The epic quest for fansubs

[Bad Username]

Okay, I just placed the order for the first volume. (I now have $11 to my name XD)

I should get it in about 7-10 days.

[sgupta]

Nice - good news here too - I received the Korean DVD's of the first 24 eps also! They seem pretty amazing quality (just peeked at one disc - this is a really rough week for me so I'm not having a lot of time...should be better next week though).

I'm trying to determine the best way to share these (since they're unlicensed in the US and next to impossible to obtain, I figure that's fair and might help with this project) and I'm thinking region-free ISO's (a torrent) might make the most sense.

[Bad Username]

Post a few lossless screenshots somewhere. The episodes in the torrent had this gray haze look over everything, as you can see in the first post. If the Japanese version looks the same (hope not), I'll probably do the remaster I was talking about. (It's just increasing color saturation and adjusting the black-to-white scale for each scene, but the results are great.)

[sgupta]

I know what you're talking about and it definitely *does* have the "gray haze" - I'll try to post a shot tonight. But yes, it's there. I kind of assumed (maybe mistakenly) that it was intentional (sort of like how some movies ie. the Matrix have a yellowish tint to them). Video quality is great otherwise, but colors just aren't extremely vivid, etc, and it's like that for every version I've seen so far (though I notice not quite as pronounced for the 4:3 US release as the shot you posted - I'll have to compare the Korean version as well and see if it's as much or not). I think personally I might prefer the remaster if you end up doing it - I think it would be very pretty more vivid. =)

At any rate, I'm very curious to hear how the Japanese version compares.

[sgupta]

Okay here we go - I took the liberty of using the approximate same scene and putting in a comparison between your shot when starting this thread and mine:


Bad Username's Episode 1 - Original source video as posted at the start of the thread:



sgupta's Episode 1 - Original source video as taken with Windows Media Player:



Here's a link to the .bmp of my shot as well (saved from Windows Media Player using PrtScrn - I'm assuming that's lossless):
Larger Screenshot

As you can see, it would appear to me the version I have has significantly more color (I'd say akin to the US release), though not quite as much as your remaster. I can see a bit of "haze" sometimes, but it looks to me like it's intentional in this case - ie., a filter they used on purpose, whereas the shot you posted definitely looks off. I'd guess the Japanese DVD's will have the same quality as these Korean ones, but I'm very curious and looking forward to finding out.

[fafner]

Here's a link to the .bmp of my shot as well (saved from Windows Media Player using PrtScrn - I'm assuming that's lossless): ...

.bmp format is lossless. .png is lossless too but takes less room (lossless compression). You can use Gimp to convert images if you don't have a converter

[sgupta]

[QUOTE=sgupta;94484]Here's a link to the .bmp of my shot as well (saved from Windows Media Player using PrtScrn - I'm assuming that's lossless): ...

.bmp format is lossless. .png is lossless too but takes less room (lossless compression). You can use Gimp to convert images if you don't have a converter [/QUOTE]

Cool so we should be good with that .bmp then. The .jpg is a good impression but the .bmp is there if need be. =) Thanks for the info - I've heard Gimp is a good program but never used it (I do have various converters).

[Bad Username]

I like the more subtle colors on the DVD version; I'll have to take care not to lose anything in conversion. Those black lines on the sides for both of the pics bug me, though; hopefully the Japanese DVDs don't have them.

Oh, and nice capture, by the way. Didn't think you'd go so far as to get the exact frame.

[sgupta]

Yeah - I'll be curious to see your results in conversion.

Re the black bars, that's my media player actually - the video itself is just video portion, period (and the media player adapted to keep aspect, inserting the black bars). In other words, the bars are not part of the video from what I can tell, which is what you want. (I just didn't bother to cut that out, but if I put to a window, it's just the video content). Sorry for the confusion there. ^.^

I have yet to try it in my TV's DVD player as I'm gonna have to remove the region code and reburn it (or flash my DVD player to region-free, though I think I'll go the former route as it's easier and I have everything I need for that now). But the video on these discs look very high quality to me.

[sgupta]

Some more good news. =)

I verified the Region 3 discs won't play in my home theater DVD player (without flash modifications), so I went ahead and created a region free ISO and burned it, and it works flawlessly. I can verify the colors look like what I posted and not as washed out as the copy you have (must have been something with the encoding of the downloadable version). Actually, it looks quite beautiful on DVD. There's a certain subtlety to the colors and they aren't always as bright as most animation, but I'm beginning to think they can get more detail/gradiation that way. It certainly has a look to it all its own that's different coloring than most animes - I can't quite put my finger on it (almost like watercolors and a lot of pastels in a way). I think it might be difficult to enhance the colors without losing certain details, but I'm sure you can judge that when you see for yourself - I'm by no means an expert at such things, so perhaps I'm wrong.

I can also verify the picture is a perfect 16:9, meaning it should fit most all widescreen HDTV's perfectly - no black bars at all; that was indeed simply the media player on my PC (I think my computer display is an odd one - 16:10 or something). On a sidenote, even though I like the US release fine, it really is a bit of a crime they chopped it to 4:3 - it's just stunning in 16:9. It's also got 5.1 sound, which is another excellent enhancement. That's one major reason I'm excited about this project - the potential for a complete set at this quality level.

The subtitles seem excellent (though of course I've only watched a bit). Very natural with good timing and no awkward/strange translations so far (just samping several eps off the first disc).

The region-free ISO of the first disc is ready, but it weighs in at a hefty 6.33 GB. I'm thinking torrent might be the best way to do this?