30th Anniversary vs 2014 Blu-rays - Are They the Same Remaster?

[JustAlex1997]

In 2019, Funimation released a special 4:3 set of Dragon Ball Z on Blu-ray. Like the 2014 Blu-rays and infamous Orange Bricks, digital noise reduction was used to clean the footage of grain. There are those who claim the 30th Anniversary set is the same master used on the 2014 Blu-rays but in 4:3, but I just don't see it. I swear it's been improved.

Would it be possible to get some comparison shots?

[KBABZ]

They are effectively the same. The widescreen crop has been removed and there's a fake grain layer added, but that's about it really. Of the two, the 30th Steelbooks that recently went up is the better option if only for the 4:3 factor.

Sadly I don't have comparison links to hand.

[eledoremassis02]

here are two comparisons I made
http://www.framecompare.com/image-compa ... n/9FCC1NNU
http://www.framecompare.com/image-compa ... n/91B1MNNU

some caps for anyone else who'd like to make comparisons

Spoiler:

[Robo4900]

The actual remastering work is the same, yes.

Both the Season Blu-rays and the 30th sets take that underlying remaster, and apply the same shitty DNR+sharpening on top that ruins the Level-like source, cleaned-up image.
The main difference, aside from the 4:3 vs 16:9 framing is just that the 30th sets added a layer of fake grain on top in response to the initial criticisms of the poor picture (which did nothing to address the damage done by the DNR+sharpening which was what people complained about), and used a different colour grade; the Season BDs used a really, really intense overcontrast/oversaturation filter, and had a blue tint, whereas the 30th sets have, I think, actually been a little desaturated/decontrasted, and have a purple/red tint.

[KBABZ]

here are two comparisons I made
http://www.framecompare.com/image-compa ... n/9FCC1NNU
http://www.framecompare.com/image-compa ... n/91B1MNNU

-looks at the first one-
Man those Dragon Balls really moved about over the years didn't they?

By my estimation, yeah it's the same as the Blu-Rays with a different colour grade. The patterning on the watercolour'd backgrounds (like the glow around Trunks) are exactly the same.

[SupremeSSJ]

Man I feel bad for the people that missed out on dbox

[eledoremassis02]

Man I feel bad for the people that missed out on dbox

Dont feel too bad, I lost interest in Dragon Ball around the time the orange bricks came out and came in way late to the Dragon Box game. I ended up getting Dragon Boxes 1,3,5-7 and sold them because I thought I'd never get 2 and 4 (which I later got and happily later sold to a friend who needed to complete their set) and had no regrets. The compression/encoding really killed that set for me and I went down a rabbit hole of not being happy with any release (colors, no NEP or in the wrong order, compression, score, etc.) I littery owned every single, most of the Dboxes, a bunch of Japanee Dragon Box singles, Dragon Box the movies, orange bricks, season 1 season bluray and now the 30th. I learned to just be happy with what I have, and it's in 4:3 (my biggest gripe) and it saves space. Yea, it's not perfect but I learned that a perfect release may not exist as there will always be something we're not happy about.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Man I feel bad for the people that missed out on dbox

Dont feel too bad, I lost interest in Dragon Ball around the time the orange bricks came out and came in way late to the Dragon Box game. I ended up getting Dragon Boxes 1,3,5-7 and sold them because I thought I'd never get 2 and 4 (which I later got and happily later sold to a friend who needed to complete their set) and had no regrets. The compression/encoding really killed that set for me and I went down a rabbit hole of not being happy with any release (colors, no NEP or in the wrong order, compression, score, etc.) I littery owned every single, most of the Dboxes, a bunch of Japanee Dragon Box singles, Dragon Box the movies, orange bricks, season 1 season bluray and now the 30th. I learned to just be happy with what I have, and it's in 4:3 (my biggest gripe) and it saves space. Yea, it's not perfect but I learned that a perfect release may not exist as there will always be something we're not happy about.

I'm personally glad to have most of the Dragon Boxes, seeing as they were really the only option i had at the time a few years back in terms of getting a consistent collection of DBZ in 4:3 primarily to watch the original run subbed as i've already got Kai for my dub viewing. Overall i am really glad to have them (sans DBox 4, though fingers crossed) what with the awesome deals i was able to find my copies for mostly on eBay and such. True, the video quality is not perfect being sourced from 17+ year old 16/35 mm film scans but it's still much better than the garbage remastering FUNi has done on most their own releases.

