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

[KingofWisdom]

The characters look okay (all though, there's a certain plainness to them that just doesn't look right), but the landscapes and backgrounds still look bad. At any rate, they at least look better than the Orange Bricks.

[qjz123]

You bet! I got carried away and took way too many screenshots. You can check them all out at this link: http://imgur.com/a/P7zsO

Thanks!
The characters look pretty sharp
http://i.imgur.com/ok6xaT1h.png
http://i.imgur.com/Gelhxrxh.png
http://i.imgur.com/sjUwuzAh.png
http://i.imgur.com/07Eke0ih.png
http://i.imgur.com/NQM8GBlh.png
It seems like the things in the forefront of the image remain sharp while parts of the background become blurred and loose detail.
Here's a comparison
Season 1 blu ray
http://i.imgur.com/ok6xaT1h.png
Level sets
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/4315/9wrv.png
Season 1 blu ray
http://i.imgur.com/sjUwuzAh.png
Level sets
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/3912/wck1.png

[kei17]

Are there any shots that aren't center cropped? I doubt they really made some attempt to do selective cropping.

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

I'm still bothered by the brightness in the Blu-Ray.

Level



Blu-Ray

[kei17]

The Level Sets look a little too dark and dull, though. Of course I'm not saying that the season crap looks any better.

It should look like this.

[Kaboom]

The overzealous contrasting and crushed blacks are still annoying, but it looks like the screencaps are doing the set more justice than the trailers did. I may pick up season one to take a gander at it for myself.

[qjz123]

Are there any shots that aren't center cropped? I doubt they really made some attempt to do selective cropping.

This one it's not much but the orange brick version has a part of piccolos shoes cut off while the blu ray doesn't.
Orange brick
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ ... b2de93.jpg
Blu ray season 1
http://i.imgur.com/ejXw8So.jpg

Again it's not much but it's something. When I get my hands on a copy of the season 1 blu ray i'll be able to do more comparisons to see if there is a difference between the cropping.

[qjz123]

supersaiyan3 did you notice any difference in the audio quality between this release and the previous Dbz releases? I was curious as to whether Funimations remastering of the audio tracks was noticeable or not.

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

The Level Sets look a little too dark and dull, though. Of course I'm not saying that the season crap looks any better.

Honestly, it's way better than the Blu-Ray. The darkness and dullness in the Level sets just show how much DBZ has aged. It fits because it was animated in late 80's, so I'm not really bothered by it, unlike the Blu-Ray.

[supersaiyan3]

did you notice any difference in the audio quality between this release and the previous Dbz releases? I was curious as to whether Funimations remastering of the audio tracks was noticeable or not.

I didn't notice anything about the audio quality, but my speakers are shit anyways. The worst thing about the audio though IMO is that Cha-La is only on the mono Japenese track. Not much of a surprise I guess, but it's still disappointing.

Are there any shots that aren't center cropped? I doubt they really made some attempt to do selective cropping.

At least everyone got to keep their head this time

[BluezaBladeNZ]

When you can, can you take screenshots of these frames? These are from the Orange Brick Season 1 HD trailer on the Broly Double Feature set:

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 181534.png
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 181901.png
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 181930.png
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 181935.png
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 215445.png
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 215531.png

The worst thing about the audio though IMO is that Cha-La is only on the mono Japenese track. Not much of a surprise I guess, but it's still disappointing.

So it seems that the Dragon Box is still the only release to have CHA-LA on the English with Kikuchi score track.

[kei17]

Are there any shots that aren't center cropped? I doubt they really made some attempt to do selective cropping.

This one it's not much but the orange brick version has a part of piccolos shoes cut off while the blu ray doesn't.
Orange brick
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/ ... b2de93.jpg
Blu ray season 1
http://i.imgur.com/ejXw8So.jpg

From what I see, the footage includes more sides and that made his shoes visible. It's not an instance of selective cropping.

When you can, can you take screenshots of these frames? These are from the Orange Brick Season 1 HD trailer on the Broly Double Feature set:

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 181534.png
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 181901.png
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 181930.png
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 181935.png
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 215445.png
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk19 ... 215531.png

These shots make me feel as if I'm looking at a screen under water.

[samuraix123]

So no lines of animation are getting deleted when stuff is shaking on the screen?

[Metalwario64]

At least everyone got to keep their head this time

Oi, that's framed way too high. It should have been framed to the top of everyone's heads, instead of way above them. Sure it would have cut off Goku's hand, but as it is there's way too much negative space in the top of the frame.

[MagicBox]

The worst thing about the audio though IMO is that Cha-La is only on the mono Japenese track.

It really, really irks me that they still cannot get this right. It's literally called the "English with Japanese Music" track, FUNimation. There's no room for interpretation. It means you don't take out the Japanese music. The idea that they're probably only replacing "Head-Cha-La" with their damn rock opening so as not to alienate the "mainstream" crowd only makes it more annoying.

Is the "English with Japanese Music" track still the default audio option, like it was on the DVD season sets?

So? How does everyone feel?

[Kendamu]

So? How does everyone feel?

I'm pretty much on that level, too.

Looking at the screens, I can say that the majority of US DBZ fans will love the crap out of these. I'll also go as far as to say that I wouldn't actively discourage people from buying them like I did with the Orange Bricks back in the day. Not sure if that's due to the quality actually being a lot better than the bricks or if I just don't care as much as I used to.

Still not going to spend my money on it, though. I await VegettoEX's in-depth analysis and podcast review of the whole thing, though, as I am interested in his outlook on the entire thing.

[Ajay]

Hrmm, certain scenes look too much like a watercolour for my liking.

I have two questions:

1) How did they handle the infamous 4 panel shot during the Saiyan arc?

and

2) Audio? What's the deal - how's the Japanese track sounding with their 'remaster'?


EDIT: Thirdly - can someone take a proper lossless screenshot and upload it to i.minus.com - that site won't compress your images at all. I want to see how much/if any grain is in tact.

[Valentine]

It's not as bad as I had expected but some of those backgrounds look eye burning and rough compared to the the soft subtle almost watercolor backgrounds the series actually has, but some scenes do look really striking and nice with better re framing but I'm going to hold out for another re release of DBZ done properly if that does ever happen, however knowing funimation
I will admit all the characters look fine at least with only a slight saturation issues.

[KingofWisdom]

Blu ray season 1
http://i.imgur.com/ejXw8So.jpg

Piccolo still looks like a green highlighter.

[Big Momma]

The worst thing about the audio though IMO is that Cha-La is only on the mono Japenese track.

It really, really irks me that they still cannot get this right. It's literally called the "English with Japanese Music" track, FUNimation. There's no room for interpretation. It means you don't take out the Japanese music. The idea that they're probably only replacing "Head-Cha-La" with their damn rock opening so as not to alienate the "mainstream" crowd only makes it more annoying.

There might be some copyright issues going on there, actually. I'm not sure how that works.