AB Video to release original Dragon Ball on Blu-Ray

[GhostEmperorX]

Like, let's be completely real here, guys. Why would Toei give a single solitary shit that AB Groupe or any other company that licensed the older Dragon Ball shows use the broadcast audio for their home releases?

And, why is anyone assuming without confirmation 1 way or another that the hold-up is Toei being mad over the broadcast audio? Because Toei didn't want it? That's Toei not giving a shit to get the audio files because Toei is fucking dumb when it comes to the preservation of their older media.

Honestly, guys, use your heads here. You cannot apply normal logic to Toei. They're illogical business people who do not care unless money's involved.

All of this can't be emphasized enough. It's really important to take a step back and look at how the rest of the industry does things apart from this one dinosaur company with a terrible track record on this very subject, probably one of the worst for a company of its stature. Tunnel vision seems quite easy to fall into, and then some out there might think that this is how they all operate over in JP (when of course, nothing could be further from the truth).

And for a relevant example as it concerns the franchise, according to some conversations here they apparently have high quality audio for GT but still went with optical for releases anyway. Should this be true then it only shows that they just aren't the least bit interested in this sort of thing.

Another general reminder for anyone out there is to avoid unsourced or otherwise made-up territory when it comes to information.

[Vegard Aune]

And for a relevant example as it concerns the franchise, according to some conversations here they apparently have high quality audio for GT but still went with optical for releases anyway. Should this be true then it only shows that they just aren't the least bit interested in this sort of thing.

They do indeed have that still. There are readily available recordings of rebroadcasts from long after the series ended, that have high quality audio. There was, truly, no reason for the GT Dragon Boxes to sound the way they did. I've spoken out in defense of the audio for OG DB and Z before as being "the best they could do at the time"... But GT really should have had the same pristine audio quality as the movies. They still had the material to make that possible. There is proof that that material never left their possession.

[GhostEmperorX]

They do indeed have that still. There are readily available recordings of rebroadcasts from long after the series ended, that have high quality audio. There was, truly, no reason for the GT Dragon Boxes to sound the way they did.

Thanks for the confirmation, much appreciated.

I've spoken out in defense of the audio for OG DB and Z before as being "the best they could do at the time"...

Meanwhile, properties elsewhere such as Armored Trooper VOTOMS (1983), Brave Raideen (1975), Space Runaway Ideon (1980), Oishinbo (1988), City Hunter (1987) and the list goes on... completely different story. And barely anyone's heard of most of these in comparison to DB.

But GT really should have had the same pristine audio quality as the movies. They still had the material to make that possible. There is proof that that material never left their possession.

It's probably the same deal with why they don't want to make good remasters of anything that's on 16mm film even though they could (i.e. being complete dinosaur cheapskates).

[Scsigs]

Spoiler:

Like, let's be completely real here, guys. Why would Toei give a single solitary shit that AB Groupe or any other company that licensed the older Dragon Ball shows use the broadcast audio for their home releases?

And, why is anyone assuming without confirmation 1 way or another that the hold-up is Toei being mad over the broadcast audio? Because Toei didn't want it? That's Toei not giving a shit to get the audio files because Toei is fucking dumb when it comes to the preservation of their older media.

Honestly, guys, use your heads here. You cannot apply normal logic to Toei. They're illogical business people who do not care unless money's involved.

All of this can't be emphasized enough. It's really important to take a step back and look at how the rest of the industry does things apart from this one dinosaur company with a terrible track record on this very subject, probably one of the worst for a company of its stature. Tunnel vision seems quite easy to fall into, and then some out there might think that this is how they all operate over in JP (when of course, nothing could be further from the truth).

And for a relevant example as it concerns the franchise, according to some conversations here they apparently have high quality audio for GT but still went with optical for releases anyway. Should this be true then it only shows that they just aren't the least bit interested in this sort of thing.

Another general reminder for anyone out there is to avoid unsourced or otherwise made-up territory when it comes to information.

