danth

Dude, I tried registering for that site twice now, 88, and it won't send me a confirmation email. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Well, my main concern, if it's an interlacing/pulldown problem, is: can I fix it? Can I watch all my crappy DVDs and still get a good picture? I believe the answer is "no". If there's some miracle DVD player out there that can make my Black Magic M-66 DVD play without aliasing or line shimmering, please give me the model number. And I'm not being sarcastic -- I'll buy it. Also, most of my DVDs have great pictures, so I would think my DVD/TV combo is doing everything it can. EDIT: I feel like I need to carefully explain my situation. I have a progressive scan DVD player and a HDTV. If I turn off all sharpness and edge enhancement, most of my DVDs play great. Most of them look much better than when viewed on an SD TV, with less aliasing. However, a about 15-20% of my DVDs (mostly Manga releases) have aliasing, or look edge-enhanced, no matter what I do or what equipment I use. I just think laserdisc shouldn't be dismissed as inherently inferior. I know, I'm the one who said that I suspected laserdisc was the better way to go. But I just realized that 80% of my DVDs look great, and it's mainly my Manga DVDs that look bad. So I'm not so disillusioned with DVD anymore. Uh oh, that sounds messy. So the solution is to have a TV capable of 1080p? Boy do I hate edge enhancement. It's the worst! Yep, I had to learn this the hard way. I always turn all edge enhancement and sharpness off. It still doesn't help with the "bad" discs I'm talking about, though. All good stuff, VT 1010. Thanks!

Sure, but how do we know that those problems are inherent to basic idea of laserdisc? Hardware dependency just means that some people made junky laserdisc players -- I don't think that's the fault of the technology itself. Laser rot was usually due to faulty manufacture (using low quality adhesive). Sure, and in the same way, newer Laserdisc media might have continued to provide improvements in picture and sound, if we had gone that way. It's funny you mention Manga Video. If it weren't for them, I'd probably be totally happy with the DVD format. I just realized that all but one of my DVDs with video problems are Manga releases. Friggin' Manga.

Thanks for the info, I'll check it out, but, I've noticed the same problems using multiple player/TV combos, and I always confirm the video problems with sites like AnimeOnDVD to make sure it's not just me. I'm pretty sure it's the DVDs themselves. That's good to hear, but I suspect pulldown isn't the problem. Uh oh, maybe my question wasn't clear. What I meant to ask was: will new High-definition DVDs (HD-DVD, Blu-ray, whatever) have the same digital aliasing/compression artifacts I mentioned. I know upconverting doesn't help (at least, whenever I try it, it looks horrible).

Dude. That's kinda like a punch to the gut for me. I always sensed that digital technology had somehow failed us. Ever since I started watching DVD, I started noticing all kinds of annoying aliasing that I didn't remember from VHS. I never did have any exposure to Laserdisc (except for watching Tenchi Muyo once at a small convention), but I remember when they were considered the hot new thing, and they were very expensive. I always wanted to have some one day, with their giant surface area available for really great artwork. Hearing that Laserdisc is analogue kinda solidifies my suspicion that we've chosen an inferior media, and it's sad. Laserdisc has a sort of mystique, for me. Can one buy laserdisc players anymore?

I have a question for you guys who know about this stuff. Will HD actually fix the common problems we see on Anime DVDs? The main problems I see are: 1) Jaggies, or jagged lines. This is when you can actually see little squares in the lines on the screen instead of smooth lines. This seems to be more pronounced in scenes with lots of movement. 2) Line shimmering. This is when lines in a still shot sort of "come alive" and look like their vibrating or blinking. 3) Jumpy panning shots. This is the "camera" slides over a still image, and you either see double images, or you notice big-time interlacing. 4) Rainbows. This is when you see bands of color where there should be none in between black lines. I would think those are all compression problems. I've noticed that panning problems are significantly lessened on my HD TV, though.

I liked Macross 7 a lot too, and I'm indifferent to Basara. I wanted to like him, but I never developed any feelings for him like I did for Mylene and Gamlin. Let Basara have the Flower girl. Mylene and Gamlin should get together. I also liked the underused bad-ass, Veffidas! No, not shallow at all. I had the same problem. I just try to ignore it.

Wait, wasn't it reprinted not too long ago? I got it new a few years back. Is mine a bootleg?

Okay, so what do you guys think about the supervision army as the new enemy in Macross F?

