1. 

   anonymous_object
   May 14th, 2009 - 10:28

   Funimation has long been criticized on the video quality of its releases. I remember attending an industry panel at a convention in 2006 that included Funimation reps. One of the topics brought up by the audience was their poor DVD compression. And 3+ years later, it’s still a problem.

   While Funimation has changed the R1 anime industry a lot over the past few years with their low prices but there is a downside to cramming so many episodes on a single DVD. Plus, I think Funimation is just bad at video mastering. I try to stay away from most of their releases in general.

   Whether their boxset DVDs are lower quality than their DVD singles is an interesting question. I also wonder if they’re doing a better job mastering their Blu-ray releases…

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2. 

   muhootsaver
   May 14th, 2009 - 10:41

   For Funimation’s DVD releases, it’s better to ask about video quality on AOD forum or something, before you snatch up their stuff. For some series, they do a pretty good job even at high episode count, but for some of the other series, they have horrible video quality even for single releases, which is why I passed on their Mushishi release. I heard that their recent Blu-ray releases are pretty good in terms of video quality, so if it is a popular series like Basilisk or FMP you might want to wait for those (but I have this feeling that the shows you want to buy won’t be coming out in Blu-ray anytime soon ^^;; just a hunch)

   Bandai doesn’t seem to have video quality problems in general even for their cheaper boxsets, BUT some of their discs are known to have issues with some dvd players and get error messages. So you might want to look out for those. ^^

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3. 

   omo
   May 14th, 2009 - 10:52

   It’s tough. High end, high quality releases just don’t sell any better than these bargain value deals, and they cost more to produce. So that’s why we don’t see it now.

   It’s mostly a R1 thing though.

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4. 

   Mac (Kyuusai)
   May 14th, 2009 - 14:21

   I won’t defend any video quality (I haven’t seen it), but is six episodes in one DVD really that terrible a compression rate? That should work out beautifully for most anime.

   DVDs max out at just over ten megabits per second for video and audio together, but that’s really overkill, especially for animation. Just doing rough math, an eight megabit video stream (which would look gorgeous) plus audio would still fit well over six episodes worth on one DVD-9 disc–quite a bit of room to spare even after some decent menus. When you consider that anime is 24fps instead of 30, that many static scenes mean a massive bitrate savings over the majority of the episode, and that eight megabits is really much higher than needed to still have excellent quality (most commercial DVDs are around six megabits, I understand), having even more episodes isn’t an issue.

   Their video quality may suck, but I can’t blame it on fitting the episodes onto such a small number of discs (unless they used DVD-5… which would be ridiculous, though I wouldn’t put it past them).

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5. 

   Zyl
   May 14th, 2009 - 18:17

   omo’s point on trade-offs, we say here in Singapore: Ai pee, ai chee, ai tua liap nee. Though in Stripeyland, Find and Replace ‘tua liap nee’ with ‘DFC’

   I suppose the issue of DVD video quality also depends on the screen it’s played on. Obviously problems will look more glaring if you use a big ass plasma HDTV instead of a netbook’s monitor or an ancient CRT box *coughmecough*.

   Personally I’m not tempted by R3s. Even if they have ‘English’ subs, they are narely implausible to wonderstand. As for the Chinese subtitles, I can just about manage to read Simplified but definitely not Traditional. I guess fansubs + R2s are the way to go for me if QUALITY is an issue.

   How does RightStuf/Nozomi Entertainment’s ARIA DVDs compare in terms of price, ep to disc ratio, compression, quality etc etc.?

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6. 

   Stripey
   May 14th, 2009 - 21:55

   anonymous_object: I think Funimation’s problem is mainly consistency. Their FMP TSR boxset (also at a very good price) has video quality close to my 2 ep per disc R3s (also FMP TSR). But their Kiminozo and SHUFFLE etc… haiz. Actually I’m mainly targetting their boxset releases which has soo many attractive titles lately but seemingly of questionable quality. Hope their blu-ray releases do better.

   muhootsaver: Ah thanks for the advice, I’ll definitely check out AOD forums before ordering Kanon/AIR. As for Bandai, personally I hadn’t been very pleased with their Scrapped Princess and Onegai Twins anime legends. But I understood they have improved tremendously since. However if they botch up True Tears…. I’ll do GIGADRILL and hurl a galaxy at their headquarters.

   omo: Yeah, I understand. It’s definitely tough finding that equilibrium of cost vs quality to have a viable business aimed at a diverse group of anime fans (hardcore to the casual). And maybe I’m not quite in the target group these boxsets are aimed at. Yet I’m not hardcore/rich enough to get those single releases. Zyl is probably right that I want it fresh, big and cheap XD

   Mac (Kyuusai): As mentioned, it’s more an empirical observation since that trend correlates for my anime collection. The best visuals in anime dvds are usually the 2 eps per disc collections. The next level then boils down to the company. Even within the Taiwanese companies, I noticed a couple has much higher consistent quality even if they packed 4 eps into a DVD9. I need to check if my SHUFFLE discs are DVD5 (NOOOOOO!) but possibly it’s not just about the space but how the video compression was done too.

