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

[Kendamu]

Here are screenshots from the first 9 episodes of the Season 5 set. http://minus.com/mpuICJdgn0aba

I-Is that GRAIN?!

That DNR is a lot less heavy than before. Interesting.

I've noticed a bit of actual grain in Season 4 as well.

I wonder if it has to do with the overall quality of the source film. One thing I've noticed is that the remastering process in Seasons 1 and 2 create a similar result to what we see on the Blue Bricks, only it's a lot more pronounced in a high definition format. With most consumers being extremely happy over what we're getting here, I doubt it's FUNimation "mending their ways to appease some dudes on Kanzenshuu" or something.

EDIT: Spelling.

[KentalSSJ6]

Here are screenshots from the first 9 episodes of the Season 5 set. http://minus.com/mpuICJdgn0aba

I-Is that GRAIN?!

That DNR is a lot less heavy than before. Interesting.

Maybe some Funi reps actually read my post to them on Facebook linking this thread.

[bkev]

I'm not surprised. Didn't this happen with the Orange Bricks, too?

[eledoremassis02]

are these two shots from the same episode?

Spoiler:

[dbboxkaifan]

I'm not surprised. Didn't this happen with the Orange Bricks, too?

The quality getting better as the "season" sets come to their end? Yeah. Looks to be the case with these Season BDs too.

Edit: Just saw this on Amazon.com's Season 7 Blu-ray page and could it be what the cover's going to be about? Maybe.



It's certainly better than that lame unfitting cover of the DVD version which had Piccolo doing the Mankankossapo.

[qjz123]

are these two shots from the same episode?

Spoiler:

Nope, the second shot is taken from the recap from the following episode.

[qjz123]

Here are screenshots from the second disc. The episodes on this disc didn't look so good. It starts with the shot of Gohan on the floor next to Popo. The episodes prior to that look good but then there was a pretty big drop off and that string of 4 or 5 episodes looked very soft. http://qjz123.minus.com/mwy2L3WT4v0qk/

[Ajay]

Jeez, I hope that's just an out of focus scene on the original negative and not a result of their process.

Spoiler:

And again with this shot:

Spoiler:

Strangely inconsistent.

[samuraix123]

I'm not surprised. Didn't this happen with the Orange Bricks, too?

The quality getting better as the "season" sets come to their end? Yeah. Looks to be the case with these Season BDs too.

Edit: Just saw this on Amazon.com's Season 7 Blu-ray page and could it be what the cover's going to be about? Maybe.



It's certainly better than that lame unfitting cover of the DVD version which had Piccolo doing the Mankankossapo.

Ha! I like that! I hope that's the official cover.

[MagicBox]

It's a cute placeholder image, but I hope it's not the cover. With all the stuff that happens in the Buu arc, it really feels like a waste of space to devote an entire cover (one of only three) to the Saiyaman and Tournament stuff. They shouldn't be wasting space on Goku, either. He'll no doubt appear on one of the other ones. Give that space to Kuririn or Videl or someone who only plays a minor role in this part of the story. I don't like the placement of Piccolo either. He's just kinda... floating in the air sideways all derp-ish.

Even if they only wanted to focus on stuff that happens during episodes 195-219, they could have found a way to incorporate Kaioshin or something like that.

[American Pelican]

The Season 7 set covers all of the Saiyaman/Tournament stuff though. Buu doesn't even show up until the next set.

[MagicBox]

That's what I'm saying, though. If they want to keep it exclusive to the stuff that happens in this set, then I think they should use that opportunity to feature some other characters. Why not Kuririn or Videl or Kaioshin or #18? They lose their chance or getting any spotlight once the Buu stuff starts. Surely Goku's going to be featured again on the "season" eight or nine covers; why use him here? Share the love.

I feel silly for getting so riled up over a placeholder image, though. But hey, since I'm not supporting these sets, the only things I get excited about are packaging and bonus features.

[qjz123]

Screen shots from the 3rd disc. http://minus.com/mY4vP3pkXvcbZ

[eledoremassis02]

This shots kinda level set-ish

Spoiler:

[funrush]

These sets are starting to look really great. What a shame that they're cropped.

