Sorry America, FUNimation Holds DBZ Season 1 For 2007!

Great Saiyaman · Post by **Great Saiyaman** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:10 am

Ah this sucks, I was looking forward to this. Oh well.

Blitzen · Post by **Blitzen** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:14 am

DaemonCorps wrote: Anyways, more of the thoughts on the set: Yeah, I was getting kinda confused when FUNi still didn't have the "next episode" previews for their UUEs. Did the original JP run always have a preview? I was kinda under the impression that they didn't start until the Freeza Saga, but then again that's about the same time that Pioneer's license expires ...

Previews are there for every episode, except for the last episode of GT (which has a montage). DB had a preview for Z, and Z had a preview for GT (because they ran one after the other)

Domon · Post by **Domon** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:26 am

A delay for over a year...

Well, if it is for Dragonbox footage, that would be great and well worth the wait. If not... er well, I guess I'd still pick it up anyway.

Really, all this talk of Dragonbox footage is all speculation and wishful thinking. I'd urge waiting until more information comes out before getting your hopes up.

Post by **desirecampbell** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:44 am

I was really looking forward to having this to start the school year - but maybe a Dragonbox?

I can wait for that

Blitzen · Post by **Blitzen** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 2:03 am

desirecampbell wrote:maybe a Dragonbox?

Saying things like this gives way to awful, awful rumours which people go and believe and ohdear!

Maphisto86 · Post by **Maphisto86** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 2:10 am

Well frankly I'm disappointed... I haven't seen any of the so called Ultimate Uncut because I was planning to buy the first season set... which in now delayed. It better be worth it...

Well they did say they were enhancing and restoring the footage for the season sets so "Dragon Box" or no it means that the visual quality should be much better.

Wait and see true believers... I just hope it doesen't cost too much. I'm poor (not the "I have no job, I'm living in the streets" poor, more like "I'm a high school graduate looking for a job" kind of poor

) as hell!

Duo · Post by **Duo** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:41 am

They could just be doing what Spain got / is getting. Either way is awesome.

I was planning on buying these anyway, and waiting...well, doesn't bug me at all.

doobiedoo · Post by **doobiedoo** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:47 am

MajinVejitaXV wrote:Wow. You're comparing an XVid encode (which, I'll guarantee you, was nowhere near the quality of the original VOB's) to the original Region 2 sets? Sorry man, that's not even a valid comparison. And the colors are perfect on my actual, legitimate copies in the episode you referenced.

Fine then... please look at the below site and comment:

http://www.geocities.com/emeraldcrash/
(pics are in PNG, so the whole page is a bit under a 2 MByte download)

On one side are the screen caps I made from the XVid encodes, which rival the DVD pics. The only editing I did was to resize the VOB screen caps to the size of the XVid encode for comparison purposes. The colors are far different

I'm assuming the pics on the left were from the Dragon Box footage, because at the time, the UU Editions were not available. On the right are pics from the UU which I have purchased myself. If this is not the case, let me know. Otherwise, I'm not sure how the person who made the videos would obtain such clean footage with Japanese audio at the time it was posted. If the DragonBox footage is closer to the pics on the right, then I'm probably completely wrong. But based on what was posted on the site so far, I think the caps on the left are Dragon Box footage.

Is it possible the guy making the XVid avi's altered the colors some? Yes, but those are similar in color levels to what has been posted on this website as being screen caps from the Dragon Box sets. XVid will not alter colors that much without the author making intentional changes, so comaring the screens to the VOBs is perfectly fine when the encode is done at a good bitrate, MajinVejitaXV. Each MPEG2 stream on the UU editions is roughly 700 megs. These episodes are roughly 250 megs. Using a better codec and at a slightly lower resolution, the results are pretty good.

As for what Blitzen mentioned, I don't have an actual Dragon Box DVD, so I can't watch the original release of those (nor was I ever in Japan to see the 'original' footage). But the colors on the UU edition are much closer to the original fansubs I have from the early 90's before DBZ ever hit the U.S. Thus my main point I made in my earlier post...

DaemonCorps · Post by **DaemonCorps** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:41 pm

Umm... I'll let the rest of you guys handle the last post

.

desirecampbell wrote:I was really looking forward to having this to start the school year - but maybe a Dragonbox?

