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

[qjz123]

TOEI probably has a bigger budget. If they put enough money into it, they could produce a better version because they have the original film masters. No crushed blacks. The Level Sets are the best versions one could hope given the source material. But like I said, TOEI has the original film negatives.

What about Toei's release of Kai on blu ray. They had the original film masters and most likely a much higher budget than Funimation had and yet the Kai blu rays pale in comparison to the level sets.

[Metalwario64]

TOEI probably has a bigger budget. If they put enough money into it, they could produce a better version because they have the original film masters. No crushed blacks. The Level Sets are the best versions one could hope given the source material. But like I said, TOEI has the original film negatives.

What about Toei's release of Kai on blu ray. They had the original film masters and most likely a much higher budget than Funimation had and yet the Kai blu rays pale in comparison to the level sets.

Because Q-Tec likes to filter out the grain.

Even with that said, I think the Kai Blu-rays aren't quite as blurry as people make them out to be, though the footage looks better for SD. One thing I like about Q-Tec's remastering is that they bring out a lot of the really, really dark colors that are usually crushed when the film is transferred. If we got Q-Tec's color range and the Level set sharpness we'd have a perfect transfer.

Even still, I think I'd take Q-Tec's blurrier footage over any cropping.

[qjz123]

One thing I like about Q-Tec's remastering is that they bring out a lot of the really, really dark colors that are usually crushed when the film is transferred.

But then you end up having scenes like these where Vegeta's hair is brown instead of black.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

We know the orange bricks were center cropped, but were they auto cropped at transfer? I guess this question would answer if the new blu-rays are the orange bricks or not.

[kei17]

But then you end up having scenes like these where Vegeta's hair is brown instead of black.

That's because it originally is supposed to be so.

[Fizzer]

So I've just had a thought. I think there's a good chance they'll use levels-set footage for season one, since it's already done, then we'll all get really excited, then season 2 or 3 will come along with a much lower-quality restoration and we'll all rage.

[Puto]

England should be the same Region code as the U.S? My sister imports BBC blu rays and they play no problem.

I hear ya. I want the Japanese Kai DVD's cause there 6x3

If you want widescreen Kai, you'd probably be better off buying the French DVDs; they're not downscaled as incompetently as the Japanese DVDs, and they're cheaper to boot.

[dbboxkaifan]

England should be the same Region code as the U.S? My sister imports BBC blu rays and they play no problem.

Is England in the same region as America? Nope. It's Region A (US) and Region B (UK).

And? Look at the Dragon Box. They had an original master, and yet the Dragon Box looks bleached and has odd colors. And not to mention that the Level sets almost look the same as what Dragon Ball Z looked like when it was originally broadcasted in 1989.

They could've done a better job for the Dragon Box Z collection but you think if they'd release on Blu-ray they wouldn't put their best efforts to making it the best version? Come on, money talks.

[eledoremassis02]

England should be the same Region code as the U.S? My sister imports BBC blu rays and they play no problem.

Is England in the same region as America? Nope. It's Region A (US) and Region B (UK).

Oh snap your right! I just googled and seems most U.K DVD's are B but secretly region free

If you want widescreen Kai, you'd probably be better off buying the French DVDs; they're not downscaled as incompetently as the Japanese DVDs, and they're cheaper to boot.

Awesome!! Is there any particular place I should buy them? When did they start replacement scores?

[qjz123]

They could've done a better job for the Dragon Box Z collection but you think if they'd release on Blu-ray they wouldn't put their best efforts to making it the best version? Come on, money talks.

Even if Toei did release the series on blu ray what makes you think it would look any better than kai. DBZ kai was supposed to be a refresh for the series and a way to get a new younger generation into it. They completely redid the voice work and gave it a new musical score and you think they would put more work into remastering the original dbz which isn't even selling that well in Japan right now.

[Kakarot88]

They could've done a better job for the Dragon Box Z collection but you think if they'd release on Blu-ray they wouldn't put their best efforts to making it the best version? Come on, money talks.

Even if Toei did release the series on blu ray what makes you think it would look any better than kai. DBZ kai was supposed to be a refresh for the series and a way to get a new younger generation into it. They completely redid the voice work and gave it a new musical score and you think they would put more work into remastering the original dbz which isn't even selling that well in Japan right now.

Well..."new music" until it got pulled and the old one put back in

[Luso Saiyan]

I just can't believe people actually voted on that Funimation poll for future releases to be cropped without its OAR... I really don't get what's the benefit. If people want fullscreen, just use the zoom option on your TV. I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but I'm really pissed with this.

