[JP] Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. [ENG DUB]

[muhootsaver]

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/book/6029355/

It seems like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Blu-ray is scheduled for August 25th. It says Blu-ray disc 1 but the price(21,000yen) seems to suggest it is a blu-ray box, possibly the first box of the 2(or 3).

[Vito]

Oh nice. Finally. This and Planetes will hurt my wallet :/

[SneakerPimp]

Please please please let this one have English subtitles like the previously released set of the GitS SAC compilation movies.

[chronoclast]

Holy fuck do I want. With it being released in Japan hopefully that means a US release won't be too far off. That's what I'm waiting for.

[Buster Darkwings]

We still have yet to see the SAC trilogy box released in the US, despite it having the English dub/subs.

Did that one have menu language selection at startup with the FBI warning when English was selected, like some of BV's other bilingual Blu-rays? I never actually picked it up since I haven't seen all of the TV series yet.

[Pyocola]

Finally. I need this with English subtitles. Sucks that no one but Funimation has any serious interest in releasing on Blu-ray in the US.

An international release of Stand Alone Complex like Gunbuster/Diebuster and Freedom would have been fantastic.

[JoshMilewski]

I remember reading that the Japanese OVA/movie trilogy box was only an upscale. Can anyone confirm this?

[Buster Darkwings]

It's not, although the two compilation movies are pretty old for HD anime and are in 1080i.

[Skywise]

It's not, although the two compilation movies are pretty old for HD anime and are in 1080i.

I never did understand why, considering there's 24p masters for the main show.

[muhootsaver]

http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20090416_125542.html

Detail out. According to AV watch, there's English DUB but no sub. 21,000 yen for each box. 2 boxes for each season. 1080i

[Buster Darkwings]

Doesn't necessarily mean there will be no subs. Considering that the movies had them one would think the TV series would as well, but we'll have to wait and see.

[muhootsaver]

Doesn't necessarily mean there will be no subs. Considering that the movies had them one would think the TV series would as well, but we'll have to wait and see.

True, true. I'm just saying AV watch didn't list them. So for GITS movie, AV watch didn't list sub either, but there was sub on the disc? Did R2 dvd-box have subs?

[SneakerPimp]

The bandai visual pages for these releases mention:

"日本語字幕付（ＯＮ・ＯＦＦ可能）" which _google_ translates to Japanese with "subtitles (ON OFF possible)", I just hope they mean English subtitles and not Japanese ones. :blush1:

http://product.bandaivisual.co.jp/web_service/shop_product_info.asp?item_no=BCXA-0187

[muhootsaver]

The bandai visual pages for these releases mention:

"日本語字幕付（ＯＮ・ＯＦＦ可能）" which _google_ translates to Japanese with "subtitles (ON OFF possible)", I just hope they mean English subtitles and not Japanese ones. :blush1:

http://product.bandaivisual.co.jp/web_service/shop_product_info.asp?item_no=BCXA-0187

日本語: Japanese

[Pyocola]

http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20090416_125542.html

Detail out. According to AV watch, there's English DUB but no sub. 21,000 yen for each box. 2 boxes for each season. 1080i
What the hell man... 1080i? What is wrong with these people?

Granted, the OP of the first season is 30p but damn, couldn't they just convert or re-render that?

[SneakerPimp]

The bandai visual pages for these releases mention:

"日本語字幕付（ＯＮ・ＯＦＦ可能）" which _google_ translates to Japanese with "subtitles (ON OFF possible)", I just hope they mean English subtitles and not Japanese ones. :blush1:

http://product.bandaivisual.co.jp/web_service/shop_product_info.asp?item_no=BCXA-0187

日本語: Japanesewhoops, I meant google translates to the part with "Japanese with subtitles (ON OFF possible)".

[Buster Darkwings]

http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20090416_125542.html

Detail out. According to AV watch, there's English DUB but no sub. 21,000 yen for each box. 2 boxes for each season. 1080i
What the hell man... 1080i? What is wrong with these people?

Granted, the OP of the first season is 30p but damn, couldn't they just convert or re-render that?

