Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 2 hours!
Sorry, it was begging for a bad pun :v:

I think it's about time we had a Bluray thread of our very own to discuss releases. I haven't been burned by a bad release yet, but I've been very cautious when buying. Doctor thodt has graciously allowed me to use his OP from Cinema Discussco.

doctor thodt posted:

We are almost 4 years into the lifespan of the format, so I guess it's time to refresh our thread a bit.

Why should you buy in to Blu-Ray?
Simply put: Blu-Ray is the best way to enjoy your favorite movies and tv shows to date, short of a hypothetically perfect theater experience. And indeed, many people these days find themselves preferring Blu-Ray to going out to the theater; theaters tend to have dirty floors, sticky seats, worn-out prints and improperly-calibrated projectors. With Blu-Ray, you can enjoy movies they way they were meant to be seen, all from the comfort of your own home.

I kid you not when I say that Blu-Ray has changed my life (in ways other than spending a fuckton more money than I was before). I'm an avid movie watcher - I love being drawn in by the romance and the spectacle of film - which is why when I go to the theater, I tend to miss a lot. Aside from the many distractions and technical imperfections of the theatrical experience, sometimes movie screens are just too drat big to take everything in all at once. And then there are the films you can't see in a theater anymore - films like The Searchers and Minority Report, like Dr. Strangelove and Zodiac, like Battleship Potemkin and The New World - films where otherwise your only option is a low-bitrate DVD that looks muddy and bland in today's era of high definition.

Well, Blu-Ray is the answer to this dilemma. The format provides a unique opportunity for films - especially older ones - to be restored and seen like never before. One need only look at the DVD/BD comparisons for North by Northwest and Avatar to see the tremendous advantages the format affords to movie-lovers. I can't tell you how many times watching a Blu-Ray has radically changed my interpretation of a film, by mere virtue of being able to see and hear things I've never been able to see or hear before - not in a theater, not on a television broadcast, and certainly not on a DVD - but solely from viewing a film in jaw-dropping 1080p clarity on my television.

What kind of Blu-Ray player should you buy?
I can't say this strongly enough: get a Playstation 3. Here, maybe some profanity and the shift key will help: GET A loving PLAYSTATION 3. While there is no single "best" player, the PS3 is the most reliable and versatile player for what it costs - which is astonishing when you consider that it's been around since the advent of the technology. If you ever browse the Blu-Ray.com forums, you will find that at least half of the technical problems people have with Blu-Rays can be attributed to player compatibility. With the Playstation 3, this is a non-issue - I have thrown literally hundreds of discs at my PS3, and never once had a player-related problem. As for whether you should buy a "Fat" PS3 or a "Slim" PS3, that's totally at your discretion. The major differences are that the Slim model has a smaller design, consumes less power and can bitstream, whereas many people have reported that the Fat model has faster loading times.

If there's one significant drawback to the PS3, it's that it is unable to play region-locked discs from other territories. If you intend to do a lot of importing and would prefer a region-free player (or a player that can be hacked to play region-locked discs), you should check out Panasonic, Momitsu, or Oppo. The Oppo BDP-83 is widely considered to be the best player that isn't a PS3, and the Oppo BDP-80 is a good lower-cost alternative to the BDP-83. Both are also among the few players that best the PS3 in terms of DVD upconversion, if that's an important feature for you.

If you're looking for a decent budget player, I'd recommend just browsing Cnet's reviews so you can narrow your options down to the features and price you're looking for.

Note: one thing that I've heard from consumers far and wide is to avoid Samsung players at all costs. I've never had any personal experience with one, but evidently they cause a lot of problems.

What's the deal with region coding?
Courtesy of Wikipedia:

Blu-Rays, much like DVD's, can be locked to the respective region of their release - so if you buy a region-locked BD from another territory, you will only be able to play it if you have a region-free player. Thankfully, many studios are now coding their Blu-Ray discs to be region free, meaning they should be playable on any player in any territory. Warner Bros, Sony and Universal are among the major studios currently releasing most or all of their titles as region-free discs.

If you're looking for the region coding information for a specific title, this website is an invaluable resource.

Where can you find out which of your favorite movies are on Blu-Ray?
You can find an individual product page for just about every single Blu-Ray, from just about every single region, at Blu-Ray.com. They also have a pretty comprehensive release calendar to see what titles are forthcoming.

