Thursday, December 20, 2012

Super Dimension Fortress Macross 720p

So, there are official English subs for Super Dimension Fortress Macross.
There is also a Blu-Ray box of the series that came out earlier this year.
Somebody put the isos on ADC.

I think you know where this is going.

Anyway, here is the Macross Bluray Set, (mostly) encoded in 720p, and (mostly) subtitled, with all scripts being fully retimed.

Video: 720p (mostly), 10-bix x264, crf 20, tune grain
Audio: aac 50%
Video source on disc: rescanned film (mostly)

Contents:
All 36 episodes
Macross Special (combined episodes 1 and 2)
Original broadcast version of episode 11 (featuring unfinished animation. Encoded at 640x480, as the BD set used an old brodcast tape as a soruce and upscaled it for some dumb reason)
Commercial Collection (640x480, again from an old broadcast tape, also upscaled in the BD)
30th Anniversary Special (RAW, there are no subs for this that I could use, upscaled on disc as well)
Macross PS2 game trailer (RAW, 640x480 because it's Playstation 2 game footage)
OP and ED collection (Normal NCOP and NCED each have two audio tracks, and the NCED has two subtitle tracks)
Pachinko music videos.

Torrent

Thursday, November 1, 2012

A (Incomplete) Biography of a Clear Plastic Ball with Neon Lights

Name: That One Ball
Natural Habitat: Main room of villain lairs, mecha cockpits, occasionally villain laboratories.
Energy Source: power outlet, ~110V

That One Ball has a long history working with Toei. His first known role was in 1991's Jetman, as a prominent  piece of the Vyram's base, mounted under their funky table.

His role as part of an antagonist's main set continued with 1992's Zyuranger, where he landed a part as a decoration of Bandora's telescope.

To avoid being typecast, his next role was as part of a heroic set: the main mecha cockpit in 1993's Dairanger.

The next year, he had a smaller role in a rarely used lab set in 1994's Kakuranger.

In 1995, he saw more work as part of King Pyramider's cockpit.

After another lean year, he landed a role in 1997's Megaranger, once again part of the villain's main base.

The next year, he had a guest appearance in episode 17 of Gingaman in 1998.

He then returned to his roots, once again having a regular job as part of the Demon's base in 1999's GoGoV.

In an episode of 2002's Hurricanger he was in a closet full of junk int the villain's base.

In 2015, after an absence of 13 years, he made a return in the Nininger/Drive special. Though not turned on and the upper middle tube having fallen over, it was unmistakably him

And the ball seems to be making a comeback, with an appearance in Kamen Rider Ghost's second episode. However, it remains unlit and that tube is still out of place.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

So, what does that wall of text mean?

Basically, some series need a DVD9 source more than others. Here's the list: (stuff we already /have/ a DVD9 source of isn't mentioned since we don't need to re-get them)

The Important Stuff (i.e, DVD5s are complete shit):
SENTAI:
Goranger.
GoGoV (Also needed: The Movie, and Vs. Gingaman, both DVD5 releases)

KAMEN RIDER:
Stronger
Kuuga
Agito volumes 4-12
Ryuki
Blade
Hibiki

METAL HEROES:
Shaider disc 2 (from vol 1), volumes 2-4, and disc 9 (from vol 5)

Also wanted: Zyuranger disc 3 (from volume 2). The show was rescanned, but it's the one disc we don't have in DVD9.

Of course, this doesn't mean we don't want DVD9s of other shows (like Gridman. I will  love you forever if you can hook me up with DVD9 isos of Gridman. Or any Metal Heroes. I love me some Metal Heroes.), but they just aren't the MOST WANTED ones.

If you can hook us up with some, either let us know in #sht on rion.net, or comment here

On isos, DVD9s, and encoding

So, I've done a lot of encodes of Toku DVDs over the last couple years. If you've watched them, you'll probably have noticed that some of them look better than others. This is due to three main things: the way the show was made to begin with, the masters Toei used when making the DVDs, and the type of DVDs I have access to.

There are five main type of ways Toei's shot and edited their Toku shows.

Film-shot and edited: Almost the entire show is shot and edited on film. There are video effects, but they were still output to film. The entire show can be rescanned to a nice, crisp, progressive ~24fps master. THis was used for all of Showa Rider, all of Metal Heroes, and all of Sentai from Goranger through Carranger 5.

The second type is where the show is shot in 30i (30 interlaced frames per second, so 60 fields per second). This was used for Kamen Rider from Kuuga through Hibiki, with Kuuga shot in HD and edited in letterboxed SD, Agito-Blade shot and edited in SD, and Hibiki shot and edited in HD.

The third is where the show was shot on film, but edited digitally at 30fps. Most source content is progressive 24fps, but the way it's edited means it finished product isn't.. This was used for Gaoranger through Majiranger.

The fourth is where the footage was shot at 24fps (either film, or digitally), and edited digitally in progressive form. The final product is also mostly 24 progressive frames per second.

The fifth way, used for Carranger 6-Timeranger, is similar to the first, but some of the editing (mostly the OP was done on tape, meaning the finished episode is on tape. And this is pre-2001 Toei, so the transfer looks like ass.

Big factor number 2: the masters used on the DVDs: For series prior to Gaoranger and Agito, the masters used for airing the show were analog tape. These were also used for the DVDs of earlier series. How clean these masters are varies from series to series. From Car episode 6 to the end of Timeranger, there are combed and blended frames all over the place. Older series don't have that problem, but they tend to have a lot of noise. And Kuuga? It's letterboxed to fit in 4:3.
Series with "bad" masters used for DVD are Goranger, Jetman, Carranger (ep 6) through Timeranger, Gavan, Sharivan and Shaider, Kamen Rider X, Amazon, Stronger, and Kuuga.

Later releases were mostly rescanned. These look great. And starting with Agito and Gaoranger, the masters were made with DVD release in mind. They also look great.


Big factor 3: the DVDs we have access to. Most show volumes are released on DVD9. These are dual layer discs., with 9ish GB capacity. However, may isos on the internet were made bu recompressing the DVD9s to fit on DVD5, single layer discs with 5ish GB capacity. No matter what, you lose a lot or detail from this re-encoding. Some series fare better than others. Rescanned series and ones digitally edited at 24fps come out OKish, but unrescanned series and interlaced series suffer the most and are Block City.

So, what does this mean? It means there are some shows that really, really need a DVD9 source to not look like complete shit, while others need them to not look kinda shitty. And recompressed DVD5s are never going to look great.


Wednesday, March 21, 2012