Lack of physical media

DVDs are getting hard to find. On Robert's Corner Store they mostly have just blu-rays now. Blu ray is shit. The higher quality claim is bogus and the media type is just a Sony monopoly. I tried ordering DVDs using other means, and ended up with a seller who misrepresented and sent me a Region 2 set of discs. I was so pissed I sent them back and got refunded. After that latest burn I haven't tried buying any. There was an offer on HiDive for one of the anime I recently watched- another blu ray set. And they were expensive.

@SuperAdventure

From what I have noticed is older titles being pushed on Blu-ray generally have shit quality unless you are dealing with something that was already professionally re-mastered in a previous DVD release. At least that is my own perception of it. The modern remastering process will change the colour schemes used and the re-encoding process alone creates artifacts that are simply just being concealed with filters that further shift the perceived quality away from it's original release.

The main upside to Blu-rays is the fact more info can simply be stored on them. It reminds me of the reason why DVDs were more widely accepted over the use of Laserdisc in the West even when generally laserdisc still had better quality than DVDs. DVDs were simply smaller and were able to hold more info on them and better quality than VHS.

Despite the low practicality of a laserdisc being the size of a vinyl music record, Oddly VHS was still extremely broadly more accepted in the West before DVD existed when it was exponentially more cost efficient to still produce laserdisc over VHS tapes. DVDs were just a simple upgrade from VCD (the short lived VCD = "Video Compact Disks" not to be confused with DVDs) where the improvement of video quality just barely managed to exceed beyond VHS quality and hold more info than a typical VCD (because VHS was still better quality than VCD). Also should be noted VHS was more widely accepted in the west due to the flexibility of being able to use and re-use them for personal recordings (practicality and flexibility over quality in the west despite the cost of production).

Over all DVD quality has been inherently flawed from the get go just like music CDs were over vinyl music records (music even today still just sounds better on vinyl as long as the record is properly being taken care of). The Japanese knew this and it's the reason why Laserdiscs were still being widely produced in Japan for their domestic market even up till the late 2000s. Which is why it was still extremely common to find Japanese Anime on Laserdisc in Japan without a VHS counter part in the 90s with the existence of DVDs on the market in the late 90s and before the mass production and distribution of DVDs in the West during the early 2000s.

Simple break down...

Quality; Blu-ray > Laserdisc > DVD > VHS > VCD

Practicality; Blu-ray > DVD > VHS > VCD > Laserdisc

Flexibility; Blu-ray > DVD > VCD > VHS > Laserdisc

Cost of production; VCD > DVD > Blu-ray > Laserdisc > VHS

Which is why you can see even Japan finally moved on from Laserdisc once Blu-ray came into play. Basically Japan finally stopped producing Laserdiscs all together after the late 2000s.

So this is a bit dubious, (but not entirely wrong) for a couple reasons. Firstly, DVDs can hold plenty of data. The reason episodes and series are spread across so many discs is not that they don't fit- it's a scheme to get people to buy multiple discs (thereby making much more money) and the publishers would of course BLAME the Dvd format for not accepting enough data.

But you can actually prove them wrong easily: the amount of data that an anime contains is wayyyyyyyyy less than a richly textured, heavily CGI enhanced Marvel flick. Anime is made up of rudimentary colors and doesn't have the detail- just look at the grass, now compare it to a movie where there's a scene on a lawn- you can see every blade of grass. So if that whole movie fits on a DVD- then the format should be able to handle 12 episodes compressed of an anime series. But profit talks man. More discs sold equals more profit.

Blu-ray claims better quality but you can find folks who done comparisons (such as on Youtube etc) and... can you really spot the difference? There is barely any- and on some comparisons, the DVD looked superior. Bottom line is: if you have to squint to notice the differences, or just convince yourself they exist because the manufacturer's claims seem hard to disprove- then there IS NO DIFFERENCE that makes any difference.

Blu-ray is just Sony wanting a monopoly on technology. They tried the same BS with Betamax back in the 80s and it failed as well. Blu-ray was released a long time ago, it's taken them 2 decades to finally overtake DVD and it was all just marketing.

The issue with laserdisc is different- laserdisc machines were extremely expensive, big and unwieldy; and the smaller size of DVDs (which was the same exact format of the already circulated CD music discs) was simply more portable and adaptable for people. Physical size was a huge selling point last century that people these days tend to overlook.

1st want to address this here. There is a misperception about laserdisc players being expensive. They cost no more to produce than a typical CD player. While a CD player was still less expensive to produce than a Laserdisc player, the cost wasn't that significant on scale. A retailer could easier get away selling a Laserdisc player around the same price as a CD player if their supply and demands were almost equivalent.

