Conan the SSJ wrote:MajinVejitaXV, you're a cool guy,
Thanks
but really your insulting of the FUNi prints is getting pretty old. For one, we don't even know if it's FUNi responsible for saturating the color, that could be all Toei's doing for the digi-beta masters they give FUNi. Really dude, tone it down.
I understand it may get old, but just think of it this way: The first Dragonball Z DVD from FUNi came out in 10/00. That's six years ago now. Look at the video on
Captain Ginyu: Assault and compare it to
Fusion Reborn as shown above. There's little if any difference in the actual video encode, which is pretty sad given the technological advances in MPEG-2 encoding. If
Fusion Reborn looked like a million dollars (comparatively) and I was still harping on
Assault looking like ass, then I'd definitely agree with you. However 6 years and no real change?
Also, I'm not saying for certain that FUNi is 100% to blame. However, evidence isn't really in their favor. Color saturation seems to have increased on the 'Ultimate Uncut' editions in comparision to the Pioneer discs. And unless you're telling me Toei encodes the discs for them, the bitrates can't really be excused. The question isn't really so much "Is it FUNi or Toei?" as it is "Is it FUNi or the company they outsource to for DVD mastering?" assuming they do so. Still, benefit of the doubt given.
I know you love your Dragonboxes more than Thanksgiving dinner, but your continuous bashing of the FUNi prints and uber-devine-like praise of the Dragonbox material (while overlooking the negative aspects) is almost a bit overboard by now. You got the Dragonbox releases, you prefer video quality over understanding 100% of what's going on in the show, we get it.
I don't overlook the negative aspects, I just don't see many. It's a reference grade release, and while there are some nitpicks (movies are 16:9 instead of 4:3, episode 64 of GT lacks the credit scroll...uh, that's about it), I'm not
that anal. Think about it, what pisses me off about FUNi's releases? The lack of previews? Not really. The lack of all the credits? Not a huge deal (though, sidenote, I do love that those are included in the R2 releases for nostalgia's sake). The seeming lack of effort in all the releases and the milking of the property to the point of embarassment? Yeah, maybe that's it...
Look, the true story is Toei probably give FUNi some crappy prints and they had to make due. I'm not getting on them for the grain or anything else. However, when you're given *analog* masters, and you encode them at *horrible* bitrates that make it have more artifacts than an unearthed Egyptian tomb...THEN proceed to break the series into agonizingly small chunks...yeah, it might annoy me.
As for the language barrier, there is that whole 'becoming bilingual' thing. Japanese verbally isn't incredibly hard to pick up for a show like DB/Z/GT, it isn't exactly
Serial Experiments Lain ;p
the quality of more latter movies such as Path to Power and DBZ movies 10-13 have proven to be pretty damn good. But that's just my point of view.
Give me the bitrate of any of them and I'll gladly shut up about
that much ;p
Look, I'm not here to piss people off. The prints are inanimate, they have no feelings. Moreover, I'm a consumer who will spend money when I like something. I mean, Christ, I own a Jericho 941 in 9mm because it's Spike Spiegel's gun in Cowboy Bebop (and it's a great pistol, never had a single problem with it)
If people are complacent, nothing changes. If people complain, things
may change. Look at the Playstation 3 for a recent idea. People complained about the $499 version not having HDMI...now it has HDMI. And they're kicking around rumors that rumble might be brought back at some point.
And they dropped the prices (in Japan). The power of the consumer at work.
Long story short: It's an object, not a living thing. I bash it, no one (who is sane) gets hurt. I want a better product, and I have one. The worst that would happen is a FUNi employee might read these forums, see some people agree, and pass the word on. It might die somewhere, or it may cause a change. What does it hurt? "Oh no, we might get more competantly mastered discs?"
People really underestimate the power the consumer wields. People think,
"Oh noes, if we complain, they'll stop altogether!"
No. Think about it. They spent all the money to license the show, they
will finish it unless it's completely bombed and no one will give it a chance at all. It's not like I'm saying they need to hire John Williams to rescore the series and bring in A+ Hollywood talent, I'm talking about *less* compression to a MPEG-2 stream (which takes less time than compressing it more), and some color correction if they in fact *do* get the masters with George Hamilton-Gogeta.
Anyway, relax. I bitch when people bring it up because it's still an issue. I'm not bashing you, or your mother or her sister, I'm bashing a bad analog-to-digital job. No blood, no foul
-Corey
