Blu-Ray Anime

[awadama]

To be honest, is not "barely noticable". Far from it in fact...

Compared to VHS yeah...but DVD, not really.

I've seen much more people disappointed with the hyped-up "superior" picture than people excited because they've managed to convince themselves there's a actually a huge difference. That goes for magazines, people on forums, online "audio/visual buffs"...whatever.

 

[melonpan]

To be honest, is not "barely noticable". Far from it in fact...

Compared to VHS yeah...but DVD, not really.

I've seen much more people disappointed with the hyped-up "superior" picture than people excited because they've managed to convince themselves there's a actually a huge difference. That goes for magazines, people on forums, online "audio/visual buffs"...whatever.

I've seen many people in the other camp, so I guess it's down to the person. And the views I've read aren't all quality-philes like myself who notice every last detail! (I think).

Maybe the views you've read are from people watching upscales. Also, it has to be said that quality is much more noticable in anime than in live-action, which could be part of it.

 

[Dracos]

My friend at work is much more into the home cinema world than I am, he goes to all the shows and that and even he has not been convinced by what he has seen. And he is someone that has had pretty much every format since the begining of video then lazer disc.

The big thing is that you can still get bad transfers like on DVD and if the original was not shot in HD scaling it can lead to some less than good results.

Anyway I will probably wait until I next upgrade my projector in a couple of years to one that does both 1080i and 1080p (mine does 720p and 1080i), although if PS3s come down to sensible money for the full version I might be tempted.

 

[sniper_samurai]

I have both a HD-DVD player(X360) and a Blu-Ray player(PS3) and personally, if a film or anime is available in both formats I would choose HD-DVD every time.

This is due to two things,
1. HD-DVD supports more extras, eg. PiP commentaries or the hillarious green screen 300. This adavnatage will be dissappearing soon as its included in the latest version of the blu-ray standard.

and 2. HD-DVD is region free(Yay for HD Heroes for €60 instead of €100) which means we can buy any films or anime titles from the US without having to worry about whether they will work or not.

As of now there are three US anime companies doing HD releases, Bandai Visual, Sony and Funimation and only Bandai Visual are supporting HD-DVD :cry: . I don't know if Funimation are region locking their releases but given their track record of releasing multi region dvds they probably aren't region locked or region A and B. Sony on the other hand are region locking and have done so with the US releases of Paprika and Tekkon Kinnkreet.

 

[Amuro]

I'll be ordering Paprika from amazon this week seeing how its only £14.

Not sure about Tekkon heard its not that good.

 

[Voddas]

I'll be ordering Paprika from amazon this week seeing how its only £14.

Not sure about Tekkon heard its not that good.

You heard wrong. Tekkon Kinkreet is a fantastic movie. Took me a second to adjust to the anime style but then I was away with the fairies. Great story and fantstic visuals. I'd suggest watching it. ^^

 

[Roadie]

I don't think Anime has reached the standard of HD yet, certainly give us widescreen and all that stuff, but HD? HD is only really needed for those bad ass films with top notch CGI stuff waving around, sure it does make anything look all that bit clearer and sharper, but with Anime being just "drawings" with lines.etc (its a bit more complex but work with me) do we really need HD yet? I'm pretty sure I couldn't tell the difference between a DVD and HD-DVD version of Cowboy bebop or something.

 

[sniper_samurai]

I don't think Anime has reached the standard of HD yet, certainly give us widescreen and all that stuff, but HD? HD is only really needed for those bad ass films with top notch CGI stuff waving around, sure it does make anything look all that bit clearer and sharper, but with Anime being just "drawings" with lines.etc (its a bit more complex but work with me) do we really need HD yet? I'm pretty sure I couldn't tell the difference between a DVD and HD-DVD version of Cowboy bebop or something.

A lot of anime in the last 4 years has been broadcast in Japan in 720p so to say that it isn't needed is a bit stupid.

Anyway just because it is on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD doesn't mean that it has to be in high definition, I'm sure you would buy a standard definition Cowboy Bebop collection if it was in dvd quality and on a single disc.

For older series though as you said it isn't really necessary, unless it was captured on 35mm movie film then it would be worth it as 35mm has a higher resolution than dvd.

 

[MKT]

I honestly don't think HD is all that right now, I'm using my bros 720p TV right now to type this and it only runs at a resolution of 1360x768 on my PC which when I think about it is pretty poor. I've been playing Battlefield 2 on a 17" monitor at 1280x1024 (a higher volume of pixels) with 16x AA, etc, etc for the past 4 years or so, so this HD thingamy-bob is kind of less impressive.

I've seen quite a few of the big demos for the "amazing" quality, but I've always been less than impressed, I'm also still dubious of HD TV's. So many people I know have bought them and when I come over to set up a bundle of Xbox360's for Halo3 Sys Link, there are all kinds of limits to how they can be connected up. With only certain ports accepting certain inputs, and screens only displaying their top res if it's being fed caviar and truffles, whilst being given a manicure and only if it's facing true North. It's all so fiddly, even now nothing seems to be standardised.


As long as the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players will play DVD's I'm not fussed, I doubt prices will come down for the discs for a while and I think (not sure at the moment) I'd prefer to have a nice big boxset packed with discs rather than one lonely HD disc ... he'd get so lonely

Maybe well get really lucky and they'll develop a vector based format just for animation, now THAT would be cool

 

[melonpan]

I honestly don't think HD is all that right now, I'm using my bros 720p TV right now to type this and it only runs at a resolution of 1360x768 on my PC which when I think about it is pretty poor. I've been playing Battlefield 2 on a 17" monitor at 1280x1024 (a higher volume of pixels) with 16x AA, etc, etc for the past 4 years or so, so this HD thingamy-bob is kind of less impressive.