It wouldn't be such a big deal if Sony would freakin' allow the PS3 to deinterlace/IVTC 1080i content to 1080p already. It has the capability since it will convert 1080i .ts files and burnt discs just fine... But if it's a store-bought disc? Noooo, can't be deinterlacing those :rolleyes:

Nevermind the fact that standalone Blu-ray players have been doing it since the format was introduced.

[Skywise]

The deinterlacing it uses for .ts content is very basic - pretty much what you'd get if you output it as 1080i to a TV that doesn't do ivtc.

[Quarkboy]

The bandai visual pages for these releases mention:

"日本語字幕付（ＯＮ・ＯＦＦ可能）" which _google_ translates to Japanese with "subtitles (ON OFF possible)", I just hope they mean English subtitles and not Japanese ones. :blush1:

http://product.bandaivisual.co.jp/web_service/shop_product_info.asp?item_no=BCXA-0187

That means "Japanese Language subtitles (on/off)" which is talking about Japanese subs for viewing the English dub track.

Remember, the main point of putting the english dub on this release is to appeal to the Japanese buyers who like listening to it in english. They especially like english dubs on shows like this where the cast is multinational.

[Buster Darkwings]

The deinterlacing it uses for .ts content is very basic - pretty much what you'd get if you output it as 1080i to a TV that doesn't do ivtc.

I've seen a couple .ts files on my PS3 and they didn't show any jaggies during pans, etc. or other signs of frame blending.

And even if it didn't IVTC .ts files, that doesn't mean it can't. Its processor is quite capable of it.

[Skywise]

Right - just saying that the advantage from having the PS3 use the current deinterlacing for 1080i would be pretty minimal, and could even be a problem if you have a TV that has a decent deinterlacing solution. The cpu power may be there, but the algorithms aren't. Until Sony comes out with some kind of firmware update for it (which may not happen), getting an Oppo or Samsung BD-P2550 is probably the best solution.

[Buster Darkwings]

Are you basing this on personal observations or is there a report somewhere? Because the handful of 1080i .ts files I've seen looked fine for the most part. The Planetes trailer for instance, looks like it's being properly IVTC'd in all but one or two shots that show some jerkiness, probably due to the 30fps panning text that was overlaid. And this was from a disc, not from a digital broadcast which can have poor cadence.

[Skywise]

Personal observation. It seems to be a flag-based deinterlacer.

[Quarkboy]

Personal observation. It seems to be a flag-based deinterlacer.

Do modern 1080i blu-rays actually have their flags set correctly?

[Skywise]

Personal observation. It seems to be a flag-based deinterlacer.

Do modern 1080i blu-rays actually have their flags set correctly?

24p ones do, since the 24p is actually forced - interlaced frames are not allowed. For 1080i ones the same possibility for errors exist as with DVDs.

[Quarkboy]

Personal observation. It seems to be a flag-based deinterlacer.

Do modern 1080i blu-rays actually have their flags set correctly?

24p ones do, since the 24p is actually forced - interlaced frames are not allowed. For 1080i ones the same possibility for errors exist as with DVDs.

Well, 24 fps isn't really 1080i, it's 1080psf, right? And I was asking more in practical terms: Do the flags tend to be set properly on 1080i blu-rays?

[Sensuifu]

Personal observation. It seems to be a flag-based deinterlacer.

Do modern 1080i blu-rays actually have their flags set correctly?

24p ones do, since the 24p is actually forced - interlaced frames are not allowed. For 1080i ones the same possibility for errors exist as with DVDs.

Well, 24 fps isn't really 1080i, it's 1080psf, right? And I was asking more in practical terms: Do the flags tend to be set properly on 1080i blu-rays?

Flagged or not, would it really matter if the source is inherently interlaced? The player, TV, VP (or a combination of these) will need to deinterlace it anyways, and I'd think most players are set to do it automatically (quality withstanding).

[Skywise]

Well, 24 fps isn't really 1080i, it's 1080psf, right?