Sadly Laserdisc players were viewed as a high end machine that were completely unaffordable when the reality was that simply not a lot of people in the west were buying them due to the whole practicality and flexibility issues. Then you look at CD players where eventually they became less expensive simply because consumers in the West were actually buying them where mass production and the demand over time started making them more affordable to the point where everyone during the 90s basically ended up owning at least one. This lead to improvements in the domestic production process for CD players in the west and more money was being invested into improving the technology behind them too. Leaving the cost of a laserdisc player where they stood in the west nearly at the same as when they were 1st introduced to the western domestic market.

This trend was not the same in Japan. In Japan almost every other house hold that owned some type of video media player either owned a laserdisc player or a VCR or even both by the 90s. Basically the cost for a laserdisc player for the Japanese consumer was exponential cheaper for them due to supply and demand over those being sold in western markets. Not to mention the most desirable consumer electronic products at the time were all produced in Japan to begin with where the Japanese domestic consumers benefited from this during the 80s and 90s.



No one can visibly tell the difference between 4k and 8K resolution but everyone knows 8K is better quality than 4K. Same thing goes with DVDs verse Blu-ray. One would have to have an extremely unrealistic outlandish size TV to even try to do an actual visible comparison for it to matter. But it's just a simple fact Blu-ray is better quality than DVD and I will attempt to further explain why.



I never said DVD couldn't hold plenty of data but what remains as fact is Blu-ray still holds more data than a DVD. That alone put the potential for better quality video which I will explain further.

Sure, some distributors might release episodes and series across many discs but it's not always done simply as a scheme for people to buy more stuff. As an example Some distribution companies will utilize as much space on a disc as they can, simply to have the highest quality possible on it.

As I have stated before in another thread recently an Anime series with 3 episodes on a dual-layer Blu-ray will take up about 15GB for each episode. Which would take up over 90% of it's physical disc space for just the episodes. This is done for Optimized professional high-quality high-definition resolution. Sure they could reduce the size of each episode but the idea is to utilize as much of the disc space as possible to increase it's life span too.

Unlike when a distribution company will release a full series on one simple disc drastically needing to reduce the file sizes which will reduce it's quality even if it keeps it's original resolution and picture aspect simply just to fit the entire season on it. Those type of Anime releases have a shorter life span than those trying to optimize for quality. When a distribution company tries to cram an entire series on a single disc a simple scratch could easily lead to parts of the disc unable to be read. It's basically the same logic comparing a single music song on a 12" vinyl record verse the same song on a full album pressed on a 12" LP. The single will not only sound better but it's quality and life is far superior than it being pressed on a full 12" LP squeezed together with over a dozen other songs on the same side (One could squeeze a single song on a 12" vinyl record to only fill 10% of it's space leaving 90% of it blank but why?).

It would only be dubious if consumers are buying Anime Discs where 90% of the actual discs are completely empty getting only a few episodes on each of them.

The problem here is you're arguing from a TechNerd position. Laserdiscs are totally irrelevant, they didn't catch on because of the reasons I stated, how much they cost to produce is also irrelevant. People didn't want them, the consumer chose DVDs which were the same physical size and portable as CDs plain and simple. There is no point to arguing this matter, history is history.



You're basically proving my point. IF NOBODY CAN TELL THEN THEY WON'T PAY MORE FOR IT. The whole point is what the consumer is getting and what they value, not these tech nerd statistics. 8K is totally pointless with anime, cartoons don't have the visual articulation of films and TV they're cartoons, so there's zero reason to have that format.
"Everybody knows" arguments.... no. "It's better becuzz it says 8000 on the package and that a bigger number" This isn't how people decide to buy things!!!!!! They need to perceive an actual difference, and there is none.

@SuperAdventure

From what I have noticed is older titles being pushed on Blu-ray generally have shit quality unless you are dealing with something that was already professionally re-mastered in a previous DVD release. At least that is my own perception of it. The modern remastering process will change the colour schemes used and the re-encoding process alone creates artifacts that are simply just being concealed with filters that further shift the perceived quality away from it's original release.

The main upside to Blu-rays is the fact more info can simply be stored on them. It reminds me of the reason why DVDs were more widely accepted over the use of Laserdisc in the West even when generally laserdisc still had better quality than DVDs. DVDs were simply smaller and were able to hold more info on them and better quality than VHS.

Despite the low practicality of a laserdisc being the size of a vinyl music record, Oddly VHS was still extremely broadly more accepted in the West before DVD existed when it was exponentially more cost efficient to still produce laserdisc over VHS tapes. DVDs were just a simple upgrade from VCD (the short lived VCD = "Video Compact Disks" not to be confused with DVDs) where the improvement of video quality just barely managed to exceed beyond VHS quality and hold more info than a typical VCD (because VHS was still better quality than VCD). Also should be noted VHS was more widely accepted in the west due to the flexibility of being able to use and re-use them for personal recordings (practicality and flexibility over quality in the west despite the cost of production).

