The first Blu-Ray anime DVD is Metropolis

adamcube said:
Anime is already at a rather low-ish resolution. Most fansubs, at 170MB an episode, are even watchable on a full sized TV screen, and DVDs are even better. How much will Blu-Ray, or HD-DVD for that matter, improve our favourite form of entertainment is really what I'll be asking.
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Most new anime is now being produced in HD formats and there is a great possibility that the overall picture quality will improve although I couldn't say for sure how much.

Certainly there is a marked difference in quality between fansubs and DVDs and you could probably expect to see a similar improvement from DVD to HD-DVD.
 
adamcube said:
Anime is already at a rather low-ish resolution. Most fansubs, at 170MB an episode, are even watchable on a full sized TV screen, and DVDs are even better. How much will Blu-Ray, or HD-DVD for that matter, improve our favourite form of entertainment is really what I'll be asking.
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Not a lot. Modern Anime movies form the exceptions (stuff like yubaba's office in Spirited Away would look better in HD). Metropolis may be a good choice in that sense, given that it's a CGI movie with cell-characters dropped in, and therefore has the kind of detail required. If Anime now doesn't benefit from HD tech, in the future it may be the case that it does, because anime makers may exploit the technology (though making a good anime with DVD standards appears to be a massive financial drain even now).
 
No real interest in Blu-ray right now, and honestly I feel that combined with the ridiculous way it's being released parallel to HD-DVD (VHS / BetaMax anyone?), the over-priced hardware, and the lack of actual support either in releases or in current hardware (how many people REALLY have an HDTV that's compatible, with the compatible cables, and a compatible player?) take up is going to be slow. That's assuming the format doesn't tank altogether, which has a real chance of happening.

The whole 'Trusted Computing' thing as well means that playback on PC's is going to be a pain unless you go and buy a new frigging MONITOR with your new Blu-Ray drive so that you can actually watch the movies (assuming of course, current versions of Windows will be updated to allow this, otherwise, you're going to need to "upgrade" to a platform that supports the DRM i.e. Windows Vista. All this to prevent pirates from copying and selling discs that they're just going to copy ANYWAY, meanwhile making things ridiculous for the rest of us. If your DRM isn't going to stop the pirates, and is just going to make things more expensive and difficult for home users, then IT IS NOT WORKING.

Honestly, I'm planning to ignore the format for now. If there's major takeup later on and the prices come down, then I'll join in if it's not too inconvenient / costly. But not bloody well until.
 
subedii said:
The whole 'Trusted Computing' thing as well means that playback on PC's is going to be a pain unless you go and buy a new frigging MONITOR with your new Blu-Ray drive so that you can actually watch the movies
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Anyone buying super hi-res discs and watching them on their PC monitor needs to have their head checked :p

Unless they have 30 inch monitors, in which case, they're rolling in cash and I shan't hold it against them.
 
kupoartist said:
subedii said:
The whole 'Trusted Computing' thing as well means that playback on PC's is going to be a pain unless you go and buy a new frigging MONITOR with your new Blu-Ray drive so that you can actually watch the movies
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Anyone buying super hi-res discs and watching them on their PC monitor needs to have their head checked :p

Unless they have 30 inch monitors, in which case, they're rolling in cash and I shan't hold it against them.
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Just as long as I can hold it against them.

Frigging rich gits. :x
 
kupoartist said:
subedii said:
The whole 'Trusted Computing' thing as well means that playback on PC's is going to be a pain unless you go and buy a new frigging MONITOR with your new Blu-Ray drive so that you can actually watch the movies
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Anyone buying super hi-res discs and watching them on their PC monitor needs to have their head checked :p

Unless they have 30 inch monitors, in which case, they're rolling in cash and I shan't hold it against them.
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A lot of modern graphics cards have DVI-out, which so far as I am aware is compatible with HD-TVs too meaning you can watch your DVDs or use your computer on your HD-TV... Not sure about that since I don't have a HD-TV to test it with (I don't watch enough TV to need one so figure now is a bit too soon for me to even consider it).
 
Blue-ray Vs. HD-DVD. From what I've read of American film releases so far is that HD-DVD is kicking blue-ray's butt for both disc content and quality of picture/sound. Why? Sony's Blue-ray is still using the MPEG 2 encoder tech' and to get a HD picture its taking up a lot of storage space on each disc, meaning there's not much room left for extras and hi-def surround sound. HD-DVD using VC-1 for encoding HD pictures, it uses less space and offers better picture quality, ergo, more room for those extras and hi-def surround sound channels :)

HD-TV. Will we notice/do we care?! Yes, you will notice the difference. At the moment most people use a DVD to CRT TV, connected via an analog cable (composite, scart (RGB), s-vhs, component). Introduction of some noise into the picture/sound channel goes hand in hand with the process of converting from digital (DVD disc) to analog (dvd player output, interconnect & TV), and the longer that the analog signal is handled, the more susceptible it is to degradation.
_With the intro' of HDMI ports on DVD players, DLP/LCD projectors and on HD-TV's the source information (picture/sound) is kept in its digital format until it reaches is destination (hi-fi or TV) and is then converted into its analog signal. This way, degradation of the signal is kept to a minimum and you are more reliant on the quality of the final component (tv / hi-fi) than all of them (dvd player / interconnects / tv / hi-fi ). Using HDMI equipped components should ensure that you are getting the best picture/sound quality you can.