How do you determine which Blu-Rays are worth buying?
Sadly, Blu-Ray is not infallible. For every great transfer, there are two lackluster ones. So as with any new product you purchase, you should try to be as informed as possible before spending your money. The easiest way to educate yourself is by reading reviews. Sites such as Blu-Ray.com and DVD Talk employ A/V experts to review Blu-Rays, and are generally pretty trustworthy. However, even the best of reviewers aren't right 100% of the time - I'm reminded of when DVD Beaver's Leonard Norwitz called the original Gangs of New York release (one of the most hated BD's ever) "exquisitely and naturally rendered." Never trust any one reviewer, but collect an aggregate view of what people think about any given disc - and not just reviewers, either. Feel free to ask people's thoughts in this thread at any time, as even the professionals can all get it wrong sometimes. The best example of this is Patton: a Blu-Ray roundly praised by critics for some strange reason, considering its excessive use of digital noise reduction - a technique that scrubs out grain and fine detail, giving the movie a very artificial/waxy look, and thus completely destroying the visual integrity of the film.

So to recap: read reviews, but never be afraid to ask people here to chime in on a particular title you're interested in.

Where should you buy Blu-Rays?
Welp...depends on where you live, what you're looking for, when you're looking for it, how much you're willing to spend, and so forth.

Your safest bet tends to be Amazon, who is constantly running some promotion or another, and usually has the best price on new releases (and if they don't, then they usually pricematch whoever does). If you have Amazon Prime, you get free 2-day shipping on almost everything, and guaranteed release-day delivery on most new releases.

That said, you will still find a ton of great deals at brick-and-mortar stores like Target, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart. As I said above, when Amazon has the best price on something, it's often because they're pricematching one of these stores - so if you'd rather not wait for something to be shipped to you, you can typically run out to your nearest retailer and still get a good deal. If you keep yourself apprised of the weekly ads from these stores, you're bound to come across some awesome prices. I can't tell you how many titles I've seen debut at $25-$30, only to drop down to $10-$15 in under a month. If you don't need to own something immediately, a little patience will typically result in a lot of money saved.

You can also stay abreast of the latest and greatest money-saving offers by visiting the deals section of the Blu-Ray.com forums, as well as the Blu-Ray deal megathread from these very forums.

And finally, be sure to check out the DVD & Blu-Ray trading thread in SA-Mart!

Can you buy empty replacement cases?
Absolutely. You can find a variety of different case types at Meritline, Vernon Library Supplies, Sleeve City, and even Amazon.

Useful links
Blu-Ray.com - News, reviews, and the largest/most active Blu-Ray discussion forum on the net.
The Digital Bits - News and reviews from insiders Bill Hunt & co. Often scoops news about major upcoming releases.
DVD Beaver - Reviews and screenshot comparisons. Great resource for comparing Blu-Rays to previous home video releases. Also, tits.
DVD Talk - Reviews and discussion forum.
High Def Digest - News, reviews, and discussion forum.
High Def Disc News - News and reviews.
The HD Room - News and reviews.
Cinema Squid - Good all-around website that includes review aggregation, disc specs, price tracking, and so forth.
The Digital Fix - UK news and reviews.
Home Theater Forum - Self explanatory.
AVS Forum - Reviews, discussion forum, and screenshot comparisons. Their reputation for being full of crazy people actually makes for a useful litmus test - if AVS approves of a Blu-Ray transfer, it's pretty much guaranteed to be good.




What does this mean for Anime?
Well for starters it means most series produced these days will get a Bluray release as well as a DVD release.
It also means that a lot of anime companies are doing what western studios are doing, which is going into their archives to remaster some of their older releases. Unfortunately a lot of these releases are a hit or a miss as far as the buyer is concerned. Companies either don't spend the money to remaster them correctly or they upscale old digital shows.

What's upscaling and why is it bad?
Short version is as it sounds on the side of the box. You take a lower resolution image and upscaling it to fit a bigger one. It generally won't look bad per se, but it completely misses the whole point of the format.

During the middle of the 2000s the anime industry was in the middle of it's digital revolution. Traditional cell animation was being phased out for pure digital and a lot of series that were produced in this decade were created at a set resolution. DVD releases in this era looked great, but now when studios went back to remaster them for a Bluray release a lot of the time they were simple upscales with very little effort put into them. This was either due to the studios not having access to the original masters themselves or the studios being lazy by double-dipping on a Bluray release to maximise profit.

