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

[Corpsecreate]

Just for the record, I think 1080p Blu-Ray is as high-definition as DBZ needs to be. The show was just never meant to be viewed at such high resolutions. Any higher resolution wouldn't really help it IMO. It would be even more blurry and soft-looking, since the show is animated on 16mm for the vast majority of it.

The show was meant to be viewed as it was drawn - AKA infinite resolution That said, 1080p is good enough for me and most people, but 4k would still look noticeably better

[Ajay]

Just for the record, I think 1080p Blu-Ray is as high-definition as DBZ needs to be. The show was just never meant to be viewed at such high resolutions. Any higher resolution wouldn't really help it IMO. It would be even more blurry and soft-looking, since the show is animated on 16mm for the vast majority of it.

The show was meant to be viewed as it was drawn - AKA infinite resolution That said, 1080p is good enough for me and most people, but 4k would still look noticeably better

I have little experience with 4K but I feel like at a certain point you're just making the grain sharper and doing little to improve the actual image below it. At least regarding 16mm cel animation that was never particularly high quality in the first place.

[Corpsecreate]

Just for the record, I think 1080p Blu-Ray is as high-definition as DBZ needs to be. The show was just never meant to be viewed at such high resolutions. Any higher resolution wouldn't really help it IMO. It would be even more blurry and soft-looking, since the show is animated on 16mm for the vast majority of it.

The show was meant to be viewed as it was drawn - AKA infinite resolution That said, 1080p is good enough for me and most people, but 4k would still look noticeably better

I have little experience with 4K but I feel like at a certain point you're just making the grain sharper and doing little to improve the actual image below it. At least regarding 16mm cel animation that was never particularly high quality in the first place.

I like the appearance of 'finer' grain. The grain is part of the image so sharpening grain also sharpens your picture. Honestly though, a 4k resolution release isnt necessary, the main benefit would be gained by simply having a 4k scan of the film. I don't know what resolution funi scanned at but I'm guessing it was 1080p considering how long ago it was done.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Just when I thought he was finished and it couldn't get any worse he threw in a "why do the level sets have black bars on the left and right sides of the image"? My little brother is 16 by the way.

Random question; do you have Blu-Rays in your home to begin with? Because I can tell you I don't and I wouldn't know about Blu-Rays being forced 16:9 if not caring so much about a 4:3 show on a forum with people kind enough to repeatedly throw it out there. And I'm as peeved about the aspect ratio as anyone else here, doesn't necessarily make me informed.

Or Marc's mention of Disney. No bloody idea about any backlash despite that I want to buy some Disney blu-rays whenever I finally get the option.

Ultra High Def huh? I'm getting old lol This is honestly the truth....I use to go through Walmart looking at like 60inch HD TVs and thinking ''Yeah Dragonball would look good on that B*itch'' Hahahahahaha So I can't even imagine seeing these things. LOL

I'm pretty sure resolution isn't strictly dependent on size, there's just a practical point where the differences in detail between resolutions starts to blur. That and some TVs are clearly designed for home theater systems versus anything less.

Just for the record, I think 1080p Blu-Ray is as high-definition as DBZ needs to be. The show was just never meant to be viewed at such high resolutions. Any higher resolution wouldn't really help it IMO. It would be even more blurry and soft-looking, since the show is animated on 16mm for the vast majority of it.

The show was meant to be viewed as it was drawn - AKA infinite resolution That said, 1080p is good enough for me and most people, but 4k would still look noticeably better

That's my thought; ignoring the practical maximum detail that can be extracted from the film, ignoring that it would redundant and such a release would only exist to make DBZ look sharp on 4KTVs (though isn't that the purpose of all new home video formats, though Blu-ray's supporting 4K Video might slow that usual process considerably), isn't the fact that film has no set resolution kind of a strong point? Offset (greatly) by the fact that film is vulnerable and ages though it may be?

As for the grain... someone make an AMV of whatever 4K release to "Ode to Joy". As a little inside joke.