Uh, definitely not 1080psf, since that would be in an interlaced stream, and it's also not used for BD :). 24p on BD is true 24p and doesn't even have pulldown flags - pulldown has to be added by the player on playback.


And I was asking more in practical terms: Do the flags tend to be set properly on 1080i blu-rays?

I haven't done any analysis of BDs, but I'm guessing they should be fairly correct for the most part. Detection algorithms and encoders have only gotten better over the years and 1080i source masters tend to be much cleaner than the composite SD masters we've been having trouble with on DVDs.

[Ingraman]

Well, the first set is out now. Did anyone buy it? Have you seen any reviews out there? It hurts that there isn't an english subtitle track, but the show did have a good dub (that I recall, anyway)...

[chronoclast]

Well, the first set is out now. Did anyone buy it? Have you seen any reviews out there? It hurts that there isn't an english subtitle track, but the show did have a good dub (that I recall, anyway)...

There's a few screenshots here: http://www.asianblurayguide.com/news/420/ghost_in_the_shell_stand_alone_complex_hd_screensh ots/

[hikaru004]

So it's an upscale?

[hissatsu]

No, more like a not very sharp 720p level of detail. It is one of the earlier HD productions after all. Compare it to the DVDs and you'll see a large difference. The only older Blu-ray anime one should really expect a sharp picture from is stuff done on 35mm film - even today I don't think anyone's animating digitally in 1080p (at least not for TV that I know of).

[kakugo]

Original HD screenshot HERE (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/Kentai/Anime%20on%20DVD/GITSHD.jpg).

Downscale-Upscale SD screenshot HERE (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/Kentai/Anime%20on%20DVD/GITSSD.jpg).

Definitely not an upscale.

[muhootsaver]

2nd GIG

http://www.dotup.org/uploda/www.dotup.org394205.png
http://www.dotup.org/uploda/www.dotup.org394206.png

slightly better than first season, but still quite soft.

[Buster Darkwings]

I'd be pretty satisfied considering its age, when practically no other series were in HD.

Hopefully these will come to the US soon, GITS 2.0 came faster than I expected so maybe sometime next year or in 2011.

[muhootsaver]

I'd be pretty satisfied considering its age, when practically no other series were in HD.

Hopefully these will come to the US soon, GITS 2.0 came faster than I expected so maybe sometime next year or in 2011.

Well, it's definitely miles better than the original DVDs but compared to Planetes(2003~2004), I feel that screenshots look much softer. I'm waiting for US release, too.

[Buster Darkwings]

Yeah, although Planetes was an NHK show. They've always been big HD supporters (and partly responsible for many of the developments in HD over the years) so it's not too big of a surprise for one of their shows to be ahead of its time.

[Shiroi Hane]

Sorry to wake this up after all this time.. but Jerome from Manga UK seems to have the impression that the only way they'd be allowed to release GiTS on Blu-ray in the UK is in individual volumes of 4 episodes each.

http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21422702424
http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21424100016
http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21424393779
http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21427447441
http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21427855258

[greatcircle]

They must think that gaijin are idiots to even float that kind of pricing...

[Funkatron]

Sorry to wake this up after all this time.. but Jerome from Manga UK seems to have the impression that the only way they'd be allowed to release GiTS on Blu-ray in the UK is in individual volumes of 4 episodes each.

http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21422702424
http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21424100016
http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21424393779
http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21427447441
http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21427855258

We want to spend the money, Japan, but you don't want it! ><

[kakugo]

Don't get me wrong, I like FUNi's rock-bottom price point of $60 for 12 episodes as much as the rest of you, but what's the alternative? Japan gets 13 episodes for upwards of $225. Releasing an export version as singles (same way they did for DVD) at 40% less seems like a small price to pay in the long run.

I'm sure we could get the show at standard US/UK prices in a complete box set... if we don't mind it being dub-only, of course.

[greatcircle]

Don't get me wrong, I like FUNi's rock-bottom price point of $60 for 12 episodes as much as the rest of you, but what's the alternative? Japan gets 13 episodes for upwards of $225. Releasing an export version as singles (same way they did for DVD) at 40% less seems like a small price to pay in the long run.

