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Answerman - How Do Publishers Decide Whether To Release A Blu-ray Remaster?


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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 12:12 pm Reply with quote
I remain most reluctant to consider Blu-ray releases. Obstacles pertaining to regional locks and computer playback notwithstanding, there is currently only a single title exclusive to such a format that takes my interest.

As for upgrading my existing collection, I have made the (somewhat arbitrary) decision that I will only consider doing so if titles such as Key The Metal Idol or Dominion Tank Police start appearing in the newer format.
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samuelp
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Joined: 25 Nov 2007
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Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 12:15 pm Reply with quote
Another reason that some anime get HD remasters is if a TV station wants to air reruns of it.

I know for a fact that a certain anime studio's classic works that got (cheapish) remasters was done specifically as a deal with the TV station where they needed HD masters for the TV airing, and they released the blurays from them to make some extra money.

This is pretty rare, but it happens. If you notice classic shows that get rerun airings on TV in Japan always have an HD remaster out (well, as long as the channel it's airing in is HD).
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 25 Oct 2003
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PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 12:25 pm Reply with quote
Have you ever done a digital upscale yourself Justin? Either for a client or as a personal project?

samuelp wrote:
If you notice classic shows that get rerun airings on TV in Japan always have an HD remaster out (well, as long as the channel it's airing in is HD).

I suppose in that respect HD remasters technically pre-date blu-ray by quite some way thanks to Hi-Vision (CCS had this treatment on re-runs IIRC?)
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
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PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 12:47 pm Reply with quote
I am very thankful that I started collecting anime in 2010, right around when N.A. companies were starting to release their stuff on Blu-ray. I have had to repurchase in BD some of the titles I first bought on DVD (like Cowboy Bebop, Gundam Z), but it has been worth it. It is so wonderful to enjoy well crafted anime like Ghibli movies in HD.

I know that not all companies are able to offer their titles on BD, but when they do, even if the title in question is not visually impressive, I prefer to go with BD. And now that 4K is starting to become a thing, I wonder if N.A. companies are going to start selling discs with that format soon. Personally, I am quite happy with 1080.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 1:04 pm Reply with quote
Used to be, it was ONLY shows--US or Japan, live or animated--that were on film stock that could get upgrades, like Star Trek, Looney Tunes or Avengers '67. (Those who think I mean the comics, watch it sometime. Smile )
It wasn't until A&E experimented around with their "Pride & Prejudice" in the lab that companies started removing the "taboo" and fooling around with Blu-upgrading video-shot shows for their old classic reruns, with varying degrees of success.

For Viz, Ranma 1/2 was the obvious film-stock restoration, and it sold pretty well--
But by that point, any 90's rescue license that was a marketing tentpole for the company had to bring its Blu-ray game, and that meant fooling around with Sailor Moon:Classic in the labs.
(From all the bad reviews, I'm still afraid to watch the Blu-upgraded Moon, and I don't mind taking it for granted that most TV in my disk archive will still be on DVD set.)
By the mid 00's, Japan was already five years ahead of us on HDTV, and a Hi-VIsion series from the late 00's and 10's was already HD-friendly.
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Thread_Alchemist



Joined: 11 Sep 2012
Posts: 51
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 1:05 pm Reply with quote
Ah the expensive process of changing over your media collection to a new format. I wouldn't consider myself knowledgeable about the different formats though. I can tell the obvious things like ghosting and blurring but unless something it pointed out to me I would think it's just an animation problem.
The biggest reason for be to buy Bluray replacements is because I didn't treat my DVDs as well as I should have when I first started collecting them. The only problem with that is that I have hit the wall of non-rereleased titles. Crying or Very sad
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NeoStrayCat



Joined: 14 Sep 2011
Posts: 608
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 3:05 pm Reply with quote
I guess that makes sense on how Blu-Ray remasters and how the agreements work, and yeah, EricJ2 mentioned about the Viz releases of Ranma and SM Classic and how they went.

Though I wonder, on the subject, since I guess none of the posters here mentioned it yet, and I know it kinda stated on the Funimation line, but this is a different tale, as lately, Skip Beat is getting a B-R release, though that was a Kickstarter tier, and its the "first" world (or maybe NA [though it says that it ships to "only certain countries", so I can't be 100% sure.], since the KS release of SB is only distributed in the US/NA, I presume) release that Skip Beat is getting a B-R before JP (I'm guessing). And not only that, speaking of lately, Bleach is also getting a B-R release, and I heard JP doesn't even have B-R's of Bleach, and this is also another US first kinda thing (that Viz is doing, I presume).