[eledoremassis02]

Here's Namek level sets (not 1080p). Goku seems a little washed out here as well

[kei17]

4K resolution obviously is overkill for 16mm film footage. The 35mm film episodes during the Freeza arc and movies deserve it, though.

[Metalwario64]

Yeah, their "season 2" masters are a bit bright and washed out looking. Still not as bad as the S2 OB and upcoming Blu-ray where skin tones are crushed white (though it's admittedly only that bad for a couple of episodes).

That's why it's stupid for them to use one setting on every episode (dem super geniuses I guess ), because their contrast increases on the "season 1" film makes their season 2 film way too bright.

[eledoremassis02]

their contrast increases on the "season 1" film makes their season 2 film way too bright

Thats a great point. It seems that up till trunks the picture quality staggers a lot

[TheMajinRedComet]

Maybe one day Funi will finally release the Saiyan saga uncut on VHS and does anyone know when they are going to finish their laserdisc release of the movies?

[TheAldella]

Maybe one day Funi will finally release the Saiyan saga uncut on VHS and does anyone know when they are going to finish their laserdisc release of the movies?

THEY STARTED???

[TheMajinRedComet]

Oh yeah, They released Dead Zone on Laserdisc I cant wait for World's Strongest. In all honesty I want every release of Dragonball to do good, I would just prefer if those releases were appropriate and respectful to the source material.

[Kendamu]

Things may change ever so slightly between now and Season 2's release. If you remember, the Season 1 trailer showed a cropped gray version of the eyecatch. That's obviously not what we got when the final product arrived. Hopefully this bodes well for those brighter episodes in the Namek Arc as they seem to not be too much of a problem at the end of the Season 1 set.

[ErikB]

Just for the record, I think 1080p Blu-Ray is as high-definition as DBZ needs to be. The show was just never meant to be viewed at such high resolutions. Any higher resolution wouldn't really help it IMO. It would be even more blurry and soft-looking, since the show is animated on 16mm for the vast majority of it.

The show was meant to be viewed as it was drawn - AKA infinite resolution That said, 1080p is good enough for me and most people, but 4k would still look noticeably better

Even at 1080p, we're already seeing details that even the animators themselves probably couldn't (by which I mean things like the subtly rough edges of the ink and paint which would have been relatively indistinguishable when you're the person actually putting the clean drawing on the cel).
Hell, I work digitally with the luxury of vectorized art and a Zoom tool and there's still stuff I don't notice until like my 4th time watching something I animated.

[Vegard Aune]

That said, 1080p is good enough for me and most people, but 4k would still look noticeably better

I don't think it would, actually. For one thing it would make the inherent graininess super preposterously over-obvious... also it is my opinion that 1080p is already good enough that going higher than that is a complete waste of effort. I've seen a 1080p BluRay projected in a movie-theater, where by the way I was sitting on the first row... It looked no different from any other theatrical presentation I've seen to me. The only reason I even know it was projected off a BluRay-disc is because I noticed the subtitles disappearing at one point, and so afterwards I just asked the people hosting the screening.

Then again, two of the three movies I saw this way were anime-movies. And as far as I know there isn't a single digitally animated anime-movie that was actually made at a higher resolution than 1080p. I'm pretty sure Battle of Gods was only 720p, for example.

[Fizzer]

It looks like they'll have to reanimate the series to make full use of 4K :3

It's just funny how Dragon Ball Z is one of the only anime with releases geared towards the uninformed.

That's because we're fans of a mainstream anime about overly-muscular men knocking the shit out of each other.

[Corpsecreate]

That said, 1080p is good enough for me and most people, but 4k would still look noticeably better

I don't think it would, actually. For one thing it would make the inherent graininess super preposterously over-obvious... also it is my opinion that 1080p is already good enough that going higher than that is a complete waste of effort. I've seen a 1080p BluRay projected in a movie-theater, where by the way I was sitting on the first row... It looked no different from any other theatrical presentation I've seen to me. The only reason I even know it was projected off a BluRay-disc is because I noticed the subtitles disappearing at one point, and so afterwards I just asked the people hosting the screening.

