New "Remastered Box Set" Information

[Alucard]

Did any of you complainers, ever think that Wide screen is at a higher resolution then full screen, thus being a good thing in the long run. Also in 20 years when everyone has a wide screen tv, wont you be happy that your dbz dvds will fill up more then a third the screen.

Maybe in 20 years, you would also have the technology to turn 4:3 videos into 16:9 videos with one click of your remote control. You never know.

[desirecampbell]

Did any of you complainers, ever think that Wide screen is at a higher resolution then full screen, thus being a good thing in the long run. Also in 20 years when everyone has a wide screen tv, wont you be happy that your dbz dvds will fill up more then a third the screen.

I won't be happy that I'm missing large sections of the top and bottom. I won't be happy in February 2007. I won't be happy in February 2027.

And resolution isn't the be-all end-all. The Dragonbox has the same resolution as the current crop of Funi DVDs - and there's still a considerable difference in quality.

In the long run, DVD resolution will seem outdated and incredibly bad, compared to future standards.

[Gokuden553]

Funi-Remaster

They released the screen shots already? I didn't see it over on Funi's forum, where did this shot come from?

EDIT: Ah... its at the end of the online trailer. I wouldn't use that as a reference. Word is the extra info they will be providing will be out Wednesday. (before they head out for the holidays I guess)

Actually I got it from my latest Funimation news letter, I'll post you the download link to the trailer... if you want me to

That way you can use Power DVD to make screen captures and compare them with your own DBZ DVD's

[MajinVejitaXV]

DragonBall? Metal? Star Trek: The Next Generation? And now a semiautomatic?

Amazing. You become a more interesting a person by the second.

5 semiautomatics, actually

I've got an IMI Jericho in 9mm, a Beretta 92FS Brigadier in 9mm, a Beretta PX4 in 9mm, a Springfield Armory 1911 in .45ACP and a Ruger MkII 22/45. All are great pistols. I've also been known to babysit my best friend's AR-15 when he goes out of town.

BTW, I'm not a "gun nut" really, I just enjoy shooting for recreation and I'd rather be carrying one and not need it than need it and not have it. Besides, it's cute to watch my girlfriend shoot, even if she did pull the rear sights off my Jericho (which is okay, I planned on swapping them out for better ones anyway ).

(MOUSE-DRAWN FUN: This is probably how Corey says "Hands Off My Dragonbox" in Japanese.)

Words cannot describe how awesome that is. That made my day.

Did any of you complainers, ever think that Wide screen is at a higher resolution then full screen, thus being a good thing in the long run. Also in 20 years when everyone has a wide screen tv, wont you be happy that your dbz dvds will fill up more then a third the screen.

No, because we know the specifications of MPEG-2 streams as they conform to the standards for DVD set forth by the DVD Forum. Widescreen isn't a higher resolution, it's just a different aspect ratio. If it makes any difference, I own a widescreen television and have for over 2 years. Still don't want the series in widescreen, or anything else that wasn't intended to be widescreen.

-Corey

[ect5150]

Has anyone else noticed in those Yamcha shots that there actually is some picture on the side than even the Dragon Box? Look at the far right of all three shots. In the widescreen you can see another tiny mountain/hill in the background that isn't even in the Dragon Box image.

Nice catch. I missed that, but apparently what I said back in the beginning is true. They are giving us more than what FUNI showed on the US TV (roughly), but are adding the extra stuff from the side (and possible just a pinch more compared to the dragon box footage too. Kinda nice.

I'm falling on the side that this might not be so bad afterall. So I'll make a similar statement again. If the above is true, and you were fine with the fullscreen US DVD's, then you shouldn't miss much with the widescreen (you just have to accept there is even more they could be giving us on the top and bottom).

But, if they are ever to release the stuff on BluRay or HD-DVD, then they already have their work done, and they just need to re-encode the materials for the next gen DVD's players (i.e. - minimizing their overall costs)

[Ash]

http://community.funimation.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=13370

The comparison screenshots .

[MajinVejitaXV]

http://community.funimation.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=13370

The comparison screenshots .

Ouch.

