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

[Vegard Aune]

The Kai blu-rays released in the US are region free but I can't speak for the 16:9 Japanese DVDs.

The DVDs are most likely Region 2. Should not be any problem for someone living in England though, what with them also using Region 2 and all.

[dbboxkaifan]

England is region 2 and America is region 1. That refers to DVDs though, Blu-rays use letters and can often be region-free but it depends on the release. The Kai Blu-rays released in the US are region free but I can't speak for the 16:9 Japanese DVDs.

They aren't Region Free, it's A & B.

Region Free would only apply if the Blu-ray were compatible with all three regions that being, A, B and C.

[Ajay]

They aren't Region Free, it's A & B.
Region Free would only apply if the Blu-ray were compatible with all three regions that being, A, B and C.

Yeah, that's my mistake, I understand the concept of a region free disc!
I always tends to forget about poor old Region C.

For the record, often Blu-Rays marked with a single region end up being region free. It's always best to check on blu-ray.com.

[BirdieWatcher]

I held out on buying the Dragon Boxes on a slim chance that the series would see a Bluray release someday. Once the Level sets were announced, I was extatic. Their presentation was amazing aswell. You can probably imagine my dissappointment once FUNi announced their cancellation. Now these 16:9 bricks in HD are releasing...should have just bought the Dragon Boxes when they were affordable. I'll probably end up getting these "Season" sets considering I can't afford some of those high priced Dragon Boxes.

Yeah, they really need to re-release these things.

[Bardo117]

I held out on buying the Dragon Boxes on a slim chance that the series would see a Bluray release someday. Once the Level sets were announced, I was extatic. Their presentation was amazing aswell. You can probably imagine my dissappointment once FUNi announced their cancellation. Now these 16:9 bricks in HD are releasing...should have just bought the Dragon Boxes when they were affordable. I'll probably end up getting these "Season" sets considering I can't afford some of those high priced Dragon Boxes.

Yeah, they really need to re-release these things.

They will never rerelease these,

[Kakarot88]

General question: Most HD TVs default o a 16:9, so when you watch a 4:3 it is automatically cropped and you must go into settings to adjust the format...why then is it business savvy, other than to save on costs of remastering, to release a non 4:3 product? Would it not make more sense to release the product as 4:3 so those who want to view it that way can do so by going into settings, whereas those who want a 16:9 fill up the screen crop can just sit back and relax?

Just curious as to why other than cutting costs with remastering why else Funimation would do this?

[KingofWisdom]

They just seem to be incompetent with DBZ. At least, that's how I choose to view it. The alternative would be that they're pissing us off on purpose.

[qjz123]

General question: Most HD TVs default o a 16:9, so when you watch a 4:3 it is automatically cropped and you must go into settings to adjust the format...why then is it business savvy, other than to save on costs of remastering, to release a non 4:3 product? Would it not make more sense to release the product as 4:3 so those who want to view it that way can do so by going into settings, whereas those who want a 16:9 fill up the screen crop can just sit back and relax?

Just curious as to why other than cutting costs with remastering why else Funimation would do this?

Blu ray only supports 16:9 so when you want to release a 4:3 product on blu ray you actually encode black bars into the video. No Tv will automatically crop this. Now with most blu ray players/ Tv's you would be able to go into your settings and zoom in on the image thus cropping it your self but you can't exactly market that. I would also assume that most people would rather not know what they're missing than consciously go into their settings and crop part of the picture away.

[Kakarot88]

Blu ray only supports 16:9 so when you want to release a 4:3 product on blu ray you actually encode black bars into the video. No Tv will automatically crop this. Now with most blu ray players/ Tv's you would be able to go into your settings and zoom in on the image thus cropping it your self but you can't exactly market that. I would also assume that most people would rather not know what they're missing than consciously go into their settings and crop part of the picture away.

REALLY!? They have to put in black bars for blu rays...see that kind of stuff makes me feel like the whole survey was a farce done in order to pass the buck when people gripe, I mean that right there let;s you know the effort would be exorbitant

[BirdieWatcher]

I held out on buying the Dragon Boxes on a slim chance that the series would see a Bluray release someday. Once the Level sets were announced, I was extatic. Their presentation was amazing aswell. You can probably imagine my dissappointment once FUNi announced their cancellation. Now these 16:9 bricks in HD are releasing...should have just bought the Dragon Boxes when they were affordable. I'll probably end up getting these "Season" sets considering I can't afford some of those high priced Dragon Boxes.

Yeah, they really need to re-release these things.

They will never rerelease these,

Never is too strong a word, though I don't think your wrong about them not being re-released in their current form. However I have a hard time believing that the footage will never be used again.

[MarcFBR]

REALLY!? They have to put in black bars for blu rays...see that kind of stuff makes me feel like the whole survey was a farce done in order to pass the buck when people gripe, I mean that right there let;s you know the effort would be exorbitant

Just to make sure I understand... you think the fact they'd have to add black pillarboxes (a mostly automated process) is proof of a conspiracy/farce?

