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PR: Crunchyroll Launches Full 1080P Video Streams


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icomeanon6
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Joined: 19 Mar 2009
Posts: 114
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 10:59 am Reply with quote
What's the point in upping the resolution while their videos don't have the bitrate to make good use of it? I'd much rather see the same bitrate that they use for 1080p videos go into 480p. DVD still looks better than most 1080p streaming videos because they aren't as compressed, which means less color banding/blockiness and more background detail.
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:04 am Reply with quote
These are just upscales. Its almost scummy how they try to trick people into thinking their 480p upscales of shows like Naruto and Bleach are true 1080p.
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Orange Hollow



Joined: 02 Jun 2010
Posts: 66
Location: Krasnoyarsk, Russia
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:31 am Reply with quote
And while we're on it, can anybody tell Funimation it is already 2012 and 360p video are ridiculous?
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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5527
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:33 am Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
These are just upscales. Its almost scummy how they try to trick people into thinking their 480p upscales of shows like Naruto and Bleach are true 1080p.
all of them are? because I almost threw out all my hate for the site just to watch stuff in 1080p. is the bitrate really as bad as icomeanon4 says too?
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:35 am Reply with quote
Kougeru wrote:
RyanSaotome wrote:
These are just upscales. Its almost scummy how they try to trick people into thinking their 480p upscales of shows like Naruto and Bleach are true 1080p.
all of them are? because I almost threw out all my hate for the site just to watch stuff in 1080p. is the bitrate really as bad as icomeanon4 says too?


No TV shows in Japan air in native 1080p... and quite a few only air in native 480p, like Naruto and Bleach. The bit rate is pretty bad, too. You can typically find double the bit rate in a good encoded fansub of the same show.

Theres really little reason to use Crunchy outside of wanting to support the industry, since it really doesn't give you a very good service at all.
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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5527
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:39 am Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
Kougeru wrote:
RyanSaotome wrote:
These are just upscales. Its almost scummy how they try to trick people into thinking their 480p upscales of shows like Naruto and Bleach are true 1080p.
all of them are? because I almost threw out all my hate for the site just to watch stuff in 1080p. is the bitrate really as bad as icomeanon4 says too?


No TV shows in Japan air in native 1080p... and quite a few only air in native 480p, like Naruto and Bleach. The bit rate is pretty bad, too. You can typically find double the bit rate in a good encoded fansub of the same show.

Theres really little reason to use Crunchy outside of wanting to support the industry, since it really doesn't give you a very good service at all.
I was hoping for older shows they were getting the 1080p quality from the bluray releases or something. Oh well. My problem with them has ALWAYS been quality. Even with Funimations low resolution their videos usually LOOK better to me for some reason. I also often have connection issues with CR (and only them..no other site on the entire web). The biggest shame I think is that even if I support them...in the end it means little to me since they don't really "license" anything for physical release.
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
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Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:42 am Reply with quote
Heres a comparison of Nisemonogotari in 720p and 1080p:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/102518

Dem high def subtitles.
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jsc315



Joined: 09 Aug 2004
Posts: 925
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:51 am Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
Kougeru wrote:
RyanSaotome wrote:
These are just upscales. Its almost scummy how they try to trick people into thinking their 480p upscales of shows like Naruto and Bleach are true 1080p.
all of them are? because I almost threw out all my hate for the site just to watch stuff in 1080p. is the bitrate really as bad as icomeanon4 says too?


No TV shows in Japan air in native 1080p... and quite a few only air in native 480p, like Naruto and Bleach. The bit rate is pretty bad, too. You can typically find double the bit rate in a good encoded fansub of the same show.

Theres really little reason to use Crunchy outside of wanting to support the industry, since it really doesn't give you a very good service at all.


I'm curious as to how they dont have good service. I have supported them for over a year now and have never had any major issues with them at all. There streams sure look a lot better then what Comcast has even on the air. So please tell me how they have poor quality?

Yes the 1080p is more of a concept and really dont give you a huge benefit, but it just came out so give it some time for it to get better.

update:
oh and also it looks amazing by the way! You really need the really blazing fast internet and hardware to take advantage of this. I just checked a 1080P stream on my 55 inch HDTV and anime looks better then it has ever had even better then the 720p by far.

This is more for large TVs and those that have the hardware and internet to support it. So bashing it and saying it looks bad just dont know what they are talking about.
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:17 pm Reply with quote
jsc315 wrote:
I'm curious as to how they don't have good service. I have supported them for over a year now and have never had any major issues with them at all. There streams sure look a lot better then what Comcast has even on the air. So please tell me how they have poor quality?


As I said earlier, they have half the bit rate of a good quality fansub. You're essentially paying for worse picture quality. I dunno how to really go more into it, since thats the basic gist of it. Crunchy might be more convenient since you don't have to download files, I guess.
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marajsky



Joined: 28 Feb 2006
Posts: 25
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:26 pm Reply with quote
Now if they can get the apps (for google TV) to 1080p I'll be happy!!
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Mr. sickVisionz



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 2173
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:28 pm Reply with quote
The general reaction on CR is woo hoo with a few people, myself included, wishing they had done something to decrease the amount of banding rather than offer videos at higher resolutions than the content is produced at.

My tv is only 720p/1080i and many of their shows don't look any better at 480p with smoothing turned on than they do at 720, but some do. Maybe it's the same for people watching 720p with smoothing on a 1080 screen. If it looks as good as 480p on a 480p tv or 720p on a 720p TV then that's a win, at least as far as upscaling goes. If you can scale it up and it looks as good, that's better than scaling it up and looking a little worse.

icomeanon4 wrote:
What's the point in upping the resolution while their videos don't have the bitrate to make good use of it? I'd much rather see the same bitrate that they use for 1080p videos go into 480p.


