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Post by greenguy on Feb 13, 2014 10:17:33 GMT -5
Coming to Blu-ray in Japan on May 2nd, 2014! Since the Japanese DVDs contained the original music, the assumption is that so will this release. Hopefully these will be in true HD, and not some sort of cheap upscale release. Although I'm not happy to see the aspect ratio listed as 16:9, instead of 4:3. Let's hope that is a mistake. www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=BBXN-1151 |
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Post by Maxwell - F.B.I. on Feb 13, 2014 10:22:37 GMT -5
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
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Post by 1robc on Mar 18, 2014 0:25:35 GMT -5
Ahh...! indeed. What a find!!
It seems to be 4 box sets, all of which are also listed on Amazon Japan (for considerably cheaper, it must be said). Even on CD JAPAN, the aspect ratio for box 2 is listed as 1.33:1, so the 16:9 probably is a mistake.
The listing for Box 1 on Amazon also includes the following juicy tidbit (translation courtesy of Microsoft Bing):
The Japan DVD releases were top quality, superior to the American DVD releases IMO. Hopefully this will be the same, though I can't tell which company is putting them out. TAKI, the company that did the DVD releases, does not seem to exist anymore.
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Post by greenguy on Mar 18, 2014 11:58:37 GMT -5
Yes, it is cheaper on Amazon.jp, even after they raised the price a couple of weeks back.
I hadn't looked at the specs for the other three volumes yet, so I hope the 1.33:3 is correct.
I believe Happinet is the company behind the release. I have their Night of The Living Dead Blu-ray which is superb. Let's hope they do the same with TGAH.
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Post by greenguy on May 3, 2014 6:30:14 GMT -5
The volume one box set just arrived yesterday. Here's a brief rundown of the highlights.
The original music is intact, sadly once again no teasers. I was really hoping starting with season 2 they might have been restored. The 3 discs include the pilot, all the way to Don't Mess Around With Jim. Despite the specs originally listed when this came up for pre-order, the episodes are in their correct 4:3 ratio.
I compared side by side with the Anchor Bay discs, and was surprised at how superior the new BD pictures looks. I always thought the AB release was superb, but in comparing one can see in some cases how muddy the colors are, and while one can see detail in the DVD set that never looked as good in the original ABC broadcasts everything is MUCH sharper in the new BD set.
In a nutshell, if you have a multi-region BD player and can afford it, pick up Volume One. If you aren't satisfied I'd say return it to Amazon.jp.
Amazon.jp still has the best price I can find.
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Post by greenguy on May 5, 2014 15:22:07 GMT -5
For those of you not "in the know", I should have mentioned above that the Japanese Blu-ray discs DO NOT require a multi-region blu-ray player.
They will play in any U.S. made device.
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Post by The Greatest Italian Hero on May 7, 2014 9:08:45 GMT -5
I'm BACK!
And I'm not too late for the party, it seems. The BLU-RAY restoration and remastering is a miracle. Hopefully they preserved the show on a great 2K/4K transfer.
It's great to be back here, I love this forum.
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Post by greenguy on May 7, 2014 11:33:58 GMT -5
I'm BACK! And I'm not too late for the party, it seems. The BLU-RAY restoration and remastering is a miracle. Hopefully they preserved the show on a great 2K/4K transfer. It's great to be back here, I love this forum. Well, it's been pointed out to me that it's possible Happinet just performed a upscale process and it's not a proper HD transfer. However, on my 40 inch Sony it still looks better than my DVDs. It's just a lot of money to spend no matter how you slice it. |
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Post by The Greatest Italian Hero on May 8, 2014 17:43:54 GMT -5
I'm BACK! And I'm not too late for the party, it seems. The BLU-RAY restoration and remastering is a miracle. Hopefully they preserved the show on a great 2K/4K transfer. It's great to be back here, I love this forum. Well, it's been pointed out to me that it's possible Happinet just performed a upscale process and it's not a proper HD transfer. However, on my 40 inch Sony it still looks better than my DVDs. It's just a lot of money to spend no matter how you slice it. Hopefully they did not upscale. Any chance or way to contact the Japanese company and ask that? |
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Post by greenguy on May 9, 2014 11:25:24 GMT -5
Well, it's been pointed out to me that it's possible Happinet just performed a upscale process and it's not a proper HD transfer. However, on my 40 inch Sony it still looks better than my DVDs. It's just a lot of money to spend no matter how you slice it. Hopefully they did not upscale. Any chance or way to contact the Japanese company and ask that? Happinet probably has contact info on their site. Now if they would answer you, and answer honestly might be be the question. |
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Post by 1robc on May 13, 2014 0:32:39 GMT -5
Hi, everyone. I purchased Box 1 as well. So far I've watched only the first two episodes, but I thought that I'd add some of my observations here.
To my eye, when I watch these on my 55" HD television set, the Blu-ray picture quality is just slightly better than the quality of the Japan DVDs as upscaled by the player/TV. But it's not super crisp HD like you might see with a modern movie on Blu-ray. I don't know if they transferred these Blu-ray copies from previously remastered digital sources or directly from film/tape; I would guess the latter and that accounts for the difference. I'm betting that they've now definitely squeezed every bit of resolution that they're going to get out of those video sources. It probably won't be worth buying the Ultra HD release in 10 years. ;-)
A few more details:
* Other than the higher resolution, the episodes on the discs seems to be exactly the same as the ones that were released on the Japan DVD sets. As with the DVDs, the English audio is on there, but there are no English subtitles available. Even the chapter breaks are at exactly the same places as on the DVD releases.
* The discs are advertised as region free, although the US and Japan are in the same Blu-ray region anyway so if you have a US player then it shouldn't matter. Japan also uses the NTSC broadcast standard and these discs are NTSC, so there is no incompatibility on that score either.
* There don't seem to be any extras in the content on the discs in Box 1. From the descriptions of the forthcoming box sets, it looks like the extras in Box 4 will be the same as the ones on the Japan DVD pilot release, which were the same as the ones on the US Anchor Bay Season 1 release. So there's probably no new content in any of the Blu-ray box sets.
* The physical extra that came with Box 1 (the box to hold all of the box sets) is a disappointment. It's just a flimsy piece of cardboard. It doesn't even have any decent artwork on it.
If you're thinking of purchasing, I should say that my experience buying this from Amazon Japan couldn't have been better. I pre-ordered, and received the set here in the US on its release date. I also got a discount because of the pre-order price guarantee (the price dropped after I had ordered it).
The overall cost of the series looks like it will end up being about the same as it was to purchase the series on DVD from Japan. That's still quite a bit of money (around US $500-$600, depending on the price you get, the exchange rate, etc.). But at least it's not any more expensive for the Blu-ray.
Even though this release isn't leaps and bounds over the DVDs, it's exciting that the series is still popular enough for someone to put it on Blu-ray. I'm still holding out hope for an official continuation of this franchise at some point.
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