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TheAncientOne



Joined: 06 Oct 2010
Posts: 1894
Location: USA (mid-south)
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 11:51 am Reply with quote
Another alternative for out of region DVDs is to use a PC.

Windows allows you to set the region on a DVD player. While it can be changed up to 5 times, it would be best to either install a second drive or purchase an external and set it to the desired region. This works best if you are looking to purchase DVDs only from a specific region (i.e., region 2 for Japan or the UK, or region 4 for Australia).

I don't know if Blu-rays drives for PCs have the same setup, but they are considerably more expensive than a DVD drive for a PC. (Internal DVD drives for a PC can often be found new for as low as $15, and externals for as low as $30).


If you want to deal with multiple regions, there is always the "rip and remove" method, although one is obviously running afoul of the good old DMCA for any copy protected disc.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2249
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 11:51 am Reply with quote
Justin, one thing you might not know about why Japanese remasters are so crappy:
They're often not done for a bluray release directly, but rather for a TV broadcast run (well, re-run). TV stations need HD master tapes and they'll often help cover costs of a HD conversion if they're going to air something, however those budgets are quite limited. Companies will go with the cheapest options for these since it's just for broadcast, but then later on they just re-use these for the BD releases.
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One-Eye



Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2267
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 12:35 pm Reply with quote
samuelp wrote:
Justin, one thing you might not know about why Japanese remasters are so crappy:
They're often not done for a bluray release directly, but rather for a TV broadcast run (well, re-run). TV stations need HD master tapes and they'll often help cover costs of a HD conversion if they're going to air something, however those budgets are quite limited. Companies will go with the cheapest options for these since it's just for broadcast, but then later on they just re-use these for the BD releases.

<whistle> Now that's interesting. I guess that would also explain why Japanese companies are requiring American Publishers to use their upscaled masters more and more--it would bite if the foreign upscale looked better than the domestic release and then there would be the whole reverse-import fear kicking in.
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agila61



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 3213
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:01 pm Reply with quote
samuelp wrote:
Justin, one thing you might not know about why Japanese remasters are so crappy:

They're often not done for a bluray release directly, but rather for a TV broadcast run (well, re-run). TV stations need HD master tapes and they'll often help cover costs of a HD conversion if they're going to air something, however those budgets are quite limited. Companies will go with the cheapest options for these since it's just for broadcast, but then later on they just re-use these for the BD releases.

So instead of the original material, the BD release starts with a 1440x1080 anamorphic interlaced upscale?

Yeah, it sounds like it would be better to de-interlace, upscale 1920x1080, then generate the TV master from that, but if the money is there upfront for the direct upscale to the broadcast format, and any extra budget to do it better is some speculative value in overseas markets, its easy to see which is the low risk option.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:07 pm Reply with quote
TheAncientOne wrote:
I don't know if Blu-rays drives for PCs have the same setup, but they are considerably more expensive than a DVD drive for a PC.
They don't - rather than enforce regions in the hardware like modern DVDs, BDs do it in the player software; the obvious weaknesses in this scheme that scuttled it for DVDs is that a BD-ROM drive irrevocably updates its internal key blacklist every time a newer version is found on an inserted disc.
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PurpleWarrior13



Joined: 05 Sep 2009
Posts: 2034
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:21 pm Reply with quote
It really sucks when a show was partially animated in digital SD like Inuyasha. I'd LOVE to see that show on Blu-ray, but only the first half would look any good since it was cel-animated and shot on film. The second half was all animated digitally. Only The Final Act (which was animated digitally in HD) and the movies (cel-animated and digital HD) are on Blu-ray. What about shows like that? Will we still see Inuyasha on Blu-ray? What about the first 200 One Piece episodes? Early digipaint shows do look good on DVD though since they were animated in SD anyway, but it is a shame about certain shows that won't see the light of day on Blu...

