Forum - View topicOnline VOD anime List
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batou37
 Posts: 455 |
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I have searched the forums and other locations and couldnt find anything similar to this thread. Lock and redirect me to it if there is. I see stickied at the top here about online DVD rentals, but I was wondering if we could start a thread where we listed and updated the legal online outlets for streaming anime, as well as for VOD. Please feel free to give suggestions or if you know of more so we can keep the list up to date I will update it. I felt this would be the best area to post it in because on most sites you either pay for a membership, or you are paying to own each individual episode. Quality and player descriptions are from my personal experience and may not be the same as yours, I just provide it as a guide.
My scale for video quality: 1.) Bad- pretty much unwatchable. 2.) Decent- some pixilation and bleeding of colors but overall acceptable 3.) Very good- clear videos and animations, a pleasure to watch. 4.) Excellent- A feast for the eyes; colors are bright, animations are fluid and no jittering or pixilation. My scale for player quality: 1.) Broken- don't waste your time 2.) "Annoying'"- Yeah it works, but not all the time and it has flaws such as cuts off unexpectedly etc... 3.) Good- Rarely run into any problems player is easy to use and responsive 4.) Flawless- Don't think we will ever find one with all the variables that go into a streamed show (connection speed, isp, buffering, etc..) but if we do we will at lest have a label for it. Streaming: (Region Restrictions may apply in some areas) 1. ANN- Quality is decent- good, player is good (seems to be a port from other sites like hulu), although some vids being seperated into 2 parts can be a bit on the annoying side. A small donation becoming a subscriber allows you to watch off of quicker server. Obvious to see what content is offered since we are already here 2. Crunchy Roll- Quality: decent- excellent depending on membership. Probably has best quality of streaming sites I have been to with their 720p series. Player is good+ (can't call it flawless because it has cut off on me once or twice.) Also, if you leave a vid paused for to long it will not restart and you will have to reload the page. Another great thing is customer service. For example when they were simulcasting "Linebarrels of Iron" one of the episode's subtitles were missing. Within 10 min of being reported there was a response on that vid's page saying they were working on it, and 5 min later it was fixed. I remember the times because CR conveniently gives a countdown to the second of when their videos will be posted (and I was watching that series weekly the minute it came out.) This impressed me a lot seeing how it was 10:00 p.m. eastern time when this all happened. For my definition of excellent streaming quality see "Tegami Bachi's" op in 720p. (Each series updates on different days) Has cataloged episodes and also has "simulcasts" for members who pay a monthly fee. This bumps up the resolution on streams to 480p (sometimes 720p if available) and members can see the simulcasts 1 hour after their Japanese broadcast. Probably my personal favorite as they have some of the more non mainstream series that would normally not be licensed in the US. (Like Natsume Yujincho) The site also now has a drama membership with a to of series. 3. The anime network- Quality is decent-very good, very good being on the HD versions. Player is good. I have been able to watch with no dropped videos, and it allows you to fast forward as long as it has buffered enough. Site has a good deal of titles which some can be viewed by registering for free, and then a paid membership with which you can view all the series as they are posted, some in "HD." 4. Funimation.com- Quality is decent- good on most vids. The player is not as intuitive as other sites like CR, and can sometimes cut off on you forcing you to reload the page numerous times. I dont run into it as much but I see a lot of users complaining on their forums where I'm a member that they cannot get it to work at all. They have a thread on their forums where you can list your problems but it always seems like you are reporting to someone that reports to someone else not direct customer service (but then again how much should be expected for free?) I typically find that it works most of the time for me, sometimes I will get the dreaded red "error" code in the top left of the vid and either have to close firefox and restart to get it to play, or it is usually back up by the next day. (FMA updates op Thurs, other updates usually made anywhere between 2-5 p.m. Fri, eastern time) Currently "simulcasting" FMA: Brotherhood, and also have many of their titles on their player. Many they have in their entirety, and others they release 2-4 episodes per week. *Don't avoid this site just because some people have problems with their player, they are giving us a huge catalog of anime for free and I personally go there daily. My personal opinion is that their developers are working on their soon to be released Shodojo.com and just try to fit in fixing problems with player where possible. 