So, predictions were true. They did crop and stretch to attain the widescreen image, while adding in footage that had been cropped in the original releases. I'll do a better comparison later using DragonBox footage later this evening, but even from trying to overlay the two screens you can see what they did.

-Corey

[Gokuden553]

http://community.funimation.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=13370

The comparison screenshots .

Ok I'll compare this one aswell, then I'll post the results afterwards

[ect5150]

http://community.funimation.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=13370

The comparison screenshots .

Thanks for the link, although the first think I noticed is the flesh on Gohan's arm is gone at the bottom from the cropping! I'm not so sure about any stretching, but we can let the overlays show that is there is much/any/lots of it. It does do a good job of showing what was missing on the left or right, but that only says there is that much more missing on the tops and bottoms.

[Li'l Lemmy]

So now we have the bottom line.

It looks as though we've exchanged the parts of the top and bottom that we could originally see before for parts on the left and right that we couldn't. It's an equal enough exchange, but it's not at all what fans wanted, and I guarantee it's going to piss a lot of them off.

However, I'm still going to buy this. The picture itself doesn't appear stretched or otherwise disoriented (though someone should feel free to prove me wrong), and to be fair I wouldn't have much of a choice in the matter even if it were. This is still a huge release, this is still likely to be the best release we'll see for several years, and this is still going to put an end to my endless eons of waiting for subtitled Saiyan and Namek sagas to come out on DVD. I don't have it in me to hold out for what comes next down the line, and once I buy the first two sets I'm 100% certain that I won't be able to stop.

And the truth is, for all our bitching and whining, I'm willing to bet that almost 99% of us are going to break down and buy these all the same. As the release date draws nearer and nearer, the widescreen bit is going to feel less and less important (unless it really nags at the back of your mind), and pretty much all we'll be able to focus on is ridiculous episode count and price-- which, when all is said and done, is a steal.

By the way, does anyone actually see an improvement in the picture quality? What do you all think?

BTW, I'm not a "gun nut" really, I just enjoy shooting for recreation and I'd rather be carrying one and not need it than need it and not have it.

I don't see anything wrong with that. Though if I'm not careful, this whole thread could blow wide open into a debate about gun ownership.

Besides, it's cute to watch my girlfriend shoot, even if she did pull the rear sights off my Jericho (which is okay, I planned on swapping them out for better ones anyway ).

I don't know why, but that sounds like it could be a scene from straight out of a movie.

Words cannot describe how awesome that is. That made my day.

It'd look a whole lot more true-to-form if I'd actually been able to scan a drawing. Have you ever tried drawing with a mouse? It's a friggin' pain. Though to be fair, my avatar was also done with a mouse and turned out fairly awesome.

Glad you enjoyed it, though! It was just too good to pass up.

[Gokuden553]

Now that I've seen the screen shots releaced by Funimation I'll post the frame with the same one from the Ultimate Uncut edition and Dragon Box image... so that you can compare them for yourselves

Ultimate Uncut



Funi-Remaster



Dragon Box



All I can say right now is that the rumours were true, Funi has put them in widescreen format thus cutting the top and bottom parts of the image out.

[Li'l Lemmy]

Hmm. FUNimation did keep part of their promise. By Gokuden's comparison, it appears that we are in fact getting footage that has never appeared before-- not even on the DragonBoxes . . . and while that still doesn't quite warrant chopping off the top and the bottom, it's still something worthy of observation.

In the end, I suppose it's all going to come down to how you want your DBZ.

[John]

You know, I bet tons of you won't be able to even notice the difference while watching these sets.

I, on the other hand, will completely notice it because I don't fucking have a widescreen TV and I'll see two annoying black bars on the top and bottom that weren't there before.

Either way, I'm buying this.

[Li'l Lemmy]

You know, I bet tons of you won't be able to even notice the difference while watching these sets.

It's not meant to sound rude, but I'm in complete agreement with you . . . well, to a point.

Speaking for the other side of the coin, though, there's definitely going to be moments we're reminded of what's missing, such as during that four-way closing shot of Vegeta, Gohan, Kuririn and Goku towards the end of the Saiyan saga-- you know the one I mean.