Again upscaling isn't necessarily bad, but you really don't want to waste your hard-earned money on something that doesn't make your jaw drop in awe.



So yeah suggest poo poo for the OP to make it ADTRW specific. I'll throw up a bunch of links to poo poo like CDJapan later.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
While I do have a fair number of BDs, the only two anime ones I have are Paprika and Evangelion 1.11. But both do look fantastic though.

I've always wanted to ask, but is there a reason the only Blu-rays produced for Gunbuster/Diebuster was of the compilation movie? I mean, if they could do that, why not for the full set of 12 episodes?

Xythar
Dec 22, 2004

echoes of a contemporary nation

Nate RFB posted:

While I do have a fair number of BDs, the only two anime ones I have are Paprika and Evangelion 1.11. But both do look fantastic though.

Yeah, Paprika is the only anime BD I own. They're not too common here still, Paprika looks and sounds fantastic though and I'm glad I picked it up.

Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 2 hours!
I'm going to start us off and highly recommend Studio Ghibli's remaster of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

This is exactly what you want in a remaster. They took a very old cell animated film and handled it with an incredible amount of care and the end result is a pleasure to watch; you'd expect nothing less from Ghibli. The amount of detail that now pops out of both the animation and the backgrounds really just make it a pleasure to watch.
It's as close to flawless as we're ever going to get.

It's jam-packed with extras as well which are a really lovely bonus if you're a Ghibli fan. How about this one? Audio commentary with Hedeaki Anno and Assistant Director Kazuyoshi Katayama. It's really fascinating to hear them both talk about the movie and it's one of those rare times you'll get a really solid commentary on an anime film.
There's hours of extras packed on top of it, so there's nothing bad I can say about the release at all.


Oh what's that America? You don't get it till next year? I'm so sorry :smug:


quote:

I've always wanted to ask, but is there a reason the only Blu-rays produced for Gunbuster/Diebuster was of the compilation movie? I mean, if they could do that, why not for the full set of 12 episodes?

Because Gainax are dumb and don't want our money.

Revolute
Aug 2, 2007

we've got our peace of mind
The Gundam Unicorn BDs are pretty great looking. As for older stuff that have gotten the blu ray treatment, Wings of Honneamise is BEAUTIFUL.

Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 2 hours!

Revolute posted:

Wings of Honnêamise is BEAUTIFUL.

This.

It's just such an amazingly beautiful film that really lends itself to Bluray and you really gotta hand it to the remastering crew. Almost every scene in it has really gorgeous backgrounds and it just looks good to watch.

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005
Most hand drawn things from the 80s transition extremely well to Blu-Ray.

It's sad that we're not getting the Zeta Gundam TV show on Blu-Ray over here, because the subbed rips from the Japanese one are loving gorgeous. It really shows how well animated the show was for being just a Gundam TV show.

Dj Meow Mix
Jan 27, 2009

corgicorgicorgicorgi
rockin everywhere


Even though I didn't like any of them very much, I have Claymore, Witchblade and Heroic Age on Blu-ray. They're all beautiful. Eden of the East is fantastic, and so is Ponyo. Even older upscales of stuff (like Full Metal Panic!) is actually great on the format. Gundam Unicorn and the Evangelion Rebuilds are my favorite Blu-rays though, no doubt.

I pretty much refuse to buy non-Blu-ray anime/movies now. Amazon helps with this.

tsob
Sep 26, 2006

Chalalala~
Any of the Macross movies or OVA's or anything basically available for Blu Ray in Europe? Getting a PS3 for Christmas and I'd love to have something Macross to play on it. As it is I've already made up a Blu Ray wishlist on Amazon.co.uk and added Wings of Honnemaise, Evangelion 1.11, Gundam Unicorn episode 1 and Nausicaa. More recommendations for pretty poo poo to blow my socks off always welcome.

I'll have to check out the other thread for recommendations on non-anime stuff too.

Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 2 hours!

Zorak posted:

Most hand drawn things from the 80s transition extremely well to Blu-Ray.

It's sad that we're not getting the Zeta Gundam TV show on Blu-Ray over here, because the subbed rips from the Japanese one are loving gorgeous. It really shows how well animated the show was for being just a Gundam TV show.

Cell animation lends itself incredibly well IF the money is spent on the remaster. For example I heard the Legends of the Galactic Heroes release was loving terrible and hardly improved on the DVD release.