Over all DVD quality has been inherently flawed from the get go just like music CDs were over vinyl music records (music even today still just sounds better on vinyl as long as the record is properly being taken care of). The Japanese knew this and it's the reason why Laserdiscs were still being widely produced in Japan for their domestic market even up till the late 2000s. Which is why it was still extremely common to find Japanese Anime on Laserdisc in Japan without a VHS counter part in the 90s with the existence of DVDs on the market in the late 90s and before the mass production and distribution of DVDs in the West during the early 2000s.

Simple break down...

Quality; Blu-ray > Laserdisc > DVD > VHS > VCD

Practicality; Blu-ray > DVD > VHS > VCD > Laserdisc

Flexibility; Blu-ray > DVD > VCD > VHS > Laserdisc

Cost of production; VCD > DVD > Blu-ray > Laserdisc > VHS

Which is why you can see even Japan finally moved on from Laserdisc once Blu-ray came into play. Basically Japan finally stopped producing Laserdiscs all together after the late 2000s.

Sorry man, you're boring people with the tech nerd shit. Yes I know I'm replying to the main thread. The topic isn't about the Japanese market, it's about finding DVDs starting to become difficult and that's all. I get that you have your favorite format and that's fine, but quoting numbers as the only proof of something being better is just marketing.

Anime isn't the genre to make this argument with, you'd be better making that case with viewers of art films, high tech films with lots of CGI, or artwork but not with anime.

@SuperAdventure

The difference isn't just numbers, its easy to tell the difference in picture quality of most BDs vs DVDs of old cel anime shot on film. It's irrelevant if the anime was originally mastered in 480p like with some early digital anime - usually they just machine upscale it at most for new BD releases. But cel era anime was originally produced in higher fidelity than early digital anime was - and films like Akira or Gundam CCA require 4k to get a fully accurate image.

@CosmicDebris-San

I tried to convince the OP that most people can tell the difference between Anime at 480p to that which is at 1080p but to them my "tech nerd shit" is irrelevant. Because they say Anime isn't the "Genre" to make this argument without even trying to put in an actual effort to explain why that would actually make any sense.

OP probably just mostly experiences Anime on pretty small screens. Anyone with an actual TV that is built for at least 1080p or higher would be able to easily tell the difference between the same Anime on DVD vs a Blu-ray copy counterpart. Even if the OP watches Anime on a big TV screen that doesn't mean it supports 1080p or higher. So of course if the OP is consuming Anime on a TV that doesn't support 1080p or above they would not be able to tell the difference between a DVD and Blu-ray. It would be hard for any to to. It kind of reminds me of someone watching something on a TV screen that only supports standard definition playing 1080p video on it. Of course an Anime at 480p will look pretty much the same as a Anime at 1080p on that same standard definition TV.

Even if you were to simply just take raw file data and watch an Anime episode optimized for professional high-quality high-definition resolution where the file size could be close to taking up over 15GB data space for a single episode alone on Blu-ray and compare that same Anime episode that is reduced to 300mb on some DVD just to cram the entire Anime series on it with all it's other episodes, the experience watching both side by side would be immense in not only video but also audio quality. Even if the Anime was spread out to fill the entire disc space on a DVD where it would typically offer about 3 episodes for each disc the 480p quality would still be far inferior to a 1080p counter part on some Blu-ray release. Even if you were to take an entire Anime Series and reduce the file sizes to fit an entire season on one Blu-ray disc it would still be better quality than that of a DVD with only 3 episodes on it that is simply trying to maximize the video and audio quality even with it's limited data space.

I simply just gave up trying to debate someone who says what I had to say was boring.

@ColourWheel Actually *I'm* the OP, SpeedyAlchemist. I watch anime on a very big TV, though one day I'd love one of those oldie ones for my gamecube. And I never said what you said was boring. Actually I find this topic fascinating.

At least here in the states, most distributors started phasing out DVDs several years ago as an option since Blu-Rays were becoming the preferred means of many to obtain physical media for a series and are uncommon to see with recent releases. I've also noticed that there are a fair number of recent anime titles on streaming sites not getting any physical release, particularly on Crunchyroll and Netflix, and is likely deliberately being done to give consumers incentive to get a subscription onto said streaming sites to check out the titles in question.

Still inclined to buy physical media because if I like the series in question, I get to keep it for as long as the discs hold up. Main caveat for streaming is that while cheaper than blowing a lot of money on physical media, a series or film isn't guaranteed to be on a streaming site forever due to whatever licensing rights issues come up with them.