The Season Sets aren't widescreen?

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

I just got the season sets for Kai on Blu-ray and I noticed they're in a 4:3 display and not 16:9. Is this normal? I thought part of the point of Kai was to make it HD.

[VegettoEX]

"HD" doesn't inherently mean "widescreen". The show was indeed remastered in a full 1080 pixels tall, while still maintaining the 4:3 aspect ratio that the original 1989 show was actually produced in.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

I gottcha, oh well, I guess I'll live with the black bars.

[Ryuman]

You can always, dare I say, make your TV stretch it into widescreen.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

You can always, dare I say, make your TV stretch it into widescreen.

Or buy the Japanese DVDs. But why would you wanna watch DBK in Japanese when there's DBZ.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

You can always, dare I say, make your TV stretch it into widescreen.

Or buy the Japanese DVDs. But why would you wanna watch DBK in Japanese when there's DBZ.

Wait the Japanese sets are widescreen but the english ones aren't? That makes no sense. Also, I wanted to avoid stretching the image.

[JulieYBM]

You can always, dare I say, make your TV stretch it into widescreen.

Or buy the Japanese DVDs. But why would you wanna watch DBK in Japanese when there's DBZ.

Wait the Japanese sets are widescreen but the english ones aren't? That makes no sense. Also, I wanted to avoid stretching the image.

The Japanese single disc DVDs are in cropped widescreen. The Japanese Blu-rays are 4:3, however.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

I...ummm...why would they do that?

[JulieYBM]

I...ummm...why would they do that?

So you can buy both!

Of course, it's Dragon Ball Kai, a piece of trash as it is, so nobody bought the home videos!

[TheBlackPaladin]

I...ummm...why would they do that?

Well, there's a very good reason for that, and it's.........ummm..................h-hold on, I'll think of it................

[Mewzard]

I...ummm...why would they do that?

This is actually rather simple; shows have moved on to widescreen (along with a majority of TVs in households), so the tv version of Kai was broadcast in Widescreen (i.e., unnaturally stretched), so they dumped those on the DVDs, but the Blu Rays were put in the proper aspect ration of 4:3, which is what the original series was made in (they didn't reanimate for this, they just cleaned it up with some touch ups here and there).

A show or movie should be kept in its original aspect ratio to experience it as intended/prevent cropping and such things. Some things were made 4:3, some were made 16:9 (movies were closer to television ratios at one point in the past, but were made widescreen to give theaters a unique experience and compete with television, iirc), some were made in who other formats that I've forgotten the names of. But, when possible, try to view them as they were meant to be seen *coughStarWarscough*.

So, to put it simply, these sets are supposed to be in 4:3, so enjoy them as such, and don't worry too much about the bars.

As for Japanese home sales of Kai, I'll remind you that Japanese home movie prices are, quite frankly, insane, and work best for a collector's market. Toei tries to sell me 10 episode DVD sets for older Super Sentai and expect me to front around $130 for it? I'm expected to pay around $80 a Blu Ray set for the 9 sets for the new Jojo's Bizarre Adventure series (which, btw, is glorious)? Not unless Steve Simmons did the English subs they included >_>

If Toei wonders why they average 2000-4000 on their Sentai home releases, that's probably why. Rather buy the awesome toys for cheaper...

[VegettoEX]

It's not that Japanese fans are unwilling to buy series that they love. They will. They do. They will continue to do so.

Kai came two years after the height of DVD sales of the actual series it was based on, though. There was no longer a market. They already owned the series. The "refreshed" version was clearly nothing more than a curiosity in every respect.

[Puto]

I...ummm...why would they do that? :twisted:

This is actually rather simple; shows have moved on to widescreen (along with a majority of TVs in households), so the tv version of Kai was broadcast in Widescreen (i.e., unnaturally stretched), so they dumped those on the DVDs, but the Blu Rays were put in the proper aspect ration of 4:3, which is what the original series was made in (they didn't reanimate for this, they just cleaned it up with some touch ups here and there).

Not unnaturally stretched, but cropped. At least it was a pan&scan type of crop (select the most relevant part of the picture for each individual shot), as opposed to the DBZ Season Sets' dead-center crop.

By the way, if you want to buy Kai in widescreen for whatever reason without paying the ridiculous cost of a Japanese home release, the French DVDs are the widescreen cut too (and the video quality's way better to boot).

[dbboxkaifan]

Zoom in the picture but you'll lose out on details and whatnot.

It isn't possible to stretch, at least on a PS3 with the original Blu-ray Discs, if it's a video file? Yes, it's definitely possible.

[ultimateemail5000]

I don't think Funimation will ever release DBZ in 16:9 ever again unless it was meant for it.

[Ringworm128]

I don't get why so many people have a thing against black bars, if you actually pay attention to the footage you should barely notice it.

[penguintruth]

I don't understand why anyone would want something in an aspect ratio it wasn't intended to be in.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

I don't get why so many people have a thing against black bars, if you actually pay attention to the footage you should barely notice it.

It's because I have a plasma and I don't want Screen burn-in.

I don't understand why anyone would want something in an aspect ratio it wasn't intended to be in.

Mostly because up until owning it I was under the impression Kai was intended to be in 16:9.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I don't understand why anyone would want something in an aspect ratio it wasn't intended to be in.

'Cause they don't know better, perhaps. I honestly didn't have any problem at all with the orange bricks when I first picked 'em up, and thought they looked and sounded beautiful. In fact, the first time I ever came to Kanzenshuu (then still Daizenshuu-EX) was when I was reading a Wikipedia article about DBZ that covered home releases, which at one point linked back to Daizenshuu-EX as a source for demonstrating some of the less-than-stellar parts of FUNimation's restoration process.

Which has always been interesting for me, in hindsight. I totally recognize the shortcomings now...but I didn't notice them on my own. I had to be told. So for that reason I go back and forth over whether or not something was really a problem if I had to be told it was a problem.

[Ringworm128]

It's not that Japanese fans are unwilling to buy series that they love. They will. They do. They will continue to do so.

Kai came two years after the height of DVD sales of the actual series it was based on, though. There was no longer a market. They already owned the series. The "refreshed" version was clearly nothing more than a curiosity in every respect.

I think the only reason it even sold in the west was because of the new dub.