Which makes it extra shameful because the 4 boxsets costs $600 each.

Mason Dixon
Jul 28, 2001

Crimson Butterfly

I have Paprika, Eva 1.11, Gunslinger Girls s1 & s2, DBZ Kai part 1, and will soon have the first Nanoha movie, all on Blu-Ray.

Besides the obvious draw of better quality audio and video, my other main reason for buying the Blu-Ray version whenever possible is to save on storage space. In general for series, the larger capacity should mean more episodes/disc.

I just hope more releases come out on Blu-Ray, and wouldn't mind DVD getting phased out entirely. I know it will take time, but I'll wait.

Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 2 hours!

Mason Dixon posted:

Besides the obvious draw of better quality audio and video, my other main reason for buying the Blu-Ray version whenever possible is to save on storage space. In general for series, the larger capacity should mean more episodes/disc.

Try telling that to Japan.

My Eden of the East collection fits 11 episodes 2 BDs and the picture is flawless throughout. I paid $60 for it.
A new release in Japan packs a whopping 2 episodes per disc.

Different markets I know, but gently caress paying $100 for 2 episodes of Panty & Stocking.
It's insulting if you want to import the rare release that's region free.

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005

Infinitum posted:

Cell animation lends itself incredibly well IF the money is spent on the remaster. For example I heard the Legends of the Galactic Heroes release was loving terrible and hardly improved on the DVD release.

Which makes it extra shameful because the 4 boxsets costs $600 each.

LOGH isn't THAT good looking of a TV series, in all honesty. As much as I worship it, they cut a lot of corners deliberately to make up for it being, well, amazing otherwise.

It looks sweet and has some great visuals often, but it likes to conserve movement and has a lot of Macross-face going on sometimes.

And Japanese media pricing is worthless in its entirety but that's an entirely different argument

Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 2 hours!
That's the thing though and I think you're missing the point. I agree that a lot of old TV series honestly don't look good, but if you remaster them like you actually care about the source material they can look spectacular and brand new. All the grain, fuzz and blur gets removed and you're left with something that feels like you're watching that was created yesterday.

For example if a decades old series like Ranma 1/2 was choosen for a bluray release it has the potential to look amazing if all the stars align and the time and effort is spent on it. However the source material itself is obviously quite dated and the animation quality isn't going to be that great.

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005

Infinitum posted:

That's the thing though and I think you're missing the point. I agree that a lot of old TV series honestly don't look good, but if you remaster them like you actually care about the source material they can look spectacular and brand new. All the grain, fuzz and blur gets removed and you're left with something that feels like you're watching that was created yesterday.

No, I mean the original series was not really drawn extremely well or good, it has a lot of cut corners so it's kind of moot. No amount of remastering will make Yang's face stop changing dimensions in certain conversations.

Dj Meow Mix
Jan 27, 2009

corgicorgicorgicorgi
rockin everywhere


tsob posted:

Any of the Macross movies or OVA's or anything basically available for Blu Ray in Europe?

I don't think any of Macross' dubs are Blu-ray, but Macross Frontier and it's first movie are region free. I would love to have the original series on Blu-ray.

Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 2 hours!

Zorak posted:

No amount of remastering will make Yang's face stop changing dimensions in certain conversations.

But at least like it'll look like they hosed it up yesterday :v:

Dj Meow Mix posted:

I don't think any of Macross' dubs are Blu-ray, but Macross Frontier and it's first movie are region free. I would love to have the original series on Blu-ray.

Macross is still stuck in Harmony Gold licensing hell last I heard. Hell I still don't own a DVD copy of Zero, let alone the bluray that's out

Plorkyeran
Mar 22, 2007

To Escape The Shackles Of The Old Forums, We Must Reject The Tribal Negativity He Endorsed

Infinitum posted:

Short version is as it sounds on the side of the box. You take a lower resolution image and upscaling it to fit a bigger one. It generally won't look bad per se, but it completely misses the whole point of the format.
Normally upscaling stuff doesn't actively make it look worse than it already did, but naturally the anime industry can never miss a chance to do as terrible a job as possible. The latest example is the (massively overpriced) Haruhi BD box set, which was almost artistic in its destruction of the video: DVD BD

Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 2 hours!

