Warning: The orange box season sets suck balls, with their faux-widescreen cropping and oversaturated, oversharpened video. You're better off picking up the Dragon Boxes, Kai on Blu-ray, or waiting for Funimation's grand remastering of the original show on Blu-ray.
[quote name='Kirin Lemon']Warning: The orange box season sets suck balls, with their faux-widescreen cropping and oversaturated, oversharpened video. You're better off picking up the Dragon Boxes, Kai on Blu-ray, or waiting for Funimation's grand remastering of the original show on Blu-ray.[/QUOTE]
I like them, but Ive never bought any other type of dbz season set so ?. I paid just about $40 for seasons 8 and 9 (Entire Buu Saga) and the picture was great. Brought back ALOT of my childhood right there. Hell look at my picture avatar.
[quote name='starkillr']Kai cuts out a lot of boring crap from the original show. I'd go with that.[/QUOTE]
Well certain seasons have fillers in them. The one HUGE filler season is season 7 and thats after the cell saga (right where kai drops off). Just thought I would post this for anyone who might be intrested, no need to bash.
Not a bad price, however I'm probably going to end up waiting for the original all to come out on Blu-ray since I prefer it over Kai. Thanks for posting either way though OP!
Yeah but is Kai even worth getting now that they have the Level 1.1 thing they are doing? Which from what I gather is Dragonball Z untouched, leaving all that filler footage?
Either way, those blurays are way to expensive to be replacing my already owned boxes. I can wait until they are all dirt cheap to jump back into re-watching the entire series.
[quote name='Kirin Lemon']Warning: The orange box season sets suck balls, with their faux-widescreen cropping and oversaturated, oversharpened video. You're better off picking up the Dragon Boxes, Kai on Blu-ray, or waiting for Funimation's grand remastering of the original show on Blu-ray.[/QUOTE]
This x8001.
The orange boxes are absolutely awful and it's mind-boggling that FUNi hasn't discontinued these sets but is discontinuing the Dragon Boxes. Let these images explain why it's best to avoid the orange bricks.
Season Three:
Dragon Box Vol. 3:
Because FUNimation handed the remastering process to a third party, the guy pretty much fed the film through a machine to remove all of the digital noise, which applied a blur filter to make the grain "vanish." In reality, you end up with not only a blurry mess, but when there are scenes with a lot of shaking (such as someone powering up that causes a lot of vibrations), several lines flicker in and out constantly. And no, it's not noticeable only by freeze-framing it. It happens often and they pop out like crazy. Season 2 is the absolute worst as it not only has those issues, but the footage is HEAVILY brightened to the point where everyone's skin color is close to paper white.
[quote name='MaximusDM']Yeah but is Kai even worth getting now that they have the Level 1.1 thing they are doing? Which from what I gather is Dragonball Z untouched, leaving all that filler footage?
Either way, those blurays are way to expensive to be replacing my already owned boxes. I can wait until they are all dirt cheap to jump back into re-watching the entire series.[/QUOTE]
Here's the best way to look at it.
Kai's Pros: An actual faithful to the original script dub, next to no filler (some slipped in), episode count is less than 100
Kai's Cons: Hectic release (will get into that), doesn't cover the Boo saga, digitally redrawn scenes look jarring
Z's Blu-ray Pros: An actual competent HD release, none of the problems the orange bricks suffered from
Z's Blu-ray Cons: 291 episodes likely to be split into about 17 releases, the dub is no where on par with Kai's or any of FUNi's other works
In regards to Kai's hectic release, there was a bit of an issue with the music originally being used and had to be replaced with music from Z's original composer, Shunsuke Kikuchi. Dragon Ball Kai was to be getting Season set releases to reflect the music change. Kikuchi is credited on the back of Season 1, however popping in the disc (DVD and BD) shows it's the same music from Kenji Yamamoto. In fact, it was discovered the Season 1 discs were the exact same ones from Part 1, but with a different disc cover.
In regards to the Z BD cost, Amazon has the first part for $21. Best Buy has it for $24.99. Either one is actually cheaper than the older sets that've been released.
Yes, but will the new DBZ blu rays have the American music from the series? For me that's a deal breaker. It's not DBZ to me without the Bruce Faulconer soundtrack from my childhood. I heard there was some legal problems with including that on future releases..
