Singles Vs. Movie Packs - Which is the better release?

[dbboxkaifan]

I've been thinking for a long time to purchase the DBZ films but the time never came because I was waiting for FUNimation to release their "Dragon Box: The Movies" however as such thing never happened, I'm down to either the DBZ Singles or the DBZ Movie Packs, so here's my questions:

1) Is the picture quality good?
2) Does it have the Japanese credits or English titles only?
3) Do they feature the NEPs of each film? (I'm okay for this one if it doesn't)

As for the fourth question I'm aware that it's 4x3 AR which got me interested over the Movie Packs, but still, the DB:TM would be the definitive collection to go for if FUNimation had released it.

I have gathered the links of the DBZ Singles' films 1-13 from Amazon, which I think are all correct:
01) Dead Zone - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Movie ... =movies-tv
02) World's Strongest - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Movie ... =movies-tv
03) Tree of Might - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Movie ... =movies-tv
04) Lord Slug - http://www.amazon.com/Dragonball-Z-Lord ... =movies-tv
05) Cooler's Revenge - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Coole ... =movies-tv
06) Return of Cooler - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Retur ... =movies-tv
07) Super Android 13 - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Movie ... =movies-tv
08) Broly the Legendary SSJ - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Broly ... =movies-tv
09) Bojack Unbound - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Bojac ... =movies-tv
10) Second Coming - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Broly ... =movies-tv
11) Bio-Broly - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Bio-B ... =movies-tv
12) Fusion Reborn - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Z-Fus ... =movies-tv
13) Wrath of the Dragon - http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Z-Wra ... =movies-tv

Thanks.

[Metalwario64]

The Double Features are, for the most part, vastly superior. The footage is always sharper, but sometimes in movies 1, 6, and 8 the contrast can be a bit too high resulting in washed out details. This used to bother me more, but the crappy edge enhanced and fuzzy Digibeta footage from the singles just hasn't aged well, and while sometimes the colors are better, I now think it's negated by the details obscured by the limitations of the source material.

The singles have the Japanese credits, while the DFs have english titles only.

[Puto]

1) Is the picture quality good?
2) Does it have the Japanese credits or English titles only?
3) Do they feature the NEPs of each film? (I'm okay for this one if it doesn't)

Re: The singles.
1) Not really, no.
2) Both.
3) I don't think such a thing even exists.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

3) Do they feature the NEPs of each film? (I'm okay for this one if it doesn't)

Er, what exactly are you referring to? Next Episode Previews for movies?

Are you talking about the trailers for each film or those "movie ticket lottery things" that were tacked on to the end of certain Next Episode Previews? As far as I know, they latter has never been put out on a home release and the movie trailers are only available on Dragon Box: The Movies.

Although, isn't the trailer for DBZ Movie 7 included after the end credits on the DBZ Movie 6 single?

[dbboxkaifan]

Oh so they aren't NEPs but trailers, ah my confusion soz.

Although the Singles feature the Japanese credits overall the Movie Packs seem to be considerably the better option of the two aw damn. I really hope FUNi releases DB:TM this year or next.

Thanks for the answers, guys.

[Weejus]

Oh so they aren't NEPs but trailers, ah my confusion soz.

Although the Singles feature the Japanese credits overall the Movie Packs seem to be considerably the better option of the two aw damn. I really hope FUNi releases DB:TM this year or next.

Thanks for the answers, guys.

Does anyone know how well FUNi's Dragon Box Z volumes sold? I know it was a limited release but maybe the sales could be used to gauge the likelihood of the DBox Movies coming out.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

Oh so they aren't NEPs but trailers, ah my confusion soz.

Although the Singles feature the Japanese credits overall the Movie Packs seem to be considerably the better option of the two aw damn. I really hope FUNi releases DB:TM this year or next.

Thanks for the answers, guys.

Does anyone know how well FUNi's Dragon Box Z volumes sold? I know it was a limited release but maybe the sales could be used to gauge the likelihood of the DBox Movies coming out.

You know, I don't think FUNimation ever actually said anything about the Dragon Boxes being a limited release when they were originally coming out.

I know this is kinda vague, but I do remember them making a comment about how they were selling. There weren't any specific numbers, from what I remember.

I'm with you guys on wanting Dragon Box: the Movies to come out. This might be just because I'm biased, but I feel like they don't do enough with the movies. They're self-contained, look nice, and it's not as much of a commitment to put them out, compared to putting out all of Z. There's also still a sense of obscurity/rarity about them. "Everyone's seen and know how the series goes, but have you seen the movies?" They're still a bit of an untapped resource in my opinion.

