Astro boy (1980's) on DVD

[tinlunlau]

Originally posted by snorkyller+May 28 2004, 10:11 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (snorkyller @ May 28 2004, 10:11 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--fafner@May 28 2004, 07:49 AM
Do you have the e-mail? I would like to suggest japanese audio with english subtitles, or maybe that was one of your suggestions?
However the best would be uncut episodes :angry:

Yeah... No more cuts episodes!!!

But I wouldn't audio japanese... Since it's a DVD, why not put all the languages??!!!

English, Japanese and French, all in both language and subtitle. It would be great [/b][/quote]
that's a bad idea.... you'd be wasting alot of space, meaning bad quality.
you don't want bad quality.

[fafner]

We're talking about animes, this kind of movie takes very few space. I have seen very good quality for the 2000s serie, and the episodes took about 175 Mo, that is you could put easily 20 episodes on 1 DVD. Now add several audios and I bet there would still be space for 10 episodes. The whole thing could be put on 5 DVDs.
Well, that's my estimation, maybe I'm totally wrong, but I think snorkyller's idea is not bad at all.
Let's madman know about that

[tinlunlau]

Originally posted by fafner@May 29 2004, 01:52 AM
We're talking about animes, this kind of movie takes very few space. I have seen very good quality for the 2000s serie, and the episodes took about 175 Mo, that is you could put easily 20 episodes on 1 DVD. Now add several audios and I bet there would still be space for 10 episodes. The whole thing could be put on 5 DVDs.
Well, that's my estimation, maybe I'm totally wrong, but I think snorkyller's idea is not bad at all.
Let's madman know about that

with that much audio, you can probably only fit in about 3-4 episodes a disc.

[fafner]

I have made a small calculation with what I have here. After a check I should have done before, I saw that a good-quality episode is about 250Mo. Good-quality audio should be compressed with about 1Mo per minute, so let's say 25Mo of audio per episode. Therefore we can assume that an episode with 3 audio languages would be about 300Mo.
So: 4.4Go / 300Mo/ep = 15 ep
Therefore it would take 4 DVDs to store them all. Please correct me if you see an error.

Of course, my definition of quality may not be the same as yours, if you want a sample you can download an episode on Anapan's FTP server (if you haven't done it already)
Anyway, many pictures posted on this site come from these episodes, you can find some in Denkou pics and Tawashi pics.

Here are the links:
Denkou pictures: http://www.astroboy-online.com/forums/inde...ct=ST&f=1&t=540
Tawashi pics: http://www.astroboy-online.com/forums/inde...f=1&t=484&st=15

[DrFrag]

Originally posted by -Nick-@May 28 2004, 07:42 PM
I think they are going to be using the series that was aired on th ABC in Australia. Apparently the Canadian/North American release was cut worse than the ABC one. The ABC one i heard was actually pretty close to the Japanese with only some changes to it.

Thats just what i heard, i don't know if it's right but i'm sure dr frag will know

Apart from the first episode, very little footage was cut. I think I posted a list of a few differences last year. Here are some examples:

Episode 2: Robot Circus.
When Tornado is destroyed in the 50,000 volt trapeze act, the Japanese version shows several more seconds of footage of his flaming body falling to the ground.

Epsidoe 3: Save The Classmate.
Nothing cut.

Episode 5: Save The Carolina 3
Nothing cut.

Episode 7: Astro Fights Aliens
Nothing cut.

Episode 9: The Transformation Robot
When Snare and Professor Terrapin escape from jail, there are a couple of seconds cut of the other escaping prisoners being gunned down.

So nothing too extreme, but I'm no expert on DVD mastering.

I've just got another e-mail from the guy I've been in contact with at Madman, and he's currently researching what special features can be put on the DVDs. I've pointed him in the direction of this forum and thread, so hopefully we can all come up with some ideas and resources.
(like those sketches GIR posted a while back from the bootleg DVDs)

And he said a Japanese soundtrack hasn't been ruled out, it just depends on the amount of editing.

