Format preferences: DVD or BD

thedoctor2016 said:
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
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Exactly, I really don't see the purpose in pack in DVDs included with BDs, I would rather they include a small art booklet.
 
Neil.T said:
There needs to be an "Aaron's classic quotes" compilation or something! 😂
That's right up there with your assessment of Jojo, dude.
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I'll definitely consider releasing a video of quotes in the format of your choosing - probably some kind of 240p YouTube video, because no one wants/deserves to see me in 4K 😅
 
Aaron said:
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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What I'm getting from this is that the Sony UMD version is the one to get, yeah?
 
D1tchd1gger said:
If I remember rightly @Vincentdante hates romance stuff and it is quite a slow one at that! Your Name. is probably still my favourite Shinkai and Children Who Chase Lost Voices is the worst.
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Indeed I hate the genre, Garden of Words was a particularly bad one as well, they always feel obnoxious to me. I don't mind romance if it's presented as a subgenre, like Eden of the East could be argued to be a romance but it was also a part of a mystery story so I got into the story and even enjoyed the romance which was all a part of it.

Your Name is genuinely good and is more my preference for the same reason Eden of the East was. It is the only movie from that director I like honestly (between the three I have seen anyway).
 
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. 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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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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Even though I am mostly a Blu-ray only buyer I still very much agree with this point. My 90s Moomin anime DVD sets have terrible video quality but I love 'em anyway so I own all four sets released in the UK by Stax Entertainment :) Ofc what is considered good or bad or mediocre or "the absolute WORST dross the medium has to offer" XD has a certain subjective element to it but FWIW I generally consider myself to have reasonably good taste and I'd much rather own a show that delights me from start to finish on DVD (heck I even own a handful of animated films on VHS still because they are rare and unavailable in any other format, namely The Mouse's Child which is an English language Sanrio film from 1977 and Fly Peek! Peek the Baby Whale which is the first feature film by Koji Morimoto way back in 1991!) than own a show on Blu-ray that's just "OK", let alone terrible! I do mostly buy on Blu-ray now in the hope that titles that are currently DVD only that really interest me will get Blu-rays eventually and then I'll buy those but I only buy what I really think I will enjoy! Seems a bit silly to do otherwise. I will say thought that some series/movies really benefit from HD and some of those series have terrible DVD image quality to the point where even though there were lots of other things to like about the show it was definitely worth importing the Blu-ray (such as Clannad/Clannad Afterstory). But I am also stoked that I lucked out a few years ago and got My Bride is a Mermaid, both seasons of School Rumble, and Pani Poni Dash on DVD for like £4 each (yes I got all of SR for £4) from a kind person on fb marketplace (I actually got Good Luck Girl from them on BD/DVD combo for the same price and gave them £4 extra to say thankyou when I paid on PayPal) - that was a seriously good time even if it was all in standard definition! (though I still haven't finished MBIAM but I definitely will), I mean all those shows are DVD only rn anyway at least in the west so not much point in worrying about buying a Blu-ray :)

Fabio de lunatico I also agree with you I do think people should watch what they want :)

"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."
 
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RadFemHedonist said:
Ofc what is considered good or bad or mediocre or "the absolute WORST dross the medium has to offer" XD has a certain subjective element to it but FWIW I generally consider myself to have reasonably good taste and I'd much rather own a show that delights me from start to finish on DVD...
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Only just looked back in on the forum, and this'll probably be my last appearance for a while as life and work look set to go PROPER MENTAL starting tomorrow.

But I'll get this off my chest: that cpomment I made before about folks wanting the worst dross imaginable in HD? I'll take a rare step and be a bit specific about what I meant.

What I had in mind there were a couple of forum posts I've seen. Where, exactly, I can't remember (but they weren't here - ANN accounts for at least one of them, I think) where folks were throwing a PROPER WOBBLERabout not being able to get hold of specific shows on Blu Ray. And yes... I get that this is frustrating. I mean, I wish the UK had HD releases of certain shows.

But when I see people getting harrumphy and indignant because the shows they feel they're missing out on are... [checks notes] Chrome Shelled Regios and Gasaraki, I really have to wonder.

Always struck me as weird that those shows have any kind of following, as they're both OBJECTIVELY TERRIBLE shows with horrible writing, atrocious characters and disastrous pacing. (I also doubt much would be served by having Gasaraki in HD. But that's by the by.)

Do people really want HD coffee coasters?! Really???

But, y'know, folks in this thread are indeed correct. People should be free to watch and enjoy whatever they want to.

I just... dun geddit.
 
