Format preferences: DVD or BD

I way prefer BDs, but I'll still buy a DVD if there's not an affordable and easy to obtain BD release (or if it's DVD only). I bought a load of One Piece DVDs using the Zavvi code recently.

I bought MVM's DVD release of a Lull in the Sea as a £10 DOTW ages ago - the only BD release it got was as a CE and no way was I spending that much money for a box, book and soundtrack I've got no interest in (that's my approach to most CEs, not just this one).

I'd rather have it in HD, but I don't care enough to spend like five/six times more (however much the CE was).

(I know next to nothing about bitrates, banding, lossy audio, compression or any of that technical stuff - I just think stuff looks nicer in HD!)
 
The fact blu Ray is becoming a collectors market should make quality a larger consideration as after all the home video market is shrinking so the proportion of Videophiles being your market is increasing.
Yes manga are the worst in this country and their lazy discs are a factor for me yes it’s FUNis problem but their poor menu’s poor disc art poor sub font means I can criticise before even mention bitrate.
But I know manga don’t want the collectors market they want the mainstream large market of people who only who buy MHA and nothing else so ofc DVD is a large proportion of their market it’s the market they want. It is just not the market AL, MVM or discotek aim for.
 
HdE said:
I often wonder if too many folks obssess over HD quality and lose sight of the fact that anime is / should really be about entertainment value.
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Eh, some DVDs are passable but others, like the UK release of Romeo X Juliet, are so bad that they actively hinder my enjoyment. You don't have to be a hardcore videophile (I'm not) to want your visual medium to look as visually appealing as possible.

As for dross, well, that describes a lot of anime and other media, but I don't think we should tell people to watch what we like rather than covet good video quality for what they do like.
 
fabio de lunatico said:
Eh, some DVDs are passable but others, like the UK release of Romeo X Juliet, are so bad that they actively hinder my enjoyment. You don't have to be a hardcore videophile (I'm not) to want your visual medium to look as visually appealing as possible.
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That point about DVD quality being variable certainly holds up. I've been surprised on occasion at how well AND how badly certain shows look on DVD. Always seems to come down to how many episodes of a show are crammed onto one disc. But I've also found there are no absolute measures of quality in that regard.

ActionFaust said:
Honestly seeing a lot of discussions of video quality really makes me wonder whether these people actually care about the show itself. Sure it's nice to have good quality but at the end of the day I'm paying for entertainment value and not the amount of bitflops per banded minute or whatever
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I find this kind of interesting because it seems to be such a personal thing. I mean, in my case, a show can be as clean and lovely looking as can be. But if it's a stinker of a show, I'm just going to tune out, media format regardless.

That said, there have been instances where I've traded up to Blu Ray for certain things. During AL's sale this year, I've picked up most of the Gundam stuff to replace my region 1 DVDs. I've been in a lucky position to afford them, and I figure I can sell on those DVDs to partially recoup the cost. But it's also partly about having the convenience of popping them in an off-the-shelf region B Blu Ray player.
 
HdE said:
Always seems to come down to how many episodes of a show are crammed onto one disc. But I've also found there are no absolute measures of quality in that regard.
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Another big factor is when it's mastered. The Funimation version of Scrapped Princess on dvd has less discs and a much better picture than the original Bandai Entertainment release.
 
HdE said:
Sometimes, the media format doesn't even come into it, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, I won't say that I don't notice the difference between HD and SD. And I'll generally try to get hold of something I really want in the best media format possible. But I'm not too precious about it.

I often wonder if too many folks obssess over HD quality and lose sight of the fact that anime is / should really be about entertainment value. I say that because I've seen discussions where people get persnickety over getting high quality home video releases of the absolute WORST dross the medium has to offer. And I'm also long enough in the tooth that I remember the days where getting a particular show or movie on DVD was the only way to own it. It still is, in plenty of instances!
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Thank you my thoughts exactly. I've been burned by the "high quality disc" argument before.

"Hey you should get the blu-ray for Garden of Words it's very high quality"
"wow that was one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life."
 
Neil.T said:
Eh???! 😱
It's my favourite/second-favourite/joint-favourite/delete as mood dictates Shinkai film!
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I love all Shinkai films so the idea of anyone not enjoying them is beyond me! Lol. Although The Place Promised in Our Early Days is always my favourite.
 
Backtracking in the thread a bit here, but...
HdE said:
I often wonder if too many folks obssess over HD quality and lose sight of the fact that anime is / should really be about entertainment value.
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I wonder the very same thing, dude. In fact...

HdE said:
I've seen discussions where people get persnickety over getting high quality home video releases of the absolute WORST dross the medium has to offer.
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I'm on your side of this argument, HdE. From where I sit, there's just a lot of anime that I feel like I really wouldn't need on Blu-ray. 😬

Like, years ago, I bought a cheerfully cheap complete series DVD collection of Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere from CEX. Based on all the bad things I'd read about it, I really only bought it for a laugh out of sheer morbid curiosity. And to think that that exists on Blu-ray... 😅

And then there's We Without Wings, which in my view is complete and utter irredeemable shi—[snip]


(Why the hell would you need We Without Wings on Blu-ray??? 😅)
 
Neil.T said:
Backtracking in the thread a bit here, but...
I wonder the very same thing, dude. In fact...
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Personally I don't see a point in having a physical copy that doesn't atleast look decent. I buy blu-rays of anime I really like and I intend to rewatch them on the blu-ray I don't want to have to look other places to find decent way to watch it if I have a physical copy.
 