The orange boxes are absolutely awful and it's mind-boggling that FUNi hasn't discontinued these sets but is discontinuing the Dragon Boxes. Let these images explain why it's best to avoid the orange bricks.
Season Three:
Dragon Box Vol. 3:
Ive never seen anything like that happen. That seems to be the battle with ssj and with frieza but like I posted earlier I only own the buu saga. I dont really need blu ray seasons cause the picture is fine to me. Watched some episodes last night and everything seemed fine. Now YuYu hakusho that seems WAY better in blu ray than dvd.
[quote name='NotoriousCPD']Yes, but will the new DBZ blu rays have the American music from the series? For me that's a deal breaker. It's not DBZ to me without the Bruce Faulconer soundtrack from my childhood. I heard there was some legal problems with including that on future releases..[/QUOTE]
The only issues involved were that he was stiffing the others working for him by trying to take all of the credit for the soundtrack (it's actually Faulconer Productions that did the music, not solely Bruce Faulconer). On top of that, he refused to do GT's music the way FUNi asked and his company was let go of.
The Dragon Boxes don't include Faulconer Productions' music because they're sets targeted for the fans of the Japanese version. Said fans (including myself) don't care for the dub music.
[quote name='Royal High Knight']Ive never seen anything like that happen. That seems to be the battle with ssj and with frieza but like I posted earlier I only own the buu saga. I dont really need blu ray seasons cause the picture is fine to me. Watched some episodes last night and everything seemed fine. Now YuYu hakusho that seems WAY better in blu ray than dvd.[/QUOTE]
It became less noticeable by the Boo saga, but it was especially an issue from the Saiyan to Freeza sagas. It sometimes occurred during the Cell saga. Between Cell and Boo, the saturation of the footage would bounce around. Some scenes would be too dark (dark blues and purples would appear as black) while some seemed to get the right coloring.
As for YYH, that's because FUNi used Japan's Blu-ray masters, which were already remastered over there. The remastering for DBZ's orange bricks and Blu-rays were done in Texas, whereas the Dragon Boxes were in Japan.
[quote name='ray2dee']I think its funny how people will get wait on Dragon Ball Z: Kai instead of buying this lol newsflash its the same thing[/QUOTE]
Not if you're watching the dub, no. DBZ's dub and Kai's dub are incredibly different from each other.
I wouldn't just go on screenshots people are posting for the Orange Brick sets. I've found evidence of tampering, or some other issue causing them to be quite different from what I've seen.
The orange brick sets aren't great by any means but they're far from terrible. The only issue I have and rarely is the cropping. For the most part you wouldn't even realize that anything was missing unless you saw the original cut. The widesscreen format and colors look very nice on my screen.
Here's a discrepancy between what someone posted as a bad shot, with missing lines and such and a direct screenshot from my DVD of the exact same scene. Can someone explain why there's such a difference?
my screenshot:
their screenshot:
Why the discrepancy?
Here's a shot I had in my photobucket that I screenshot before. The colors and image quality really aren't that bad imo
(and if you're having deja vu it's because I posted these same images in another dbz thread before)
[quote name='ssjmichael']Can someone explain why there's such a difference?[/QUOTE]
Remember that that scene you posted has a lot of shaking going on on screen. The ship is going through slight turbulence, which is why Krillin comes running to Bulma. The image wasn't tampered with. It's a shot that was caught right as the lines vanished. Here are more examples.
Season 3:
Dragon Box Vol. 2:
Season 1:
Dragon Box Vol. 1:
Also from Season 1:
Dragon Box vs Season 2:
As I mentioned, the remastering process was simply the result of feeding the film through a machine to apply all sorts of digital noise removal, which ended up affecting the footage itself.
[quote name='Royal High Knight']well for gt is there bluray for that or better picking up each season for $12.50? Look at the complete set $999.99
[quote name='Tsukento']Remember that that scene you posted has a lot of shaking going on on screen. The ship is going through slight turbulence, which is why Krillin comes running to Bulma. The image wasn't tampered with. It's a shot that was caught right as the lines vanished. Here are more examples.