YES.

Here's what I think about this whole subject 1) Little has been revealed about the supervision army, the protoculture, or the stellar republic 2) Macross fans are dying to know all about that stuff 3) Earth's fleets have launched towards the center of the galaxy 4) The supervision army is, for all we know, still out there fighting 5) A new Macross show is coming out 6) This new show will require a new enemy for the Earth forces to fight I'll let you do the math. With this set up, the new show could give Macross fans everything they want. So it'll never happen, obviously.

The US Dollar will probably be at an all time low when that Cyclone comes out. Definitive proof that God's out to get me? I think so. EDIT: Ride armor, sorry. Showing my roots. But seriously, that toy is looking good.

Speaking of the Dreamcast, I recently read that, in Japan, 4 games were released for it this year, and more games are coming in 2008. That blows my mind, considering it came out 3 years before the Gamecube. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast

I've played a bit of Halo 3 online since the release, and one thing I've noticed is there aren't as many jerks. I don't think I've heard on racial slur or other rude insult yet.

It shoulda been Bandai Visual.

I never heard that before, but it makes sense, and I have no reason to disbelieve you. If true, then I guess I can forgive Bandai for releasing it that way. It still feels incomplete to me, being that it's only part of the music video, and I'm guessing a lot of other people must feel that way. And Hurin, you really thought the animation wasn't great? I agree that it's different, but I think it's gorgeous. It looks like a moving painting to me, which, granted, isn't as"clean" as traditional animation.

Okay, I can accept that. But, if you're going to add the Angel's Paint video to DYRL, isn't better to add the whole thing and not just the first 30 seconds? To please everyone, they could include an alternate cut (same way they do "director's cuts") that includes the entire video. I'm just saying, include the whole music video or no video at all. The way it is now, my DYRL DVD seems incomplete because it only shows part of the video. Seriously, sometimes I believe Bandai wants to sabotage all of their non-Gundam Sci-Fi releases.

Right, I'm just talking about the (then) newly animated Angel's Paint music video, which I thought I made clear by using the words "the" and "video", instead of the words "all the videos". Now that we have that cleared up, there's no good reason why that one entire video is not included. We wanna see the f'in Megaroad launch at the end of DYRL, damnit. It's the way it should be.

Okay, thanks for the explaination, JsARCLIGHT. If I understand correctly, old masters have a high enough resolution, but they're not in the best condition and may need restoration (esp. for HD DVDs) . And a master comes in between the original film and the dvds. I had no idea what a "master" was, and I still don't, really. Is it digital? Who knows.

So you're telling me the HD/Blu-ray versions of Wings of Honneamise are just upconverted DVD rips?

Here's an idea. Include ALL of the Flashback 2012 video at the end of the new DYRL DVD instead of just the first few seconds. I was overjoyed when I first watched my DYRL DVD and, after I thought it was over, I saw the Flashback video. I thought, "Man, this is perfect, DYRL the way the creators wanted it to be." And then, the video just cut out to the rolling credits! I was shocked. Why only include part of the video? (And I should add, disc space is not an issue. The Tenchi Muyo OVA set is renown for it's perfect picture quality, and it has all 7 episodes (3.5 hours) on ONE disc.)

I was thinking about getting the new Wings of Honneamise DVD, because I want to see the movie, and despite the fact that BV is a shitty company and screws everything up. But I didn't know that the Honneamise HD-DVD/Blu-ray wasn't remastered. This brings me to a question for people who know how this DVD stuff works. For a given anime, is there some digital master somewhere with a super high resolution that gets compressed when they put it on a DVD? And for a HD release, could they go back to that same master and just compress it less? I'm asking because, for an HD release to make any sense, they'd have to have some high resolution source to go back to.

Maybe the Macross F announcement is just a clever scheme to get us to buy the anniversary DVDs and toys.

TheLoneWolf talked about "film" rights, which confused me too. It just dawned on me today that people will ridicule this movie if it involves F-16's flying in space. The movie will have to feature a futuristic looking fighter mode if they want to use it in atmosphere and space and still suspend people's disbelief.

I've always wanted to see a movie post that consisted of two things: a giant UN Spacy kite, and the words "coming this summer." That would be the coolest. Part of me thinks that HG can use the valk designs if they want, since they recently use them in Robotech: Battlecry and use them now in all the comics.