Detail Loss in the Orange Bricks: Not Seeing It

[Kuririn Of Orin]

The orange bricks aren't as bad as they are made out to be. They were the first releases in North America and Australia to have both Kikuchis and Faulconers score. In the dub they touhed up the scripts and made it sound way better than the first Funi dub, and the voice actors improved A LOT. As for the cropping of footage and loss of detail I didn't even notice any of that before it was pointed out to me. And they're really cheap now so yeah.

[GizmoKSX]

The orange bricks aren't as bad as they are made out to be. They were the first releases in North America and Australia to have both Kikuchis and Faulconers score. In the dub they touhed up the scripts and made it sound way better than the first Funi dub, and the voice actors improved A LOT. As for the cropping of footage and loss of detail I didn't even notice any of that before it was pointed out to me. And they're really cheap now so yeah.

I'm not familiar with Australian releases, but if they filled a gap for you, that's good. American DVDs had both the Kikuchi and Faulconer scores before, but the orange bricks were the first release here to feature the FUNi dub over the Kikuchi score, a track that was ported over to FUNi's Dragon Box releases. There were a few touch-ups to the dub, but it wasn't really extensive (although I suppose it's to their credit that anything was re-dubbed); it's up to you if that was a selling point. If you can still enjoy the show cropped, that's fine. Personally, I raised my eyebrows as soon as I read the back of the box, promoting widescreen footage and marked as 16:9. That was perplexing enough for me to research the product, which brought me to this very website. I'm glad that they're cheap, and they're certainly a cost-effective way for fans to get their hands on the whole series, but it's unfortunate that the most widely-available version of the show is made from such a poor remaster. Kudos to FUNimation for listening to our concerns, and both giving us the Dragon Boxes and doing a good restoration for their Blu-rays.

[Saiyajin no Tatsujin]

I haven't been keeping up with this topic. I haven't read every single post nor have I even skimmed thru all of the pages. But I'll just say this...

When these "orange bricks" came out, I didn't buy into whatever it was that FUNi was trying to sell (or resell for that matter). I already knew they didn't have any material that could possibly be superior to their 1st DVD release of DBZ, which I was more than satisfied with. But I admit to being a little curious on how they looked and sounded. So I borrowed the first one from a friend. And.....I really wasn't too impressed with what I saw. Call me a fool, or whatever, but I still think the 1st DVDs are second best, right under the Dragon Boxes.

Peace!

[samuraix123]

I can understand how someone would want to defend their product, But the Orange Bricks are by far the worst remaster I have ever seen. Not only is the Image over saturated, But when shaking parts are happening on screen. Characters start getting deleted. They cropped the picture into 16x9 so they just removed the top and bottom part of the Image. And said ''Hey it's 16x9 ''
What sucks is, Now that the Dragon-Boxes are going out of print. That means fans who do not own a Blu-ray player. are stuck with those nasty things

[Pokewhiz7]

What sucks is, Now that the Dragon-Boxes are going out of print. That means fans who do not own a Blu-ray player. are stuck with those nasty things

Only for episodes 28-67. They can track down the singles for the rest.

[samuraix123]

Wait are you talking about the Bilingual DVD's? Because if so, That would take forever!

[Pokewhiz7]

Wait are you talking about the Bilingual DVD's? Because if so, That would take forever!

It shouldn't take more than ten minutes to add them all to your shopping cart on Amazon.

[samuraix123]

I'm speaking about these release's

That would take a-lot of money to buy them up.

[Metalwario64]

I'm speaking about these release's

That would take a-lot of money to buy them up.

They're usually only about $3 total (US shipping included) used individually on eBay and Amazon. That does add up, but it's still a better deal considering the footage isn't butchered (though later "seasons" look pretty decent, cropping aside, but that doesn't change the fact that the majority of the sets look terrible) and presents the full frame.

If something ever happens to my Dragon Boxes, I'd definitely go for the singles for whatever episodes they cover, and put on a pair of sunglasses and repurchase the first two "season" sets.

