FUNimation DBZ TV Blu-ray Official On-Going Thread

[MarcFBR]

Funimation sure loves to make their DB fans question them on what they are doing with the franchise.

1. Cancellation of the UUE.
2. The messed up Z season sets.
3. F*cking up the artwork/cover for the Kai sets.
4. The whole Kai season set and wrong music mix-up.
5. Discontinuing the Kai part sets.
6. Cancelling the BD 2.1 release and putting the release on hold.
7. Thinking of releasing future dragon box releases.

I'm trying to figure out why you had to post this again.

Stop making posts that effectively have no content to the discussion.

[funrush]

Funimation sure loves to make their DB fans question them on what they are doing with the franchise.

1. Cancellation of the UUE. Yeah.
2. The messed up Z season sets. Okay.
3. F*cking up the artwork/cover for the Kai sets. Your opinion, I guess.
4. The whole Kai season set and wrong music mix-up. Yamamoto, not Funi.
5. Discontinuing the Kai part sets. Yamamoto.
6. Cancelling the BD 2.1 release and putting the release on hold. Okay.
7. Thinking of releasing future dragon box releases. Wait, what?

How is thinking of new DBoxes bad? With all the stuff going on with the BD's, finishing the DBoxes would be the perfect alternative!

[Gotham22]

1. Cancellation of the UUE. Yeah.
2. The messed up Z season sets. Okay.
3. F*cking up the artwork/cover for the Kai sets. Your opinion, I guess.
4. The whole Kai season set and wrong music mix-up. Yamamoto, not Funi.
5. Discontinuing the Kai part sets. Yamamoto.
6. Cancelling the BD 2.1 release and putting the release on hold. Okay.
7. Thinking of releasing future dragon box releases. Wait, what?

How is thinking of new DBoxes bad? With all the stuff going on with the BD's, finishing the DBoxes would be the perfect alternative![/quote]

How so?

I mean, if you don't like it, that's fine, but it's not like it means they screwed up the release.

You two sure misread my posts.

I believe I explaineded why funimation messed up the Kai covers and I never said releasing more dragon boxes is a bad thing.

[dbboxkaifan]

You two sure misread my posts.

I believe I explaineded why funimation messed up the Kai covers and I never said releasing more dragon boxes is a bad thing.

3. Well it seemed at first just one character and the side bander on the DVD/BD to match the character was a good idea until they messed up with part five and onward with two characters added in a battle pose.
6. I hope something new and good comes out of this soon.
7. I'll sure buy them when ever they are released.

1. Yeah.
2. Okay.
3. Your opinion, I guess.
4. Yamamoto, not Funi.
5. Yamamoto.
6. Okay.
7. Wait, what?

How is thinking of new DBoxes bad? With all the stuff going on with the BD's, finishing the DBoxes would be the perfect alternative!

4. Yamamoto, correct, if Toei kept it for too much longer they'd have gotten into lawsuits.
5. DBZ Kai Season Sets have started to come out so it's useless to keep the parts in-stock.

He never said releasing the Dragon Boxes were a bad idea, you guys skipped his comment where he explained it.

7. I'll sure buy them when ever they are released.

[Aoi]

To me, FUNI could easily make the Level sets fiasco up to their fans by just releasing crisp, Blu Ray versions of the Dragon Boxes. They already have the negatives so it's really not much effort. It makes sense financially. Most people these days who are trying to buy the Dragon Boxes are buying the more expensive ones either on Ebay or from 2nd hand distributors. It's money lost for them, since they are not producing anymore. I think people would by D-Box quality Blu Ray singles in a heart beat.

I know I would. I was originally going to hold off on the Dragon Boxes just to get the level sets. Don't get me wrong, the box design (+ books) are gorgeous; but for me 5.1 Dolby digital is what makes it worth it. To hear the Japanese track like that is a dream come true.

[dbboxkaifan]

FUNi release the Dragon Box Z on Blu-ray? Please no. Leave that to Toei Animation.

I frankly don't want to buy the DBOX Z on Blu-ray with English cards, or with the NEPs stripped out for whatever unlogical reason.

[Aoi]

FUNi release the Dragon Box Z on Blu-ray? Please no. Leave that to Toei Animation.

I frankly don't want to buy the DBOX Z on Blu-ray with English cards, or with the NEPs stripped out for whatever unlogical reason.