Here are the reasons I think people are assuming the worst:
1. Lack of any information in a while. While it hasn't been stated that the second set's been cancelled, the lack of a trailer, information, screenshots, or a reveal of at least the box art is making people anxious. Which is understandable. However, that wouldn't explain why the first set is still in print. You would assume it'd be taken out of print if Toei had a problem with it &/or replaced with a new set that changes something about it. To say that it's been quietly cancelled when we have no confirmation from anyone at AB Groupe is dumb, though. There could be multiple reasons why it's being held up. My money is on the remaster taking more time than they expected.
For this, I think it's more so just impatience &/or overthinking things.

2. FUNimation's history of cancelled DB sets that were actually GOOD! While I think it's incredibly dumb to judge AB Groupe by FUNimation's history because they're unrelated companies in 2 different parts of the world whose only real intersecting points are that they've both dubbed the DB franchise & AB funded the alternate English dubs of the shows, mainly Z, for English-speaking European territories like the UK that sourced FUNi's dub scripts because Ocean was still involved in that...for some reason, people are afraid that AB Groupe's gonna succumb to the same trappings that the Level sets did. If that's what the worry is for some, the circumstances are quite different, as the Level sets were literally the 3rd release of DBZ in 4 years after the Orange Bricks & Dragon Boxes, 4th if you count Kai. The AB DB set is the first release of that show in France in a while it seems & the first on Blu-Ray...anywhere (minus Germany, which just had the DBox masters thrown on BR discs untouched, I believe). So, I doubt bad sales are any cause for concern.
For this, it's definitely overthinking things.

3. Toei taking issue with them using the broadcast audio. As I already explained, this is stupid. Toei literally does not give a fuck what other companies outside of Japan do with their shit after they license it as long as they sell it & make them money in royalties. Toei literally just wants money. They don't give a shit if the dubs of their anime stuff are good (seen countless times with Dragon Ball 20+ years ago), they don't care if it's presented well on home media (as seen 3 different times with FUNi's DBZ releases, as well as their own releases with the Dragon Box releases in Japan not being properly color corrected, the 2019 HD remasters of the first 17 DB movies having green tints & needless censorship on the disc releases, but not the Amazon JP streaming versions for some reason, Super: Broly having a weird green tint in the US, & the 4K disc for Super Hero being green-tinted for no reason & they refused to fix it before release), & they don't care if the adaptations of their live action stuff are good (as shown with the varying quality of Power Rangers adapting Super Sentai over the last 12 years, mainly most of the seasons of the Neo Saban Era being really bad). As long as they make a lot of money, they couldn't care less. Why would they care if AB Groupe use the broadcast audio whatsoever? That seems like a weird place to draw the line.

[Vegard Aune]

It's probably the same deal with why they don't want to make good remasters of anything that's on 16mm film even though they could (i.e. being complete dinosaur cheapskates).

It really isn't. Remastering old film takes a lot of time, effort and money. The thing with the GT broadcast audio is... they had to do nothing.
They already had the audio lying around. Just... use it. Which is also why the other shows you mentioned are likely not a good comparison either. The point is that for DB and Z, Toei scrapped their original source masters, meaning those degraded optical tracks was all they had. All the buzz about fan recordings of the broadcast audio only started a few years later. But for GT... it wasn't all they had. Because they never got rid of the original masters to begin with. It was there. They could absolutely have used it. But they didn't. Because ???. It wouldn't even have cost them more, or at least I don't think it would.

[GhostEmperorX]

It really isn't. Remastering old film takes a lot of time, effort and money.

I meant more that in the end it really makes no difference to them whether they can even do it or not, but I see what you mean.
Probably a "difference between zero and negative one"-type situation here (in terms of how low tier they've been).
The other series are mentioned just to highlight how they had no excuse for scrapping the audio masters to begin with, for this or any of their other old series at least in the 80's-90's period.

[Scsigs]

It really isn't. Remastering old film takes a lot of time, effort and money.