I don't find it as odd, just something that kinda made sense on the subject...possibly.
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99machinders



Joined: 27 May 2016
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 4:34 pm Reply with quote
Zin5ki wrote:
I remain most reluctant to consider Blu-ray releases. Obstacles pertaining to regional locks and computer playback notwithstanding, there is currently only a single title exclusive to such a format that takes my interest.

As for upgrading my existing collection, I have made the (somewhat arbitrary) decision that I will only consider doing so if titles such as Key The Metal Idol or Dominion Tank Police start appearing in the newer format.

Id love to see a Bluray release for Karasu Tengu Kabuto.
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One-Eye



Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2260
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 7:13 pm Reply with quote
angelmcazares wrote:
And now that 4K is starting to become a thing, I wonder if N.A. companies are going to start selling discs with that format soon. Personally, I am quite happy with 1080.

Probably not soon. As far as I know 4K BDs is going to require HDCP 2.2, so that means all your equipment will have to be compliant and I doubt everyone will get rid of perfectly good 1080p equipment (receivers, screens, etc) all at once. So, since adoption is not going to be automatic I doubt we will see it soon. Also if BDs are more expensive to produce than DVDs how much more will UHD-BDs cost to produce? Again may not see a rush to it from NA anime companies and is Japan even producing any anime in 4K?
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3614
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 8:21 pm Reply with quote
I wish more companies put out SD on BD for space saving alone. While I'm not interested in Samurai Pizza Cats, I was quite happy to see Discotek put it out on 2 BDs instead of ~10 DVDs and (still) hope other SD only series (that will never / can't ever be released in HD) will be released this way.
Not just for anime either, old TV shows that get released in 20-30+ dvd sets would be great for this too.
I'm guessing streaming in some way has kept the production costs of BDs higher since there's less investment in it. Too bad BDs didn't come out a few years sooner.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
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PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 8:31 pm Reply with quote
One-Eye wrote:
and is Japan even producing any anime in 4K?


Based on my understanding, most anime still isn't even in 1080, with that being reserved for high budget TV shows and movies for now. So I highly doubt 4k is happening. And it probably isn't going to any time soon.

I'm not sure I'll be thrilled to transfer to 4k any time soon anyway. Yeah, the video can look super smooth and clear with live action, and it's great for color depth, but I don't really see animation benefiting from that at this point. It's pretty hard to imagine much more detail being picked up. And the line art with 1080 is already crystal clear.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 8:49 pm Reply with quote
I'd link it if I weren't posting by phone, but fandompost's Japanese disc forum has a thread listing cases where JP companies upscaled old analog masters instead of doing new film transfers for cel-era titles.

My approach to the Blu-ray transition is to stick with a smaller display (32"/720p), so that while BDs still are playable and show some improvement, DVDs still look acceptable for the many titles that don't have BDs, older ones I don't want to rebuy on BD when they get re-released, or newer titles that I bought on DVD before I got a BD player.
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Uter



Joined: 27 Apr 2016
Posts: 30
PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 9:21 pm Reply with quote
Covnam wrote:
I wish more companies put out SD on BD for space saving alone. While I'm not interested in Samurai Pizza Cats, I was quite happy to see Discotek put it out on 2 BDs instead of ~10 DVDs and (still) hope other SD only series (that will never / can't ever be released in HD) will be released this way.
Not just for anime either, old TV shows that get released in 20-30+ dvd sets would be great for this too.
I'm guessing streaming in some way has kept the production costs of BDs higher since there's less investment in it. Too bad BDs didn't come out a few years sooner.


It's weird. I remember this being one of the selling points for BDs when they were first being released and companies are just now taking advantage of it. I have a feeling 4K discs at this point will be treated like SACDs and DVD-Audio - a small group of dedicated, hardcore collectors will be into them enough for select releases but that will be the extent of it.
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Razor/Edge



Joined: 05 Jun 2015
Posts: 607
PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2016 12:45 am Reply with quote
I still really want an Ergo Proxy blu ray release. But Funimation recently re-released the series only on DVD, i'm guessing there must have been some sort of clog in the process of getting a BD release. Which makes me sad.
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AnimeLordLuis



Joined: 27 Jan 2015
Posts: 1626
Location: The Borderlands of Pandora
PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2016 12:47 am Reply with quote
I try to buy Blu-ray's when ever possible and if one doesn't exist for a series I really want I can just settle for a DVD then I just wait and see if a BD release ever comes along and sometimes my patience pays off. Smile
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