[Fizzer]

What I really don't get is, when they started the orange bricks going really OTT with the grain-removal and then learnt their lesson and corrected it as the sets progressed, why did they then do exactly the same thing all over again with the season BDs rather than starting from where they ended up with the DVDs?

[Ajay]

What I really don't get is, when they started the orange bricks going really OTT with the grain-removal and then learnt their lesson and corrected it as the sets progressed, why did they then do exactly the same thing all over again with the season BDs rather than starting from where they ended up with the DVDs?

I was actually watching this video yesterday where they detail their software and the process that they went through. It appears they're using Phoenix restoration tools. On their website, they market their software as being suited for 'highly automated restoration and enhancement of video content'.

This makes me think that there's something about those early episodes that causes that tool to get incredibly heavy handed and they simply don't care enough to fix it. Perhaps the 16mm master for those episodes are far grainier than the later ones and so far more destructive scrubbing is required to remove the grain to a point they're happy with.

Who knows? It's just a theory.

I don't know whether qjz123's shots are cherry-picked from a bunch of nice looking scenes but if they're at all indicative of the quality that's to come, I may well find myself picking these up when the Boo arc rolls around. I dealt with TOEI's crop in Kai perfectly fine, I can't imagine FUNi's could get any worse than some of the shots in that. Can't believe I'm saying this.

Nevermind. Acquired a disc to see how it was in motion. The grain fighting its way through the process is worse than before. Streaks of grain just flicker across parts of the image. Horrible.

Close-ups are mostly fine, as are scenes that are static with little background texture. However, as soon as you get into any of the defining Dragon Ball moments where you've got a multitude of flying rocks, heavily textured backgrounds, and fast action, those flaws come right back.

If you're not the type of person to notice those kinda things then honestly, you're not gonna have a problem with these later sets.

[qjz123]

What I really don't get is, when they started the orange bricks going really OTT with the grain-removal and then learnt their lesson and corrected it as the sets progressed, why did they then do exactly the same thing all over again with the season BDs rather than starting from where they ended up with the DVDs?

I was actually watching this video yesterday where they detail their software and the process that they went through. It appears they're using Phoenix restoration tools. On their website, they market their software as being suited for 'highly automated restoration and enhancement of video content'.

This makes me think that there's something about those early episodes that causes that tool to get incredibly heavy handed and they simply don't care enough to fix it. Perhaps the 16mm master for those episodes are far grainier than the later ones and so far more destructive scrubbing is required to remove the grain to a point they're happy with.

Who knows? It's just a theory.

I don't know whether qjz123's shots are cherry-picked from a bunch of nice looking scenes but if they're at all indicative of the quality that's to come, I may well find myself picking these up when the Boo arc rolls around. I dealt with TOEI's crop in Kai perfectly fine, I can't imagine FUNi's could get any worse than some of the shots in that. Can't believe I'm saying this.

Nevermind. Acquired a disc to see how it was in motion. The grain fighting its way through the process is worse than before. Streaks of grain just flicker across parts of the image. Horrible.

Close-ups are mostly fine, as are scenes that are static with little background texture. However, as soon as you get into any of the defining Dragon Ball moments where you've got a multitude of flying rocks, heavily textured backgrounds, and fast action, those flaws come right back.

If you're not the type of person to notice those kinda things then honestly, you're not gonna have a problem with these later sets.

This set is definitely not worthy of that much praise. The episodes on disc 2 look downright awful.

Spoiler:

As for the rest of the set the episodes on disc 1 and 3 look alright about what we've come to expect. I'm interest in seeing the orange brick equivalents of the blurry shots from disc 2 though. To see if the issue is with Funimations masters or if its an issue exclusive to this set.

[Ajay]

Christ, even someone with zero video knowledge is going to notice that.

Likewise, I'm interested to see the Orange Brick equivalent.

[kidglov3s]

Every time I read "Oh see they're good now" I look at the screenshots in full resolution and see at least some degree of blurriness if there's any thing outside the extreme foreground.