[.[/QUOTE]
That's a pretty poor excuse considering my ss is at the exact same shot and I saw no such vanishing of lines anywhere near that part. And that in no way explains the differences in colors between the two. There is a clear loss off definition, sharpness, color, etc.. that can't just be passed off based on "turbulence" in the scene. And even supposing it was due to something like that, you don't find it disturbing that the person is hand-picking scenes that make it look bad? You don't find bias in that?
Do you even own the sets by the way or are you just going off all these screenshots to make your case?
If you can point to every episode where these screenshots are from I'll be happy to go through my sets and post my ss
[quote name='ssjmichael']Do you even own the sets by the way or are you just going off all these screenshots to make your case?
If you can point to every episode where these screenshots are from I'll be happy to go through my sets and post my ss[/QUOTE]
I own Seasons 1 - 3. And the fact that MULTIPLE people have reported these problems does not mean it's just a single case nor was there any editing done.
At the 58 second mark, as Trunks is telling Vegeta to stop, you'll notice the outlines around his head and hair flash white and black as they keep vanishing and reappearing. Hell, you can even see the missing lines in the thumbnail.
Considering that's not even a direct rip from the orange brick set, since it's been manipulated, I'm not sure how accurate that is. Is that even from the orange brick set at all? That video is in 720P....But still, by handpicking bad shots for screenshots, do you not think that could lead to the impression that the entire show is missing lines like that rather than for a second or two every now and then? I find major fault with such cherry picking and that's what most screenshots seem to do. Obviously the orange brick sets aren't perfect, far from it, but people hate on them a bit too much I feel.
Can you tell me what episode that's from by any chance? I would like to see if my DVD is exactly the same as that. I'm not doubting that it's possible, I'm sure some lines and details are lost, but I just want to compare what people are posting vs what I'm seeing on mine. Additionally I've read that the earlier orange brick sets are worse than the later ones, do you know if this is true or not?
[quote name='ssjmichael']Considering that's not even a direct rip from the orange brick set, since it's been manipulated[/QUOTE]
Dude, you got SEVERAL examples lined up in front of you. All from different sources, including a video clip. This isn't a big conspiracy. You can't produce that error with video manipulation or Photoshop. Upscaling a video to 720p doesn't produce that, either. These problems exist in the sets.
And yes, the earlier ones were worse. Seasons 1 through 4 had the noticeable missing line issues. Seasons 5 and up simply had saturation issues. Other than that, the Japanese BGM for the 5.1 English dub audio setting is incredibly low compared to the Japanese audio, which is in mono.
The examples I used come from the following:
Season 1
Episodes 24 and 26 (If memory serves me right)
[quote name='Tsukento']Dude, you got SEVERAL examples lined up in front of you. All from different sources, including a video clip. This isn't a big conspiracy. You can't produce that error with video manipulation or Photoshop. Upscaling a video to 720p doesn't produce that, either. These problems exist in the sets.[/QUOTE]
Heh, every time the issues with these DVDs come up, he's the first to defend them. I think it's a "misery loves company" situation.
Misery loves company? No, I'm Just not as anal or obsessive as you and others here. I also never said the orange brick sets didn't have problems, I just think cherry picking bad scenes shows bias and gives the wrong impression of the entire set. It's clear from what Tsukento posted that even he realizes the whole show isn't just one big mess of missing lines and screwed up cropping.
I don't live and breathe anime like you guys (I realize the irony in my name but it;s a name I had for over 10 years and I'm too lazy to change it). I paid like $8-10 for each orange brick season. The fact is, right now the quality doesn't bother me, and I'm not willing to pay double or triple that to see all that I'm missing. Before I bought an orange brick set I bought the first Dragon Box, and I watched it all and I liked it, but transitioning over to the orange bricks to go through the series really didn't bother me at all.
The only thing I do here in these threads is balance out the bias. You say I'm the first to chime in to defend the sets, but Kirin you are almost always the first to chime in to say the exact same shit you always say. You act like no one has heard your spiel numerous times. I would imagine giving people who may interested in these sets a balanced opinion and not one formulated around cherry picked scenes showing poor examples of the release (which I never denied there were) would be appreciated by such people, but whatever..The fact that your brain can't wrap around the thought that someone may actually be fine with these sets, and automatically assume that it's a "misery loves company' thing says a lot about you, it's quite sad. You pretty much ram your opinion down everyone's throats in every single anime thread, and anyone who disagrees with your inflated egotistical opinions gets ridiculed by you. I would hope that's not how you behave in real life, but either way, it's also pretty sad that you carry on like that here. Like I said, I don't live and breathe anime like you do, so it's silly for me to even continue this retarded debate over something so trivial.
