Dragon Ball Z "Seasons" On Blu-ray: News & Discussion

[Ajay]

Eh.... 'waggles hand back and forth'
If I remember my numbers correctly, 16mm is 'roughly' what we would call equivalent to 1080p.

I'll back this up. I've seen this comparison several times on other sites (like the Doom9 forums). Anything above 1080P tends to not increase visual detail seen for 16mm film. Eitherway, I don't think it adds anything to the discussion since it's being released on Bluray - which must be 1080P - like it or not.

Sure, I'll concede but Kojiro was saying that 1080p would be too much and I find that to be incorrect.

[ect5150]

vs.

One of our old threads had plenty of comparisons. I can remember the ending to episode 34 (which used a 4-box layout as the final shot). The widescreen apologists at the time were speculating that FUNI would cut and paste everything to appear in widescreen to ensure the integrity of the shot. They got a rude wakeup call. Someone ought to post that shot for comparison.

Sure, I'll concede but Kojiro was saying that 1080p would be too much and I find that to be incorrect.

Agreed. If this was the case, then the Kai Blurays wouldn't look better than the Kai DVDs.

[ect5150]

I found these for fun in one of my old photo accounts:

[Kojiro Sasaki]

I'm sorry but that's simply not true. 16mm film is blown up onto huge theater screens all the time. You see it with indie films plenty (e.g. Bronson, Martha Marcy May Marlene), so the only reason you'll ever end up with blurred picture would be down to the source material - whether that be through degradation or through bad focus on the original film shot.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... uper16.png - which type do you mean? Dragon Ball looks like single perforation standard 16 mm film with optical audio track. I know that Super 16 film is used for HD productions, but I haven't seen anything in HD transferred from this type of film. Also, don't forget that there was some improvement in film quality since the 80's and 90's.

I didn't do any research. I base my opinion on Dragon Ball Z footage. I don't see any sharpness gain above ~860 (horizontal lines)... Of course, I may be wrong. Do you have some examples of good standard 16 mm transfers? I would like to check it.

[sintzu]

i don't know if this has been posted so for all who don't know amazon u.s has the Aspect Ratio at 1.33:1 wich is 4:3 so there's a 50% that the 16:9 that has been stated by other sites is wrong

[Ajay]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... uper16.png - which type do you mean? Dragon Ball looks like single perforation standard 16 mm film with optical audio track. I know that Super 16 film is used for HD productions, but I haven't seen anything in HD transferred from this type of film. Also, don't forget that there was some improvement in film quality since the 80's and 90's.

I didn't do any research. I base my opinion on Dragon Ball Z footage. I don't see any sharpness gain above ~860 (horizontal lines)... Of course, I may be wrong. Do you have some examples of good standard 16 mm transfers? I would like to check it.

The only difference between 16mm and Super 16mm is the aspect ratio and of course, like you mentioned, the ability to include optical audio. (There's perforation differences too but they're not really relevant to the picture quality aside from steadiness.)

Take a look at Pi (1998) or Clerks (1994) in Blu-Ray and compare it to their DVD releases and you'll see a great difference. Pi is my favourite film so I can certainly speak from first hand there. If you want a colour example, there's also Leaving Las Vegas or a more modern example, Martha Marcy May Marlene.

720p vs. 1080p with these types of films tends to come down to grain clarity and as a result a generally sharper picture. No, it's not going to be a startling difference to everyone because it depends on many factors like the distance from the screen, the screen's quality and of course, the actual content on the film (focus, lighting etc).

Then there's the bitrate to take into consideration but that's a whole different story.

[MarcFBR]

i don't know if this has been posted so for all who don't know amazon u.s has the Aspect Ratio at 1.33:1 wich is 4:3 so there's a 50% that the 16:9 that has been stated by other sites is wrong

Amazon posts aspect ratios whether they have the information or not. It doesn't mean anything.

And it certainly doesn't give us a made up percentage on if something might be fact or not.

[dexterp]

I can handle 16:9 as long as it is done as well, or no worse than Kai was. It's the colours and grain I worry about. I brought the Orange Boxes to show support, but I can't physically watch it. I still haven't watched the series through.

