Blu Ray vs DVD: Does it make a big difference to anime?

SnowWolf

SnowWolf

Straw Hat Pirate
I don't own a blu ray player, but I am curious...

Is there a big difference in quality when it comes to anime?

I've been told before it depends on the anime, but which ones?

Can anyone shed any light on this? Has anyone seen both the blu ray and dvd versions of an anime?
 
SnowWolf said:
Has anyone seen both the blu ray and dvd versions of an anime?
Click to expand...

With Evangelion 1.0 (1.01 on blu-ray) I noticed sharper colours and finer detail in the scenery on the blu-ray. Reds were also less prone to smearing and bleeding, and colour gradations were overall more perceptible on blu-ray as well.

Sound-wise, the DD TrueHD track on blu-ray was a marked improvement over the dvd's DD 5.1, what with better sound steering and more fulsome bass being the order of the day.

So yes, in this case the blu-ray presented a marked leap over the dvd.

One caveat though. AV quality on blu-ray is as much down to the skills of whoever is mastering/encoding it. It's not always a case of Garbage In, Garbage Out; it is possible for a pristine master to be ruined in the encoding process, though offhand I cannot think of any examples, anime or otherwise.
 
For me, I didn't really notice the leap from DVD to blu-ray with live-action (however, I will now notice it if forced to go back). However, with animation, the difference is instantly noticeable. Even when you upscale a DVD on a BD player, it can look so much better (which is why I'll never pay for AniplexUSA's insane Oreimo blu-ray price - the DVD upscaled looked really good).
 
Most anime today and over the last few years has been animated natively in HD. The only exceptions are those which are animated by J.C. Staff or Bones who animate at 540p, not to say that their shows don't look much better on BD. Soul Eater for example is an upscale, but actually looks pretty good. The difference to me is like night and day.
DVD's are interlaced, heavily compressed, have washed out colour and PAL DVDs also suffer from PAL speedup.
Blurays are progressive, have over 4x the bitrate the play around with (40+ mbps instead of 10), don't have washed out colour, and play at their native speed.

Usually I would go on a rant and supply images but I'm not feeling up to it at the mo', so I'll say YES YES YES, there is a massive difference in quality between anime on DVD and Bluray, and you'd be crazy not to notice it - especially as shows are looking better and better.
 
I'd say yes if you ignore the majority of Anime produced last decade which was a bit sketchy for Anime in HD.

A lot of the cel Anime that's had a proper transfer from film to HD looks fantastic as well as new releases like Redline. You get less banding (those horrible looking colour gradients) along with other issues you get with DVD bitrates and looks closer to the original source than the DVD if the people/machines in the process of making the Blu-ray do it right.

Also don't forget the sound, I've compared the sound between the Blu-ray and DVD of Redline, the BD is a lot better than the DVD. One of the Japanese audio tracks on the Akira Blu-ray is utterly amazing how it sounds, you need the right equipment to get the full effect (it's a 24-bit/192Khz track that takes up 15GB!) and I'm lucky enough to use music studio monitors every now and then but I can't help but put the opening bike scene every time I hook them up to the Blu-ray player.
 
yeah I agree the Japanese akira BD audio track is fantastic!

I think blu-ray in general, if done properly is much better than DVD with out doubt, some are really lazy though, even being just upscaled DVDs which is a shame.


But I have found anime really excels in blu-ray, if there isn't too much of a price difference or it was one of my favourite animes I would go for blu-ray without doubt. I think older anime (on film) really benefits, sometimes they get a really good remaster too, roujin-z jumps to mind, the DVD was quite blurry, almost had vhs traits, but the blu-ray was like watching s new film it was so vastly improved!
 
Blu-ray should always look better than DVD (assuming you're not using a 14" CRT TV and composite cables).
Even upscales should look better since the processing is done offline and less compression is required on the disc.

In practice it is case-by-case:
FUNi's first printing of Samurai Champloo on BD had more resolution but less detail than the old Geneon DVDs due to the amount of smoothing they employed when upscaling. Their later reprints had a new master which was good enough that it was re-used on the Japanese release.
Sentai's Penguindrum DVDs are not only made from an 1080i master, but they've also somehow introduced some nasty artifacts. I'm not sure if this is still an improvement on the DVDs as I think I've only seem comparisons with the Japanese BDs.
 
The continuing dominance of DVD in the UK marketplace

Shiroi Hane said:
ilmaestro said:
Really, I think the question with Bakemono might be "why release it on DVD at all". Unless it's costing them very little, it's hardly a title with much casual appeal.
Click to expand...
Because DVDs still sell better than BDs?
Click to expand...
For everything, even shows that will be pretty niche here like Bakemono? Jeez people need to move past 2008 quickly.
 
Re: Upcoming UK anime DVD artwork!

pretty much everything gets a DVD release, mostly because quite a lot of people don't really care about upgrading to BD, i buy dvd only (unless it's relesed in a combo pack). the blu-ray packagaing puts me off, i am not currently employed as college takes a lot o fmy time, so i don't really have money for a blu ray player AND anime and whatever other things i need to get. but i'm fine with dvd, to me and many other people we really don't need the upgrade as badly as you make it seem everyone does.
 
Re: Upcoming UK anime DVD artwork!

My main reason for sticking with DVDs is that my laptop is incapable of playing BluRays, and that's my main player. I also don't have the money to invest in a decent HDTV setup that would make the BluRay upgrade worthwhile.
 
Re: Upcoming UK anime DVD artwork!

It depends on the title (IIRC the percentage for films is higher than for TV series), but Manga expects BDs to sell 30% of the DVD numbers.
HOTD was a good performer on BD, but still only sold 2500 BDs to 4000 DVDs as of last May.
 
Re: Upcoming UK anime DVD artwork!

HsOTD is a pretty obviously "mainstream" title though (relatively speaking). I guess the anime purchasing demographic is likely younger on average than I assume.
 
Re: Upcoming UK anime DVD artwork!

I'm more surprised that SDTVs are still around (but then I do tend to burn out any given piece of electronics equipment within about five years of purchase). I thought that when people needed new TVs, had no choice but to buy an HDTV, tried to watch SD content on them and their eyeballs started to melt that everyone would be trampling each other in a stampede to buy BD players and discs... Either the SDTVs or people's eyeballs are proving more resilient than I imagined.
 
Re: Upcoming UK anime DVD artwork!

Unfortunately, I think people's brains are not always up to the challenge of correctly reacting to what their eyes are seeing.

Also, hi ayase! How's France?
 
Re: Upcoming UK anime DVD artwork!

ayase said:
I'm more surprised that SDTVs are still around (but then I do tend to burn out any given piece of electronics equipment within about five years of purchase). I thought that when people needed new TVs, had no choice but to buy an HDTV, tried to watch SD content on them and their eyeballs started to melt that everyone would be trampling each other in a stampede to buy BD players and discs... Either the SDTVs or people's eyeballs are proving more resilient than I imagined.
Click to expand...
I think it's because when HDTVs and BDs first came out they were really expensive, so most people still have the mindset of them being expensive and will do until DVDs are phased out?
 
Re: Upcoming UK anime DVD artwork!

robot monkey said:
You can pick up a decent BD player & a full HD TV and do all that without breaking £300 these days../quote]
Click to expand...
Not when they first came out though, which was the point I was trying to make. Until DVDs are phased out completely, people won't give them a second look after dismissing them due to being too expensive before.
 
Back
Top