[eledoremassis02]

Man I feel bad for the people that missed out on dbox

Dont feel too bad, I lost interest in Dragon Ball around the time the orange bricks came out and came in way late to the Dragon Box game. I ended up getting Dragon Boxes 1,3,5-7 and sold them because I thought I'd never get 2 and 4 (which I later got and happily later sold to a friend who needed to complete their set) and had no regrets. The compression/encoding really killed that set for me and I went down a rabbit hole of not being happy with any release (colors, no NEP or in the wrong order, compression, score, etc.) I littery owned every single, most of the Dboxes, a bunch of Japanee Dragon Box singles, Dragon Box the movies, orange bricks, season 1 season bluray and now the 30th. I learned to just be happy with what I have, and it's in 4:3 (my biggest gripe) and it saves space. Yea, it's not perfect but I learned that a perfect release may not exist as there will always be something we're not happy about.

I'm personally glad to have most of the Dragon Boxes, as they were really the only option i had at the time a few years back in terms of getting a consistent collection of DBZ in 4:3 primarily to watch the original run subbed as i've already got Kai for my dub viewing. Overall i am really glad to have them (sans DBox 4, though fingers crossed) what with the awesome deals i was able to find my copies for mostly on eBay and such. True, the video quality is not perfect being sourced from 17+ year old 16/35 mm film scans but it's still much better than the garbage remastering FUNi has done on most their own releases.

I can understand that, I think the Japanese release looked great and if FUNimation were to re-release them with better encoding or even on a SD-bluray they'd look even better. If people are contempt with the Dragon Boxes, then I am glad they have a release they can watch and enjoy but I hit a point where I wasnt even enjoying the show. Honestly the 30th set is the fist time I havent felt the need to sell it for somthing better. If another better remaster comes along the way then I'd defintly updgrade tho I much better another release of Dragon Ball over Z. Even with the Dragon Box, I can look past the color issues now caue it was taking over my enjoyment of the show, and even next episode preiws I can nix cause while they're apart of the show they hold no nostalgia for me and they are kinda moot since I've seen the show so many times I usually skipped them.

As someone on here once said, I'm gonna paraphrase so forgive me. "You can dress up DBZ as many ways as you like but that wears off quickly and you soon realize its the same show you've always watched."

Edit: You werent able to get the Dragon Box 4 I sent you? I saw it sold around the time I sent you the link so I was hopping you were able to get it.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Dont feel too bad, I lost interest in Dragon Ball around the time the orange bricks came out and came in way late to the Dragon Box game. I ended up getting Dragon Boxes 1,3,5-7 and sold them because I thought I'd never get 2 and 4 (which I later got and happily later sold to a friend who needed to complete their set) and had no regrets. The compression/encoding really killed that set for me and I went down a rabbit hole of not being happy with any release (colors, no NEP or in the wrong order, compression, score, etc.) I littery owned every single, most of the Dboxes, a bunch of Japanee Dragon Box singles, Dragon Box the movies, orange bricks, season 1 season bluray and now the 30th. I learned to just be happy with what I have, and it's in 4:3 (my biggest gripe) and it saves space. Yea, it's not perfect but I learned that a perfect release may not exist as there will always be something we're not happy about.

I'm personally glad to have most of the Dragon Boxes, as they were really the only option i had at the time a few years back in terms of getting a consistent collection of DBZ in 4:3 primarily to watch the original run subbed as i've already got Kai for my dub viewing. Overall i am really glad to have them (sans DBox 4, though fingers crossed) what with the awesome deals i was able to find my copies for mostly on eBay and such. True, the video quality is not perfect being sourced from 17+ year old 16/35 mm film scans but it's still much better than the garbage remastering FUNi has done on most their own releases.

I can understand that, I think the Japanese release looked great and if FUNimation were to re-release them with better encoding or even on a SD-bluray they'd look even better. If people are contempt with the Dragon Boxes, then I am glad they have a release they can watch and enjoy but I hit a point where I wasnt even enjoying the show. Honestly the 30th set is the fist time I havent felt the need to sell it for somthing better. If another better remaster comes along the way then I'd defintly updgrade tho I much better another release of Dragon Ball over Z. Even with the Dragon Box, I can look past the color issues now caue it was taking over my enjoyment of the show, and even next episode preiws I can nix cause while they're apart of the show they hold no nostalgia for me and they are kinda moot since I've seen the show so many times I usually skipped them.