I'm sure we could get the show at standard US/UK prices in a complete box set... if we don't mind it being dub-only, of course.

Yeah, that worked so well for Kurokami...

[Skywise]

Lets break down the math. 20 GBP in yen is 2665 according to Google - divide by 4 and you get 666 per episode. The Japanese release is 21k yen for 13 episodes, which comes to 1615 per ep. In other words, the UK release is 58.7% cheaper. If you buy the JP sets used, you can get it down to 1000 yen per episode, but that's still quite a bit more, and it doesn't take into account any discounts on the UK discs.

So yes, provided they don't screw the release up, I'd buy it. It's a significant saving and you get not only subs on the show itself (which is not on the JP release), but also the extras. The only problem is that I'd probably wait until it's all out before I buy it, and at that point it's possible they'll be announcing/considering box sets :).

[hikaru004]

If they'd release it as season sets, I'd consider it. It would also have to be region AB, include Japanese audio with English subs, lossless audio for English and Japanese and near perfect PQ.

I'd prefer the trilogy movies first.

[Pyocola]

I'm going to remain optimistic, the fact that they can lock it to Region B should be of some help. For once being in a different region could actually be a boon.

[hikaru004]

I'm going to remain optimistic, the fact that they can lock it to Region B should be of some help. For once being in a different region could actually be a boon.

I don't think it's going to help you that much as Manga is also a Region A company. So when Manga UK gets it, fans in the US are going to be expecting Manga US to also have it.

[Pyocola]

I'm going to remain optimistic, the fact that they can lock it to Region B should be of some help. For once being in a different region could actually be a boon.

I don't think it's going to help you that much as Manga is also a Region A company. So when Manga UK gets it, fans in the US are going to be expecting Manga US to also have it.
Not necessarily. Remember on DVD, the US discs were actually handled by Bandai Ent. (Manga was only distributing.)

It's likely the same arrangement is still in effect, so I could see Manga releasing it in the UK, leaving Bandai Ent. to their own devices with regards to a possible US release (only standing ready to distribute whenever they've worked things out with Bandai Japan.)

[Shiroi Hane]

A little extra feedback:

"@ergoproxy_x Bandai will not allow a box set release yet if at all. It's likely that only #SolidStateSociety will get a UK BD release."
http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21506547869

[jedi master]

A little extra feedback:

"@ergoproxy_x Bandai will not allow a box set release yet if at all. It's likely that only #SolidStateSociety will get a UK BD release."
http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21506547869

Would definitely like to see SSS on Blu-ray as long as Manga put more effort into it than they did the DVD. The DVD menu was poor compared to the R1 release, and they better put a screen text/song subtitle track on the Blu-ray which they left out of the DVD. R1 DVD on the other hand did have a screen text/sound subtitle track.

[hikaru004]

A little extra feedback:

"@ergoproxy_x Bandai will not allow a box set release yet if at all. It's likely that only #SolidStateSociety will get a UK BD release."
http://twitter.com/MangaUK/status/21506547869

Hmmm... makes sense with the boxset being a recent release. But Trilogy is OOP so why hold up that? They could get all 3 movies out in a set. Hopefully, they don't think that people would just buy the compilation movies and skip the series.

[edzieba]

Hmmm... makes sense with the boxset being a recent release. But Trilogy is OOP so why hold up that? They could get all 3 movies out in a set. Hopefully, they don't think that people would just buy the compilation movies and skip the series.Or maybe they think that it is most likely existing fans that will buy the expensive blu-ray re-releases, and that few of these fans will bother with the compilation movies.

[WTK]

Amazon Japan -
Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C.: BD-BOX 1 (http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0026Q8EKE): ￥ 14,573 (31% off)
Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C.: BD-BOX 2 (http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0026Q8EKY): ￥ 14,573 (31% off)
Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. - 2nd Gig: BD-BOX 1 (http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0026Q8EKO): ￥ 14,573 (31% off)
Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. - 2nd Gig: BD-BOX 2 (http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0026Q8ELI): ￥ 14,573 (31% off)