Bakauchuujin said:
I buy blu-rays of anime I really like and I intend to rewatch them on the blu-ray
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I guess this is the whole argument. Some anime just doesn't have a lot of rewatch value to merit shelling out for the BD version. ¯\(ツ)/¯

Sometimes a cheap-and-cheerful DVD is enough so that you can get to see it. That's how I see that part of anime buying, anyway; your milage may vary.
 
Oof. This is its own thread now?

Neil.T said:
Backtracking in the thread a bit here, but...

I wonder the very same thing, dude. In fact...


I'm on your side of this argument, HdE. From where I sit, there's just a lot of anime that I feel like I really wouldn't need on Blu-ray. 😬

Like, years ago, I bought a cheerfully cheap complete series DVD collection of Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere from CEX. Based on all the bad things I'd read about it, I really only bought it for a laugh out of sheer morbid curiosity. And to think that that exists on Blu-ray... 😅

And then there's We Without Wings, which in my view is complete and utter irredeemable shi—[snip]


(Why the hell would you need We Without Wings on Blu-ray??? 😅)
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You bought Horizon too? AHAHAHAHAHA! We're terrible anime twinses!

Now, the thing is, I do this kind of thing from time to time as well. I've given up on reviewing anime on YouTube now, but I used to hunt down the odd guaranteed stinkeroo on DVD for pennies JUST to make a video about it. That was a fun exercise! I had a few really pleasant surprises as well, with some older things turning out to be actually pretty decent. And buying second hand often meant some real bargains could be had.

This is where I think DVD has its place. Sure, it's a lesser format. But I'd be sad to see it completely disappear, at least given the current climate where you can still, if you look hard enough, find the odd curiosity for just a couple of quid on Ebay. Sometimes, even a brand new DVD release pops up for not too much money.

I only really worry about AV quality and the format I'm going to purchase if I know I'm likely to watch something repeatedly. Or if there's something I have where the quality is just SO bad, I can't live with it.

A good case in point would be Wings of Honneamise. I was so desperate to get hold of that again that I ended up nabbing a copy of the old Manga US region 1 DVD. Good lord, it was horrible to look at! But I had the film, at least. And, importantly, there was no UK HD release at the time.

That changed, and I was able to replace my barely-better-than-a-dodgy-bootleg copy with Anime Ltd's gorgeous Blu Ray release. Totally worthwhile for a movie that still gives me a lot of pleasure to this day, no matter how many times I've seen it.

There's a ton of stuff in my collection I just wouldn't entertain the thought of doing that with, though.
 
Depends on the title for me. When it comes to the visuals, I’ll watch the DVDs of FLCL, Gankutsuou, Wolf’s Rain over the Blu-ray’s because of poor upscaling, and shows like Ouran and Chobits, while just as good in terms of visuals, the subtitles are easier to read on DVD.

EDIT: Also there was that period where US companies were still releasing shows on both formats, and while I’m Region B for Blu, I am multiregion for DVD, so I have quite a few US DVDs in my collection.
 
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For me DVD does have its place but can packing them in with BDs please stop it made sense even 5 years ago but now no and even from an environmental stand point I oppose it. The environmental stand point is why I would like 4Ks stop packing in BDs in now the consoles have UHD players as soon as I owned a player last year the BDs ended up being pointless. Especially as I have rebought a lot I think my brother owns BTTF 6 times on BD with all the new versions and collectors sets
 
HdE said:
You bought Horizon too? AHAHAHAHAHA! We're terrible anime twinses!
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Yeahhh... What were we thinking, eh? 😅

HdE said:
I've given up on reviewing anime on YouTube now, but I used to hunt down the odd guaranteed stinkeroo on DVD for pennies JUST to make a video about it.
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You know, I once nearly bought a copy of obscure 2007 OVA Ice for £3.50 in CEX, but I couldn't quite bring myself to put myself through actually watching it. 😆

HdE said:
I only really worry about AV quality and the format I'm going to purchase if I know I'm likely to watch something repeatedly. Or if there's something I have where the quality is just SO bad, I can't live with it.
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Same here again. I made the mistake of buying The Wind Rises on DVD. The image quality is terrible. Probably because Studio Canal insisted on cramming a two-hour-plus film and the full film storyboards onto a DVD-9. 🙄
I double-dipped for the BD on that one.

For a bunch of the other Ghibli films, though — and this might be slightly controversial — I just don't revisit them enough to merit buying them again. It's like, I already bought them on DVD before the UK BD even existed.

I mean, Studio Canal's DVD of Spirited Away is really bad in a couple of places, and yet... I dunno.
 
I got Horizon pretty cheap on BD a while back (about £15 for both parts) - I've just not bothered watching any of it yet 😅

Also, I got the We Without Wings DVD for £10 as an MVM DOTW ages ago and I think I paid at least £10 too much for it. I managed to struggle through four episodes before I completely lost the will to go on (with the show and life in general).

It's the absolute pits, whether it's on DVD, BD, VHS or laser disc. Awful.
 
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