It's why Toei hasn't remastered more of their older shows they had shot on film faster. They don't have the money needed & it'd take a while. Dragon Ball from DB to GT is 508 episodes & 3 TV specials. Discounting the openings & endings, as there are only 5 openings & 4 endings across the 3 shows, it's 508 20-minute episodes stored on film. Film that has unfortunately aged & warped over the years because apparently they didn't store it well. Plus, 16mm film ages poorer than 35mm film. This is why only FUNimation & AB Groupe have taken cracks at remastering any of the shows for their releases. Toei just doesn't want to, despite Dragon Ball being 1 of their top-earning franchises. Granted, because of the censorship they did to Kai & the movies, as well as their weird love of green tints, I'm fine with Toei not doing it, tbh. For all of FUNi's faults with remastering, they at least don't censor or green tint the footage.

The thing with the GT broadcast audio is...they had to do nothing.
They already had the audio lying around. Just... use it. Which is also why the other shows you mentioned are likely not a good comparison either. The point is that for DB and Z, Toei scrapped their original source masters, meaning those degraded optical tracks were all they had. All the buzz about fan recordings of the broadcast audio only started a few years later. But for GT...it wasn't all they had. Because they never got rid of the original masters to begin with. It was there. They could absolutely have used it. But they didn't. Because ??? It wouldn't even have cost them more, or at least I don't think it would.

I honestly can't wait for AI to get to the point where we can do things like Peter Jackson did for The Beatles' Get Back doc he made a few years ago, where people can take the broadcast audio recordings, separate the voices from the sound effects & music, then mix them into FUNi's 5.1 mix of the JP music & sound effects to make a Frankenstein'd 5.1 JP audio mix & Toei still won't give a fuck.

[Joujou]

It really isn't. Remastering old film takes a lot of time, effort and money.

And? if you wan't to sell an HD remaster then you have to remaster it, not using kind of trick to fool people like saint seiya ugly upscale that was sell as a collector item even if only garbage

It's why Toei hasn't remastered more of their older shows they had shot on film faster. They don't have the money needed & it'd take a while. Dragon Ball from DB to GT is 508 episodes & 3 TV specials. Discounting the openings & endings, as there are only 5 openings & 4 endings across the 3 shows, it's 508 20-minute episodes stored on film. Film that has unfortunately aged & warped over the years because apparently they didn't store it well. Plus, 16mm film ages poorer than 35mm film. This is why only FUNimation & AB Groupe have taken cracks at remastering any of the shows for their releases. Toei just doesn't want to, despite Dragon Ball being 1 of their top-earning franchises. Granted, because of the censorship they did to Kai & the movies, as well as their weird love of green tints, I'm fine with Toei not doing it, tbh. For all of FUNi's faults with remastering, they at least don't censor or green tint the footage.

What!!!!!! Toei don't have the money needed to remaster???
you simply don't understand the point
Toei is a company (not fans like us as Toei simply don't care about what they are selling)
Dragon Ball is simply a product like another product. But this product sold very well so they are just using it to make money again and again risking to kill the licence by raping it again and again to add story that was simply unnecessary like it become a regular things even in Hollywood movies.
As a company, the lower the cost, better it is, so if an upscale can be sold like they countless time do it and very well, why the hell would they use money to remaster dragon ball properly? for quality? but they simply don't care, garbage sold well so why bother?
As a fan, your point is that if they didn't do it, it's only because they can't cause you can't understand that a company don't care about quality. But in your everyday life, how many product are you buying and that are absolute trash cause it was made by low cost way?

Even People working into AB trash talk about Toei saying that they simply don't care about quality.

About broadcast audios, as much you can say that Toei throw away cinetape audios (it's now a well known stuffs) but you can't know if other betacam using thoses audios or personnal recordings aren't in their hands
My theory about GT broadcast audios is simply that Toei didn't use the audio simply cause it wasn't on the 16mm itself, they didn't even bothered to seek about better audios and even if they knew about the GT audio being in their position, they wouldn't bother to include it simply cause people would have noticed that GT audios are far better than db and z ones and would probably have lead to complain about it

[GhostEmperorX]

What!!!!!! Toei don't have the money needed to remaster???
you simply don't understand the point

That part of the quote is misattributed, it's from the post that Scsigs made in reply.

