Cowboy bebop HD remastered

[Skywise]

First Nadesico and Escaflowe - now Cowboy Bebop joins the fray:

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20071015/bandai.htm
http://product.bandaivisual.co.jp/web_service/shop_product_info.asp?item_no=BCBA-3195

Bandai Visual, where are the Blu-rays? :D

[slerch666]

I skipped on Nadesico/DYRL because they were from an HD source. I'm skipping this one because of that as well. If they release a Blu-Ray edition, perhaps I'll jump on them.

[tseniv]

I skipped on Nadesico/DYRL because they were from an HD source. I'm skipping this one because of that as well. If they release a Blu-Ray edition, perhaps I'll jump on them.
I agree with you 100% slerch666. I don't regret purchasing the Bebop 5.1ch DVD-Box because of the surround audio & very cool packaging but decided to wait for an eventual Blu-Ray release for any series that hasn't been produced in the past half year.

[treatment]

I'm so gonna get this.

In R1-form. :P

I <3 <3 <3 the english-dubs on this series. :cool:

[Jumbo]

Call me when they release these on a true HD format.

They aren't milking me for anything less than that.

[Buster Darkwings]

Disappointed about BV again not releasing this on Blu-Ray, but since I've yet to get around to watching all of Cowboy Bebob, I'll probably buy this, watch it through, then sell it. Will buy it again on Blu-Ray when it comes out.

[Mazinkaizer]

First Nadesico and Escaflowe - now Cowboy Bebop joins the fray:

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20071015/bandai.htm
http://product.bandaivisual.co.jp/web_service/shop_product_info.asp?item_no=BCBA-3195

Bandai Visual, where are the Blu-rays? :D

Well, we might see a Jin-Roh & YukiKaze type of release where BV handles the BD for those titles for Japan & the US. The first 1 on my wishlist of those is DYRL :>

IMO, i don't consider those releases as significant upgrades to the current DVDs (R1 or R2), so i am with waiting for a BD release in the future. Though i think it would be a while for those to be released :sd:

[ZenAmako]

I'm thinking the plants that manufacture BDs may be overwhelmed right now with all the blockbuster movies being released this holiday season. Sony recently pushed a number of its lower profile live-action releases into next year. Niche titles might have to wait until after the holidays to be released on BD. In the meantime, BV can get the HD masters ready.

[Skywise]

I'm thinking the plants that manufacture BDs may be overwhelmed right now with all the blockbuster movies being released this holiday season. Sony recently pushed a number of its lower profile live-action releases into next year. Niche titles might have to wait until after the holidays to be released on BD. In the meantime, BV can get the HD masters ready.


Pressing capacity is not, and never has been, a problem. There are other reasons for the Sony delay (singular, turned out to be Life of Brain only). For BV, it could just be a simple cost/return issue right now, as doing TV series costs a lot more and has a much lower return with the current state of the market. They've been doing HD remasters of their back catalog for a while now in preparation, so it's not so much a time issue.

Another potential issue with Esca and Bebop is how they're going to handle the CG parts. They could recreate them, upscale the scenes, upscale just the CG and re-composite etc. That could cost more money and also delay the final HD releases. For the DVDs all they have to do is just re-edit them in using the old unremastered footage.

[kakugo]

Were the CG effects in Bebop rendered at 24fps or 30? It's possible that the CG was printed to film and then spliced into the show itself... though no, I don't believe that's what happened, since knocking the CG out to a tape master and then splicing it in/overlaying it over the film material after it was telecined would have been faster and easier.

They could upscale it if it's video generated and they don't want to bother re-animating whole sequences, though I wonder if there are any component masters of the CG effects to be upscaled? As far as I know all prior R2 DVDs have been taken from composite sources, though for all I know the CG is on component tapes and the editing was done to composite tapes, or any number of things could have led to final composite masters along the production line.

[Skywise]

I'm not sure exactly how the CG was done in Esca and Bebop. Both are Sunrise shows from the same time period so presumably they used some of the same methods, and thus face the same challenges. Personally, I hope they just redo them from scratch as CG has come a long way since then, and it would be a lot cheaper for them now compared to back then. If new shows can get cleaned up animation for their DVD releases, there is at least a chance that something like Esca/Bebop gets fixed CG for their hi-def releases. I'm not exactly holding my breath, but one can always hope.

[ObiKenobi]

From what I can tell the CG isn't from a composite source but it definitely does look upscaled. I'm going to scan around a bit more to get a better idea because I've just scanned around quickly right now and then I can post some shots. But from what I can tell it looks quite lovely in all the film scenes without any of that crappy dot crawl and rainbowing.

