Why doesn't FUNimation use video branching on Blu Ray?

[james_039]

This thread is about bringing light to the fact that despite excellent branching facilities existing in the blu-ray format, that FUNimation has yet to avail themselves of it in their blu-ray production.

In the past, they have used the angles feature in the DVD format to provide both the original Japanese version of the video, alongside their localized version of the video. The primary differences between the two versions were English only credits vs. Japanese only credits, replacement of original logos with FUNimation created logos for the US version, and English-only title cards instead of original Japanese titles.

In early 2008, FUNimation changed the way they author DVDs while NOT changing the way they produce their video. The DVD's were stripped of the original Japanese video as a result of single-angle only production. FUNimation still produced their releases in-house with both versions of the video, but the only way to see the original Japanese was to access streaming video of the subtitled versions from their website. It is assumed that the primary reason for this change was to address customer complaints about poor video quality (Although at least in cases of stationary title cards, restricted bitrate should not have made any difference, flashing opening sequences would have made pixelation quite apparent)

Now, FUNimation has recently ramped up their blu-ray production. blu-ray video provides for high quality methods to branch video, and be capable of providing a dual-language experience similar to FUNimation's multi-angle DVD's, except this time without sacrificing any video quality.

The question posed here is, why does FUNimation continue to exclude the original Japanese video on blu-ray releases? Do they still somehow believe it will compromise the quality? or is it perhaps pressure from the Japanese side to somehow "gimp" their US releases so that Japanese reverse importers will find them less attractive? (Similar explanation as to why the Japanese tracks are still DD 2.0 on their blu-ray while LPCM should at least be available, not to mention the horribly choppy 30i to 24p conversions they've been doing).

If there are no real licensing or technical restrictions, then this thread serves as a call to FUNimation to update their practices for authoring blu-ray, and to use all the features available to provide better sound, better video, and the ability to watch in whichever language we would like to see, whether the user wants to see localization, or access the original.

[Betenoire]

Best guess-FUNi doesn't care.

They respond at glacial speed to video problems and it is less likely they care two bits over the concerns of the people who matter less to them since their surveys seem to say that the majority of their respondents prefer English.

Doing more adds a cost they probably don't see as a necessary one.

[Skywise]

I'd rather they fix their audio and video issues first before tweaking around with more advanced functionality on BD.

[hikaru004]

Originally Posted by Skywise

I'd rather they fix their audio and video issues first before tweaking around with more advanced functionality on BD.

+1 Too many wasted opportunities imo due to poor picture quality and lossy Japanese audio.

[james_039]

Originally Posted by Skywise

I'd rather they fix their audio and video issues first before tweaking around with more advanced functionality on BD.

I have to agree with this. But in general, they need to revise their blu-ray authoring practices, because as-is they aren't doing a good job of it.

[russ869]

Doesn't DVD have similar provisions for branching video? If they didn't use branching video on DVD, I doubt they'll do it on BD either.

Although it will be a shame to loose the Japanese credits. I'm interested to see what they do for Fullmetal Alchemist HD.

Has Funimation actually released any native HD TV anime yet? Samurai 7 and Shigurui I guess...?

[Njr Scrawl]

I didn't know that, but should have guessed. I've cancelled my Eva 1.11 pre-order until I know if its the same as their DVD, or whether they've bothered to care.

[JeffDM]

I think the likely problem is that it's another bag of hurt. It was a nice idea for DVD, but there were complexities, and there were too many compatibility problems. Some players would show an icon in the corner of the screen that couldn't be turned off, or if you turned it off, you turned off all on screen display info.

[kakugo]

Native HD TV anime? Just Samurai 7, Shigurui, and Afro Samurai so far.

FUNi stopped doing alternate angles on DVD about two years ago, once they started regularly producing DVDs that didn't look like ass. Shuffle! was, I think, one of the first TV titles to not feature Japanese credits. Afro Samurai may have been the first, but I don't think that had Japanese credits to begin with...

FUNi could do alternate angles on Blu-ray - it's supposed to be even easier to do seamless branching on BD because of the way the titles are authored - but so far they've shown no interest in it.

[hikaru004]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

I think the likely problem is that it's another bag of hurt. It was a nice idea for DVD, but there were complexities, and there were too many compatibility problems. Some players would show an icon in the corner of the screen that couldn't be turned off, or if you turned it off, you turned off all on screen display info.

I remember that icon well. It happened when my club played their videos. Just trying to tell people at the meeting it didn't mean they were watching a VCD was hard to do.

Originally Posted by Njr Scrawl

I didn't know that, but should have guessed. I've cancelled my Eva 1.11 pre-order until I know if its the same as their DVD, or whether they've bothered to care.

My preorder remains. They won't screw over their expensive franchise imo.