5. Vizanime.com- Quality is decent-good, they have about 8-10 of their series including Naruto, Naruto Shipp, Bleach, Death Note etc... This site is free. 6. Hulu.com- Quality decent, they have a 480p option but to me it does not seem as clear as CR's 480p vids. Player works well, but has a couple unskippable 30sec- 1 min commercial breaks (the price of a free site, an ad revenue based business model.) Mainly they have vids that are located on other companies players, (like Funimation, one or 2 from Viz, and Manga.) simply collated into one convenient place. Most of us are all familiar with Hulu so I wont discuss it much, but I do enjoy how you can discuss and leave comments on each episode. 7. Crackle.com- Quality is good. Probably has the smallest amount of series available but I mention it simply because they have the entire Rurouni Kenshin seires. It is in its Dubbed for and therefore called Samurai X, but seeing how great a series it was it deserves a mention in my mind. * Update this is now available on Hulu as well. (unfortunately it is not the mediablasters dub on either site.) 8. Netflix.com- Quality is good, but selection is smaller than it used to be as they recently removed a lot of the anime from the streaming section. Has unlimited online streaming of videos with their $8.99 plan and up. Player works well and as you move the bar to flash fowrward sceens that you are bypassing scroll by, quite handy to find where you left off. 9. Youtube.com- I hesitate to list it here because so many people post fansub vids, but some of the companies have made their own youtube sites. Other than the ones that can be found above, Bandai Entertainment has one where they have posted Gundam00, Code Geass, and Kurokami the animation. Player is good- If you haven't ever seen a youtube video I would be willing to bet this must be your first trip to the internet and I bid you welcome... VOD: iTunes- Has some Manga, Funimation, Anime Network, and Viz titles. Each ep. is $1.99 each, but you can many times purchase the whole series for a discounted price. Amazon.com- Has a similar catalog to itunes and prices are the same. They do have some older OAVs and movies(Vampire Hunter D and Blood the Last Vampire for example) there though which can either be rented for 2.99 to 3.99 or purchased. Funimation- They sell some of their series through the website for $1.99. This can be found in their "DTO" (download to own) section. I found this as a more complicated way to use VOD as you download the vid then purchase a license and apply it to play it. (At least I think thats how it was, I just remember thinking it was a way to complicated and roundabout way to do it which I never got to work and so I wasted a few bucks) Please Feel free to mention any sites that I missed and I will update accordingly. Remember only Legal sites are going to be in this list. Last edited by batou37 on Sun Jan 03, 2010 3:00 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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http://www.youtube.com/shows?s=sa&b=2 Here's a link that takes you to the guide of all the shows that Funimation, Anime Network, Bandai and whoever else has posted shows. It's all animation in general, but anime dominates that list. This way you can avoid all the fansub videos. Veoh(all on the front page) has some official anime from Funimation, but it's not a lot and all those shows can be found neatly organized on Youtube. I believe the quality to be very good, but, to be honest, I'm no expert in telling the difference in the subtleties of good and bad quality. I do know, however, that the video player is very easy to use; it's a lot like the Youtube player. |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2188 |
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I think you should mention the quality of streaming too. Not picture quality, but more like "do their streams stop in the middle, does the connection die out on a regular basis, etc".
I don't know if it's just me, but Funimation's streaming is the worst I've ever seen on the internet. Shows die in the middle on a regular basis. Reloading and trying to fast forwarding doesn't usually fix it. The quality of the connection drop randomly for me and shows that have been playing fine for 18 minutes all of the sudden need to buffer every 2 seconds. If I pause it for like 5 minutes it doesn't fix the issue, etc. |
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