[samuraix123]

It's been years since I popped in the orange bricks after getting most of the Dragon-boxes and such but man....those cropped photo's look disgusting. also ''to my knowledge'' Funimation has never cropped or did anything else to other releases right? SO WHY DO IT WITH DRAGONBALL!!!?? Just doesn't make sense to me. Is Dragonball so mystical and holy that they gotta cut it up in all these different ways or something? lol

[Kojiro Sasaki]

They should show examples like this:

vs.

"optimal viewing experience" ... [-_-]

[SSJJezter]

Surely though, any emails Funimation has recieved from fans on how the series should be released is something similar to the Dragon Boxes, or just the Dragon Boxes. I highly doubt anyone have actively contacted Funimation requesting a 16:9 release. So why don't Funimation listen to the people who actually care enough to get in touch?

[Kojiro Sasaki]

Surely though, any emails Funimation has recieved from fans on how the series should be released is something similar to the Dragon Boxes, or just the Dragon Boxes. I highly doubt anyone have actively contacted Funimation requesting a 16:9 release. So why don't Funimation listen to the people who actually care enough to get in touch?

I would also like to know an answer to this question. "Why you are listening to a bunch of ignorants, instead of your own technicians?" There are some decisions that can be made only by the experts.

(the answer: Money!)

[MarcFBR]

(the answer: Money!)

Which is still the same reason the manga exists, the anime exists, that we got the anime brought to our own countries, and that they've made a new movie.

No one involved is doing this as a public service. And the rare times companies have tried, they get bitten on the ass for it.

[coola]

I was thinking about this release, and, there is one thing that would convince me to buy it, new English dub with Kai cast, i know there is 1% of this to happen, but if it would, they got me

[Fizzer]

I was thinking about this release, and, there is one thing that would convince me to buy it, new English dub with Kai cast, i know there is 1% of this to happen, but if it would, they got me

I'd love that too, but if this was a redub, they'd announce it as a redub, not just a release of DBZ.

[Ajay]

How was this scene handled in Kai's TV/DVD release?



I only own the Blu-Rays.

[theoriginalbilis]

I think it too was a center-crop. Haven't seen the fansubs of Kai in years...

[OutlawTorn]

It's been years since I popped in the orange bricks after getting most of the Dragon-boxes and such but man....those cropped photo's look disgusting. also ''to my knowledge'' Funimation has never cropped or did anything else to other releases right? SO WHY DO IT WITH DRAGONBALL!!!?? Just doesn't make sense to me. Is Dragonball so mystical and holy that they gotta cut it up in all these different ways or something? lol

I seem to recall something about FUNimation opting to crop DBZ because it would eliminate the most damaged areas of the film masters they were provided with. That does not mean I agree with their decision, as I hate the cropping as much as anybody. I guess Gen Fukunaga's family connection at Toei isn't big enough to get FUNimation decent film stock which wouldn't cost a fortune to remaster without butchering it all to hell.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

i don't know if this has been posted so for all who don't know amazon u.s has the Aspect Ratio at 1.33:1 wich is 4:3 so there's a 50% that the 16:9 that has been stated by other sites is wrong

Don't think it's on amazon yet, just checked.

[OutlawTorn]

i don't know if this has been posted so for all who don't know amazon u.s has the Aspect Ratio at 1.33:1 wich is 4:3 so there's a 50% that the 16:9 that has been stated by other sites is wrong

Don't think it's on amazon yet, just checked.

Here's a direct link, and a link to the Amazon.ca listing for good measure.

Format: Animated, Blu-ray, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 4
Rated: Unrated
Studio: Funimation Prod
DVD Release Date: December 31, 2013
Run Time: 925 minutes

The specs are definitely incomplete as it fails to include the Japanese language and English subtitles.

For what it's worth, though, I wouldn't take the Amazon claim of 1.33:1 over the 16:9 in the description because the Level blu-ray sets explicitly stated 4:3 in their description. As previously stated, Amazon has listed incorrect aspect ratios on many different items that it should be taken with a grain of salt unless you know (from reviews or whatever) what the aspect ratio is.