Why does FUNimation like to over saturate footage?

[dbboxkaifan]

On FUNimation's remasterings they're either too dark or too bright and not too often very balanced, so I've been wondering why they can't ever be consistent with the quality?

Here's an example (thanks to LostTimeLord)

FUNimation Single DB Film #2


FUNimation Remastered DB Film #2


Unfortunately due to unnecessary acts like these details are always at risk of being lost because of these saturations that FUNimation keeps on doing for their "Digitally Remastered" collections. Maybe FUNimation's team in charge of these remasterisations think it looks better..? Eh, I dunno.

[ABED]

Which are the correct colors?

[dbboxkaifan]

Which are the correct colors?

The correct colours is always an issue, apparently Dragon Box: Dragon Ball doesn't have the "correct colours" as the Dragon Ball FUNimation sets do but does this mean they're inferior? No.

I'd rather take the "wrong colours" than losing detail.

Dragon Ball anime/manga aren't very precise to which are the correct colours to use anyway.

[ABED]

I don't see the loss of detail.

[TheGmGoken]

Which are the correct colors?

The correct colours is always an issue, apparently Dragon Box: Dragon Ball doesn't have the "correct colours" as the Dragon Ball FUNimation sets do but does this mean they're inferior? No.
I'd rather take the "wrong colours" than losing detail.
Dragon Ball anime/manga aren't very precise to which are the correct colours to use anyway.

Yea I couldn't care less about the correct colors. Only if they look good to me and my amvs. On topic. I hate Funi's over saturation on some dvds. Why they do it? To the average joe it might look better. Funi might prefer them.


@ABED Look at the Trees

[Patrick]

Look at the Trees

They look like books on a bookshelf to me, but with that said, the second picture is a lot darker and thus the books are basically crushed out from the darkness.

[ABED]

Look at the Trees

They look like books on a bookshelf to me, but with that said, the second picture is a lot darker and thus the books are basically crushed out from the darkness.

It's not that much darker. I can finally see what you are referring to, but the crushing isn't as bad as I've seen in other places.

[Patrick]

Look at the Trees

They look like books on a bookshelf to me, but with that said, the second picture is a lot darker and thus the books are basically crushed out from the darkness.

It's not that much darker. I can finally see what you are referring to, but the crushing isn't as bad as I've seen in other places.

It's still pretty bad in my eyes, but you're right in the fact there are worse examples. The level set crushed some blacks worse than a boulder does to a bug.

Spoiler:

[qjz123]

It's still pretty bad in my eyes, but you're right in the fact there are worse examples. The level set crushed some blacks worse than a boulder does to a bug.

Spoiler:

It was really only an issue during episode 1 and it's a consistent problem across all of Funimation's releases, it's the fault of their masters not of the remastering process it self.

[eledoremassis02]

How does the remaster hold up this?

[bkev]

I'm pretty sure that, in most cases, it's a result of the poor masters they received in the first place. The original season 3 tapes though, I'm not so sure of. That's about the only place I've felt like they did serious tampering. Also, in regards to your image of movie 2, the first looks like it has a red shift and it's pretty dark to begin with...

edit: wait, I forgot about some of the double features. Those do have some pretty bad crushed blacks, but - hey - I wouldn't be surprised if that's how the raw transfer looked too.

[GarrettCRW]

It's because oversaturation has a habit of making colors more vivid, which has the effect of making older footage look newer to the untrained eye. Sharper and brighter is the aim in these remastering projects, and all the better if you can hide your shoddy work with a deceptively excellent looking still.

[Levlik]

How does the remaster hold up this?

It's no secret that the Z movies look very good in comparison to the old singles. 'Course, I believe FUNi actually received legitimate film reels of all DBZ footage for their remastering process, but only received tapes for Dragon Ball. Correct me if I'm wrong, though.

[Ringworm128]

To try and make it look newer in order to draw in the "if it's old it sucks" crowed.

[TheGreatness25]

People always find something to complain about. "Loss of detail." Where? You can still see it, it's just brighter or a different shade, etc. That's why you have your option of like 5 releases to choose from. Could be worse, could be like Japan where you get one release. Like the colors, don't like them, nobody asked you, one release and enjoy it.

Especially in an age where you can change all these settings, what's with all the hate? Then the statement comes out that the real colors are a mystery.

Also, don't the US and Japanese TVs have different settings? I recall this being discussed on a podcast when the US Dragon Boxes were coming out, that their brightness or saturation or something was altered so that on a TV it would look the way it does on a Japanese TV. No? Am I imagining this?

[Gaffer Tape]

Especially in an age where you can change all these settings, what's with all the hate?

Because saying you can change TV settings to retrieve detail lost by crushing blacks is like saying you can change TV settings to recover the footage that FUNimation cropped off to make the series 16:9. Once information is lost, you can't just magic it back into existence.

(As an aside, being able to change picture settings on a TV is nothing new.)

[TheGreatness25]

Would somebody please explain this loss of detail? Where? I see the exact same picture with a different shade of the same color.

[Gaffer Tape]

Check out the image of Raditz's crater posted by Patrick. The area in shadow is (obviously) darker than what is in light. But in the Dragon Box shot you can still make out all of the detail in the shadow, the texture in the crater. That is, there are different levels of darkness that are distinct from one another. When you crush blacks, you are basically making the lighter levels of darkness darker so that they are no longer distinct and become one, indistinguishable level of dark. As it is in the level screenshot, it's largely just a black blob. And when the source material is like that, adjusting your television is going to do no good. Brightening your TV will just turn the dark blob into a lighter blob.

[TheGreatness25]

That is literally the only example of loss of detail that I've even seen. But really, let's be honest, you don't notice it unless you're really looking for it.

Also, let's not forget that FUNimation was always working off of second-hand footage. The loss of detail might not even be their own fault. Knowing that they never got the actual original film from Toei, the ONLY thing I'm willing to blame them for is what they actually admit to (cropping the season sets, removing the grain from season sets, and altering colors on the season sets).

[dbboxkaifan]

That is literally the only example of loss of detail that I've even seen. But really, let's be honest, you don't notice it unless you're really looking for it.

Even without looking for it it's visible that the darkened remastered footage is missing detail and the only people who'd be OK with that are those who want it to look somewhat new.

Although, on the DBZ Level it was worse. FUNimation shouldn't be darkening the video so much unnecessarily.