I've seen quite a few of the big demos for the "amazing" quality, but I've always been less than impressed, I'm also still dubious of HD TV's. So many people I know have bought them and when I come over to set up a bundle of Xbox360's for Halo3 Sys Link, there are all kinds of limits to how they can be connected up. With only certain ports accepting certain inputs, and screens only displaying their top res if it's being fed caviar and truffles, whilst being given a manicure and only if it's facing true North. It's all so fiddly, even now nothing seems to be standardised.

I agree with the standardisation bit. Everything is so wrong for a retail/mass market at the moment. Who the hell is going to be bothered trying to figure out all the ins and outs of this stupid "format war"? Not the average consumer that's for sure. All this techical jargon is getting more complicated as well.

Something needs to change before HD becomes a proper market.
I just can't wait until it does though!

If you don't find HD all that spectacular at the moment, then maybe you'll like to have a gawp at this page. Now THAT is impressive.

Just a thought I had. I think there'd be more of a market to revolutionise cinema and get cinema's fitted with HD equipment, maybe not to Ultra HD standard, because that's kind of impossible at the moment, but just make cinema more of an attraction. HD at home is just not going to work for a few years.
EDIT: Seeing Beowulf in 3D was an experience not to forget. That was at a "Digital" cinema, apparently the only one in Europe or something.

As long as the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players will play DVD's I'm not fussed, I doubt prices will come down for the discs for a while and I think (not sure at the moment) I'd prefer to have a nice big boxset packed with discs rather than one lonely HD disc ... he'd get so lonely

I don't think the point of HD is to reduce the ultimate number of discs, maybe it will lower slightly, but the point is increasing the quality, i.e less compression w/ artifacts, and a higher bitrate.

If and when Japan start releasing series per volume, on an HD disc, I'm sure that'll be the proof of the pudding because they're not going to stop putting 2-3 episodes on a disc. The increase in quality will be phenominal.

Maybe well get really lucky and they'll develop a vector based format just for animation, now THAT would be cool

Now this sounds interesting! I'd love to hear more about this =)

 

[Cheeky]

I don't think Anime has reached the standard of HD yet, certainly give us widescreen and all that stuff, but HD? HD is only really needed for those bad ass films with top notch CGI stuff waving around, sure it does make anything look all that bit clearer and sharper, but with Anime being just "drawings" with lines.etc (its a bit more complex but work with me) do we really need HD yet? I'm pretty sure I couldn't tell the difference between a DVD and HD-DVD version of Cowboy bebop or something.

Hayata no Gotoku looks very good in 720p, you'd think a drawn image wouldn't benefit so much from being in HD but it makes the lines clearer and sharper, makes subtitles clearer to read and just generally looks more impressive (on my widescreen laptop).

I'm planning on getting a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo drive for the computer, so any anime HD releases I'd consider getting. If only all Japanese discs were released with English subtitles...

 

[Jaymii]

I don't think Anime has reached the standard of HD yet, certainly give us widescreen and all that stuff, but HD? HD is only really needed for those bad ass films with top notch CGI stuff waving around, sure it does make anything look all that bit clearer and sharper, but with Anime being just "drawings" with lines.etc (its a bit more complex but work with me) do we really need HD yet? I'm pretty sure I couldn't tell the difference between a DVD and HD-DVD version of Cowboy bebop or something.

Hayata no Gotoku looks very good in 720p, you'd think a drawn image wouldn't benefit so much from being in HD but it makes the lines clearer and sharper, makes subtitles clearer to read and just generally looks more impressive (on my widescreen laptop).

One Piece also looks fantastic. Everything is awe-inspiringly sharp and it looks absolutely amazing. So much so, Its the only title I put on my PS3 to watch on my HDTV..

To what Roadie said, Something like Cowboy Bebop in HD wouldn't be that beneficial because it would have to be upscaled to "look" HD, New shows look terrific if they are made to be in HD. The difference can also be found in the HD version of "The Simpsons Movie" from what I've seen. Its because there are no compression artifacts, no noise, no nothing. In my opinion, HD does more justice to things in HD than it does to something Live-Action..Like.... Heroes. It looks good and all, but not spectacular.

I've also seen some "Open Season" in HD and that looks awesome as well, Little things like the grass' details would be lost in the DVD version, Its so much more in bloom for HD.

[All My Opinion, of course.]


EDIT: Just read on Lyris-Lite. That Warner Bros. have dropped out from the HD-DVD market and releases for that format will stop being released starting Mid '08. All Warner Bros (and FOX) titles Ffom then on shall be Blu-Ray Exclusive. Thats has most definately made me quite happy. I'm eager for the last supporters of HD-DVD to back out now. I wonder how long that'll take....

 

[Cheeky]

EDIT: Just read on Lyris-Lite. That Warner Bros. have dropped out from the HD-DVD market and releases for that format will stop being released starting Mid '08. All Warner Bros (and FOX) titles Ffom then on shall be Blu-Ray Exclusive. Thats has most definately made me quite happy. I'm eager for the last supporters of HD-DVD to back out now. I wonder how long that'll take....

Really? That's news. HD-DVD players might be cheap(er), but Blu-Ray crucially has the PS3 and PC markets on it's side. Whereas with the X-Box you still have to shell out for an add-on player, PS3 gives you out-of-the-box 1080p HD. And with the PC market, there's a lot more Blu-Ray drives available - especially considering you can get a laptop with one for under £1000 now.

But that's beside the point... I completely agree, anime made to suit HD benefits the most. In a way the difference is clearer as with live action, there's so much to take in with one picture that it's hard to say 'you can see a blade of grass!' when so much is going on, the grass is moving, the camera is moving etc. With anime, you have more time to soak up the details. And that's why anime can benefit from HD.