Many people wouldn't be able to stream any of their videos at that high a bitrate.

Kougeru wrote:
Oh well. My problem with them has ALWAYS been quality. Even with Funimations low resolution their videos usually LOOK better to me for some reason.


You're doing it wrong. Are you clicking on "SD" rather than "480p" or "720p"? The difference is kinda night and day.

http://www.animevice.com/profile/sickvisionz/funi-hulu-vs-cr/84-259194/ They don't air the same shows but I tried to get shots that were similar in color and tone.

The only quality issues CR suffers from imo is that there is banding in some of their videos. Everything else about their videos are good and most of them look better than my DVD when ran through a PS3. Their subtitles are fine like 95% of the time unless you're one of those types that are like:
- "they used -kun... unwatchable!"
- "they didn't use -kun... unwatchable!"
- "they use English name order when translating into English... unwatchable!"


Last edited by Mr. sickVisionz on Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:40 pm; edited 1 time in total
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omoikane



Joined: 03 Oct 2005
Posts: 494
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:35 pm Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
Theres really little reason to use Crunchy outside of wanting to support the industry, since it really doesn't give you a very good service at all.


If that's the case, then nobody gives a very good service. I can't stream fansubs on my phone or stream it to my TV unless I download it ahead of time. Crunchy is basically the boss out of all other anime streaming services that has simulcasts for device integration and believe it or not, they are not slouches for video quality.

I think the only one that tops them is HD Hulu, but that has ads.
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
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Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:47 pm Reply with quote
omoikane wrote:
RyanSaotome wrote:
Theres really little reason to use Crunchy outside of wanting to support the industry, since it really doesn't give you a very good service at all.


If that's the case, then nobody gives a very good service. I can't stream fansubs on my phone or stream it to my TV unless I download it ahead of time. Crunchy is basically the boss out of all other anime streaming services that has simulcasts for device integration and believe it or not, they are not slouches for video quality.

I think the only one that tops them is HD Hulu, but that has ads.


I don't disagree they are the best for streaming quality... but streaming quality itself just can't touch true HD encodes. They need to have lower bitrates so everyone can handle the bandwidth, while fansub encodes don't worry about that and just do the best possible quality.
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Mesonoxian Eve



Joined: 10 Jan 2012
Posts: 1858
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 1:47 pm Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
No TV shows in Japan air in native 1080p...

Which should have been the first clue streaming wasn't going to be true 1080 and I don't suspect anyone really thinks it will be, especially if they've a Netflix account.

This doesn't mistake the fact 1080 still has a better resolution than 720, even if it's an upscale. Yes, dithering's expected because the native was never 1080 to begin with.

I'd be truly surprised if they tried pushing 480 to 1080, honestly. It's one thing to go 300px-ish from one to another, but to skip 720 would be... well, I won't speculate.

I should also point out this hurts no one. I seriously doubt this news is going to get people to rush and subscribe when CR can't even get the "I haz teh typn skilz of an ijit" crowd to pay $7/mo. while they type from a cell phone sitting at McDs.

You know, because they're broke.

This news, relating to me: meh. I just let the stream do whatever. To me, this is a consumable product, meaning so long as I can see it, enjoy it, and don't give a shit if it's not bluray quality, I'm happy.
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agila61



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 3213
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 2:16 pm Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
No TV shows in Japan air in native 1080p...

Yes, I'd understood that digital HD broadcasts in Japan are 1080i. Digital SD broadcasts are, AFAIU, 480p. However, if the materials are delivered for digital media distribution in 1080p, the difference between progressive scan 1080p and interlaced 1080i would be neither here nor there.

Quote:
and quite a few only air in native 480p, like Naruto and Bleach.

However, Crunchyroll doesn't use RAWs recorded off the air, they use materials sent to them from Japan. So the issue is not how they go to air, but what materials are delivered.

Quote:
The bit rate is pretty bad, too. You can typically find double the bit rate in a good encoded fansub of the same show.

Kind of an apples to oranges comparison, given that you are comparing a streaming service to playback of a downloaded file. They could increase the subscription fee and double the bitrate ~ since the subscription fee is paying for the bandwidth, among other things ~ but then those of us without the bandwidth on our end would just get buffering.

Quote:
Theres really little reason to use Crunchy outside of wanting to support the industry, since it really doesn't give you a very good service at all.

?? Which streaming service is better? If they delivered bitrates similar to a downloaded bootleg, as you suggest, it would make for a substantial downgrade in quality of streaming service, which means skipping the PITA parts of even a legit download, never mind bootleg downloads and whatever video file format and codec that happens to float the boat of whomever is putting the file together.

Mesonoxian Eve wrote:
... I'd be truly surprised if they tried pushing 480 to 1080, honestly. It's one thing to go 300px-ish from one to another, but to skip 720 would be... well, I won't speculate.

The tech answers have said that they only do this when they have the materials: they are not doing any upscaling on their end. So if they have catalog titles that were never available in 720p, those titles are not going to be available in 480p either.

The Japanese animation studios have their own obsessive-compulsive psuedo-tech-expert fans as well, so when one of the Crunchyroll people says that some backgrounds are now being done in 1080 resolution, that makes sense ~ it seems like it'd be cheaper in storing and intermediate processing to upscale the animation from 540p or 720p against a 1080p background than to do the whole production in 1080p as they do for movies shipped to theaters in 4K format. And a fairly static background with detail that some obsessive-compulsive "tech expert" fan can use to "prove" that its not an upscale is going to help with BD sales.


Last edited by agila61 on Fri Jan 13, 2012 2:26 pm; edited 1 time in total
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