Blu-ray or DVD?

otaku010884

otaku010884

Student Council President
I shouldn't even be considering getting anything new due to lack of space but FMA has been recommended to me and I am really tempted, but it's available on Blu-ray as well as DVD. What do you recommend and why? Can there really be that much difference with animated works?
 
There is definitely a difference when putting a show on Blu-ray. I am sure there are comparison images about. Assuming you have an HD TV and the suchlike, always go Blu-ray if you can. They are smaller too.
 
Frankly I don't see the point of buying anie blu ray. I mean, what you get slightly crisper lines? Thanks but no thanks. Comparing the Denzel episode on the Advent Children blu ray with Gundam 00 dvd there was minimal difference if any. So I don't know that you gain all that much.
 
Films will make for better transfers to HD than series as they were always shot to film, assuming a good film master exists. Modern anime is mostly created on computer so HD will look a lot better.
 
Having just got a Blu-ray player... well ps3, i was thinking about this particular topic. I'm going to invest in FMA Brotherhood on Blu-ray mainly because I've got the original series on DVD.

In terms of picture quality, I've been told it's up converted to 1080p as oppose to it being native HD, but still looks really good.
 
Actually, FMA Brotherhood is native HD in that it was animated at a higher resolution than that of SD television, 540 instead of 480. But still, that 540 source has to be upscaled for a Blu-ray presentation.
 
otaku010884 said:
I shouldn't even be considering getting anything new due to lack of space but FMA has been recommended to me and I am really tempted, but it's available on Blu-ray as well as DVD. What do you recommend and why? Can there really be that much difference with animated works?
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I'd go for the Blu-Ray as it looks alot better than regular DVD in terms of sharpness. I also just ran out of space on my shelve but that wont stop me from buying more so dont let it stop you from enjoying a great series :D
 
Just Passing Through said:
Actually, FMA Brotherhood is native HD in that it was animated at a higher resolution than that of SD television, 540 instead of 480. But still, that 540 source has to be upscaled for a Blu-ray presentation.
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Ah I see! Thanks for the correction.
 
Given the choice, I would go with the blu-ray version. Ofter it will have a better picture/sound quality. With anime series there is also the fact that blu-rays take up less space - 13 episodes fit on 2 discs in 1 case, mid 20 episode series fit on 3 discs in 2 cases.
 
mangaman74 said:
Given the choice, I would go with the blu-ray version. Ofter it will have a better picture/sound quality. With anime series there is also the fact that blu-rays take up less space - 13 episodes fit on 2 discs in 1 case, mid 20 episode series fit on 3 discs in 2 cases.
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DVD is also 13 eps as 2 disks. You don't fit more episodes because it's a BD, just the same number in a bigger format.

UK BDs mostly are native HD (as manga don't want to release upscales), a large number of American and Japanese ones are just upscale tho'. If you have the DVDs* and don't care for lossless audio don't bother with them.

*that were actualy DVD quality, some FUNimation DVDs aren't, due to being authored baddly.
 
The problem with FMA Brotherhood Blu-ray is that it has player locked subtiitle streams.

Although I can't recall if that's so for the Manga release. It is for the Funimation and Madman disc though.
 
Wow.. Blu-ray has a lot of backing here.

I watch my anime in Japanese with English subs. (I need subs regardless due to hearing loss.)

Reaper gI said:
UK BDs mostly are native HD (as manga don't want to release upscales), a large number of American and Japanese ones are just upscale tho'. If you have the DVDs* and don't care for lossless audio don't bother with them.
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At the risk of sounding stupid, what is "lossless"? So what you're saying that if I have titles on DVD already there's no point really in replacing them with BD?

I don't have FMA but I'm really tempted to get it. (So I better cracking at selling stuff!! :eek: )
 
Reaper gI said:
mangaman74 said:
Given the choice, I would go with the blu-ray version. Ofter it will have a better picture/sound quality. With anime series there is also the fact that blu-rays take up less space - 13 episodes fit on 2 discs in 1 case, mid 20 episode series fit on 3 discs in 2 cases.
Click to expand...
DVD is also 13 eps as 2 disks. You don't fit more episodes because it's a BD, just the same number in a bigger format.

UK BDs mostly are native HD (as manga don't want to release upscales), a large number of American and Japanese ones are just upscale tho'. If you have the DVDs* and don't care for lossless audio don't bother with them.

*that were actualy DVD quality, some FUNimation DVDs aren't, due to being authored baddly.
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I know that most series get released in 13 episode sets now, but I have many older series that I purchased as singles such as Burst Angel, Basilisk, Samurai Champloo - getting blu-ray versions of these shows will save me shelf space.
 
Sparrowsabre7 said:
http://www.animenation.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/witchblade_comparison.jpg
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I don't know about the others but that's an upscale.

I defy anyone to watch Wings of Honneamise on BD and tell me there's only minimal improvement over the DVD. The amount of detail it brings out is astonishing--and I only have a 720p display. While modern TV animation doesn't have that much detail, the HD resolution makes lines sharper and colour more vibrant. There's an appreciable difference.

FMA: Brotherhood was animated at sub-HD resolution and upscaled, but I've had a look at my BDs and they look better than any DVD I own, which is partly due to the much higher bitrate and superior AVC/MPEG-4 video codec. That's the version to get.
 
There are definitely some BD releases out there where you won't see an improvement over a DVD upscaled by your player, but this is almost exclusively when the BD has been poorly authored, or upscaled in a totally obnoxious way, killing the detail that was there in the first place (some Funi releases such as Samurai Champloo, for example). Done properly, even upscales should improve the visual quality noticeably.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Sparrowsabre7 said:
http://www.animenation.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/witchblade_comparison.jpg
Click to expand...
I don't know about the others but that's an upscale.
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me said:
*that were actualy DVD quality, some FUNimation DVDs aren't, due to being authored baddly
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That falls into the dvd being from FUNi catagory.
The ghosting on the black lines has been replaced by viasable jaggies. Both look bad to me, BD slightly less so (but that's a downscale)
There shouldn't be a visable difference at the resolution that image is in. That BD is dvd quality, just the dvd isn't.
 
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