Plorkyeran posted:

Normally upscaling stuff doesn't actively make it look worse than it already did, but naturally the anime industry can never miss a chance to do as terrible a job as possible. The latest example is the (massively overpriced) Haruhi BD box set, which was almost artistic in its destruction of the video: DVD BD

Yup, this is exactly the kind of poo poo you hate seeing. I'm not a Haruhi fan, but if I was and I spent good money on it I'd be pissed.
As I said it really is the period of around 2000-2008 that you need to be really loving cautious with series because of this digital upscaling nonsense studios are want to do.

Speaking of being cautiously optimistic.

Read or Die + Read or Dream collection


Dat. Box. :swoon:
I will murder someone if it's region locked.

tsob
Sep 26, 2006

Chalalala~

Plorkyeran posted:

Normally upscaling stuff doesn't actively make it look worse than it already did, but naturally the anime industry can never miss a chance to do as terrible a job as possible. The latest example is the (massively overpriced) Haruhi BD box set, which was almost artistic in its destruction of the video: DVD BD

I feel blind even with my glasses on because I'm honestly not seeing any difference between the DVD and Blu Ray version. What am I missing that's so awful?

Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 2 hours!

tsob posted:

I feel blind even with my glasses on because I'm honestly not seeing any difference between the DVD and Blu Ray version. What am I missing that's so awful?

Don't take this the wrong way, but you seriously can't tell the difference?

Compare these 2 bluray samples:
Nausicaa 1920x1080 screencap
Haruhi 1920x1080 screencap

See how clear the Nausicaa cap is compared the to the swirly Picasso that is Haruhi? Character outlines should be sharp and colours should be well defined, but in this case it looks like it's literally been run through a Photoshop swirl filter.
It's disgusting.

tsob
Sep 26, 2006

Chalalala~

Infinitum posted:

Don't take this the wrong way, but you seriously can't tell the difference?

Compare these 2 bluray samples:
Nausicaa 1920x1080 screencap
Haruhi 1920x1080 screencap

See how clear the Nausicaa cap is compared the to the swirly Picasso that is Haruhi? Character outlines should be sharp and colours should be well defined, but in this case it looks like it's literally been run through a Photoshop swirl filter.
It's disgusting.

The Haruhi DVD image looks pretty swirly to me too and I was only comparing those two images and not the Haruhi Blu Ray to any other Blu Ray since that was what was provided for comparison. Of course the Nausicaa one looks much sharper, but it looks like the Haruhi image that the poster provider was always meant to be somewhat odd and artistic looking and the upscale just made that more obvious.

TenementFunster
Feb 20, 2003

The Cooler King

Nate RFB posted:

I've always wanted to ask, but is there a reason the only Blu-rays produced for Gunbuster/Diebuster was of the compilation movie? I mean, if they could do that, why not for the full set of 12 episodes?
probably because they didn't want to make the gamble of shelling out to remaster the whole thing

however, for $35 or whatever it was, it is totally worth buying

darkgray
Dec 20, 2005

My best pose facing the morning sun!
I thought the Nausicaa BD release had gotten tons of poo poo for being overly red?

The screencaps comparisons I've seen of Haruhi on BD made it seem an improvement, but maybe it was a lucky shot.

Plorkyeran
Mar 22, 2007

To Escape The Shackles Of The Old Forums, We Must Reject The Tribal Negativity He Endorsed

tsob posted:

I feel blind even with my glasses on because I'm honestly not seeing any difference between the DVD and Blu Ray version. What am I missing that's so awful?
Those crazy swirls in the sky was grain before it was Q-Teced. It's also horribly oversmoothed; the trees have less detail in the BD than the DVD.

darkgray posted:

The screencaps comparisons I've seen of Haruhi on BD made it seem an improvement, but maybe it was a lucky shot.
The OP was reanimated from scratch and looks fantastic.

Eej
Jun 17, 2007

HEAVYARMS

Zorak posted:

No, I mean the original series was not really drawn extremely well or good, it has a lot of cut corners so it's kind of moot. No amount of remastering will make Yang's face stop changing dimensions in certain conversations.

Those scenes were reanimated in the DVD release and it's kind of funny how the show goes from modern 2000's quality computer-assisted coloured animation to the old cels in the same conversation.


Eej fucked around with this message at 08:40 on Dec 3, 2010

Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 2 hours!
Hahaha goddamn. That's classy.

darkgray posted:

I thought the Nausicaa BD release had gotten tons of poo poo for being overly red?

I watched it about a week ago. I didn't notice it being overly red. You'll get a whole bunch of really anal retentive film buffs when a film gets reviewed.