As someone on here once said, I'm gonna paraphrase so forgive me. "You can dress up DBZ as many ways as you like but that wears off quickly and you soon realize its the same show you've always watched."

Edit: You werent able to get the Dragon Box 4 I sent you? I saw it sold around the time I sent you the link so I was hopping you were able to get it.

I saw that listing on the site when you had PM'ed it to me but it wasn't up for very long because by the time i pulled it up the listing was already sold. Well, i guess i'll go back to hunting around eBay because i know there was one copy listed there for $200 something and that's actually not too bad compared to others.

Yeah, i wasn't holding out hope of FUNi actually doing a better non DNR'red cropped release at the time so it was why i chose to track down the Dragon Boxes because good deals can be found you just have to do a little digging around amongst all the scalpers.

[eledoremassis02]

I'm personally glad to have most of the Dragon Boxes, as they were really the only option i had at the time a few years back in terms of getting a consistent collection of DBZ in 4:3 primarily to watch the original run subbed as i've already got Kai for my dub viewing. Overall i am really glad to have them (sans DBox 4, though fingers crossed) what with the awesome deals i was able to find my copies for mostly on eBay and such. True, the video quality is not perfect being sourced from 17+ year old 16/35 mm film scans but it's still much better than the garbage remastering FUNi has done on most their own releases.

I can understand that, I think the Japanese release looked great and if FUNimation were to re-release them with better encoding or even on a SD-bluray they'd look even better. If people are contempt with the Dragon Boxes, then I am glad they have a release they can watch and enjoy but I hit a point where I wasnt even enjoying the show. Honestly the 30th set is the fist time I havent felt the need to sell it for somthing better. If another better remaster comes along the way then I'd defintly updgrade tho I much better another release of Dragon Ball over Z. Even with the Dragon Box, I can look past the color issues now caue it was taking over my enjoyment of the show, and even next episode preiws I can nix cause while they're apart of the show they hold no nostalgia for me and they are kinda moot since I've seen the show so many times I usually skipped them.

As someone on here once said, I'm gonna paraphrase so forgive me. "You can dress up DBZ as many ways as you like but that wears off quickly and you soon realize its the same show you've always watched."

Edit: You werent able to get the Dragon Box 4 I sent you? I saw it sold around the time I sent you the link so I was hopping you were able to get it.

I saw that listing on the site when you had PM'ed it to me but it wasn't up for very long because by the time i pulled it up the listing was already sold. Well, i guess i'll go back to hunting around eBay because i know there was one copy listed there for $200 something and that's actually not too bad compared to others.

Yeah, i wasn't holding out hope of FUNi actually doing a better non DNR'red cropped release at the time so it was why i chose to track down the Dragon Boxes because good deals can be found you just have to do a little digging around amongst all the scalpers.

100% true, I got both Dragon Box 2 and 4 for less than 100 each not too long ago

[Planetnamek]

Man I feel bad for the people that missed out on dbox

I thought about getting them myself at one point, but the lack of the Faulconer score was kind of a dealbreaker for me.

[Lightningexpose]

...and used a different colour grade; the Season BDs used a really, really intense overcontrast/oversaturation filter, and had a blue tint, whereas the 30th sets have, I think, actually been a little desaturated/decontrasted, and have a purple/red tint.

No the 30A’s grade involved a saturation boost

[Robo4900]

...and used a different colour grade; the Season BDs used a really, really intense overcontrast/oversaturation filter, and had a blue tint, whereas the 30th sets have, I think, actually been a little desaturated/decontrasted, and have a purple/red tint.

No the 30A’s grade involved a saturation boost

Fair enough.

It does have a weird look, though... Maybe they just boosted the black level. Certainly the original YouTube trailer version was a lot darker than the final version... Though the final doesn't gain any detail from that, the black level is just... Higher.

[Lightningexpose]

The black level and white level stuff is weird because Funimation have a habit of messing that stuff up.

Their later trailers for 30A have the black level and white level flattened and their entire Level Sets 1.2 suffers from this too. I believe the Rock the Dragon set suffers from this as well.

It’s something to do with TV vs PC configuration when encoding video I think, where TV settings enforce lifted black and lowered white.