Macross Hd Remastered
Kimbery Challacombe
In Australia, Madman put out the "Ultimate Macross Collection" which has 6 disks in total with commentary from the original director for the last 2 episodes (and 3 really nice mini booklet). It has a Harmony Gold badge but is the original Macross not Robotech. It has sub only but the pictures were cleaned up pretty well, but it still looks a little grainy and I am guessing it must have used a master from Harmony Gold rather than the original Japanese master.
Assuming you're talking about the subtitled versions, you're talking about exactly the same thing in two different packages. Also, this thread has happened before. I'm at work so I can't search for it but it's out there somewhere and includes links to the various DVDs at stores and tells you which are the same and which are slightly different.
The only thing really worth while about the ADV dub of SDFM release is the special features, the dub and audio (which isn't the same as the Animeigo and the Macross Remastered set on Robotech.com releases) are awful.
I definitely disagree, at least as far as my own purchase goes. I was happy to plunk down $250 at a time when an uncut, Japanese release of Macross seemed like nothing more than a pipe dream. Even though AnimEigo's later retail set was cheaper, I was happy to have it almost a year before that. To this day, that set is the pinnacle of my DVD collection, and I don't regret a single dollar spent on it.
Ummm, have you ever seen the ADV version? They didn't change the sounds or the music or the names and it's the most accurate translation yet. Listen to the comentary and click around with your dvd players audio button and you can switch between each version.
I do have both versions. The Animeigo and the ADV. And, quite frankly, you are mistaken. At several points in the dub, the signature Macross sounds are replaced by "stock" sounds from generic American cartoons. This has been documented. If memory serves, one stark example is where the barrier system is about to overload. When Hikaru is shooting the gun emplacements on the Zentraedi ship, the sounds are clearly different. The ones on the ADV release are obviously replaced with a much more generic "pew pew pew" sound effect more reminiscent of G.I. Joe than Macross. And this is not an isolated incident.
However, I would have still recommended the ADV version if their original Japanese soundtrack was decent. But there too the ADV release is inferior as its Japanese soundtrack has much more hiss and is quite a bit quiter. Because it is quiter, you have to turn it up farther, which only hilights the hiss even more. That's not a good situation.
I have the Madman version as well, but I was always concerned about the quality of the visuals in the episode "Bye Bye Mars". It appears sub-par when compared to other episodes, and I have compared it with my old Japanese VHS tapes and they have much more vibrant colours in this one episode. I was wondering if the Animeigo release suffers the same problem. I know they SHOULD be the same, but apparently the menus and packaging are all different and stuff...
You know I think those who paid full price should get a replacement set. Who here besides me found their dvds with flaws that quickly developed after just a few times playing. All those common freezing parts in the dvds.
Partly due to ADV's inability to keep the irelevant slang out of the scripts and the fact that they didn't have access to the AE remastered audio tracks because their contract was with HG and no attempt to get BW to give permission to use the remastered audio was secured.
I am really glad I found this thread, with the mention about the AnimEigo discs now being available for only $40 from Robotech.com. I bought the original AnimEigo boxset (preordered it) for the full price, but I lent it to a friend who I still haven't been able to get it back from.
I have both and I never really noticed any difference. The subs are a different translation, and the English audio is (obviously) very different, but the picture quality and Japanese audio are, I believe, the same.
I was just thinking about this as I reread my post. I think I know what makes the japanese remaster so much different then the AnimEgo US edition, the Japanese one is laced in gold......has to be for that price.
Well, I hope some generous Macross fan will do the same video upgrade that the VIP bittorrent group are doing with Macross 7 series. The remastering job on M7 is very nice. Doesn't change the singing though.
I just saw clips of the Macross 7 TV Boxed Set remastered edition and compared to my M7 HK TV Box Set Edtion and the Central Anime subbed set, the remastered edition is way awesome in terms of quality! So fricken clean upscaled on my LCD TV!
And I'm also dying to know about the quality of the SDF Remaster. I guess everyone in the English-speaking countries who is a fan already has one or two versions of this without having to put down 400 bucks for another.
