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Answerman - What Determines Whether An Older Show Should Be Released as SD-BD?


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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:09 am Reply with quote
I wonder how long before Funimation drops DVDs too? Their Essentials and Classics re-releases do not have DVDs, and the recently released Aokana doesn't either. I don't think they have announced anything like Sentai did, but it seems like they are quietly phasing them out. I wasn't too surprised to see that re-releases with lower prices as their main selling point didn't have DVDs, but I'm a bit bummed to think that combo-packs are on their last legs.
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halo



Joined: 11 May 2004
Posts: 356
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:21 am Reply with quote
I always thought it was possible to mix 24fp and 30i by adding soft pull down flags to the 24p and encoding it as 1080i60.
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5407
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:42 am Reply with quote
I have yet to buy a SD-BD release, but I am glad the option exists; I don't need to collect piles and piles of that ancient technology known as DVD. By the way, Maiden Japan is also trying SD-BD.
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BalmungHHQ



Joined: 11 Feb 2006
Posts: 390
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:53 am Reply with quote
I can see it now.
Detective Conan on SD-BD.
100 episodes per set.

Your move, Discotek. Cool
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief


Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 1684
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:55 am Reply with quote
halo wrote:
I always thought it was possible to mix 24fp and 30i by adding soft pull down flags to the 24p and encoding it as 1080i60.

I’ve never seen a disc encoded this way and am not sure if that’s even legal under the BD spec. I certainly don’t know of any encoders that could do it. It was common to encode DVDs this way, but only if the encoder itself was removing the pulldown (a.k.a. Performing the IVTC), but not many of them are good enough at detecting the patterns to be useful for anime. h.264 encoding for Blu-Ray also forces you to make some global choices in terms of methods for encoding that can only be used with one or the other. Mixing them would not work.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 12:03 pm Reply with quote
Greed1914 wrote:
I wonder how long before Funimation drops DVDs too? Their Essentials and Classics re-releases do not have DVDs, and the recently released Aokana doesn't either. I don't think they have announced anything like Sentai did, but it seems like they are quietly phasing them out. I wasn't too surprised to see that re-releases with lower prices as their main selling point didn't have DVDs, but I'm a bit bummed to think that combo-packs are on their last legs.


Combo packs only exist at ALL because they were invented in 2008, back when nobody had a Blu player yet, and even those folks who knew what it was and said they were interested in getting one said they wouldn't be able to afford one for at least another two years.
Disney first saw the advantage in selling combos, when they had to sell their limited-time animated movies, and told those folks, "Look, you don't have to miss out on Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio, you can buy them now, and there's also a DVD to watch in the meantime!" (Otherwise, the limited-time titles would be gone in those two years, and they were already taking enough guff for locking their classics "back in the Vault" before customers could buy them.)
And absolutely NOBODY picked up on the idea--New Blu-ray adopters thought everything that came in the case was for them, and said, "Thanks, a spare DVD...One for the kids' room and the car!" And soon, that was what everyone else said, for the next ten years.

If we're still thinking of the excuse that we need a DVD "backup" for portable devices, that's pretty much since gone the way of obsolescence, as there are few DVD players anymore and most portable travel devices have gone download/diskless...So, um, why are we still putting them in the case?
SD-BD's may be as much work to master as eight DVD's or four Blu's, but they're sure a lot easier to buy than eight or twelve disks.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 12:12 pm Reply with quote
I have started to wonder if the eventual death of DVD & increased usage of SD-BD (as mentioned, Discotek is no longer the only company giving it a go anymore) might eventually result in a new sort of combo-pack, one where SD-BD & HD-BD are both included.

