really. Blu-ray isn't really a better format the difference is of how the data is contained thats all really and how they are read it like comparing cd to dvd. I think it will be a long time till DVD die properly because even now most things which are shown are 720p at most on TV. DVD are a brilliant media to store data on they always will be they are cheap to manufacture. It will be a very long time before DVDS die completely. Plus there is only so far you can take a old show like this it will never look as good on Blu-rays as say Naruto or a newer anime thats a fact.

[rereboy]

There was nothing stopping Funimation from releasing the Dragon Boxes in DVD and in Bluray or just Bluray, so the Dragon Boxes being in just DVD is definitely a con, especially compared to these new Bluray sets.

Funimation promised Toei that they wouldn't fuck up the DBox footage, and putting the masters that Toei gave them on blu-ray without making any alterations would look terrible. The masters that Toei gave them are perfectly suited for DVD format, whereas the blu-rays that are currently in production have to go through a whole process before they are even rendered acceptable in blu-ray standards. The Dragon Box and blu-ray releases are two different standalone entities, each with their own unique qualities. The series can only look so good.

Well, I won't pretend I know anything about that or about the process of actually making a Bluray, but it seems obvious to me that the masters/source that Funi used to make these Blurays are as old or older than the Dragon Boxes masters, and that they also weren't "made" with the intention of producing Blurays.

And these Blurays underwent extensive remastering to improve the quality. I imagine it would be much simpler to just put them on Bluray without such extensive meddling.

Ergo, I imagine it wouldn't be that hard to put the Dragon Boxes on Bluray without changing more than the necessary.

I could be wrong of course, but it seems to make sense to me.

[enapace]

There was nothing stopping Funimation from releasing the Dragon Boxes in DVD and in Bluray or just Bluray, so the Dragon Boxes being in just DVD is definitely a con, especially compared to these new Bluray sets.

Funimation promised Toei that they wouldn't fuck up the DBox footage, and putting the masters that Toei gave them on blu-ray without making any alterations would look terrible. The masters that Toei gave them are perfectly suited for DVD format, whereas the blu-rays that are currently in production have to go through a whole process before they are even rendered acceptable in blu-ray standards. The Dragon Box and blu-ray releases are two different standalone entities, each with their own unique qualities. The series can only look so good.

Well, I won't pretend I know anything about that or about the process of actually making a Bluray, but it seems obvious to me that the masters/source that Funi used to make these Blurays are as old or older than the Dragon Boxes masters, and that they also weren't "made" with the intention of producing Blurays.

And these Blurays underwent extensive remastering to improve the quality. I imagine it would be much simpler to just put them on Bluray without such extensive meddling.

Ergo, I imagine it wouldn't be that hard to put the Dragon Boxes on Bluray without changing more than the necessary.

I could be wrong of course, but it seems to make sense to me.

Actually you have a good point if they had used the Dragon Box masters with the same remastering processing yes it would of looked better and the darkness would probably not of occurred. But if you had just them straight on it would of looked terrible worse than the season sets remastering. This is mainly due to the fact that the Dragon Boxes were made from the original 16mm films and the blu-rays were made from a copy of a copy of the 16mm so not only do you get loss of quality over time you also get it from the copying of the masters.