:wahah:

So: 4.4Go / 300Mo/ep = 15 ep
Therefore it would take 4 DVDs to store them all. Please correct me if you see an error.

DVDs have a much higher bitrate (9000 I believe) plus they use Mpeg2 rather than Mpeg4 (DivX and XviD are Mpeg4). The Japanese release put all 52 episodes on 10 DVDs - 5 discs per boxset. 300MB per episode is cartainly watchable, but not ideal for a DVD release. You'd really want about 1GB per episode.

[fafner]

Ok doc, looks like I got all wrong !
Anyway, my point is that I think ( but maybe I am again totally wrong ) that because audio represents much less space than video, it should be possible to sacrifice a sufficiently small part of the video that would not be noticeable, to put one more audio.

But the most important is, and I think that everybody will agree with me, that there must not be cut scenes.

Now I think I should calm down because I am beginning to monopilze the topic

[snorkyller]

The language is important for me. I would NOT like only Japanese with English subtitiles... !!!!

They can also make differents versions. Examples:
- One for Japan with japanese language
- One with English language for US, Canada, Australia... etc.

And why not one with french language? Maybe add it in the english version... Astroboy was shown in many places where people speak french (France, Quebec, Switzerland, etc).

I understand well english but not everybody does here. My childrens wouldn't watch it if it was in english...

And whatever the subtitiles, it doesn't take to much space...

I don't know why someone who don't understand japanese would like to watch Astroboy in japanese language....(????)

[GIR]

Like I said in my original review, they were hardly pushing the 9.4gb limit of a SS-DL disc, there's no technical reason why they cant fit 10 episodes per disc and maintain the same quality, also including English, Japanese, French and German soundtracks. Subtitles are trivial they would be <3mb per language per disc.

Edits are a different matter, assuming that they were dubbed into English first and then edited for crybaby american kids then there's no problem, if they were edited first then dubbed then they would have to include those edits on the Japanese soundtrack, annoying but still possible, I made the first episode ("The Birth of Astro Boy") including both English and Japanese soundtracks in about 3hrs, its not too difficult to achieve.

Personally I'm not too worried about soundtracks and subtitles, I'm more concerned about the picture quality which is more than likely to be subpar regardless of bitrate, size or however many episodes they put on disc.

[-Nick-]

As long as we get the best possible product in the end i'll be happy.

[DrFrag]

Originally posted by fafner@May 29 2004, 04:32 AM
Anyway, my point is that I think ( but maybe I am again totally wrong ) that because audio represents much less space than video, it should be possible to sacrifice a sufficiently small part of the video that would not be noticeable, to put one more audio.

Yeah, you're right. I'm pretty sure the audio is no more than 10% of the space.

But the most important is, and I think that everybody will agree with me, that there must not be cut scenes.

That's everyone's dream.

Apart from the first episode, I've yet to find a cut that edited out any speech. So fingers crossed.

They can also make differents versions. Examples:
- One for Japan with japanese language
- One with English language for US, Canada, Australia... etc.

There already is a Japanese language version, it just doesn't have any English audio or subtitles.

And why not one with french language? Maybe add it in the english version... Astroboy was shown in many places where people speak french (France, Quebec, Switzerland, etc).

A couple of reasons I can think of. First of all the licencing is different in these countries, so Madman probably wouldn't have permission to use the French audio track. Secondly, the Madman DVDs will be region 4. There isn't a lot of demand for French DVDs in region 4.
Still, it would be great to be able to flick through audio channels and hear Astro speaking in French, German, Italian, Korean, etc. B)
Wasn't the French dub fairly heavily edited?

I don't know why someone who don't understand japanese would like to watch Astroboy in japanese language....(????)

To hear the original voices, to pick up nuances in the subtitles that aren't in the dub, to learn Japanese better, or to hear the lyrics to the incidental music (which are all instrumentals in the English dub). They're my reasons anyway.