[b_boult]

This COULD be far worse tbh, and even though it isn't the correct aspect ratio and there has been cropping it does look kind of cool to see dragonball in widescreen, especially as the stretching isn't really that noticable. And we are getting image on the sides that isn't even in the Dragonbox so I guess that's kind of cool even if it comes at a price. There will still be scenes that look a mess though I can guarantee it.

[tarsonis]

I'm still not sure I understand why the top and bottom would have to be cropped at all. If leaving in the whole picture means not getting widescreen, then that's what they should do, especially since the show was meant to be in 4:3 to begin with.

[Soluzar]

I'm still not sure I understand why the top and bottom would have to be cropped at all. If leaving in the whole picture means not getting widescreen, then that's what they should do, especially since the show was meant to be in 4:3 to begin with.

By claiming that the new set is widescreen, they are tapping into the idea that's been floating around for a while that widescreen gives you all of the picture. The movie studios have been putting that notion forward for years, in order to convince people to purchase widescreen editions of movies that were originally released as "pan & scan".
It is true that for movies, a widescreen release means seeing more of the original picture, but as we know, it is not necessarily true of TV shows, especially older ones. The average joe consumer won't know that, though. He just knows that he's had the idea drilled into him that widescreen is better.



I just spent a few minutes putting this together. It gives me a better idea of what the original image might have looked like, even though it's not entirely accurate. The aspect ratio still isn't right, but it does show quite clearly how much footage is missing from both the old and the new releases.

There still hasn't been a good release of these episodes. That really sucks, and I'm very dissapointed in FUNi. It's not even really an improvement, because most 4:3 DVDs you buy can be scaled to fill a widescreen TV.

[b_boult]

Infact I know I've just posted but I want to elaborate on this. Funimation has actually been pretty clever here thinking about it. What they've done is take an individual frame that actually BENEFITS to have it in widescreen, knowing full well that nerds like ourselves would then take old dvd stills of that very frame and from a cross section of different releases, INCLUDING the dragonbox, and think "hang on, we're getting more of the face here in this funimation release, the most important part of the image!". While this is true, if you fast forward one frame, I bet that Gohan's full face appears in all the other versions. In otherwords, we're getting ONE FRAME OF BENEFIT with Funimation remaster here, but in the others, when the rest of the frames appear it will probably look far better, and the funimation remaster cropped as hell. And this is probably why funimation took so long getting that single image!

[Soluzar]

Infact I know I've just posted but I want to elaborate on this. Funimation has actually been pretty clever here thinking about it. What they've done is take an individual frame that actually BENEFITS to have it in widescreen, knowing full well that nerds like ourselves would then take old dvd stills of that very frame and from a cross section of different releases, INCLUDING the dragonbox, and think "hang on, we're getting more of the face here in this funimation release, the most important part of the image!". While this is true, if you fast forward one frame, I bet that Gohan's full face appears in all the other versions. In otherwords, we're getting ONE FRAME OF BENEFIT with Funimation remaster here, but in the others, when the rest of the frames appear it will probably look far better, and the funimation remaster cropped as hell.

Yeah. I don't even like the way it looks in that one frame all that much. It's nice to see Gohan's eye, but they can't convince me that no important details ever appear in the missing portion of the image. Depending on the frame, the good animation and important details could be anywhere in the whole of the original image, and I'm never going to be happy to not get all of it, when I know that they were working from the best and most complete masters available.

[tarsonis]

By claiming that the new set is widescreen, they are tapping into the idea that's been floating around for a while that widescreen gives you all of the picture. The movie studios have been putting that notion forward for years, in order to convince people to purchase widescreen editions of movies that were originally released as "pan & scan".
It is true that for movies, a widescreen release means seeing more of the original picture, but as we know, it is not necessarily true of TV shows, especially older ones. The average joe consumer won't know that, though. He just knows that he's had the idea drilled into him that widescreen is better.

But this is marketed towards DBZ fans, those that already know DBZ is supposed to be full frame, and who are going to realize something is missing in the picture. Has Funimation not realized that maybe the extra footage on the side just wasn't necessary to begin with? If it were, I'm sure it would have been on the Dragon Box.

Perhaps Funimation should be told that picture is more important than whether or not it ends up in widescreen.