Did FUNI actually import the D Box Z's from Japan then? What do you mean by the NEP's?

[Corporate_Nothing]

To me, FUNI could easily make the Level sets fiasco up to their fans by just releasing crisp, Blu Ray versions of the Dragon Boxes. They already have the negatives so it's really not much effort. It makes sense financially. Most people these days who are trying to buy the Dragon Boxes are buying the more expensive ones either on Ebay or from 2nd hand distributors. It's money lost for them, since they are not producing anymore. I think people would by D-Box quality Blu Ray singles in a heart beat.

I know I would. I was originally going to hold off on the Dragon Boxes just to get the level sets. Don't get me wrong, the box design (+ books) are gorgeous; but for me 5.1 Dolby digital is what makes it worth it. To hear the Japanese track like that is a dream come true.

That is a huge, and most likely false assumption to make. Funimation almost certaintly does not have possession of the original film masters for the Z Dragon Box - Toei Animation simply sent them a digital master copy in 480p, which means that all Funimation could possibly do if they wanted to release the Dragon Box footage on Blu-Ray would be to upscale the footage from 480p to 1080p, which wouldn't look nearly as great as the Level sets, or even Kai. Funimation is not in possession of the actual film masters USED for in the creation of Toei's Dragon Boxes, so they can't just rescan the entire series in 1080p, throw it all on Blu-Ray, and call it a day.

Also, NEP = Next Episode Previews. Funimation doesn't have the NEPs included in the multi-generational film masters they used for every other one of their releases besides the Dragon Box, nor do they have all of the correct openings and closings for every episode.

...What Mike said, lol.

[VegettoEX]

Did FUNI actually import the D Box Z's from Japan then?

Not sure what you mean. Yes, they licensed Toei's "Dragon Box" remasters directly from Toei. FUNimation did not re-do the entire process themselves. It's pretty much a one-to-one conversation of what Toei put out on DVD (just with an extra episode per disc and a dub track).

As Corporate_Nothing just stated, though... no, FUNimation did not get the first-generation film masters Toei used to create the Dragon Box masters. FUNimation received the final product to release.

What do you mean by the NEP's?

"Next Episode Previews" -- the short, narrated preview for the next episode that plays at the end of each episode.

[Aoi]

Did FUNI actually import the D Box Z's from Japan then?

Not sure what you mean. Yes, they licensed Toei's "Dragon Box" remasters directly from Toei. FUNimation did not re-do the entire process themselves. It's pretty much a one-to-one conversation of what Toei put out on DVD (just with an extra episode per disc and a dub track).

As Corporate_Nothing just stated, though... no, FUNimation did not get the first-generation film masters Toei used to create the Dragon Box masters. FUNimation received the final product to release.

What do you mean by the NEP's?

"Next Episode Previews" -- the short, narrated preview for the next episode that plays at the end of each episode.

Guys thanks a lot for this. I understand their limitations now. I've been considering buying the Dragon Box "Z"s for little while now. I am holding my breath for a proper Blu-Ray release, but it seems that this could take at least 1-2 more years after the Level sets were dropped.

Corporate_Nothing, you made an interesting point about them up scaling the image, putting it on BLu Ray and calling it a day. Isn't that similar to what they did with the Orange Bricks? In terms of just cropping the image, putting it through a filter and calling it a day?

I guess I will start investing in the DBoxes gradually.

[Corporate_Nothing]

Corporate_Nothing, you made an interesting point about them up scaling the image, putting it on BLu Ray and calling it a day. Isn't that similar to what they did with the Orange Bricks? In terms of just cropping the image, putting it through a filter and calling it a day?

No. In this context, "upscaling" is the process of taking a lower resolution digital image/video and artificially "blowing it up," which can look pretty good if done correctly, but it doesn't add any actual definition/clarity/fidelity (using non-technical terms here) to the image.

In the case of the Orange Bricks, Funimation actually did the opposite. They scanned the film prints at 1080p (in 16:9 widescreen, which means we the footage we were used to seeing all these years was cropped out from the original 4:3 picture), performed their half-assed digital remastering process, and then DOWNscaled the image from 1080p to 480p to fit the specifications of the a standard definition DVD.

What this means is that, if Funimation wanted to take the easy way out, they could simply go back to their Orange Bricks footage and toss it all on Blu-Ray, with absolutely minimal work required.