KurataTrigger said:
DVDs in 2020?
I think I pass.
Manga should have phased out on DVD format altogether already.
The DVD versions of Funi Manga series don't even sell.
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If there is no BD available I am happy for a DVD release.
Oldmario said:
toei have started re-releasing one piece on SD blu-ray in 480i
and it's a 16:9 cropped mess
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Yikes! No thanks.
I haven't even started on the series yet. But would very much like to. Since I have waited so long I was holding out for a BD release, even a SD BD release, but not this.
Darren Skippings said:
oh didn't know, it will still cost a fortune to upgrade, I gave up at collection 10 in any case.
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Yes it will cost a fortune to upgrade, but considering how long this series is, it will also cost a fortune to just follow through whether you continue with the DVDs or stick with the DVD you already have and continue with BDs onwards. That's one of the reasons why I have postponed buying One Piece, will it ever end?
CommanderZx2 said:
To be blunt I don't know a single person who still buys DVDs and I usually just see them end up in bargain bins. I wouldn't even mind if they stopped including them with Blu-rays releases. Instead of putting a Blu-ray and a useless DVD duplicate of the same content, I'd rather them include a small art booklet.
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I still buy DVDs if there isn't a BD version available. But those BD releases that include DVDs, In those cases the DVDs are rather redundant I would say. You buy a BD to get a BD, but have anyone ever bought a BD to get a DVD? I doubt it.
 
cyborg 002 said:
I still buy DVDs if there isn't a BD version available. But those BD releases that include DVDs, In those cases the DVDs are rather redundant I would say. You buy a BD to get a BD, but have anyone ever bought a BD to get a DVD? I doubt it.
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Yeah that's what I meant, if there's a BD and DVD release then the DVD releases end up in bargain bins, as why would you choose that version over the BD version? I only ever buy a DVD if there is no BD option. For BD releases I too wish they would stop including the DVD with them and instead placed other extras such as an art booklet.
 
CommanderZx2 said:
Yeah that's what I meant, if there's a BD and DVD release then the DVD releases end up in bargain bins, as why would you choose that version over the BD version? I only ever buy a DVD if there is no BD option. For BD releases I too wish they would stop including the DVD with them and instead placed other extras such as an art booklet.
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I agree.
 
Vincentdante said:
I actually own more DVD's than I do blu-rays for non-anime.

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I own more DVDs for both anime and non anime. In some cases I even refuse to upgrade.

If the original trilogy of Star Wars won't get a BD release. I will just keep the DVDs with the big ass black bars on top and bottom.
I actually sold of my LOTR Extended DVDs, I knew as long as I had those I won't get them upgraded. That's several montsh ago now I still haven't bought the BDs. Great movies though, so I will get them on BD eventually, the BD box designs are just so lackluster though.
 
cyborg 002 said:
I own more DVDs for both anime and non anime. In some cases I even refuse to upgrade.

If the original trilogy of Star Wars won't get a BD release. I will just keep the DVDs with the big ass black bars on top and bottom.
I actually sold of my LOTR Extended DVDs, I knew as long as I had those I won't get them upgraded. That's several montsh ago now I still haven't bought the BDs. Great movies though, so I will get them on BD eventually, the BD box designs are just so lackluster though.
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I intend to upgrade LOTR to 4k eventually, they are some of my favorite films so a jump from DVD to 4k sounds grand. I actually upgraded my DVD of Scarface to 4k for the same reason.
 
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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HdE said:
Oof. This is its own thread now?



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.
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I did some backtracking here too. I just bought the Horizon In the Middle Of Nowhere BD earlier this month, I even got hit by customs on it. Based on these post I paid more for it than probably should have.

The AL Wings Of Honeamise BD. I went from VHS to the BD so needless to say an upgrade for sure, but I was disappointed that there were black bars on all four sides of the movie.
 
HdE said:
But when I see people getting harrumphy and indignant because the shows they feel they're missing out on are... [checks notes] Chrome Shelled Regios and Gasaraki, I really have to wonder.
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I actually liked Gasaraki a lot apart from the
nationalism and the ending
😂 I loved the way the show incorporated Noh dancing and ceremony into a mech series, and the "realistic robot" approach and the characters worked for me, I also just like how poetic it all feels, and I think the dub is very good. Not particularly fussed about owning that one on BD though as I have the Nozomi/Lucky Penny DVD set. I would like it if there was a BD but I'm not losing sleep over that XP Chrome Shelled Regios I have no idea about as haven't seen it but it sounded a bit rubbish yeah. I dunno, people will like what they like. Hence my edit to my previous post to incorporate Fabio's quote.
 
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