UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

In case it's not been noticed, the release date of the 4K CE and Blu-ray releases of her Her Blue Sky have been delayed from 28th Sept to 12th Oct. The DVD release remains dated for 28th Sept.
 
Concerning Hathaway, something that feels relevant- Gundam Channel 'International' has started pushing the new show and as with Hathaway there's only an excited focus on America as a foreign market.

If this translates to business, I can't imagine it's fun trying to manage this franchise for any other country right now with Bandai blatantly only caring about America. Baffling they can have a focus on erecting Gundam Base stores across the globe but when it comes to the actual media only America matters. So much for recent progress.
 
Otomo said:
I'm guessing your post was rhetorical, however from a personal POV

I like the price point compared to other formats.
I'm happy with the picture quality.
Often neither Blu-ray or DVDs have extras.

DVDs outsell the other formats by volume.
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As someone who's generally more of a Blu-ray person, I still see why Otomo buys DVDs and don't have a problem with a choice being offered, I'd also say that not everyone has a Blu-ray player or can afford Blu-ray prices at all in this economy, I'm not accusing Kite of meaning their post maliciously in this way at all but I would say it's prob easier to get into anime if you're a working class kid and are trying to avoid pirating it if there are cheaper options like DVDs and streaming (and all Blu-ray players can play DVDs so even if you do have a Blu-ray player this still applies), I don't much care for streaming either and there are valid criticisms of the business models they use for it/shows being removed from services/potential for increased censorship according to the whims of government or the social mores du jour, but I do as noted want people to have a choice. It doesn't really harm me for DVDs to continue to be produced as well as Blu-rays, and if it's a bigger title I can very much see why they do both, as Otomo noted DVD is still the best selling format. Like I'm not gonna kick up a big stink if some niche titles are Blu-ray only but if they can do both and it gives more people an affordable way of watching it then great, I'm honestly happy about that (not that I entirely disagree with criticisms of very casual fans of anime who want to make it completely "normal" but new fans or fans on tighter budgets don't necessarily fit that description, and we were all new fans once).
 
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I'm also happy that there are still dvds even though I mostly buy Blurays now. When I watch newer dvds the quality is quite good most of the time and if I would have less to spend I would be very happy with them being available.

Also: its easier to find ways to watch dvds from other regions then it is to watch blurays.
 
I would just have assumed that the cost of a dvd edition is literally peanuts now, so even selling cheaply and in low numbers is just profit.
After all, the encoding is to a legacy and mature format, and is already digitised for the (U)HD versions, the programming (menu and structure) is far simpler, the licence and fees are already paid, and the disc manufactories are already there to get a bit more out of their existing equipment.

My version of the question would more be “how are there still DVD manufacturers when there’s so little profit / value in the product?”. But I guess that question is answered by the existing machinery and the alluded continuing volume / demand.
 
Herano said:
I'm also happy that there are still dvds even though I mostly buy Blurays now. When I watch newer dvds the quality is quite good most of the time and if I would have less to spend I would be very happy with them being available.

Also: its easier to find ways to watch dvds from other regions then it is to watch blurays.
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There's a new 4K player that's extremely easy to make region free for bluray(pretty much identical to the old Toshiba bdx1200), it's a little pricey but now that the region free Panasonic players appear to be discontinued may be worth investing in.
 
Otomo said:
DVDs outsell the other formats by volume.
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At least for anime: No, they don't
Sales numbers for many anime DVDs were that low, that many companies no longer bother pressing any.

Some of the recent movies from Anime Ltd likely only got DVD versions because they were able to do a combined pressing for France & UK, so costs for video editing & mastering was roughly halved and thus allowing them to break even with a smaller UK sales number.
(And, to be honest: DVD sales in France are better than UK or US)

We even reached the point that some retailers just refuse to stock any anime DVDs (and going Blu-ray only).
Sentai just threw away all their DVD stock not long ago, because sales expectations left didn't justify warehousing any more. They've only 2 combo packs left in their library.
 
Relaxo said:
At least for anime: No, they don't
Sales numbers for many anime DVDs were that low, that many companies no longer bother pressing any.

Some of the recent movies from Anime Ltd likely only got DVD versions because they were able to do a combined pressing for France & UK, so costs for video editing & mastering was roughly halved and thus allowing them to break even with a smaller UK sales number.
(And, to be honest: DVD sales in France are better than UK or US)

We even reached the point that some retailers just refuse to stock any anime DVDs (and going Blu-ray only).
Sentai just threw away all their DVD stock not long ago, because sales expectations left didn't justify warehousing any more. They've only 2 combo packs left in their library.
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I figured that but I was referring to the market as a whole.
 
I will only buy DVDs as a last resort - only for those series that haven't yet received an English-friendly release on Blu-ray, or when I'm forced to purchase them as part of a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. I've got 5 standalone Blu-ray players (two are 4K players) and 7 Blu-ray drives, either installed in my home computers or set back as spares, so I'm fairly sure I'm set for whatever life I have left, Blu-ray-wise.
 
Krautschi said:
PAL DVDs also have a minor annoyance: They have a playback speed of 25fps while the original framerate is ~24fps.
So a ~4.1% faster playback speed than a US / JP DVD.
The footage simply gets speed up and the audio (hopefully) pitch corrected.
en.wikipedia.org

576i - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

With BDs that no longer is the case afaik.
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Oh, thats interesting.. very faint benny hill music
 
Krautschi said:
PAL DVDs also have a minor annoyance: They have a playback speed of 25fps while the original framerate is ~24fps.
So a ~4.1% faster playback speed than a US / JP DVD.
The footage simply gets speed up and the audio (hopefully) pitch corrected.
en.wikipedia.org

576i - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

With BDs that no longer is the case afaik.
Click to expand...

Blu-ray does support 1080i 50Hz and there are some discs that are in that format so it can still happen. I'm not aware of any anime where this is the case, but there are some movies like that, because they were made from incorrect masters. I don't think it is the case from any of the studio label releases, but some third party discs are like this.

PAL DVDs aren't always sped up; the video can be frame-blended or there's probably other techniques that keep the same speed but compromise the video. This was common in the VHS era, at least for live action; I don't know if it was ever done for anime. Perhaps this was more common for getting British TV shows that would be native 50Hz to be 60Hz for US distribution though; I do not know specifics.

Aren't a lot of UK anime DVDs in NTSC anyway, avoiding the issue, since UK TVs have also supported NTSC playback for years?
 
Most UK anime DVDs up to 2010 (Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Part 2) were PAL with blended frames playing at the correct speed with compromised visuals. Pretty much any ADV (who went bust before that) DVD will be like that; 24 fps stretched into 25 fps. After that, the UK and AU anime distros tried native PAL, 25 fps playing 4% faster for clearer visuals, chipmunked audio at first and later pitch correction that introduced a wobble to constant tones, notable in reverberating piano notes. It took until around 2016 for companies to ditch PAL and transition to NTSC and just make things easier for everyone.

Of course there are exceptions, and I remember early DVDs like the Oh My Goddess DVDs from MVM being NTSC from the get go.
 
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