[Scsigs]

Spoiler:

It's why Toei hasn't remastered more of their older shows they had shot on film faster. They don't have the money needed & it'd take a while. Dragon Ball from DB to GT is 508 episodes & 3 TV specials. Discounting the openings & endings, as there are only 5 openings & 4 endings across the 3 shows, it's 508 20-minute episodes stored on film. Film that has unfortunately aged & warped over the years because apparently they didn't store it well. Plus, 16mm film ages poorer than 35mm film. This is why only FUNimation & AB Groupe have taken cracks at remastering any of the shows for their releases. Toei just doesn't want to, despite Dragon Ball being 1 of their top-earning franchises. Granted, because of the censorship they did to Kai & the movies, as well as their weird love of green tints, I'm fine with Toei not doing it, tbh. For all of FUNi's faults with remastering, they at least don't censor or green tint the footage.

What!!!!!! Toei don't have the money needed to remaster???
you simply don't understand the point
Toei is a company (not fans like us as Toei simply don't care about what they are selling)
Dragon Ball is simply a product like another product. But this product sold very well so they are just using it to make money again and again risking to kill the licence by raping it again and again to add story that was simply unnecessary like it become a regular things even in Hollywood movies.
As a company, the lower the cost, better it is, so if an upscale can be sold like they countless time do it and very well, why the hell would they use money to remaster dragon ball properly? for quality? but they simply don't care, garbage sold well so why bother?

Yeah, you misquoted what I said to the other guy. Also misunderstood what I meant. Anyways...

What I meant is that Toei doesn't have it in their budget to do the remaster at this time. They don't see it as a priority. When it comes to budgets companies like them have, they allocate it in various places to fund their various productions. Toei doesn't always do remasters unless they see it as worth it or they can spare the money to do so. For instance, Super Sentai has only had the first handful of series in that franchise remastered rather than the first however many series that were shot on film & had all of the movies & specials that aren't part of the regular series from the pre-HD days remastered too. Remastering anything that's on film takes a certain amount of money to do properly. For example, the entirety of Star Trek: The Next Generation (a 178 episode 45-minute per episode TV show) took around $2 million & was deemed to not have made its money back, apparently. At least not right away. TNG looks fantastic (minus some of the space shots in season 2) in HD, but it took a lot of money to do it, as they had to find all the film reels in storage, re-edit the episodes with the takes they used to what the episodes were, mix the raw audio into a 7.1 mix, recreate things with CGI when they couldn't locate model footage or the original data, redo the VFX, etc. Now, when something like a sitcom that was shot on film is remastered, they don't take a lot of money to do. It's why a lot of old sitcoms or shows that weren't made with a lot of VFX have been more quickly remastered into HD than something like older Star Trek (I still hold out that they'll eventually remaster DS9 & Voyager into HD since they spend $8 million on single episodes of Discovery, but whatever).
Dragon Ball Z is a show that's like Star Trek TNG, as it's a 291 episode, 20-25 minutes per episode anime from the same time. However, as shown with the Dragon Boxes, the colors warped all over & in order to properly restore the episodes back to closer to what they originally looked like when they aired back in the 80s & 90s, they'd need to not only scan the film reels & clean them up, but also properly adjust the colors. This would take time for the editors to do properly & a lot of money for Toei to pay them with. And then there's Toei asking the question of if they'll make the money on their investment back. Toei is a business run by business people who don't make a lot of logical decisions. They need to know if it's economically worth it. Now, we may thing it would, but they seem to thing otherwise.
THAT'S what I mean. They're not gonna put the extra cash needed to do these things unless they believe it'll be worth it. Hell, the only reason they remastered the first 17 movies & Z TV specials into HD was because it was Z's 30th anniversary & they hadn't already done so. Similarly how they hadn't put DB the shows on home media for the first time until 2003. They didn't think it was worth it to do...for some reason & saw a lot of Japanese fans were importing the US DVDs & VHS tapes at the time.