The devils in the detail! Right, you've got that 'HD Ready' 42" Plasma TV and the HDMI equipped dvd player, you site down to watch a film and realise that something is missing, the picture lacks clarity, focus. Why, because of the picture format (UK - 576i PAL, USA - 480i NTSC), there just isn't enough room to get all that nice detail you saw at the local cinema crammed in. This is where High Definition comes in. The Uk HD format uses 720i, 720p, 1080i & 1080p (these are the number of horizontal lines with either an interlaced(i) or progressive(p) signal) same as America but a different refresh rates. The upshot of higher picture resolution is more detail. All of the current American HD-DVD's and Blue-ray use the higher 1080p format :) so masses of detail.

HD and Anime. The main difference will be in picture clarity and sound quality, for most TV series or OAV's things will just be sharper and more focused on the screen. The real big difference will come with the theatrical releases, where huge budgets have been spent ensuring the minutest of detail is present and correct. Either of the new HD formats should see a faithful transfer of this detail, but HD-DVD is proving to be that little bit better than Blue-Ray, for the moment.
 
kupoartist said:
Ah! Metropolis! Now there's a title that will make me rush and buy an expensive machine I have absolutely no need for!

Using the investigative tools that have been taught, find the sarcasm in the above sentence. [4]
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OBJECTION!

For sarcasum to be used in this statement, the poster would need to state that Metropolis was of sub par quality and that is just not possible!
 
So if I buy this new technology i'll notice that all my current DVD's don't look as good? No thanks. I think i'll live in blissfull ignorance for as long as I can.
 
All of the new HD players (DVD & B-R) should output up to 1080p (screen resolution of 1960 x 1080). The current crop from Toshiba (HD-DVD) and Samsung (Blue-Ray) do.

The vast majority of 'HD-Ready' HD-TVs in the UK have a screen resolution of 720(i/p) and will down scale the larger 1080(i/p) picture, losing detail. Most manufactures have a higher res TV in their line-up but at added cost.

In general DVDs are good, and look v.good on a large screen (I use a DLP projector with 64" screen *bliss*), but even on a normal TV, using cheap bits, you can see if a film/program has been badly transferred to DVD. Its just with the use of a larger screens, HDMI cables or high quality analog interconnects your increasing the likely hood of seeing any imperfections in the picture. In a DVDs case, this is normally down to a dirty/scratched surface or too lazy encoding by the film company.

A good film is a good film, what ever you use to watch it on!

To finnish. It's good to see Anime being released so early on in the life of a new format, and Metropolis isn't a bad film. I sincerely hope that other titles get a airing also.
 
Mr B said:
The vast majority of 'HD-Ready' HD-TVs in the UK have a screen resolution of 720(i/p) and will down scale the larger 1080(i/p) picture, losing detail. Most manufactures have a higher res TV in their line-up but at added cost..
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I thought that, for a TV to get a 'HD Ready' rating, it had to support the 1080i format with the the high resolution / extra cost sets supporting the 1080p format. It's a minefield! :p


Which reminds me, I was going to start a thread asking what LCD TVs peopel recommend to watch anime DVDs on...
 
Guyver 0 said:
HD-ready is such a scandal!
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It's more of a con. The definition of 'HD-ready' is something of an umbrella term that encompasses quite a number of resolutions that have quite a range, as Mr B rightly pointed out. There were a lot of people who bought HD-ready sets for the World Cup, under the impression that they were getting a res of x-lines as they would with the PAL or NTSC formats. Personally I'll save up my cash and buy a new set when they've finalised it all - to get the most out of HD I'd have to buy not just a new TV, but a new player and cables too!
 
7zark7 said:
I thought that, for a TV to get a 'HD Ready' rating, it had to support the 1080i format with the the high resolution / extra cost sets supporting the 1080p format. It's a minefield! :p


Which reminds me, I was going to start a thread asking what LCD TVs peopel recommend to watch anime DVDs on...
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Yep, quite right. The 'HD Ready' TVs do support 1080i. Supporting the interlaced signal of the higher res image is fairly straight forward, as only half the scan lines are shown at any one time on the TV screen. Odd-even-odd-even 50 times a second. For it to support the progressive scan signal, the TV has to be able to show all of the 1080 scan lines in one go, but only 25 times a second.

To be truly 100% 1080p compatible (without resorting to scaling the picture) the HD-TV needs to have a native screen resolution of 1960 x 1080 pixels.


LCD TV - all important areas are:

Brightness - 450 cd/m2(!?) or higher
Contrast - as close to 1000:1 or higher, if you can get it.
Response time - 8ms as a target figure, but the lower the better.
Viewing angle - as wide as possible, unless you intend to site directly in front of it at all times
Connectors - check everything you need is there, HDMI for future proving
Screen resolution - any HD ready or HD compatible sets will be fine for normal viewing purposes.
 
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