...Why exactly?

[Kojiro Sasaki]

Blu ray only supports 16:9 so when you want to release a 4:3 product on blu ray you actually encode black bars into the video. No Tv will automatically crop this. Now with most blu ray players/ Tv's you would be able to go into your settings and zoom in on the image thus cropping it your self but you can't exactly market that. I would also assume that most people would rather not know what they're missing than consciously go into their settings and crop part of the picture away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#Video

1440x1080 is supported. Video stream does not contain black bars. They are added by metadata.

[qjz123]

Blu ray only supports 16:9 so when you want to release a 4:3 product on blu ray you actually encode black bars into the video. No Tv will automatically crop this. Now with most blu ray players/ Tv's you would be able to go into your settings and zoom in on the image thus cropping it your self but you can't exactly market that. I would also assume that most people would rather not know what they're missing than consciously go into their settings and crop part of the picture away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#Video

1440x1080 is supported. Video stream does not contain black bars. They are added by metadata.

No they aren't The Black bars are encoded into the image. Try ripping any 4:3 blu ray you own to your computer and you'll see you get a 1920x1080 image that is a 4:3 image with black bars on the left and right sides encoded into it.

[Kakarot88]

REALLY!? They have to put in black bars for blu rays...see that kind of stuff makes me feel like the whole survey was a farce done in order to pass the buck when people gripe, I mean that right there let;s you know the effort would be exorbitant

Just to make sure I understand... you think the fact they'd have to add black pillarboxes (a mostly automated process) is proof of a conspiracy/farce?

...Why exactly?

Because it is an added step. If it was overly burdensome to clean up rather than crop it is doubly so to take the extra time to add in bars. Even if it takes 5 minutes that is 5 more minutes they'd rather not have to deal with. It's a cost benefit analysis.

Moreover, it's not like Funimation has never released the series in 4:3 they did it for the dragon boxes and their singles. So then if we assume that "hey maybe the dragon box sets are too expensive to do this conversion for" (for some reason I don not know ) Funimation still has the old 4:3 singles to use and "remaster". Granted I know nothing about converting video so that may be a completely off the wall statement. But here me out, my thinking is this: "if you have 2 full releases of the series in 4:3 and one release in 16:9 you have ample footage of 4:3 to release it proper format considering most TVs default to 16:9 thereby appeasing both fan bases (ie full screeners get their crop and full fans get their full footage). The only reason then not to use the full footage is because it'd be too cost prohibitive and having to go in and add extra stuff (the black bars) in addition to cleaning the episodes (coughs what about the dragon box and single release proofs? ) makes the cost outweigh the benefit."

[dbboxkaifan]

4:3 AR Blu-rays have black bars and the reason why they don't allow to stretch the picture is because that's how it was originally intended to be seen. If you'd somehow stretch it (HDTVs can do it) you would be missing out on details and picture quality would decrease.

These sets aren't aimed at the hardcore audience so I dunno why anyone would be excited for it.

[KingofWisdom]

I'd really like to know the thought process behind this release.

[dbboxkaifan]

I'd really like to know the thought process behind this release.

The Orange Bricks were in 16:9 AR and this is also in 16:9 AR so perhaps the same footage just in HD. I just hope people here aren't expecting anything amazing because they could very well turn out disappointing.

[VegettoEX]

I'd really like to know the thought process behind this release.

"Man, that previous release just didn't do the numbers we thought it would do. Gotta stop working on it immediately."

(time passes)

"We need DBZ on the shelf again."

"Is the rest of Kai ready yet?"

"No."

"Go back to the original film for the orange brick masters and crap that out again."

[The Time Traveller]

"Go back to the original film for the orange brick masters and crap that out again."

I'm thinking they might just be selectively cropping the masters for the Level blurays or something, didn't they make a big deal about remastering DBZ in HD and cleaning the fallen hairs, DNA evidence and spilled noodles from Japan off of the picture? And those looked like fairly wide shots too, like they weren't zoomed in or anything so it could come out looking better than most people are expecting.

[ect5150]

1440x1080 is supported. Video stream does not contain black bars. They are added by metadata.

I don't think this is correct. While 1440x1080 is supported, it isn't using square pixels. It's a 4:3 pixel aspect ratio, but it still has a 16:9 display ratio. I think it's a result of the resolution in many HDCams. Even the link you provide claims the 1440x1080 resolutions have a 16:9 aspect ration (instead of 4:3).

didn't they make a big deal about remastering DBZ in HD and cleaning the fallen hairs, DNA evidence and spilled noodles from Japan off of the picture? And those looked like fairly wide shots too, like they weren't zoomed in or anything so it could come out looking better than most people are expecting.

Yes, but I'm betting most of the film damage is at the top and bottom of the frames from rips in the film somewhere. Cropping the picture eliminates all costs associated with those types of repairs. And those are most likely the most expensive to repair since so much is missing from the picture at that point. Removing a hair or sweat from the film can be selected very quickly and removed. Redrawing or reconstructing parts of the image from nothing is a different story.