[samuraix123]

Ah. I thought they was expensive But that's a-lot of DVD's

[Kuririn Of Orin]

Another thing is that it was uncut, sure most for the episodes were on the single dvds, but not all. Remember the Ocean Dub dvds? Unless you were watching sub online you probably wouldn't have known about episodes that went missing, like the whole robot one. Then again to be fair, there was the Ultimate Uncut Edition, but that only spanned most of the Saiyan Saga then it was cancelled... and of course that's how we got the orange bricks to begin with.

[Gaffer Tape]

Heh, yet another reason to criticize it. It's the reason lots of people have incomplete box sets from the UUE. Had the orange bricks actually been good, it might have almost been worth it, but the fact that what it replaced was so much better just made it feel like even more of a slap in the face.

[pjay]

Ah. I thought they was expensive But that's a-lot of DVD's

Nope, found a lot of the Cell Games Saga DVD's for $3-4 on Amazon.

[Saiyajin no Tatsujin]

the fact that what it replaced was so much better just made it feel like even more of a slap in the face.

This is exactly how I felt too. But it was more amusing to me than it was upsetting. I just thought, "fuckin' FUNi".

found a lot of the Cell Games Saga DVD's for $3-4 on Amazon.

The Rasputin near me has damn near all of the singles for around $5 each, used.

[Corporate_Nothing]

This is the best way to explain it, vegeta is oversaturated, the picture is too bright, and the colors clash together. It looks horrible!

http://i41.tinypic.com/pykrb.png

I regret having to bump this thread, but this comparison 1) makes me want to pick up the Level 1.1 & 1.2 releases, and 2) disappoints me that Funimation decided to suspend the production of future releases in this line.

[samuraix123]

It's sad about the Blu-rays being canceled and the Dragon-Boxes are out of print. so that means the Orange Bricks are the only way to own Z. unless you wanted to buy all the singles or mix and match. But if you're wondering if you should pick up the Blu-rays, I say go for it their great

[dbboxkaifan]

Having seen 30sec (Xbox 360 Zune US) samples of Season Nine episodes, they didn't really look bad at all, I liked the quality, but going back to the early seasons, god no, keep them away from me!

They were too yellow, too bright and unacceptable! How the hell did FUNimation allow that crap to be published?!

Glad I own the Dragon Boxes, or I'd be stuck with terrible quality.

[Pokewhiz7]

Yeah, "seasons" 6-9 actually look quite good, sans widescreen. "Seasons" 1-5, though, those look like complete garbage. If something happened to my Dragon Boxes, I would still get the singles for the OAR.

[Corporate_Nothing]

Ah. I thought they was expensive But that's a-lot of DVD's

I ordered the Captain Ginyu, Freeza, Garlic Jr., and Trunks DVD singles, all brand new on Amazon, for a total of about $90. These are all brand new, mind you, and you can find them a LOT cheaper in gently used condition for as cheap as a penny each (starting bid) on eBay.

Edit: $89.99 was the original MSRP for Funimation's Z Dragon Boxes, so again, $90 really isn't that outrageous of a price for the amount of episodes you're getting. Then again, you could probably find Dragon Box, Vol. 3 for about the same price on eBay/Amazon, so...

[dprez]

I wasn't even aware of how bad the show looked on the orange bricks while I was watching them. This was also prior to me joining my first DBZ related forum, TV.com... so yea. I was pretty damn ignorant to the true Dragon Ball experience. Looking back to my memories ( and mostly screen shots online...) of watching my old orange bricks, the Dragon Boxes look beautiful in comparison.

Keep in mind people, this was before I even thought about buying and reading the manga, and only had my nostalgic experiences of watching the Toonami version back when I was 10 years old... Once I read the entire manga, and saw how the filler and altered dialogue butchered the true Dragon Ball experience, I was a Japanese Dragon Ball Z fan for life.