I forget where I read - I think at AnimeOnDVD - the R2 SDF Macross TV Remaster Set is supposedly far superior to AnimEigo's set. Better, more correct colors and none of the ugly grain that AnimEigo infused back in. Obviously the Japanese had better masters to work with. The only negative of the Japanese set is that it doesn't come with English subtitles or ADV's English dub. Oh, and the high price.
I've seen no news about this, but after investing a ton of money into restoring Macross, I worry that Animeigo more or less lost their shirt on it. Just from the fact that they no longer sell it, and it's on RT.com for forty bucks...well, that doesn't sound good. Does anyone know if they made a profit or not...?
I got my set from their "fire" sale when they were blowing out their stock before HG took over their existing inventory. So they got my $120.00 (1/2 price). I'll probably pick up the HG cheapo set as a back up to my AE set...
It' was like 287. I remember because it was the most expensive thing I ever bought at the time and I was in NC so I had to pay tax. Though I just paid off my car and not too long ago my student loan, so it's minute in comparison now.
There is also the mobile suit gundam trilogy which usa release did not include the original mixes and only the incorrect new 5.1 mix, even with the multiple reissues. They left off the original japan monaural tracks and even the english dub, bogus release even if the dub stunk.
Plus Rhino home video also released transfromers with a bad 5.1 mix back in the day. The current studio took the monaural and made a fake stereo mix out of it, still better than the 5.1 even if i would have preferred the mono untouched.
I'm not an expert on the subject, but I believe the reason this will never get released in the US is because Harmony Gold (the Robotech people) are falsely claiming ownership of anything related to Macross in the US, even though they were only entitled to the original TV series.
The remastered DYRL DVD video transfer showed a lot of video grain in scenes that have a black background. I understand that video grain is always a part of film, but the mpeg2 dvd codec made the film grain look worse than what is shown on the DYRL bluray.
The remastered DYRL stereo audio also has problems with audio pop and click sounds. I suppose one of the three issued DYRL LDs could have the stereo audio extracted and heard for audio quality. The remastered DYRL mono audio sounds just fine for theatrical DYRL DVD in the remastered DYRL DVD set that I have.
mentioned above is the fact that there is also more than the issue of video footage that has been changed (censored). also problematic is the fact that some music (BGM) has been removed. you *could* try to mix the audio section in from the DVD (or LD), but I have a feeling it will be fairly jarring quality coming from a DD source and mixing to a BD LPCM (if using the remastered DVDs, you need to unpack the DD track and then resample it first, then mix and effect it so the splices aren't totally obvious). That kind of covers the 2.0 track. Good luck doing a fan upmix to match the 5.1 mix on the BD (I would probably NOT try to even fix the BGM on that). I don't own any of the LDs, so I don't know their quality, but can anyone say if the audio is PCM? If so, this would obviously be a better source than the DVDs (unless there was an issue with the track I am unaware of).
the video o/c needs the scenes upscaled w/ lancoz or w/e from the DVD (or LD), cropped to match, photoshopped and color (incl bit depth broadened), and I actually think the BD will show more grain, not less (I would hope, I like grain), but either way, the texture needs to match... so the grain may have to be removed/smoothed from upscaled shots, then noise (fake grain) added to replicate the BDs grain texture.
take in to consideration I did not buy this b/c the Lucasfied gaffs, so this is all based on other forum discussions and screen shots, but it seems pretty accurate what has been removed and added. I have thought about it and whether I want to bother, or if i will stick to my remasterd DVD with added fansubs to disc 1 (haven't found fansubs to use for Discs 2 and 3). It seems like more than I want to bother with, tbh, especially given my kids don't like me to have hobbies and time to my self :P
The previous restoration was better color wise than the unrestored theatrical cut. But too much dvnr. Which has the tendency to make things look like video. Which was also a problem on the tv series hopefully those blu rays at a higher resolution don't look like the mess of the 35mm negative DVD.
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