As a fan, your point is that if they didn't do it, it's only because they can't cause you can't understand that a company don't care about quality. But in your everyday life, how many products are you buying and that are absolute trash cause it was made by low cost way?

Even People working into AB trash talk about Toei saying that they simply don't care about quality.

Ok, shut the fuck up & don't act like you know me. Of course Toei have the resources to be able to do so, but "will they?" is the question. Some companies put a good amount of time & budget into remastering their older works into HD if possible. For instance, I have the recent rerelease of Gatchaman, which is 105 episodes 20-25 minute episodes, 3 OVAs, & a movie. Gatchaman is from the 70s & I bet Tatsunoko Production had to devote a lot of time & budget needed to remaster them into HD properly. Usually, animation companies in Japan do the remasters themselves, but not Toei when it comes to the DB shows. They allowed FUNi to do remasters of Z & were obviously hands-off in the whole thing because they couldn't care less, which is a shame. And now they've let AB Groupe do a remaster of DB. FUNi & Toei have never actually cared about the visual quality of Z. AB clearly does with DB. You're coming off rather condescending if you genuinely think I don't understand these things by now. I've been well aware of them for years.

As for your question, less than you're thinking, actually. I usually do my research before buying a product when it comes to media. I don't require much, just that the thing visually looks good & sounds good. Even if it's not overly fantastic, as long as it's not hot stinking garbage, I'll get it. I'm fine with the Viz Media Blu-Rays for Naruto, Bleach, & other anime because they're decent. Not great because they're clearly usually their DVD masters upscaled to 1080p, then thrown on a disc, but the rereleases are also just better than the DVDs because they have more episodes per set & are less money as a result. The only 2 things I've broken this on are the 2014-2019 Sailor Moon Blu-Rays Viz did because I didn't think we'd get any better given how apparently the masters were in pretty rough shape from what they said & the DBZ steelbooks & that's only because I didn't think we'd get any better when they came out & I didn't start hunting down the 4 remaining Dragon Boxes I needed yet. The moment we get something better, I'm there. Sailor Moon has the rerelease Blu-Rays that use the apparently better HD masters Toei did in Japan & Z will hopefully have an actual GOOD remaster in France in the next few years or so.
I didn't buy the 2013-14 Blu-Rays for Z when I saw what they were (a cynical cashgrab that ignored what the fans wanted), I didn't support FUNi's bullshit Kickstarter for the 30th anniversary remaster once I saw what it was (a cynical cashgrab that ignored what the fans wanted minus the 4:3 aspect ratio), & I have no need to support any other new DBZ releases unless they're actually good because I have the Dragon Boxes now. I know where to spend my money & I rarely compromise.

About broadcast audios, as much you can say that Toei throw away cinetape audios (it's now a well known stuffs) but you can't know if other betacam using those audios or personal recordings aren't in their hands.
My theory about GT broadcast audios is simply that Toei didn't use the audio simply cause it wasn't on the 16mm itself, they didn't even bothered to seek about better audios and even if they knew about the GT audio being in their position, they wouldn't bother to include it simply cause people would have noticed that GT audios are far better than db and z ones and would probably have lead to complain about it.

I'm very certain it's been confirmed at this point that they junked the original audio masters. This is a very Toei thing to do, so it's very believable.
My theory is that Toei simply didn't care to give Pony Canyon or any of their international licensees the higher quality GT audio masters they have more than they just refused to give them it. I don't think Toei gives a single shit about how Dragon Ball as a franchise is presented as long as it makes them money. Let's look at why I think that:
1. Not properly color correcting their old film masters for DB, Z, & GT for the Dragon Boxes.
2. Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters not being farmed out to Q-Tec (who, despite their faults did an admirable job with the first 98 episodes of Kai all things considered) & doing it in-house with a crop to 16:9, meh color correction, less filler cut out (& 1 instance of manga material being taken out for no reason, & a weird green tint to the footage).
3. Dragon Ball Super being rushed into production & having an episode turnaround time of about 5-6 weeks rather than several more like is standard in the anime industry & having wildly inconsistent animation & writing quality as a result.
4. Dragon Ball Super: Broly having a strong green tint on the US releases for no reason (Super Hero's 4K release also suffers from this everywhere in the world).
5. The 2019 movie remasters having green tints & censorship on the disc releases of them for no good reason, but neither on the Amazon streaming versions.
6. A refusal to accept the fan-gathered broadcast stereo high quality audio files for DB & DBZ for their own possible future home releases.
7. Allowing FUNimation to (3 times over) remaster DBZ into a shitty DVNR'd, blurry, watercolor-y, badly color-corrected, overly brightened, & oversaturated mess that are the Orange Bricks, 2013-14 season set Blu-Rays, & 2019 30th anniversary remaster & their various rereleases over the years in various forms. Then allowing FUNi to repeatedly try to lie to & gaslight people over them.