[dbboxkaifan]

An upscale 480p to 1080p from the Dragon Boxes Z to Blu-ray isn't a bad idea, if it were to look like the Dragon Box Six trailer on Yu Yu Hakusho's Season Two - Disc Three set then I wouldn't mind it at all.

Sadly I can't rip from my YYH Blu-ray Season Two or show how Dragon Box Six upscaled to 1080p looks like.

[Innagadadavida]

An upscale 480p to 1080p from the Dragon Boxes Z to Blu-ray isn't a bad idea, if it were to look like the Dragon Box Six trailer on Yu Yu Hakusho's Season Two - Disc Three set then I wouldn't mind it at all.

Sadly I can't rip from my YYH Blu-ray Season Two or show how Dragon Box Six upscaled to 1080p looks like.

That trailer is in 480p. The only upscaling going on is from your machine.

[ect5150]

show how Dragon Box Six upscaled to 1080p looks like.

I'm not a fan of upscaling. It's not a complicated process (relative to what most PCs and video cards nowadays can do). The only real benefit would be to pump the bitrate to remove what few compression artifacts exist and add lossless audio.

[Gotham22]

To me, FUNI could easily make the Level sets fiasco up to their fans by just releasing crisp, Blu Ray versions of the Dragon Boxes. They already have the negatives so it's really not much effort. It makes sense financially. Most people these days who are trying to buy the Dragon Boxes are buying the more expensive ones either on Ebay or from 2nd hand distributors. It's money lost for them, since they are not producing anymore. I think people would by D-Box quality Blu Ray singles in a heart beat.

I know I would. I was originally going to hold off on the Dragon Boxes just to get the level sets. Don't get me wrong, the box design (+ books) are gorgeous; but for me 5.1 Dolby digital is what makes it worth it. To hear the Japanese track like that is a dream come true.

If only funimation added the american music. To me this release was making up for the season sets to the fans who perfer the dub more.

[samuraix123]

To me, FUNI could easily make the Level sets fiasco up to their fans by just releasing crisp, Blu Ray versions of the Dragon Boxes. They already have the negatives so it's really not much effort. It makes sense financially. Most people these days who are trying to buy the Dragon Boxes are buying the more expensive ones either on Ebay or from 2nd hand distributors. It's money lost for them, since they are not producing anymore. I think people would by D-Box quality Blu Ray singles in a heart beat.

I know I would. I was originally going to hold off on the Dragon Boxes just to get the level sets. Don't get me wrong, the box design (+ books) are gorgeous; but for me 5.1 Dolby digital is what makes it worth it. To hear the Japanese track like that is a dream come true.

If only funimation added the american music. To me this release was making up for the season sets to the fans who perfer the dub more.

I agree with you I know where you're coming from. but the Dragon-Boxes were made to satisfy a certain demographic of fans who prefer the Japanese version. I could see someone from Youtube saying ''What hell is all this Chinese shit all over the intro's and credits?''

[dbboxkaifan]

I agree with you I know where you're coming from. but the Dragon-Boxes were made to satisfy a certain demographic of fans who prefer the Japanese version. I could see someone from Youtube saying ''What hell is all this Chinese shit all over the intro's and credits?''

YouTube's not really the best example but trolls are there to annoy others.

CHA-LA-HEAD-CHA-LA was also dubbed into various idioms, so international fans find themselves pleased hearing the original version.

Those countries who licensed AB Groupe's DBZ got the custom Opening which is the same thing for the Ending.

[Vegeta1984]

I seen Volumes 1 & 2 pretty cheap.... I was wondering If should go the heck with it and pick them up anyways or should I wait to see if Vol. 3 is released???

[ManyFaces]

I wouldn't if I was you, Vegeta1984. Unless FUNi can find a more cost-efficient way of restoring the material, they'll likely suspend it indefinitely. And there's also the matter of the Dragon Boxes. If they decide to start releasing the Boxes, it won't matter if they found a more cost-efficient method as the #1 rule in business is to never compete with yourself.

[Son Satan]

the #1 rule in business is to never compete with yourself.

Which FUNimation does all the time with Dragon Ball. The Orange Bricks have been manufactured consistently since 2007 despite other releases of the same Z material being done.

Vegeta1984, I'd say go for it. These are the only sets (most likely) to ever look this good, and even though they'll change the process, and the results of any future BDs would be different, you'd have the most accurate release of Dragon Ball Z to the original broadcast, picture-wise.