I can wait for that

Me too! I wanted to watch the entire set in a week, like I did with the set I just got

. But I guess what we're gonna get now makes up for that. Just for the record, let's get the facts here:

We will re-announce this title with a new release date in Quarter 1 2007, and there will be other major announcements concerning the property at that time. These season sets are being enhanced and restored, and many new features are being added. Runtimes and packaging will also be different.

So...
- some kind of cleaner footage (maybe DragonBox, maybe not... whatev)
- new features (what kind? dunno)
- runtimes (not too sure about this one)
- packaging (most likely some new kind of box design)

And let's not forget the new release date.

Son Goku · Post by **Son Goku** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:06 pm

DaemonCorps wrote:- runtimes (not too sure about this one)

Can we say next episode previews?

BTW, if this is Dragonbox quality with all sorts of bonus features, it'll MORE than make up for the delay (though, I was hoping to watch an episode every Saturday afternoon in the fall, but, whatever).

Though, for all we know, it could be like the print that other country is using (meaning a remastered print from Funimation themselves).

theoriginalbilis · Post by **theoriginalbilis** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:25 pm

My two cents. I, being the one, that first discovered the existence of the Season One set online.

Anyway, while I really wanted to be holding this baby in my hands in September, I can totally understand a delay and wait if FUNi's actually going to gon in there and try to give us a great product. At first, I thought they were going to pull an ADV on us: just put the episodes themselves onto as few discs as possible, with no extras, for little cash.

Now they're adding(?) material, and supposedly restoring/enhancing video for us. They even said the packaging will look different. I'm excited to find out what we'll be getting. Even if they don't get "Dragonbox" masters, they might better masters from another source, or even remaster the video themselves (they have the resources)...

So... it's more waiting. But it's mouth-watering anticipation *drool*. Hopefully we'll find out a great deal more about these Season sets and the future of the DBZ franchise as FUNi's Comic-con panel.

Grandmaster J · Post by **Grandmaster J** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 5:55 pm

This is good news. Hopefully, like everyone already mentioned, FUNimation got a hold of the Dragonbox masters and will release them here in the states. That would be a great thing.

I'd for sure buy them. Let's just hope the prices aren't as high as the Dragonboxes.

Post by **VegettoEX** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:07 pm

doobiedoo wrote:Fine then... please look at the below site and comment:

http://www.geocities.com/emeraldcrash/
(pics are in PNG, so the whole page is a bit under a 2 MByte download)

On one side are the screen caps I made from the XVid encodes, which rival the DVD pics. The only editing I did was to resize the VOB screen caps to the size of the XVid encode for comparison purposes. The colors are far different

I'm assuming the pics on the left were from the Dragon Box footage, because at the time, the UU Editions were not available. On the right are pics from the UU which I have purchased myself. If this is not the case, let me know. Otherwise, I'm not sure how the person who made the videos would obtain such clean footage with Japanese audio at the time it was posted. If the DragonBox footage is closer to the pics on the right, then I'm probably completely wrong. But based on what was posted on the site so far, I think the caps on the left are Dragon Box footage.

Is it possible the guy making the XVid avi's altered the colors some? Yes, but those are similar in color levels to what has been posted on this website as being screen caps from the Dragon Box sets. XVid will not alter colors that much without the author making intentional changes, so comaring the screens to the VOBs is perfectly fine when the encode is done at a good bitrate, MajinVejitaXV. Each MPEG2 stream on the UU editions is roughly 700 megs. These episodes are roughly 250 megs. Using a better codec and at a slightly lower resolution, the results are pretty good.

As for what Blitzen mentioned, I don't have an actual Dragon Box DVD, so I can't watch the original release of those (nor was I ever in Japan to see the 'original' footage). But the colors on the UU edition are much closer to the original fansubs I have from the early 90's before DBZ ever hit the U.S. Thus my main point I made in my earlier post...

Errr...

XviD (or any compression scheme) has little to do with the way colors change in the compression. What's being done is a whole lot of pre-processing with things like AVIsynth. It's the same concept when I edit AMVs. I completely touch up everything; smoothness, sharpness, color correction, brightness, contrast, etc. I'm assuming the jackasses bootlegging DBZ for XviD encodes are doing the same stuff.

