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Episode 1 Comparison: JPN Movie 20 BR vs VIZ BR vs VIZ DVD

Shift

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Recently I got both the VIZ Indigo League Blu-Ray box set and the limited edition of Movie 20 from Japan, which includes the 1080p version of episode 1 that was first broadcast five years ago. Looking at them next to my original DVD set really makes the difference in picture quality obvious, so I thought I'd screencap various sections and let you all see how they stack up.

The scenes are arranged chronologically, which each scene going by order of DVD, VIZ Blu-Ray and Movie 20 Blu-Ray. Just click on a picture to view it full-sized.

Bruno (You can actually see his face in the HD version!)
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Ash and Oak getting shocked
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Ho-Oh crossing the rainbow
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The DVD has plenty of interlacing that both versions of the Blu-Ray avoid:
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And for those curious, the movie 20 version has the original opening, ending and Dare Da? segments in HD as well, so here are some shots of those:

Opening
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Dare Da?
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Closing
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If you want to see more pictures, here are the album links:
HD Opening, Dare Da? and Closing
Movie 20 Limited Edition Blu-Ray
VIZ Indigo League Blu-Ray
VIZ Indigo League DVD

In my opinion, the Movie 20 version is the clear winner. Every scene has been rescanned from the original film, the detail for smaller and distant objects is especially impeccable, and the effects that were originally bright remain so here, unlike the English versions that used the darkened and slowed down versions they were sent. Surprisingly, the VIZ BR set actually holds up pretty well since it cleans up a lot of the splicing artifacts the DVDs have; just look at the Spearow and Ho-Oh shots to see what I mean. It's definitely the best the English versions have ever looked.

Basically, both new Blu-Ray sets are worthy replacements for the first two tired DVD sets, and since the HD ep 1 is supposedly limited edition only, I'd recommend at the very least you import that Movie 20 set as soon as you can.

If anyone has any scenes they'd like to see more of, let me know!
 
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The Movie 20 remaster looks stunning. I hope the other cel-animated episodes will get this treatment someday. Can you please post a comparison of the title screen?

For the opening and ending it looks like they remastered a creditless version and added new the credits and lyrics in with the same original fonts. The "ピカチュウ" text on the Dare Da? looks different as well. If those weren't the case, then that's an impressive job. :)
 
Holy moly that HD remaster is the dog's bollocks!!
Thanks for sharing mate!
 
Wow, what a contrast - that's really good. Thanks for taking the time for uploading this and sharing it :)
 
The Movie 20 remaster looks stunning. I hope the other cel-animated episodes will get this treatment someday. Can you please post a comparison of the title screen?

For the opening and ending it looks like they remastered a creditless version and added new the credits and lyrics in with the same original fonts. The "ピカチュウ" text on the Dare Da? looks different as well. If those weren't the case, then that's an impressive job. :)
That's pretty much it. It's a lot better than the text being burned into the original film.

I don't have a Japanese episode to compare to, so I'll just compare the blank title pages and also show the remastered one.

Title screen:
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I have to say that this is first time I noticed that Pikachu is round as a ball like in Gen I game artwork.

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So, Misty was supposed to be pink skinned in the Original Series after all? I guess people blamed the digital painting for no reason.
 
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I thought the Viz Blu-rays were supposed to have at least some kind of remastering done to them? I mean, obviously they took whatever SD masters they've had lying around since the Clinton administration and just ran them through an automated process but seeing their Blu-ray screenshots placed side by side with the DVD screencaps shows just how little they actually did. The only real difference I see between the Viz Blu-rays and their old DVDs is the lack of glue on the bottom of the Hou'ou cel in the former.

Shift said:
Recently I got both the VIZ Indigo League Blu-Ray box set and the limited edition of Movie 20 from Japan, which includes the 1080p version of episode 1 that was first broadcast five years ago.

This is actually a brand new HD remaster made in 2017, not the one released back in 2012 or so.
 
I thought the Viz Blu-rays were supposed to have at least some kind of remastering done to them? I mean, obviously they took whatever SD masters they've had lying around since the Clinton administration and just ran them through an automated process but seeing their Blu-ray screenshots placed side by side with the DVD screencaps shows just how little they actually did. The only real difference I see between the Viz Blu-rays and their old DVDs is the lack of glue on the bottom of the Hou'ou cel in the former.
The glue being gone is one big benefit the Blu-Ray brings, the other being the lack of interlacing. It's obviously not perfect, but it's definitely an improvement:

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This is actually a brand new HD remaster made in 2017, not the one released back in 2012 or so.
Clearly some adjustments in color correction and resolution have been made to the HD episode between 2012 and now, but they most likely still come from the same rescanned source, just like the VIZ Blu-Ray and DVD sets came from the same SD masters. Unless you know for a fact they went to the expense of rescanning the film master frame by frame a second time?

For the sake of argument, here are a couple shots to compare the 2012 and 2017 versions:

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Please note: The thread is from 6 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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