Anime in High Def! Blu-ray~HD-DVD

I haven't been keeping up with the High Definition scene when it comes to anime; But I noticed on animeondvd.com, they've begun to list the category for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD...
http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews/index.php
and
http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/byseries/A.php

I guess it was inevitable! I'd imagine most of the successful series with sufficient source material for the upconversion [or the ones recorded in HD] will be re-released!
I'm sure Evangelion will make another debut; Last Exile, Chrono Crusade, Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex, Full Metal Panic, etc etc

I'd imagine we have one more year before Blu and HD take over like DVD over tape did... Has anyone been following this? Know any information on what to expect? Opinions?

I'm excited about this ;) And sad... This will give more reason to purchase these discs though, rather than the smaller jump to DVD. [Not to mention I heard Blu-ray will have specially interactive abilities? Might be interesting to see what they can put into extras in the future.]
I'll check up on this when I get a chance, just wanted to start the train :P

EDIT: I'd like to eventually like to start keeping track of all the series that won't be making the leap; Eventually we want to collect em all right? :P

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Heh, I think it's going to take a lot more than a year before the new formats outnumber DVD in terms of releases and sales. There was a lot more incentive to upgrade from VHS to DVD, and even then it took DVD something like five years to surpass VHS.

As for anime I think we'll mostly see movies released for now. Cheaper and faster to get out the door, and less risky. A lot of the early digitally animated TV shows were also not created in HD so the question is, who's willing to buy them all over again, when the picture quality isn't going to be that much better? The ones that will benefit from HD the most are actually the older shows that were created using traditional cels, and in recent years several Japanese companies have gone back to create HD masters for many of these (like Outlaw Star, Evangelion, Gundam etc.), but I'm guessing they're going to wait a bit to release those until more people get Blu-Ray/HD-DVD players.

How ya doing, buddy?

I honestly don't want to rebuy my anime collection to upgrade to this bluray/HD thingamabob. Anime is already hell to pay on DVD format, and most of the anime I get is already ordered online to cut costs.

Maybe for the animated intensive action flck classics (Sup Akira, GITS, Patlabor movies), but if they're going to do this with say, Azumanga Daioh (quite unlikely) then a better picture isn't going to make the show any more funnier.

Let's just hope that they can fit like 10 DVDs worth (doesn't a bluray hold 50 GB, compared to a 4.7 DVD) of anime, which is generally more than adequate for a 26 episode anime series. As long as (but again I highly doubt) that they squish all of Evangelion onto one bluray for $40 then I might consider. Save some space finally (albiet it'll make your anime collection look much physically smaller). If they do end upgoing this way, it will obvious cut costs for the consumer, but at the same time its losing profits that the anime distributors could get when they are normally selling a 7 DVD set for like $30 per DVD for a 7 DVD volume (which I find is absolutely ridicioulous to pay - $200 just for a single anime series).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I personally don't see why anime needs HD, especially since many made for TV mass produced programs that seem to lower in quality as the series progresses (like Naruto) have no need for them. Unless you qualify still frame, repeated stock images, cel-like shading, etc. as necessity. It might be another marketing approach to get people to rebuy series. I only see a benefit for some series, but definitely not all.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Dee makes an excellent point. in most anime cases, why try to improve that which doesn't need it. I would prefeer the original version of something like Ghost in the Shell, rather than pay $1500 for an HD player and HD DVD just to see a brighter screen. don't fix what isn't broken. this is really just unnecessary money making scheming

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Balcony Heckler

don't fix what isn't broken. this is really just unnecessary money making scheming

Damn straight. I highly doubt higher resolutions actually contribute anything to anime. There's really no point since you're not getting very much out of it. I'm personally happy with DVDs all around since they're distributed among the market already and that I don't have to go out and buy a new player to watch it. The way I see it, $600 (The cheapest Blu-Ray player) > Slightly better quality/detail.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Like has already been mentioned, it will be a complete waste to put out things like Naruto in hi-def, but movies and shows like Ghost in the Shell and Stand Alone Complex will certainly benefit from it, and will look sharper and more detailed (not brighter!).

Regarding the question of space, if the content is encoded in HD then the episode/disc ratio will not be that much better than it is with DVD now. Yes, there's more room on the disc, but the episodes will also take up more space due to higher bitrates so it kind of evens out.* You don't see the Hollywood studios put five movies onto one Blu-Ray/HD-DVD disc either.

As for the usefulness of HD, that is for everyone to decide for themselves, but of course you're not going to have any use of it on your 15-year-old 22" tube TV. Many people had the exact same "don't fix what ain't broken" arguments to stay with VHS back in the day, just know that HD is the future and there's no getting around it. It's the inevitable evolution of technology, and if these new formats fail, then something else will come along instead.

And in case people have forgotten, you couldn't exactly find players for $50 when DVD had just been released either. No one's expecting the masses to jump on the bandwagon from day 1, these things take time.



*It depends on what type of disc and what bitrate you use, and while you could probably squeeze in some more episodes due to more efficient codecs, you're never going to see an entire 26-ep show in HD on one disc.

FELIPE NO

Agree with all of the above. I hope the BluRay flops rather than becoming the new norm. The only perk as mentioned before would be if they could squeeze 26 episodes onto a single couple of discs rather than over 10 or 3, but if they do that, then there would be no more pretty boxsets to be able to buy. Rewatching anime I've already seen in higher quality does nothing for me, especially since some older anime have bad quality to begin with, but are still lots of fun to watch, like Slayers!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?