Toei isn't malicious. Toei simply just doesn't care as long as they get money. They're a company whose higher-ups genuinely do not care about the products as long as they make money. Only the writers, producers, & animators care. Now, that's not surprising because that's usually how these things go, but most companies also usually take some pride in how their products are presented to the world. Like, I just bought the 4K remasters of Snow White & Cinderella Disney released earlier this year. They look beautiful because of the remasters they got (& Cinderella's previous one was really bad). Toei could produce a remaster worthy of the franchise, but they simply have no pride in doing so. Will they make a ton of money doing so? No? Then they don't care to even try. It's extremely sad when we have to rely on an international licensee like AB Groupe to actually care & remaster with AI 20-year-old DVD masters from Toei rather thanToei themselves putting their best people in charge of it in Japan. Let's not forget, Kai: The Final Chapters only happened because of the international success of the previous 98 episodes & was initially intended to just come out overseas (though I imagine Toei probably would've put out their own home release eventually anyways). I think that can sum it up about as well as anything else I've said here. Toei's apathy in the wake of money is their ultimate downfall.

[GhostEmperorX]

I'm fine with the Viz Media Blu-Rays for Naruto, Bleach, & other anime because they're decent. Not great because they're clearly usually their DVD masters upscaled to 1080p, then thrown on a disc, but the rereleases are also just better than the DVDs because they have more episodes per set & are less money as a result.

For those ones in particular, it's largely unavoidable with 2000's digital paint animated series since they're stuck on their native 480p resolution.
As opposed to most 20th century series.

[Scsigs]

I'm fine with the Viz Media Blu-Rays for Naruto, Bleach, & other anime because they're decent. Not great because they're clearly usually their DVD masters upscaled to 1080p, then thrown on a disc, but the rereleases are also just better than the DVDs because they have more episodes per set & are less money as a result.

For those ones in particular, it's largely unavoidable with 2000's digital paint animated series since they're stuck on their native 480p resolution.
As opposed to most 20th century series.

I mean, sure, but when we have Discotek doing things like upscaling Digimon Adventure 01 to 1080p with AI when that was also animated digitally & it looks great. I don't expect a ton of work to be done & I don't mind that they're using the 480i DVD masters, for a base but converting every bit of every episode to progressive scan, focusing episodes that are a bit fuzzy, & getting rid of rainbows would be nice. I don't know if the Japanese animation studios could do too much better, but I'd at least expect those to be done. Also, apparently Studio Periot remastered the original Naruto series in HD & recut it, cutting out the filler similar to DBZ Kai, after that series finished, so I don't think that's true at all.

[sangofe]

I'm fine with the Viz Media Blu-Rays for Naruto, Bleach, & other anime because they're decent. Not great because they're clearly usually their DVD masters upscaled to 1080p, then thrown on a disc, but the rereleases are also just better than the DVDs because they have more episodes per set & are less money as a result.

For those ones in particular, it's largely unavoidable with 2000's digital paint animated series since they're stuck on their native 480p resolution.
As opposed to most 20th century series.

