Defective or Disappointing UK Anime Discs

Professor Who said:
Is this review true? If so, you guys have PAL speedup versions of Danmachi Sword Oratoria on DVD...

I thought the era of PAL speedup was over?
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That's an NTSC-PAL standards conversion, so no PAL speedup, but a really naff image. Basically you get a 30fps NTSC image (which itself extrapolates 24fps progressive into 30fps interlaced by creating intermediate frames from adjoining frames), and that gets translated into PAL (roughly it's 24fps into 25 fps by averaging out and creating a 25th frame so another level of extrapolation). So the image is soft, and it's blurry, and if you pause it you get ghosting of the image. But it plays at the correct rate, so the audio is untouched.

Native PAL is created by getting a 24fps progressive video and playing it at 25fps, which is 4% faster, hence PAL speedup, and it's how anime has been released on UK and EU DVD for around 10 years now. Sword Oratoria on DVD is a throwback, and not a great one. There are better NTSC-PAL standards conversions out there.
 
Hi everyone,
20-year animé fan, first time poster!
I've had a search for this topic, but not found anything.
I just watched my DVD copy of "Your Name" and there are light/dark bars and masses all over the film, not in every scene, but in most. Googling the issue told me that there was an issue with the Blu-ray release, but nothing on the DVD edition.
Any thoughts? Is this a well known issue for this particular DVD?
 
Hi @Steve Palmer, welcome to the forum and potentially the nightmare that is image quality of western releases compared to japanese or italian releases ;)

Steve Palmer said:
I just watched my DVD copy of "Your Name" and there are light/dark bars and masses all over the film, not in every scene, but in most. Any thoughts? Is this a well known issue for this particular DVD?
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Are you refering to macro blocking artifacts as seen in this comparison?
HDTV_33.jpg
 
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Hi Robbi,
Thanks for the reply.
Tbh, I can't see any difference between the two images above, except perhaps around the ear.
What I've got on my DVD is great swathes of very obvious lighter and darker patches, all horizontal (i.e. not at all like the shadow effects so beloved of this particular director...). It was the unsubtle nature of the patches that made me think "this must be faulty."
I've got about 25 animé DVDs and never once seen this effect.
 
@Steve Palmer: I own a copy of Anime Limited's deluxe edition of Your Name, which contains both the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film, and I can confirm that the DVD has the same problems as the Blu-ray version. The cause is poor authoring by the Australian anime distributor Madman Entertainment, who created the discs. As well as the video issues, the audio is also botched, giving it a thin, hollowed-out sound. The Blu-ray is being re-authored as part of an informal replacement programme by UK distributor Anime Limited, but no word on the DVD version.

If you like, take a look at this post: https://forums.animeuknews.net/threads/your-verdict-your-name-madman-version.16490/#post-475812
It contains links to other posts which look at some of the issues in more detail. Hope this helps. :)
 
Another one for both the Blu-ray list and the DVD list, unfortunately:

Napping Princess (Anime Limited):
Two missing subtitle captions: one at 13min48sec, and the other at 17min02sec.
The first one is replaced by a sign caption, the second one by the letters "TOCK".
*The Hard-of-Hearing subtitles are a separate translation and are unaffected by this.
 
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Neil.T said:
Another one for both the Blu-ray list and the DVD list, unfortunately:

Napping Princess (Anime Limited):
Two missing subtitle captions: one at 13m48s, and the other at 17m02secs.
The first one is replaced by a sign caption, the second one by the letters "TOCK".
*The Hard-of-Hearing subtitles are a separate translation and are unaffected by this.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's just missing a "TICK" to go with the "TOCK" and then it will make more sense ⏰

🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
 
@Rui:
Suggestion for a second entry for Evangelion 1.11 in the Blu-ray list, this time for the Anime Limited version:

Evangelion 1.11 (Anime Limited): Subtitle error at 40min57sec (the dialogue of two characters is blended together into one caption); also applies to DVD included in Collector's Edition (at 41min00sec).
 
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Not defective, but definitely disappointing.
Twin Star Exorcists Volume 1 (Anime Limited) - DVD only.
The static menu of DVD Disc 2 features artwork of a character that's a major spoiler for episodes in a future volume. This doesn't affect the Blu-ray, as that uses a different menu.

Details in spoilers:
TSE Spoiler.png
Mayura is introduced as simply being a classmate of Rokuro. Both her father (pictured) and grandfather are introduced as exorcists in this volume, but she doesn't become one until later in the series, in episodes not featured in this release. Also, we don't see her father in combat during this volume either...
 
Joshawott said:
Not defective, but definitely disappointing.
Twin Star Exorcists Volume 1 (Anime Limited) - DVD only.
The static menu of DVD Disc 2 features artwork of a character that's a major spoiler for episodes in a future volume. This doesn't affect the Blu-ray, as that uses a different menu.

Details in spoilers:
View attachment 5018
Mayura is introduced as simply being a classmate of Rokuro. Both her father (pictured) and grandfather are introduced as exorcists in this volume, but she doesn't become one until later in the series, in episodes not featured in this release. Also, we don't see her father in combat during this volume either...
Click to expand...
Ha! Have the bluray so I don't have the spoiler (I did see it on CR though) what spoiler would volume 4 have? Since there will be no other volumes?
 
I've noticed whilst watching through the Sound! Euphonium Blu Ray that the signs track is a bit hit or miss. Mostly when there's already dialogue on screen, it chooses to ignore translating the signs. It's nothing important (During the meeting, it comes up with the band member's name and what they play) but still a little disappointing nonetheless.
 
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