   Zyl: The wiewing display makes ALL the difference. You may not have noticed bro, if you watched the GunBuster 2 on your notebook but on my Aquos, the OVAs you passed me was GORGEOUS. (Am watching Hellsing Ultimate – another cinematic experience!)

   I have a few thoughts about the quality you mentioned. First is that HD fanbubs are making folks like me who buy anime DVDs look very stupid indeed. I was watching my Kanon subs and I KNOW the DVDs wouldn’t looks this good. So indeed fansubs can have quality better but only the HD fansubs imho. Of course the comparison is not fair since Bluray should be compared instead but I’m still too poor as of now.

   The other point on was comparing R3 with R2. Visually, they vary very little actually. I base this on the Mahoromatic special R2. If your definition of quality includes the frills then yes, R2 are superior. As for the subtitles, turn off the chinese subs and voila the R3 becomes a R2 less the nice packaging and detailed menu. I understand the specials are the same.

   Aria R1 are great value for money. A nice balance between quality and price. A wonderful purchase. On wanting it fresh, big and cheap, I think they are indeed available. Not only just R3 but R1s too. Geneon’s releases have good reviews and good disc-to-ep ratios which is why I’m seriously considering the Zero no Tsukaima boxset.

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7. 

   Zyl
   May 14th, 2009 - 22:51

   Too poor still can afford a second big ass TV? (Sorry, any TV larger than 27″ looks huge to me.) BTW are your cables also HD?

   On the issue of singles versus boxsets, let’s do a comparison of my Black Lagoon singles (but not LE) versus the Second Barrage boxset. (Both by GENEON though the latter posthumously after GENEON US folded.)

   On the cinematic experience, just wait till you watch my Kara no Kyoukai 3 LE R2 DVD. Will have to borrow your TV also to see it in all its splendour.

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8. 

   Bluesilo
   May 15th, 2009 - 10:16

   TRSI release of Aria is great. Its 3 episodes per disc and a seperate disc for extras (in the case of ‘Natural’) I’d really recommend them.

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9. 

   Vexx
   May 16th, 2009 - 00:07

   Its not “just” Funimation. R1 releases generally sacrifice quality per disk for quantity per disk. Some of that is expectation by the public (Americans expect to get a couple of hours of entertainment on a DVD == 4 episodes), some of it is simply art sacrificed to lower cost per volume. Typically I’ll pay $25-$40 dollars for an R1 DVD with a nice box…. for a complete thin-pack collection I might pay $40-$70.

   If Japan would subtitle their R2 products, I’d drop R1 for many series in favor of R2 even considering the ridiculous prices Japanese are charged for their DVDs.

   That and the horrific technical restrictions on subtitles that DVD standards have often keep me using my fansubs even after I’ve purchased the DVD set.

   At this point, I’d rather have a subscription direct to Japan to sell me a high-definition digital file with subtitles — (and the crickets chirp for globalization).

   And yes, the American release of ARIA was a fine exception to this – the DVDs are lovely. They saved a ton of money not worrying about dubbing it as well.

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10. 

    Stripey
    May 16th, 2009 - 11:05

    Zyl: It may be surprising to know that my 42″ LCD = 1 AIR Blu-ray set. So yeah, I’m still too poor to get R2 Blurays even though I watch 86″ of LCD TV at home XD Looking forward to the comparison. I know for a fact that R3 boxsets video quality is not different from their single releases. Was kind of expecting that of R1s until I release the disc count for SHUFFLE was different (single vs boxset). But my faith in Geneon is stronger than Funimation surely.

    Bluesilo: I have held back on Natural since I haven’t seen it. But Natural sounds like a worthy get too!

    Vexx: No dubs was one of the wisest move for Nozomi Ent imho. I think most companies are caught in the bind of trying to reach out to the wider market via dubs and yet keeping the cost low and the releases recent enough to appeal to the niche fans. It’s a balancing act which I think a lot of the R1 anime companies are improving over the years.

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11. 

    Anonymouse
    June 9th, 2009 - 05:29

    As mentioned before, the max bit-rate of DVD is 10Mbps Approx.

    Although you should always master DVDs at a rate BELOW the Max Bit-rate as not all DVD players can actually keep up with it, especially poorer models.

    At about 9Mbps, you can fit about 2 hours of video on a DVD-9 (1 hour on each layer) so about 5 episodes will fit onto 1 disc at near the max bit-rate, and slightly below for 6.

    The “Poor quality” is not a result of the slightly (and I mean slightly) lower than max. bit-rate, but bad sources and mastering!

    Even Japanese TV stations often use poor video sources, especially ones that broadcast in 4:3.

    If your player does a lot of post-processing, it should be able to reduce the impact of *most* artefacts that actually occur from the compression used on the DVD itself – but if they were already there before the video was transcoded for DVD the chances are it probably wont do shit about them

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12. 

    Stripey
    June 10th, 2009 - 00:59

    Woah, thanks for the info! In your opinion, are there any trends in source or post processing quality, when it comes to R1 companies or the Japanese source? For example Geneon releases typically have high standards of post processing or SUNRISE/BANDAI sources are plagued with artefacts?

    (Note that these are just examples. Bandai-sama pls don’t sue me!)

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