And yes, I even have to do color correction on Dragon Box rips. And when I say Dragon Box rips, I mean actual VOBs from actual DVDs that I actually own... not XviD encodes from the scum of fandom.

Namek'jin Ryu · Post by **Namek'jin Ryu** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:52 pm

I'm actually pretty excited about these now. Before, in the thread about the Season One set, I was all down because I thought my collecting of the Ultimate Uncut's was for nothing. However, apparently now it isn't, seeing as I will probably be able to buy the rest of the Ultimate Uncut's before this thing is release. Plus if it is re-mastered footage, I'll be that much happier.

I am glad to hear they are changing the look of the box it will come in from the yellow background with a Vegeta picture because they looked a little ... no ... quite a bit dull.

As for the whole waiting bit, it doesn't bother me one bit, seeing as I wasn't going to get this set in the first place, but now I think I will.

Slickmasterfunk · Post by **Slickmasterfunk** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:24 am

First thought: "Damn, a five month delay!"

Second thought: "Ooo, maybe it's Dragon Box footage!"

Third thought: "If it's Dragon Box footage then we're getting the whole series remastered with subtitles!"

Fourth thought: "Damn if they re-release the whole series remastered then I'll have to re-buy the hundreds of episodes I already own on DVD...oh well. I guess it would be worth it."

If they re-release DBZ with the remastered footage, they better do the same with Dragon Ball, DBGT and the movies for consistency reasons.

SonGokuGT · Post by **SonGokuGT** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:39 am

Slickmasterfunk wrote:First thought: "Damn, a five month delay!"

Second thought: "Ooo, maybe it's Dragon Box footage!"

Third thought: "If it's Dragon Box footage then we're getting the whole series remastered with subtitles!"

Fourth thought: "Damn if they re-release the whole series remastered then I'll have to re-buy the hundreds of episodes I already own on DVD...oh well. I guess it would be worth it."

If they re-release DBZ with the remastered footage, they better do the same with Dragon Ball, DBGT and the movies for consistency reasons.

I'd rebuy the episodes and movies without hesitation if they were DragonBox masters!

majinrod153 · Post by **majinrod153** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:24 am

I am just going to wait until they release everything, before I start buying.
They keep on releasing a better version something every time. I would not be surprised if they remastered all of the movies as well. I'm glad that I have not started my collection yet, because i would have to keep re-buying if the wanted the good stuff. It's just like Nintendo when they release a handheld system; they always release a better version of the same thing.
Ex. Nintendo DS and the DS Lite.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:41 am

Don't forget, they might not have the Dragon Box footage after all. The article merely said it was being "enhanced and restored". That could mean just about anything. For all we know, there could just be a bunch of extras on the disks, or Funimation could just be "touching up" their own footage.

I seriously hope this isn't true, and it doesn't seem to justify this five month delay, but I would still recommend not getting our hopes too high, only to be disappointed if Funimation release the box set in February with no Dragon Box footage. It just seems too unlikely to me, considering they couldn't even get the next-time footage from Toei before. Then again, the fact that they're releasing a box set this large at this low of a price at all seemed too unlikely to me as well, so who knows? I sincerely hope we see the Dragon Box footage make it into this box set, and I'd say there's quite a good chance that it actually will, but I say we just wait and see, and not start spreading rumors and getting our hopes up in case these hopes turn out to be false.

That said, it would be absolutely awesome if this did come out with the Dragon Box footage.

It would surely be worth the delay. If it's true, it'd make me even more happy that I've been holding out on buying any of the UUE's until a box set is released.

Tanooki Kuribo · Post by **Tanooki Kuribo** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 7:44 am

If FUNimation was going to just make an American version Dragonbox, would you buy it? It would probley be around $500.00 though.

Blitzen · Post by **Blitzen** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:26 am

Tanooki Kuribo wrote:If FUNimation was going to just make an American version Dragonbox, would you buy it? It would probley be around $500.00 though.

In the very highly unlikely event that they would, then sure, I'd go for it. They could do smaller releases and do a dragonbox-like design at a limited quantity (like, very limited) for the hardcore-hardcore market.