[Shnuki]

Speaking about picture quality, movie 1 actually looks pretty good (Ultimate Uncut Edition - I don't know how the Pioneer one looks). The rest of them... Well, they're watchable. And movie 6 does have the preview for movie 7 (sub-only, FUNi didn't bother to dub it - it appears only if you watch the movie in Japanese).

[GarrettCRW]

Unless we get the Dragon Box for [insert your Dragon Ball series/movie here], 1 and 2 will be mutually exclusive simply because Funimation is either too incompetent or too lazy to utilize the branching feature in DVDs and Blu-rays any more.

[SSJ Electric Fury]

How does the picture quality compare between the M13 single and the remastered DVD? If I decide to get M13, I would like the 4:3 and Japanese stereo of the single, but I read something about the encoding being poor on that release. BTW, some image comparisons would be great.

[dbboxkaifan]

Screens of M13's Wrath of the Dragon:






I've read that the Japanese audio on the Double Features (cropped release) was inferior to the one on the Singles.

[SSJ Electric Fury]

Yeah, I read the Japanese track is stereo on the single and muffled mono on the remastered DVD and Blu-ray. So, the single has that pair beat in terms of audio. The picture quality difference, remastered cropping aside, is my remaining concern. You say those pics you provided are from the single, dbboxkaifan?

[dbboxkaifan]

Yeah it's from the Single WotD which I've bought. I've purchased all thirteen (the third being Pioneer's DVD for now).

The Japanese audio on it sounds really good and clean but from what I read on a different topic the audio still isn't stereo instead it's clean and overall better.

[SupremeSSJ]

I'm looking at the scans and I notice a rainbow effect. is this just my computer? or the pic quality?

[Ajay]

That's the release.

It's why I'd much rather stick with my Dragon Box set. I don't really care to watch it in fullscreen considering they're animated with 16:9 in mind.

That's just me though. I find rainbowing and general lack of quality more distracting than the fact there's extra footage to be had.

[Metalwario64]

The Double Feature's footage is much, much better. Not only are the colors far improved from the original single's dark, brown tinted Digibeta source, but the encoding is much better and there is much less macroblocking and pixellation in high motion scenes.

Double Feature:


Single:


That one's good because you can see how the brown tint is gone in the DF footage.

Here's another one that shows the pixellation (and lack thereof):

Double Feature:


Single:


It's a shame the DF's audio is terrible. I guess they had the crappy magnetic audio track on their film print, whereas their old Digibeta had better audio, and they didn't realize the difference.

[Ajay]

Can you rehost those images on imgur or minus.com since Photobucket is trash and won't let people see your images once your bandwidth is up.

[Metalwario64]

Can you rehost those images on imgur or minus.com since Photobucket is trash and won't let people see your images once your bandwidth is up.

Yeah, I did that right after posting, and it's good now.

[dbboxkaifan]

That's the release.

It's why I'd much rather stick with my Dragon Box set. I don't really care to watch it in fullscreen considering they're animated with 16:9 in mind.

That's just me though. I find rainbowing and general lack of quality more distracting than the fact there's extra footage to be had.

It's for the novelty of seeing them in fullscreen whereas the Dragon Box: The Movies are cropped.

The Double Feature's footage is much, much better. Not only are the colors far improved from the original single's dark, brown tinted Digibeta source, but the encoding is much better and there is much less macroblocking and pixellation in high motion scenes.

Double Feature:
http://i.imgur.com/lkinlE5.jpg

Single:
http://i.imgur.com/yEmWoyz.jpg

That one's good because you can see how the brown tint is gone in the DF footage.

Here's another one that shows the pixellation (and lack thereof):

Double Feature:
http://i.imgur.com/gGxSRs1.jpg

Single:
http://i.imgur.com/iVGU7UN.jpg

It's a shame the DF's audio is terrible. I guess they had the crappy magnetic audio track on their film print, whereas their old Digibeta had better audio, and they didn't realize the difference.

Whoa, I can't believe you used crappy compressed jpg files for it which made it look worse for the both of them, especially the Singles.

Uploading 500kb-1mb (png) of an image isn't that much when what counts is its lossless quality.

You can clearly notice the picture quality difference of the screens I uploaded and the ones you uploaded.

Some more lossless screens now of Lord Slug:

Can you rehost those images on imgur or minus.com since Photobucket is trash and won't let people see your images once your bandwidth is up.

Photobucket registered free users have up to 5GB so it'll take a good time to hit that mark, and for free Imgur users the maximum allowed is 250 images per account which is nothing.

ImageShack still remains as the best out there.

[Gonstead]

ImageShack still remains as the best out there.

Not to derail the topic but http://www.majhost.com beats all. Unlimited free photo hosting ftw.