I mean, sure, but when we have Discotek doing things like upscaling Digimon Adventure 01 to 1080p with AI when that was also animated digitally & it looks great. I don't expect a ton of work to be done & I don't mind that they're using the 480i DVD masters, for a base but converting every bit of every episode to progressive scan, focusing episodes that are a bit fuzzy, & getting rid of rainbows would be nice. I don't know if the Japanese animation studios could do too much better, but I'd at least expect those to be done. Also, apparently Studio Periot remastered the original Naruto series in HD & recut it, cutting out the filler similar to DBZ Kai, after that series finished, so I don't think that's true at all.

Off topic but where is this new cut without fillers available? I tried to Google it and best I found were fan cuts.

[Shaddy]

They didn't cut any filler, and in fact, the Naruto HD episodes are cropped to 16:9. It's not worth it. The One Pace guys are working on a recut of the show themselves, I recommend just following that instead.

[Scsigs]

Off topic but where is this new cut without fillers available? I tried to Google it and best I found were fan cuts.

It's not new. They put it together after the original series ended back in like 2008 or something. I'm trying to find where I read about it, but it's called Naruto Hen or some shit like that. It hasn't been made available outside of Japan, afaik.

Edit: Found some info. Its full name is Naruto Shounen-Hen. It never made it outside of Japan & apparently aired at random. There's barely any info on it as a result, but it IS an HD remaster with the filler taken out & new 2D & 3D shit added in.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Naruto/comment ... er_called/

[Cure Dragon 255]

It just doesnt air the full filler episodes but it is not an edit like One Pace or Kai. It does have KICKASS new openings though. My favorite one is Douhyou by Super Beaver.

[Joujou]

Ok, shut the fuck up & don't act like you know me. Of course Toei have the resources to be able to do so, but "will they?" is the question. Some companies put a good amount of time & budget into remastering their older works into HD if possible. For instance, I have the recent rerelease of Gatchaman, which is 105 episodes 20-25 minute episodes, 3 OVAs, & a movie. Gatchaman is from the 70s & I bet Tatsunoko Production had to devote a lot of time & budget needed to remaster them into HD properly. Usually, animation companies in Japan do the remasters themselves, but not Toei when it comes to the DB shows. They allowed FUNi to do remasters of Z & were obviously hands-off in the whole thing because they couldn't care less, which is a shame. And now they've let AB Groupe do a remaster of DB. FUNi & Toei have never actually cared about the visual quality of Z. AB clearly does with DB. You're coming off rather condescending if you genuinely think I don't understand these things by now. I've been well aware of them for years.

Don't take it personnally please, i was talking in a general way to basically everyone cause what you are saying is what is non stop said by lot of people since years. and not about video only
How much time here we've read about people asking why Toei, funi etc aren't remastering properly the show.

i only wanted to be clear about Toei only being a company. it's a thing that a lot of people basically forgot in their arguments. Most have "fans" point of view that's all.
As a company, only money matters for Toei, funi etc
Why Funi made 16/9 crop with DNR for DBZ? simply cause they knew it will sold well
Why Toei don't want (it's not db only related) to remaster long show properly? cause it will cost too much and DNR shit will sold anyway
there is no real complicate reason, world is ruled by money, Toei is a company and not a fan company so that's all, no point

about what you buy, i'm talking about anything you buy, not video related only.
The example i'll use is simply a washing machine : it's a well known things that new models aren't as nice and long life as the older things, why? low cost components, ecomony made in all possible things etc...

[Scsigs]

So, I've rewatched AnimeAjay's video on the first set & have come up with a shortlist of reasons why the second has taken so long. Which, if you guys haven't watched or rewatched this video recently, you should. Also it could be all of these points at once, or a small number of them holding up the second set.
https://youtu.be/mlGY8u9PbwI?si=A_oA7rH7xZTIXOUK

1. Taking more time to do things properly because someone on the team clearly cares and understands how this should be done.
Apparently, they put the first set together in only 2 months, as it was a last-minute decision between doing their own upscale with AI & just importing Selecta Vision's bad upscale. This resulted in at least some of the things I'll talk about more below.

2. Better color correction.
From what Ajay said in the video, the color correction wasn't as well done as it could've been due to being rushed. With more time, they can make sure everything's properly color corrected, especially the NEPs.

