FUNimation Dragon Box Z #1 (In-Hands) Discussion

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:50 pm

IT'S MINE! AT LAST!

I don't wanna open it... it looks so nice in it's plastic...

jjgp1112 · Post by **jjgp1112** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:19 pm

Alright, here's yet another batch of caps. These might be my last, but then again, they might not be, either:

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:36 pm

I've been doing a little spot checking here and there with the first disc and a backup I made of the first R2 disc before I sold it. I'm trying to look for video flaws in the FUNi Dbox, but to my surprise, I'm not finding that many.

I'll say on a whim that the R2's are only a tad better in video quality, but not enough to totally dominate over the FUNi Dbox. I'm really surprised a few pixelated scenes on the FUNi Dbox (Goku and Piccolo landing to confront Raditz and a few others) are still present in the R2's.

My only gripe is the sound mix in both the dub and Japanese versions is still too low. The sound in the R2's was actually quite louder and I need to turn it up a lot more on the FUNi Dbox.

Then again, I'm watching these with a PS3 via HDMI on an LCD TV and no real sound system, so I'm not 100% accurate on everything. Regardless, it's still a fantastic set and we can all agree: "It's about damn time".

FuniYamcha · Post by **FuniYamcha** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:54 pm

You know, looking at the screenshots of Vegeta, I just realized how insanely gigantic the top of his head is with that Widow's Peak. I mean, that thing is Super Saiyan huge.

OutlawTorn · Post by **OutlawTorn** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:55 pm

jjgp1112 wrote:

Man, how Vegeta's appearance really changed through-out the series. The most notable is how tiny his neck looks here. Compared to Vegeta from the Majin Buu saga:

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:57 pm

Maybe all that training throughout the years strengthened his neck?

penguintruth · Post by **penguintruth** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:24 am

And shrunk his ears a bit, it looks.

Freeza Heika · Post by **Freeza Heika** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:35 am

Castor Troy wrote:My only gripe is the sound mix in both the dub and Japanese versions is still too low. The sound in the R2's was actually quite louder and I need to turn it up a lot more on the FUNi Dbox.

Then again, I'm watching these with a PS3 via HDMI on an LCD TV and no real sound system, so I'm not 100% accurate on everything. Regardless, it's still a fantastic set and we can all agree: "It's about damn time".

I don't have an AMAZING sound system either, but I do have the cheapest 5.1 set-up I could find. The sound is really fine to me. Both through my 5.1 and my headphones on my laptop. I can see it would be a problem on the pretty small speakers that they pack on tv's anymore.

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 1:12 am

Freeza Heika wrote:
Castor Troy wrote:My only gripe is the sound mix in both the dub and Japanese versions is still too low. The sound in the R2's was actually quite louder and I need to turn it up a lot more on the FUNi Dbox.

Then again, I'm watching these with a PS3 via HDMI on an LCD TV and no real sound system, so I'm not 100% accurate on everything. Regardless, it's still a fantastic set and we can all agree: "It's about damn time".
I don't have an AMAZING sound system either, but I do have the cheapest 5.1 set-up I could find. The sound is really fine to me. Both through my 5.1 and my headphones on my laptop. I can see it would be a problem on the pretty small speakers that they pack on tv's anymore.

I actually started watching some of the dub and the sound mix is MUCH better than the orange bricks.

For anyone who wants to rip the discs for amvs, videos, etc, there is newer protection, but I was still able to rip them on my PC with the newest version of DVDFab (version 6) and MacTheRipper on my mac (choose Accros (sp?) extraction). I do admit that the R2's didn't give this much resistance...

Maybe I'll post some high quality mp4 clips later. Still really enjoying watching the discs.

Big Momma · Post by **Big Momma** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 1:34 am

So, is there any chance of this coming to the Wal-Mart store shelves? I know it took DB Season One a couple weeks to get out.

nathantheguitarist · Post by **nathantheguitarist** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 1:43 am

Big Momma wrote:So, is there any chance of this coming to the Wal-Mart store shelves? I know it took DB Season One a couple weeks to get out.

It wasn't out at my Walmart the day after the release date. DB Season One, and DBZ Season Nine were the only things they had.