It looks gorgeous so I wouldn't worry about it some crappy review giving it a 9/10, bitching about how horribly red the picture was and asking that Miyazaki personally come around and suck their dick in forgiveness.

Lenore03
Apr 22, 2010
The Eden of the East bluray is excellent, though Im not happy about the case it came in. Tekkon Kinkreet is pretty much the reason why you buy anime on bluray.

TenementFunster
Feb 20, 2003

The Cooler King

Eej posted:

Those scenes were reanimated in the DVD release and it's kind of funny how the show goes from modern 2000's quality computer-assisted coloured animation to the old cels in the same conversation.



aaaaaaaaaah almost as bad as Ghost in the Shell 2.0

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry

tsob posted:

The Haruhi DVD image looks pretty swirly to me too and I was only comparing those two images and not the Haruhi Blu Ray to any other Blu Ray since that was what was provided for comparison. Of course the Nausicaa one looks much sharper, but it looks like the Haruhi image that the poster provider was always meant to be somewhat odd and artistic looking and the upscale just made that more obvious.
Scale the BD down to the DVD's resolution (also stretching the DVD out to be 853x480 like it should be). The BD frame looks like it's been through some sort of carwash; in particular the Japanese characters on the far left side are almost indecipherable in the BD frame.

Ferretts
Dec 16, 2009

Mason Dixon posted:

I have Paprika, Eva 1.11, Gunslinger Girls s1 & s2...

What do you think of Gunslinger Girl S1 transfer and how heavily would you recommend buying it if you already have the DVD set? I'd already have those other two, but I'm holding out for a complete Rebuild special edition BR box set and a complete works of Satoshi Kon BR box set.

Mason Dixon
Jul 28, 2001

Crimson Butterfly

Infinitum posted:

Try telling that to Japan.
Oh, I definitely realize that. I was referring mostly to the US market, but really any place besides Japan should be taking advantage of the value potential for series that aren't native hi-def.

I can't view the pictures at work, but hearing that Haruhi's AV quality was very poorly done on BR makes me sad.

Ferretts posted:

What do you think of Gunslinger Girl S1 transfer and how heavily would you recommend buying it if you already have the DVD set? I'd already have those other two, but I'm holding out for a complete Rebuild special edition BR box set and a complete works of Satoshi Kon BR box set.
The last time I watched a DVD copy of GSG s1, it was on a 42" EDTV plasma. I've since upgraded to a 1080P projector, which is the only thing I've seen the BR copy on. So I don't feel comfortable making a comparison until I can compare both on the same equipment. I'll try to do so sometime this weekend, and let you know. And I'd prefer to hold out for the boxes as well, but who knows when they'll be offered...

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry

Ferretts posted:

What do you think of Gunslinger Girl S1 transfer and how heavily would you recommend buying it if you already have the DVD set? I'd already have those other two, but I'm holding out for a complete Rebuild special edition BR box set and a complete works of Satoshi Kon BR box set.
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Gunslinger-Girl-Season-One-Blu-ray/6689/
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Gunslinger-Girl-Il-Teatrino-Blu-ray/8894/

They were pretty so-so on it, but concede that the source material really didn't lend itself to a good BD transfer in the first place so there was really nothing that could have been done.

A Rebuild "box set" is probably not going to be available until like 2020 at the rate the movies are coming out, and as for Kon only Perfect Blue and Paprika are out on BD anyway.

The thing is, more so than I can remember for DVDs this far into that format's lifecycle, Blu-rays are very easy to get dirt cheap. Rarely do I see BDs over $20 unless it's a special/limited release, and you can get tons of great deals on like Amazon for releases under $10. I made out like a bandit this past Black Friday. So, honestly, I don't feel there's any need to wait around if there's a release you really want.

Kara no Kyoukai is supposedly finally coming out on BD in early 2011, and should look stunning. It, the Japanese release, will even have English subtitles. The downside is that it will cost something like $600 for 7 movies, if not more.

Honest Thief
Jan 11, 2009
Probation
Can't post for 24 days!
Can't find a definite source for this, is Xam'd Bluray region locked or not? Some places say it is or say it's not, and I kinda want it.


2D Animation fits like a glove on bluray, I would get the eventual release of an Evangelion remastered boxset. When that show could, it looked amazing.