I guess this is the animation equivalent of live action TV shows that were shot/edited on video tape like Married with Children and Star Trek: The Next Generation. TNG is only on Blu-ray through an extensive upscale and RECREATION of all the special effects. I've heard it's actually impossible for it to have a true faithful HD presentation.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
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Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:35 pm Reply with quote
PurpleWarrior13 wrote:
It really sucks when a show was partially animated in digital SD like Inuyasha. I'd LOVE to see that show on Blu-ray, but only the first half would look any good since it was cel-animated and shot on film. The second half was all animated digitally. Only The Final Act (which was animated digitally in HD) and the movies (cel-animated and digital HD) are on Blu-ray. What about shows like that? Will we still see Inuyasha on Blu-ray? What about the first 200 One Piece episodes? Early digipaint shows do look good on DVD though since they were animated in SD anyway, but it is a shame about certain shows that won't see the light of day on Blu...

They'll be an Inuyasha bluray, just be patient, it'll come. No idea if it will look any good, though.
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jmfsilenthill



Joined: 31 Aug 2009
Posts: 1863
Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:47 pm Reply with quote
I actually have 2 copies of that Jin Roh BVUSA Bluray. It seems to crop up a little bit more now than it used to a few years ago.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 2:08 pm Reply with quote
Working in broadcasting as a Senior Technical Director as I do, it always makes me cringe when people still classify today's HD TV signals as "NTSC or PAL" when both analogue format standards have been dead since 2009 for NTSC and 2011 for PAL. The whole world is now 1080, (soon to be 4000). The only regional difference is governed by the local basic power generation frequency either 50Hz, or 60Hz which govern scan rates 25, and 30 frames/ps respectively for local receivers. In broadcasting we get round the differences with scan rate converters and I expect region free players, even hacked ones, can do the same. Wink
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 7584
Location: Wales
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 3:35 pm Reply with quote
Just leaving this here..
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Kidnicky



Joined: 15 Jan 2010
Posts: 79
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 3:43 pm Reply with quote
WWE network is a scheduled live stream and I watch it all the time. Of coirse they were smart enough to also make most of the shows available on demand.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 3:45 pm Reply with quote
There is also another more expensive alternative than just upscaling the final rendered masters and that is to recomposite. That is, take each pre-composite, pre-final-rendered video track from RETAS and then render the tracks in higher resolution, then composite them. Most of the assets are of varying resolution anyways. Character assets/frames are usually scanned in at pretty high resolution. J.C. Staff for example, uses 960x1600 for their characters for TV production, even low budget shows like Twin Angel.

But even if they weren't originally HD, it is easy to upscale + filter character artwork making it look like native HD. Backgrounds would usually be in higher res, so those may not need scaling. The important point is to use different filters for each pre-composited track or element. For example, Warpsharp *after* antialiasing is fantastic for characters, making native SD look like HD, but just terrible for backgrounds or textures. Very few anime that gets remastered for HD does this, but those that do look great.

WRT Jin-Roh. I was just about the buy the DVD in Rightstuf's current Discotek sale but decided to hold off, so it's great timing that Justin mentioned they've got the blu-ray and he's working it. Will Discotek include any extras though?
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15581
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 5:10 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
they folded up shop and merged the division with Bandai Entertainment.


Should be continued with, "which they subsequently destroyed out of spite for being more popular than Bandai Visual USA."
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Echo_City



Joined: 03 Apr 2011
Posts: 1236
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 5:12 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I just hope they kept their promise of being 'studio agnostic'...

For crying out loud, why can't y'all just use the word "independent" where you're using "agnostic"? It is, after all, the correct word for the scenario.

As for Neon Alley, I'm concerned about just how long they'll keep Viz dubs on there. Previously it was announced that it wouldn't be for very long.
Quote:

That's why shows like Fruits Basket and Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 would look absolutely terrible if blown up to HD.

Which is a tragedy almost on par with Funimation's rescue release cutting off the extras for Tokyo 2040. Just how "digipaint" was that series as I distinctly remember the cel peddlers at cons hawking cels for that series over the years.

...interlaced video is a crime.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 5:20 pm Reply with quote
Echo_City wrote:

...interlaced video is a crime.
If there wasn't any we'd be still watching our entertainment with clacky noisy projectors running large reels of celluloid in front of a very bright light bulb. Laughing
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