What's odd though, is Evangelion 1.01 was out; another Funimation title with the same release date. The only difference is the physical size of it compared to the Dragon Box...

So I'd say it'll be a while, if at all. Wouldn't hurt to check though. My Walmart is fairly small.

obiwan23s · Post by **obiwan23s** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 3:56 am

It's not either Walmart near me. Checked the night before I bought it at Best Buy and both Walmarts had tons of the orange bricks as well as some of the double features but no Dragon Boxes.

I doubt seriously that Walmart will have them immediately, if ever.

Big Momma · Post by **Big Momma** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:25 am

I know that Wal-Mart didn't put DBS1 onto store shelves until November 5th. So I was wondering if maybe the same would occur here.

SuperSaiyan3Goku · Post by **SuperSaiyan3Goku** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:11 am

I was actually at Wal-Mart on Tuesday (Coming home from getting a Heart Catherization) and I had a little money to spend, but I looked in the DVD section, which I am already unfamiliar with to look for the set.

Maybe I just wasn't looking in the right spot, but the Kennett Square Wal-mart (the one I was at) didn't have it.

Next time, I'll check the Parksburg Wal-Mart. I'm more familiar with their DVD section.

SSJSteve · Post by **SSJSteve** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:59 am

My Dragon Box finally arrived this morning! It looks fantastic, everything is so shiny. I had a shock with the Dragon Book it's really short.

All of the discs look so good! I just watched the first episode and it's the first time I've watched with Japanese voice and subtitles, I thought it was really good. The picture and sound are brilliant, overall the Dragon Box is amazing!

kenshiro87 · Post by **kenshiro87** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:27 am

^^ , that's cool, I was a lil bit surprised too , with the dragonbook

, enjoy it now !

Ultimate DBZ · Post by **Ultimate DBZ** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:53 am

That reminds me. I thought they said it would be an 80-page booklet? So why was it only less than 50 pages?

Jon Jon · Post by **Jon Jon** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:57 am

Ultimate DBZ wrote:That reminds me. I thought they said it would be an 80-page booklet? So why was it only less than 50 pages?

Good call, maybe they meant for the entire book over the span of the releases?

Akira · Post by **Akira** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:51 pm

I bought the Dragonbox after work a couple of days ago. I walked to my car and shook my head thinking to myself, "This is what, the third time I've started a collection of this series?" Got home, sat it on the shelf, and just now put it in and started to watch it.

Correct aspect ratio, correct colors, correct intros, endings, episode previews. Nothing missing whatsoever. I knew these things to be true about this set, but I had no idea how much I would appreciate finally having a perfect release.

The Ultimate Uncut releases were incomplete in release, so I only had half of them. That was the unavoidable flaw with those, not to mention yet another weird intro variant, and different music than in any part of the single releases before then. Final result was failure all around and utter disappointment.

The Orange brick "Remastered" versions had Japanese music with Subtitles and English dub as options, that was a huge step in the right direction. While the English dub intro was correct, it still had some other funky music on it. The remastering was nice in a few places, but flawed in so many others. The colors, while sharp and vibrant, were still a mixed bag, and messed up in many places. Then there was the "Widescreen Ratio" business. I thought it wasn't so bad at first, but over time (and many other purchases of additional seasons) it really started to get on my nerves.

This Dragonbox release is everything I was always wanting in the other releases, and I am glad to finally have it. The flaws in the previous releases never seemed so big or glaring to me, until now. The things that seem so small, stick out like a horrendous sore thumbs now by comparison.

No more dark green > lime green > pastel green Piccolo changes, just Green!

Goku's gi is always a flat orange now, no more reddish orange to vibrant orange to neon yellow/orange variations!

These consistent colors episode to episode make things more cohesive, much more than I ever thought possible.

If anyone is on the fence, drop over the other side and get this. This is finally the set that lives up to the claims.

Li'l Lemmy · Post by **Li'l Lemmy** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:53 pm

It's so nice to have the Next Episode Previews after all this time. I'm so used to their usual non-existence on previous releases that it's a mini-surprise whenever an episode ends and I get a few seconds of footage that I've never seen before.

Thanks, FUNimation! And a thanks to you too, Mr. Simmons!

~Da Lemmy