[ObiKenobi]

Well unless I'm missing anything it definitely looks like the CG was done on component masters as I'm not seeing any composite artifacts. Though you can definitely tell it was all done SD as it still looks a tad fuzzy compared to everything else.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/7425/shot0002hm9.jpg
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/2073/shot0003gp9.jpg

More shots to come after. I gotta dig up my other discs to post some comparisons.

[Buster Darkwings]

There's a mod on the Blu-ray.com forums that keeps saying anime like Cowboy Bebop could never be remastered (when I pointed out that they are remastering it he says they're just "cleaning it up") or put onto Blu-ray because of the mixed-in CG. I somehow doubt if he'll admit he was wrong, though...

He also acts as if Animeigo's remaster of Macross was God's gift to anime. I wonder what he'd say when he sees the R2 comparison pics for that.

[Skywise]

Let me guess, WickyWoo? I think you can safely ignore what he says in this case.

[Buster Darkwings]

Yeah. Kinda frustrating to know that some people will believe him because he's a mod, but that's pretty much outweighed by the comedy factor.

[ObiKenobi]

There's a mod on the Blu-ray.com forums that keeps saying anime like Cowboy Bebop could never be remastered (when I pointed out that they are remastering it he says they're just "cleaning it up") or put onto Blu-ray because of the mixed-in CG. I somehow doubt if he'll admit he was wrong, though...

He also acts as if Animeigo's remaster of Macross was God's gift to anime. I wonder what he'd say when he sees the R2 comparison pics for that.

I know the feeling. I was once talking to someone and the subject of the Cowboy Bebop movie being broadcasted on Starz in HD came up. According to him it was upscaled because "They only animated at 480p at that time". All efforts to correct this bit of nonsense never seemed sink in. Sadly, this misguided notion seems to be quite widespread.

[MrGranger]

This brings up a good point in anime. For those of us who have some back catalog titles still to get, are there titles that won't benefit from HD and we might as well go SD (or not at all)?

[Skywise]

Yes, but figuring out which ones those are can be difficult. Basically early CG animation is more likely to not have HD masters, but that's as far as you get. The other factor being popularity - some shows just won't see a HD release for years and years because it would be losing money.

[Lourdes]

Comparison here:
http://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4373

[muhootsaver]

thnx for the comparison shots. I guess it does look a bit better but not huge like some other shows (ex. Aika) that I would buy the series again. (Oh, and how I regretted buying that 5.1ch) I already own R3 which probably has the R2 transfer, so I'll wait for the blu-ray.

[Lourdes]

thnx for the comparison shots. I guess it does look a bit better but not huge like some other shows (ex. Aika) that I would buy the series again. (Oh, and how I regretted buying that 5.1ch) I already own R3 which probably has the R2 transfer, so I'll wait for the blu-ray.

This is a brand new remaster that has just come out, every release before now incl your R3's come from the same nasty source and they all look near-identical ( http://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3523 ).

[muhootsaver]

This is a brand new remaster that has just come out, every release before now incl your R3's come from the same nasty source and they all look near-identical

I know it is a new master, as it is stated on the title ^^;;; I'm saying that R2 would probably have a better encoding.

[kakugo]

Hey Obi, silly question but is there any grain during the CG shots that you can spot? The 2 caps are on the soft 'n' dark side which makes it difficult to be sure, but I've thought ever since they announced an HD master that all the CG could have been easily printed to film and then spliced into the show proper. If there's any film grain on all-digital imagery I think that would clinch it.

[Danime]

For BV, it could just be a simple cost/return issue right now, as doing TV series costs a lot more and has a much lower return with the current state of the market. They've been doing HD remasters of their back catalog for a while now in preparation, so it's not so much a time issue.

Can I just ask where you find out the information like this? I'm guessing you can understand and read Japanese and therefore have all the access to information sources and everything. It's just I'd like to know where to find out such things as what series are animated in HD... i.e how do people know that Bones series are animated in HD, and that Samurai 7 had a huge production cost.. etc. There are just so many interesting facts out there!

[jojo_home]

I don't know if I'm the only one, but somehow that doesn't look as good as I thought it would.

[Skywise]

They've been doing re-releases of shows on DVD, and when they do, they tend to say whether it's gotten a HD remaster or not, as a marketing tactic. In addition when a show airs on Japanese TV, you can tell by watching - if it airs in HD it should be fairly obvious. Beyond that, you have to look at production documentaries and promo materials. The one on the Air BD set for instance tells how Kanon is the first show Kyou ani are doing in HD, and so anything they did prior to that would have been SD.

[Skywise]

I don't know if I'm the only one, but somehow that doesn't look as good as I thought it would.

What's the problem? I think they look perfectly fine. No cross coloration, better color balance and detail. About as good as you can get on DVD. It should look excellent when it's released on BD.