3. Maintaining clarity.
So the picture doesn't look off, they could stabilize the wobbily frames & whatnot to maintain proper line quality in the fine details, which they didn't have time to properly do for the first set.

4. AB possibly requesting the raw film scans/master DBox files of the episodes from Toei from 2003/4 so that they wouldn't be just working with DVD rips.
Ajay pointed out how the AI upscale at points (mainly in dark scenes) have unfortunate artifacting & detail loss due to the compression & ghosting the episodes had being put on the DVDs back in 2004 being hard to work with for the AI in places. Furthermore, if they got the raw scans from Toei of the episodes they already did, they could just do those episodes again as well, then rerelease the first set or a complete series set with a superior remaster for the episodes that weren't as well done.

I very much maintain that what's holding up the second set is the people at AB Groupe actually caring to do these episodes justice with the remastering rather than the needless worrying over Toei. As I've said in my previous posts, no one here should genuinely expect Toei to care about their older products much. They have 0 pride in doing the work themselves, otherwise we would've seen an actual HD remaster of the shows from them a long time ago.

[Joujou]

4. AB possibly requesting the raw film scans/master DBox files of the episodes from Toei from 2003/4 so that they wouldn't be just working with DVD rips.
Ajay pointed out how the AI upscale at points (mainly in dark scenes) have unfortunate artifacting & detail loss due to the compression & ghosting the episodes had being put on the DVDs back in 2004 being hard to work with for the AI in places. Furthermore, if they got the raw scans from Toei of the episodes they already did, they could just do those episodes again as well, then rerelease the first set or a complete series set with a superior remaster for the episodes that weren't as well done.

I very much maintain that what's holding up the second set is the people at AB Groupe actually caring to do these episodes justice with the remastering rather than the needless worrying over Toei. As I've said in my previous posts, no one here should genuinely expect Toei to care about their older products much. They have 0 pride in doing the work themselves, otherwise we would've seen an actual HD remaster of the shows from them a long time ago.

as much i hope that you are right about them asking for "raw scan" for box2 and give a better care to this last part, as much i don't trust at all cause i know how "poor" they are nowadays, (they've lost most licence that they used to have cause they couldn't renew them), that they'll redo box 1

I know that it already happened in USA with level sets then season sets, but something like that never happened in France.

As an example, when AB group released without any special care, dvd collector movie box 1 (widescreen crap), but a special "team" was made to do several collectors dvd box , matoumalin the "group leader" ask a new SD scan in fullscreen from AB interpositives movies films print, but even if they have given a special care to this box, they'll never redo "box 1" and i'm 100% sure they'll not redo db box 1 no matter the issues they have

You forgot one point, "Toei animation" are from what i know when i've talk with matoumalin times ago, very hard in negociation, you basically forgot to mention that AB used Broadcast audios without any Toei approval on it, there is a High risk that it can also explain why BOX 2 isn't released yet, Toei is a hell in negociation but even without that, it's very usual that sometimes months or year can separate two release

[Scsigs]

as much i hope that you are right about them asking for "raw scan" for box2 and give a better care to this last part, as much i don't trust at all cause i know how "poor" they are nowadays, (they've lost most licence that they used to have cause they couldn't renew them), that they'll redo box 1

I know that it already happened in USA with level sets then season sets, but something like that never happened in France.

As an example, when AB group released without any special care, dvd collector movie box 1 (widescreen crap), but a special "team" was made to do several collectors dvd box , matoumalin the "group leader" ask a new SD scan in fullscreen from AB interpositives movies films print, but even if they have given a special care to this box, they'll never redo "box 1" and i'm 100% sure they'll not redo db box 1 no matter the issues they have.

You forgot one point, "Toei animation" are from what i know when i've talk with matoumalin times ago, very hard in negociation, you basically forgot to mention that AB used Broadcast audios without any Toei approval on it, there is a High risk that it can also explain why BOX 2 isn't released yet, Toei is a hell in negociation but even without that, it's very usual that sometimes months or year can separate two release.

They used the broadcast audio without permission? Can you back that up?