FUNimation DBZ TV Blu-ray Official On-Going Thread

[Ashura]

Is your shot from a video recompressed from the original DVD? If you're using x264, with the basic settings it's going to wipe away the grain unless you specify something like '--tune grain' in the settings.

This is what I use when I re-encode stuff... this is 2pass and assuming you've inverse telecined the footage back to native 24fps progressive:

x264 --bitrate 5000 --preset veryslow --tune grain --bluray-compat --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 24 --min-keyint 1 --open-gop --slices 4 --pulldown 32 --fake-interlaced --colorprim "smpte170m" --transfer "smpte170m" --colormatrix "smpte170m" --sar 10:11 --pass 1 --b-pyramid strict -o DB06_VBR_V1.264 DRAGONBALL_E06_final.avs

x264 --bitrate 5000 --preset veryslow --tune grain --bluray-compat --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 24 --min-keyint 1 --open-gop --slices 4 --pulldown 32 --fake-interlaced --colorprim "smpte170m" --transfer "smpte170m" --colormatrix "smpte170m" --sar 10:11 --pass 2 --b-pyramid strict -o DB06_VBR_V1.264 DRAGONBALL_E06_final.avs

This is as close to lossless detail-wise as you can come. One episode ~900mb. You can probably drop the bitrate some, but this is for my own archival purposes (I'm authoring an SD Blu-Ray...) so I keep it fairly high.

[ect5150]

My pics had a 16-235 remap applied to them...maybe that made it appear a little more blurry (though it really shouldnt)? I really dont know what else could have caused it.

Edit: Nope its not that. Its not a problem with my screen capture either because even comparing your picture with my video in MPC yours still looks sharper. Are you sure you dont have any post-process sharpening applied to that image when it was taken from your player? I dont know what else it could be.

Media Player Classic has different resizing algorithms for making the 4:3 correction. In the Options-> Playback -> Output section in the "Resizer" it lets you specify different levels of Bi-cubic or Bi-linear resizing. I would imagine it uses the selected item to resize from 720x480 or 640x480 (or whatever the aspect ratio is set use).

That might make a difference as some of the resize algorithms are known to be sharper.

[kei17]

Edit: Nope its not that. Its not a problem with my screen capture either because even comparing your picture with my video in MPC yours still looks sharper. Are you sure you dont have any post-process sharpening applied to that image when it was taken from your player?

1) Ripping the vob with DVD shrink
2) Taking a raw shot with VirtualDub
3) Resizing it with Photoshop (bicubic)

These are what I did.

[Ashura]

Mine pretty much matches Kei's:



This is the US rev though, since the overscan is ever-so-slightly different.

[ect5150]

x264 --bitrate 5000 --preset veryslow --tune grain --bluray-compat --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 24 --min-keyint 1 --open-gop --slices 4 --pulldown 32 --fake-interlaced --colorprim "smpte170m" --transfer "smpte170m" --colormatrix "smpte170m" --sar 10:11 --pass 1 --b-pyramid strict -o DB06_VBR_V1.264 DRAGONBALL_E06_final.avs

x264 --bitrate 5000 --preset veryslow --tune grain --bluray-compat --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --level 4.1 --keyint 24 --min-keyint 1 --open-gop --slices 4 --pulldown 32 --fake-interlaced --colorprim "smpte170m" --transfer "smpte170m" --colormatrix "smpte170m" --sar 10:11 --pass 2 --b-pyramid strict -o DB06_VBR_V1.264 DRAGONBALL_E06_final.avs

By the way, I think your aspect ratio should be 4320:4739 versus the 10:11. It's a small but subtle difference, but someone else on the forums pointed me to this link regarding it - and is an excellent read in general.

x264 is great though. I use different settings, but my own encoding ends up on a harddrive versus a disc (I watch DBZ on the PC, not a TV). I will say that ~900mb an ep (depending on the ep) is about right on average (although I don't encode opening and ending).

But I use constant quality not bitrate.

Click to enlarge.

Also, for interested parties... megui is your friend for encoding!

[Corpsecreate]

I was using the original .VOB taken directly from the DVD. It turns out my player was causing extra blurring because it seems fine in VLC.

When dealing with Dragon Box DVDs, if you index with DGIndex and then open that with an avs script, you will not need to inverse telecine as the video is only soft telecined. Simply opening up in an avs script will give you the correct 23.976 fps (at least it did for me).

I believe ect5150 hit the nail right on the head. I changed the resizing algorithm and while none of them match the sharpness of what it should be, the quality did change. I might have to go back to using VLC

[ect5150]

3) Resizing it with Photoshop (bicubic)

I don't know about you guys, but Photoshop is too bloated for me to use just to resize an image and save it.

I recommend IrfanView.