The Timely Howard
Dec 26, 2008

ASK ME WHAT MAKES ME THINK I'M SO FUNKY
I'm hoping against hope that the BD transfers of the Patlabor movies will make it to North America somehow. God drat, that was some nice looking poo poo.

Marceline
Nov 11, 2010

by Fistgrrl
I want the Michiko to Hatchin set on Blu-Ray so loving bad but it's ungodly expensive. Some day..

Lenore03
Apr 22, 2010

Honest Thief posted:

Can't find a definite source for this, is Xam'd Bluray region locked or not? Some places say it is or say it's not, and I kinda want it.


2D Animation fits like a glove on bluray, I would get the eventual release of an Evangelion remastered boxset. When that show could, it looked amazing.

http://www.amazon.com/Xamd-Collection-Artist-Not-Provided/dp/B003TX8QBU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1291436828&sr=1-2

If it was region free it would have the Region 'B' and 'C' as well as the 'A'. Unless you know about another localised release of the series. I too would snap this up in an instant if it wasnt locked.

Same with Michiko e Hatchin.

Space Fish
Oct 14, 2008

The original Big Tuna.


Infinitum, you're doing the lord's work, and our heathen wallets will cry out in thanks by the end of page 3. I have the blu-ray, Criterion, and hardcover comics threads bookmarked for the materialist in me, and wondered when this subforum would open a platinum club.

I'm glad to see the R.O.D. box set gaining more exposure -- I've only seen the first two episodes of the series, but the OVA remains one of my favorite anime and holds up to repeated viewings. The bluray vs. dvd comparisons out there don't justify the box's high price. A couple price drops and it'll find a happy home, though :dance:

I made a point of watching Akira as my first blu-ray, and I've been sold on the format ever since, star alignments and all. Paprika and Evangelion 1.11 are also stunners. I can't speak much for complete series, but thanks to the 12 Days of Anime sale on RightStuf the Samurai Champloo blu box is incoming ($33, beats Amazon depending on shipping).

Infinitum
Jul 30, 2004
Probation
Can't post for 2 hours!

Space Fish posted:


I'm glad to see the R.O.D. box set gaining more exposure -- I've only seen the first two episodes of the series, but the OVA remains one of my favorite anime and holds up to repeated viewings. The bluray vs. dvd comparisons out there don't justify the box's high price. A couple price drops and it'll find a happy home, though :dance:

Bleh it looks horrible. Go for it if you don't have the DVDs already, but I'm personally not going to update my collection for it if those screenshots are any indication. Yet another crap release from the digital era. Really really disappointing because I was looking forward to it as soon as I found out it was getting a bluray release.

quote:

I made a point of watching Akira as my first blu-ray, and I've been sold on the format ever since, star alignments and all. Paprika and Evangelion 1.11 are also stunners.

Akira is stunning. I truly mean that in every sense of the word. It got cleaned up so amazingly that there are scenes in the movie where you could swear you could see the individual cells.

I've yet to upgrade my copy of Paprika to Bluray, but I may do as others have suggested and wait for a Satoshi Kon set. It's good knowing that all his works got really good transfers.

Evangelion is flawless. It's like picking up a Pixar Bluray release. It's money well spent. Between this and Honnêamise I will gladly buy any remaster that the company put out because I know they'd treat their works with the respect they deserve.
Even the Island episodes of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.


quote:

I can't speak much for complete series, but thanks to the 12 Days of Anime sale on RightStuf the Samurai Champloo blu box is incoming ($33, beats Amazon depending on shipping).

Be wary of Samurai Champloo as it is upscaled. If you don't have the DVDs get it, but I wouldn't waste money on upgrading my current set.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Randallteal
May 7, 2006

The tears of time
The Champloo set was one of the first anime I bought on Blu-ray. I ended up selling it back, not because of the quality of the disc, I just wasn't as impressed with the show as I thought I would be. There were a lot of complaints about the upscaling they did scrubbing some fine details out of shots, but overall I was pretty impressed with it. If nothing else, it means an upgrade in audio to 5.1, better subtitles and fewer discs.

Since then I've picked up Akira, Eva and Paprika, and they're all great. Clean 2D animation looks really fantastic in high def. I can't wait for the rest of the Ghibli catalogue to come out. Does anyone know what's taking them so long? If I was a big license holder, I'd be rushing out catalogue titles before someone gets off their rear end and invents a half-decent digital video distribution service a la steam or iTunes.

  • Locked thread