Obviously, this would require specific circumstances, but there are some shows out there that were initially made back in the "digipaint" days of the 00s, only to eventually see future seasons that were made in the HD era. If a company like Discotek or Maiden Japan then wanted to give that entire series a boxset release, what would they have to do? Would there have to be separate SD-BD & HD-BD releases for the respective seasons that are SD-only & HD-animated, or could it be a multi-disc BD collection, where the SD-only content is put onto a single BD, while the HD stuff would get split up across another disc or two (or three, etc.). Or would that be too confusing for consumers, who would now wonder why one of the discs is in SD, while the rest are HD?
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cbm80



Joined: 23 Jan 2017
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 12:36 pm Reply with quote
SD-BD is ideal for cases where previously issued DVDs are the best extant version. Keep the MPEG-2 and AC3 streams as is without re-encoding.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 2:05 pm Reply with quote
Justin wrote:
However, I'm sorry to say that for the DVD hold-outs, the war has already been lost.

Surely the final battle won't conclude until there is a way to overcome regional restrictions that is as effective on BD as it is on DVD. The industry itself has been outright unsporting to this end.
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professorwho



Joined: 11 Aug 2017
Posts: 74
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:06 pm Reply with quote
SD-BD is probably the best thing to happen for Digipaint series, because we can get a good SD presentation instead of a s**t upscale by, say, Q-Tec.

But what really P*sses me off is stuff like Ideon getting an SD-BD. It does have a Japanese Blu-ray, which is really nice looking- Bandai Visual spares no expense on their restorations and encoding. I would rather have a compressed BD with 13 episodes per disc (for a total of 3 discs, 4/5 if you count the films) than SD-BD here because it was HD Native to begin with.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:01 pm Reply with quote
I will say that the one thing I still use DVDs for, is that on older shows, the pacing on them can be incredibly slow at times (combined with me having a lot less time for watching anime in general). And if I use a media player, I can adjust the playback speed (usually I go around 1.4X speed), but still keep the audio and stuff going and not have it just be fastforwarding. PS3/PS4 is the only method I have for playing blurays and I have no idea if you can adjust playback speed on those, it would make my life so much easier!
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Ggultra2764
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Joined: 21 Jan 2004
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Location: New York state.
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:58 pm Reply with quote
I'm a fan of the SD Blu-Ray model personally. With less discs having to be burned and authored, it saves on money per disc for both the consumer and distributor. Granted, the greater amount of storage capacity of the disc format means a longer quality process per disc. But in regards of savings and practicality for storage space, I hope it gets wider adaptation for older and more niche titles, especially as it seems Sentai's now making use of the release model with their upcoming releases of Xabungle and Ideon.
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Ashley Hakker



Joined: 31 Aug 2016
Posts: 115
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 7:22 pm Reply with quote
Greed1914 wrote:
I wonder how long before Funimation drops DVDs too?


It seems they already are for a few upcoming releases. I have Zillion and A Sister's All You Need both as BluRay + Digital only in my pre-orders, thought that coudl change. And I have some other Funi preorders that clearly will include a DVD still.

Honestly those DVDs at a lot of bloat to some sets, namely older 'classics' collections. Like Steins Gate takes 2x the shelf space than it should need to for 26 eps, due to including 4 DVDs in the box too. Same with Full Metal Panic or Gunslinger Girl. At this point the DVDs are wasting shelf space. Glad I didn't get Assasination Classroom till the release that has both seasons in one box instead of half seasons + DVDs in each box.
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pajmo9



Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 630
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 8:16 pm Reply with quote
I never had to concern myself with SD blu-ray releases until Sentai licensed Xabungle and Ideon. Can I expect something close to the video quality of their Aura Battler Dunbine Blu-ray release or should I be prepared to be disappointed?
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:46 pm Reply with quote
Xabungle has never received an HD remaster in Japan yet, so the SD-BD makes sense there for us. Ideon is odd, though, because there is an HD-BD release in Japan, but apparently Hidive's streams are also SD, so it's likely a case of the Japanese companies being stingy & not giving Maiden Japan & Hidive HD masters. I'm still going to buy Ideon regardless, but this is an odd situation, nonetheless.
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