Last time I checked, it has more resize options compared to Photoshop and opens next to instantly. That said, all Irfanview can do is resize, crop and save to different formats. But that's all we seem to be doing here anyways.

[ect5150]

When dealing with Dragon Box DVDs, if you index with DGIndex and then open that with an avs script, you will not need to inverse telecine as the video is only soft telecined. Simply opening up in an avs script will give you the correct 23.976 fps (at least it did for me).

I can't speak for the US Dragon Boxes (as I have the R2 DBoxes), but there are a few episodes where it was hard-telecined (or at least the first-half was). I know one of them was somewhere in the Nappa battle versus the Z-Warriors (I'm not at home, otherwise I'd check). Was this true for the US version as well? Or would I have to give you specific episode numbers for an answer?

[Corpsecreate]

I dont have the US version either and I havent checked to see if any are hard telecined other than this episode.

Anyways I'm off to bed, 1:07 AM

[Ashura]

Usually DGIndex can figure it out if you scan the film first.

I meant in general when dealing with film stuff, you want to get it back to the native 24fps, be that by IVTC or using DGIndex to figure out the flags, what have you before dumping it into that script.

And yeah, megui, etc. are good. I'm sort of a command-line nerd though so I just do it by hand so I know what it's doing exactly.

ECT: I'll definitely check out the aspect ratio stuff! 10:11 is what the x264 posse suggested on their Blu-Ray authoring Wiki, so that's why I went with it, to try to get compliance.

[ect5150]

Usually DGIndex can figure it out if you scan the film first.

I meant in general when dealing with film stuff, you want to get it back to the native 24fps, be that by IVTC or using DGIndex to figure out the flags, what have you before dumping it into that script.

And yeah, megui, etc. are good. I'm sort of a command-line nerd though so I just do it by hand so I know what it's doing exactly.

ECT: I'll definitely check out the aspect ratio stuff! 10:11 is what the x264 posse suggested on their Blu-Ray authoring Wiki, so that's why I went with it, to try to get compliance.

I used to use command line, but it got old... plus megui auto-updates everything.

I think the 10:11 is the MPEG-4 spec, but DVDs are meant to run on CRT TV's which means the other numbers I gave would force it to appear as it would on an NTSC TV screen. Give it read though, if you follow the details it will help explain a lot.

[MarcFBR]

The blur in the cap has to do with the way different players deal with interlacing.

While the DVDs are progressive, it's likely you accidentally set your MPEG2 codec in MPC to go after interlacing with a vengeance, sif it isn't sure, it'd set a deinterlacer to go.

[Corpsecreate]

Interesting thing about VLC I just noticed is that instead of applying the pixel aspect ratio to make the 720x480 become 640x480, it is resizing the height to get 4:3. In other words, in VLC the size of the video becomes 720x540 instead of 640x480 like other players.

[BluezaBladeNZ]

There's definitely one episode that is interlaced, I discovered another one while subbing them that only occurred in one shot for some reason during the Namek arc. I had Fraps running too so you can see the frame rate difference:



There's also another one that occurs during the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai in Dragon Ball. The episode starts off fine at 24 progressive, but after the first eyecatch, it switches to interlaced, then back to progressive during the credits.

[MarcFBR]

Interesting thing about VLC I just noticed is that instead of applying the pixel aspect ratio to make the 720x480 become 640x480, it is resizing the height to get 4:3. In other words, in VLC the size of the video becomes 720x540 instead of 640x480 like other players.

That wouldn't be the cause of the issue.

This has to do with how the various players deinterlace stuff.

VLC as I recall doesn't deinterlace by default, regardless of content.

MPC's default MPEG2 codec (and most MPEG2 codecs for standalone players) tend to go rather hardcore on interlacing.

[Attitudefan]

BluezaBladeNZ, that's the DBOX, yes?

[FindKenshi]

You guys seem to know a ton about digital imaging and film restoration, and the like. Do you have formal educations in the matter? Just curious.

[BluezaBladeNZ]

BluezaBladeNZ, that's the DBOX, yes?

R2/Japanese Dragon Box it is. It's just got unfinished subtitles from FUNimation's set (which I have completed).

[Ashura]

VLC as I recall doesn't deinterlace by default, regardless of content.

This is correct. When it framedumps, it also dumps at the native 720x480 despite playing in the correct aspect ratio. So it shouldn't be an issue here.

You can actually use DGIndex to framegrab as well, by scrolling through the video and pressing F8 I believe.

[ect5150]

BluezaBladeNZ, that's the DBOX, yes?

R2/Japanese Dragon Box it is. It's just got unfinished subtitles from FUNimation's set (which I have completed).

Yeah, but are the R1 DBoxes the same? Can anyone confirm? I'm just curious...