[qjz123]

Why doesn't Funimation just give us raw 1080p film scans I took these from the video where Funimation talks about how they were remastering level 1.1.
They look really good.
http://imageshack.us/a/img841/48/kyo1.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img69/5716/pw9f.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img826/5857/guf4.png
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http://imageshack.us/a/img818/4352/0v68.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img35/5246/c7az.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img94/9291/f7io.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img600/7083/ue69.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img62/2644/o852.png

[qjz123]

This is how they would look in 16:9.
http://imageshack.us/a/img801/7742/ffoa.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img22/8508/gmal.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img5/5708/6j28.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img708/46/4v09.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img809/4217/wv4q.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img4/6421/v8if.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img707/9775/6bgr.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img202/2929/adlp.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img24/2860/ewac.png

[samuraix123]

^^Because that would make too much sense. Stop questioning Funimation! Joking..Honestly I don't think there will ever be a perfect Dragonball release ''EXCEPT'' Fans of the Dragon-boxes.if you're a fan of the Japanese dub and want the Japanese title cards and credits ect. what more could you ask for than the Dragon-boxes? but see there's a little problem there(Not to me) not everyone likes the Japanese dub or the Japanese soundtrack. sure there's an English dub on the dragon-boxes, but it doesn't have the american broadcast score to go along with it. that bothers a lot of people(again, not me) but I would like to see the entire series released that had the Japanese and English title cards & credits, the footage that was used for the level sets, no cropping, and the Japanese score and the English score. but that will never happen...yes I honestly believe that. again...that would make too much sense to please everyone at the same time.

[Attitudefan]

Vegeta officially has brown hair, and it looks freaking awesome on him. I am one of those who has, in their canon, Vegeta having brown hair.

[MCDaveG]

Oh snap your right! I just googled and seems most U.K DVD's are B but secretly region free

Because Brits are awesome. Really, 98% of my imports are from Britain. I don't have to pay any rudiculous fees from US as it goes trough Britain and is marked as EU import.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

This is how they would look in 16:9.
http://imageshack.us/a/img801/7742/ffoa.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img22/8508/gmal.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img5/5708/6j28.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img708/46/4v09.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img809/4217/wv4q.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img4/6421/v8if.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img707/9775/6bgr.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img202/2929/adlp.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img24/2860/ewac.png

These are pretty much what I expect from this release.

[Luso Saiyan]

Why doesn't Funimation just give us raw 1080p film scans I took these from the video where Funimation talks about how they were remastering level 1.1.
They look really good.

Are those really the film masters? They made me believe the masters required quite a bit of work, thus the high restoration cost of the Levels sets.

[Kendamu]

So I've just had a thought. I think there's a good chance they'll use levels-set footage for season one, since it's already done, then we'll all get really excited, then season 2 or 3 will come along with a much lower-quality restoration and we'll all rage.

I thought about this as well. However, when the trailer for Season 1 hits, our over-analyzing friends here at Kanzenshuu will confirm or deny that such a thing is going on.

Why doesn't Funimation just give us raw 1080p film scans I took these from the video where Funimation talks about how they were remastering level 1.1.
They look really good.

For years I've been saying, "I wouldn't have a problem if they just shoved that raw footage on DVDs, threw some subtitles on it, and sold it to me." This still applies even today. I've seen plenty of other shows from the 80s and 90s that have tape, dust, dirt, etc. on them and it didn't ruing my re-experience of those old shows one bit. In fact, Warner has a shop like that where DVDs are made-to-order on an online-only market where non-remastered movies and shows are thrown on a DVD and sent out to you. They don't make tons of copies because it's a niche market, but they put barely any effort into it and people are generally happy with it. That's how I bought Swat Kats for my girlfriend awhile back. It was like $35 for 26 episodes. I'm sure that FUNimation could be nice enough to give us closer to 40 for the same price.

If FUNimation takes that raw footage and crops it to 16:9 without doing much else to it, I'll actually be pretty pleasantly surprised even if I don't like the idea of 16:9 DBZ as much as I do 4:3 DBZ.

Are those really the film masters? They made me believe the masters required quite a bit of work, thus the high restoration cost of the Levels sets.

Apparently the vertical edges of the film are where most of the bad stuff is in most shots. A lot of the work went into seamlessly removing all the dirt, dust, gunk, tape, tears, etc. that are on those edges. Like with the Orange Bricks, a 16:9 transfer simply cuts most of that stuff out altogether and removes the need to actually fix those areas. It makes remastering DBZ a lot cheaper.



EDIT: Just to note, maybe you can calm yourselves down a bit with some Dragon Ball Z on Daisuki. It's really awesome. And in Japanese. I promise.