2003 Series Gets a New Region 1 DVD Collection

[Shiyonasan]

Those pics are hilarious, Fauna and EyeOdyssey! It almost makes me want to revive the Photoshop the Picture game and see what people can come up with for that image.

Hey that DVD image was on the original DVD release and was copied onto this new one.
Who holds the copyright on the 1980 series? I would have rather seen a re-release of that one!

Manga Video released the last set for the 1980s series back in 2005, so they might still own the copyright for that series:

http://www.amazon.com/Astro-Boy-Collection-Box-Set/dp/B000AQKU6S

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Wow, the 1980 series DVD's seem to have become expensive unobtainum. Cheapest one I could find anywhere was a used region 4 boxed set from Oz for about $50. (My DVD player and computer should be able to play region 4 dvd's).

[Fauna]

Wow, the 1980 series DVD's seem to have become expensive unobtainum. Cheapest one I could find anywhere was a used region 4 boxed set from Oz for about $50. (My DVD player and computer should be able to play region 4 dvd's).

Well, that certainly makes me glad I bought my set when I did. It was the Anchor Bay set, for $42 in 2006, from the long-since-dead Video Universe.

As for the 2003 series, I don't think I'll be getting this rerelease, unless something groundbreaking turns out to be on it. I've got 3/4 the series on Japanese DVDs, and the quality of those is far more appealing to me.

[Dragonrider1227]

Sorry I started a thread on this too. I looked and didn't see this thread.

I find myself terribly mixed on this. On one hand I'd like to support any new Astro Boy releases on the theory that we may get the Japanese version if this sells, but on the other hand paying for a dub as botched up as this is like praising your dog when he pees on your favorite rug. And I'm not even a snob against dubs. I'm actually indifferent to them in general.
Plus, that boxart going out of it's way to give him that angry face proves to me that they've learned nothing from 2003-4

[Fauna]

Well, the DVD set has been officially released. Has anybody checked it out yet?

I notice that the episodes are now on four discs instead of five, so maybe - just maybe - the proper colour balanced widescreen versions of the episodes are finally on here. I KNOW Sony has those, since they were on Crackle at one point.

Like, if the episodes on here aren't contrast-bleached and cropped, then $16.99 CAD is totally worth it for me. But if not, then I hope someday Sony America realizes Astro Boy 2003's real demographic and at least gives us the bare minimum.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Amazon has it for $8.39 USD
http://www.amazon.com/Astro-Boy-The-Complete-Series/dp/B00V5JEIZ8/ref=pd_sim_sbs_74_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1TGJQG6ZYXWKKV3YBRFW

Disc two still has the clip show episode instead of "Eternal Boy"

[Earthshine]

I really do not see the point in getting this to be honest as I already have the 5 disk release box set, and from everything I've heard there is hardly any difference between the two other than disk number...

Now if they truly were color corrected and the original widescreen versions then I'd jump on it... but since everything we have seen they seem to be identical to other releases I don't see a point.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I really do not see the point in getting this to be honest as I already have the 5 disk release box set, and from everything I've heard there is hardly any difference between the two other than disk number...

Now if they truly were color corrected and the original widescreen versions then I'd jump on it... but since everything we have seen they seem to be identical to other releases I don't see a point.

I doubt that this release is any different from the previous one on 5 discs. It may even be worse if they had to go to increased compression to fit the same content on one fewer disc. Also the episode order seems to be in the same (wrong) order as before.

[F-Man]

I notice that the episodes are now on four discs instead of five, so maybe - just maybe - the proper colour balanced widescreen versions of the episodes are finally on here. I KNOW Sony has those, since they were on Crackle at one point.

Be them widescreen or fullscreen, the video files on DVDs are always 720x480. It's just that a 4:3 image will be encoded slightly stretched, and your DVD player will squeeze it to look normal, whereas a 16:9 image will be encoded squeezed and be stretched by your DVD player. This process is called an anamorphic format. So the number of disc has nothing to do with the aspect ratio, and like Tetsuwan Penguin said, it's much more likely that this set is just even more compressed than the already ridiculous level of the last one.

Additionally, Crackle's videos were not widescreen. Sony incompetently took the exact 720x480 files from the 4:3 DVDs, and didn't even bother squeezing them to get a normal aspect ratio. So they were essentially 4:3 but slightly stretched.

[Fauna]

This is really embarrassing on the end of Sony. Who do they think they're fooling with this? Most sales would come from us (if it actually had the series in a presentable fashion). Heck, if the colour and cropping were actually decent, I could tolerate a dub-only release. To this day, I've never bought any of the American DVDs.

And, if they're trying to market to casual viewers, the only people with whom this kind of release would go over well are children. Even then, kids will still pick up when scenes have been edited or changed. And casual anime fans who are new to Tezuka and pick up this latest release will be disappointed with the video quality. It's like Sony put AB2003 out the door for a quick dollar, but they don't seem aware of the real money they'd make if they put out something finer.

ADD-ON: At this point, I don't even think dual option is possible, since so much was done to the dub that the original would need its own release, not just an audio track to toggle.