Then again, two of the three movies I saw this way were anime-movies. And as far as I know there isn't a single digitally animated anime-movie that was actually made at a higher resolution than 1080p. I'm pretty sure Battle of Gods was only 720p, for example.

Chances are that your blu-ray was SCANNED at 4k which provides much greater benefits than simply having a higher storage resolution. This is the same reason why the Level sets look way clearer than the Dbox even when downscaled to 480p:

[baneofdemon22]

I just witnessed first hand why Funimation choose this remastering process for this release instead of continuing the level sets. My little brother saw the new season blu rays for the first time today. When I showed him the level sets for comparison he absolutely hated them. For the life of me I couldn't get him to understand why the level sets were the superior release. He was adamant about the fact that he hated the grain and he couldn't understand why it was there even after I tried explaining to him that Dbz was made on 16mm film and grain is part of the image. He saw the grain as video noise and thought that it made the image look really blurry. He then went on to say and I quote "The new blu rays look a lot clearer and the colors look more vivid". I thought I was being trolled it was as if he had taken the words right out of Funimation's mouth. Now my little brother isn't a huge Dbz fan and he could care less about Funimation's re releases. He hasn't watched any ads for the new sets either. This was his genuine unbiased opinion. Just when I thought he was finished and it couldn't get any worse he threw in a "why do the level sets have black bars on the left and right sides of the image"? My little brother is 16 by the way.

That's exactly how my little brother is and he's 18. Actually, my dad is the same way too! Actually, especially my dad! Even when he's not watching something, but sees me watching a movie or tv show, he'll complain about not putting everything in zoom or about grain. He'd say, "That's not hd!" He can't stand it! And then my mom is like me, the complete opposite, liking a more "pure look". It's funny how family is so different, but I love them for it!

I don't want to give the impression that I'm some aficionado though! I notice the difference of quality, like listening to mp3's vs lossless, but I settle for convenience. I've had a lot of health problems and watch a lot of video on my ipod when I'm at doctor appointments, so it's helpful!

[dbboxkaifan]

Here's Namek level sets (not 1080p). Goku seems a little washed out here as well

Spoiler:

The brightness does look like it's been increased but still, I wonder how great this would have looked like if they released on Blu-ray with their team who used to nit-pick every bad part of the image, and trying to perfect it to its maximum.

It's really a shame the Level BDs were cancelled. Maybe Toei Animation will one day release DBZ in 4x3 1080p but if the picture quality is similar to Kai's then Level BDs will still remain as the best.

[DarkPrince_92]

Looky Looky! This guy's DNR attempt with the Level Sets. Looks pretty damn good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGgxGlpRGso

[UltimateHammerBro]

Someone was kind enough to rip an episode of the set, and that allowed me to see details that I had not read about. I've made some screenshots and compared them to a similar frame from my 4:3 version (which is an upscale of the Dragon Box).

Spoiler:

It seems that the remastering makes the dark blue lines darker than they should be. I think they blended better in the Dragon Boxes.

Spoiler:

IMO, the clouds are too blurry. It's also a bit weird, because the background trembles a little (as expected, I'm fine with that) but the DBs and the title don't.

Spoiler:

The same thing with the dark lines.

Spoiler:

I think that they should have tried to repair the frame artifacts, but other than that, I like how the remaster is done.

Spoiler:

Raditz for ya. It's weird that the clouds in the left are too sharp, and the ones in the right are too blurry. But Raditz looks good.

And now... brace yourselves...

Spoiler:

The ending isn't cropped, but ZOOMED. Can anyone calculate how much footage is lost?

Spoiler:

But hey, we see Gohan's hand perfectly.

Spoiler:

And now we don't see Gohan in the picture even though the ending is based on him!

Spoiler:

Selective cropping? What's it taste like? An anti-kanji policy, maybe?

But I must say that I don't dislike the remaster itself, and I don't mind 16:9 if it's done well. The only thing I really hate is the ending. I just wanted to share it.