For $14 and the ability to listen to the American soundtrack, it's a nice price. But obviously for the die-hard fan who wants to watch this in 4:3, GET the Dragon Box ASAP, especially when 1-4 are out of stock at Amazon, get the blu-ray, or SUFFER! through the Orange Box sets.
NERDS! I've watched the out of DBZ but still don't own anything but a few VHS tapes.
Is Dragon Ball Z Level 1.1 any good visually or should I just pick up the DVDs? I'm not anal about picture unless it's just a blur, I'm just asking if 1.1 looks even slightly enhanced. I got the first Samurai Champloo Blu-Ray box set when it came out and wasn't to pleased with it.
[quote name='USB Cable']NERDS! I've watched the out of DBZ but still don't own anything but a few VHS tapes.
Is Dragon Ball Z Level 1.1 any good visually or should I just pick up the DVDs? I'm not anal about picture unless it's just a blur, I'm just asking if 1.1 looks even slightly enhanced. I got the first Samurai Champloo Blu-Ray box set when it came out and wasn't to pleased with it.[/QUOTE]
From every screenshot I've seen, Funimation's Blu-ray remaster is looking darn good - a proper digital remaster, restored frame by frame, with quality to rival the Dragon Boxes, but this time in HD. Champloo, on the other hand, was just run through some upscaling software.
I also own seasons 1-5 of the orange brick set, no complaints. You'll be getting a lot of DBZ for $15. I'm low on cash otherwise I'd get the rest of the seasons I'm missing.
The reason I own these is cause of the american soundtrack. In my opinion the superior image quality comes from the Dragon boxes. However, there is no american soundtrack in those sets.
Also, take note that the Dragon Ball sets are also on sale. I did buy all of those.
I have the orange sets. I watched them. I enjoyed them. Does that mean I need to turn a blind eye to their numerous issues, nope! If you watch without your bias pants on you will see all the issues that everybody and their brother have been talking about since their release. It's not even a debate. It's just a fact.
I just want to reiterate that I'm not saying the orange brick sets don't have their issues, I'm just countering those that would make it seem like it was unwatchable. And while it no doubt has issues with cropping (my main gripe) and lines disappearing from time to time, I wouldn't say each of those issues are present every second of the show. Only every now and then do I see a cropping that looks bad, for the most part you probably wouldn't even realize it was cropped unless you knew what it was supposed to look like. Is it as good as the Dragon Box? obviously it wouldn't be, but it's certainly watchable and the most accessible way you'll get to listen to the Falconer soundtrack aside from waiting on the BD releases. Not to mention much cheaper. I never really intended to sound all defensive of the sets, it's not like I hold them close to my heart or anything, they're just good enough for me. I just didn't think it was fair just to have a one-sided hate-fest every time a deal for them is posted
[quote name='Kirin Lemon']From every screenshot I've seen, Funimation's Blu-ray remaster is looking darn good - a proper digital remaster, restored frame by frame, with quality to rival the Dragon Boxes, but this time in HD. Champloo, on the other hand, was just run through some upscaling software.[/QUOTE]
Cool thanks, I'll just wait it out then and pick those up. If I had the cash I would get the dvd set AND 1.1 just to have em but I don't.
Yeah, visually speaking, the Dragon Boxes are the best of DVD quality while the Blu-rays are just a step above in overall visual quality. The one downside to the Blu-rays is that they'll be 17 volumes long, while the Dragon Boxes are only 7 volumes.
[quote name='USB Cable']I got the first Samurai Champloo Blu-Ray box set when it came out and wasn't to pleased with it.[/QUOTE]
As mentioned, SC was simply upscaled from the DVDs, similar to FLCL. DBZ and YuYu Hakusho are SD shows converted to HD properly in their Blu-ray releases.
out of DBZ but still don't own anything but a few VHS tapes. 
