I own not one DVD of Voltron yet.
After purchasing the Robotech saga set, I was worried buying other classic cartoon/anime dvd sets because there was hardly any remastering involved..

I always heard claims that they remastered the old shows to much nicer and vibrant dvd quality. The only set that I've experienced this with, was my entire Transformer's dvd collection.

I would just like to know, in all honesty, how the quality looks in comparison to the old tv airing of Voltron and if its available to the US. Strangely enough, the last i looked, they were only selling to AUS.

Not looking for subtle answers like "it looks fine".
If you can possibly be more detailed and list particular improvements, I would really appreciate it. Otherswise, no worries. Thanks. =)

Here's a few of comparison pics of unremastered Voltron compared to the remastered DVDs to show you the quality difference between the two:

Un-remastered (Aussie DVD)



Remastered (US DVD)




Unremastered (Aussie DVD)



Remastered (US DVD)




Un-remastered (Aussie DVD)



Remastered (US DVD)




The remastering pics are obviously better than the unremastered pics.


I'm not entirely happy with some of the colour correction that Media Blasters applied though. In my opinion, they went a bit too far with it, resulting in some colours looking darker and paler than they should be.

Some examples of what I mean:


Note the duller purple on Yurak's face in the Media Blasters DVD shot compared to the more vibrant purple in the GoLion DVD-R shot.


Note the darker blue and paler green on Pidge's clothes in the Media Blasters DVD shot compared to the more vibrant green and blues on Pidge's clothes in the GoLion DVD-R shot. Also note the much darker and less visible background in the Media Blasters DVD shot compared to the GoLion DVD-R shot. Pidge's skin tone colour is also better in the GoLion DVD-R shot.


Note the darker red on Keith's clothing in the Media Blasters DVD shot compared to the better and more vibrant red in the GoLion DVD-R shot. The skin tone colour on Keith looks better in the GoLion DVD-R shot as well.

Wow, thank you so much SGB. These shots are truly helpful. I guess good does come with bad.
All in all, it doesnt look half as bad as I imagined it. I'll start shopping now. =)

quote:

Originally posted by Japanbot:
After purchasing the Robotech saga set, I was worried buying other classic cartoon/anime dvd sets because there was hardly any remastering involved. I always heard claims that they remastered the old shows to much nicer and vibrant dvd quality. The only set that I've experienced this with, was my entire Transformer's dvd collection.

I'm not sure what you mean here about Robotech. You realize there IS a remastered version of it out now as of 2004. In fact, I'm fairly certain the unremastered version DVDs are going out of print.

I bought the entire first Robotech Saga DVD set. I never re-purchased any new sets after that. The quality looks like VHS tapes. They werent bootlegs either. :/

quote:

Originally posted by Japanbot:
I bought the entire first Robotech Saga DVD set. I never re-purchased any new sets after that. The quality looks like VHS tapes. They weren't bootlegs either.

Okay, that's the broadcast version. Believe it or not, it actually looked like that on TV.

The remastered version, released a couple years later, is equal in picture quality to the Voltron DVDs. It comes in sets of 2 (search for 'Robotech Remastered') or as a box set containing the entire series (search 'Protoculture Collection').

Be advised however that the sound effects and opening title sequences have been completely redone (modernized). Also, the 'extra' discs in the Protoculture set are the exact discs the older 'Legacy' box sets, and those elements have not been remastered.

It's a good buy though, if you find it on sale.

Right on. Thanks for the info Samwiseb.

quote:

The remastering pics are obviously better than the unremastered pics.

I don't agree.

Call me weird, but I prefer if they just left it alone.

I think the originals have colors that stand out more, where the "improved" ones seem faded. I don't care about being able to see a little more "details".

I think somethign gets lost when they do this crap. There's a kind of glossy, sparkle to the colors that always seem to fade when they do this.

I also disliked how the animation in Robotech was "improved" and then I see the same thing in Voltron.

I wish they would have just left alone.

But I guess I'm the only one that feels that way.

quote:

I think the originals have colors that stand out more, where the "improved" ones seem faded

That's because Media Blasters went too far with the colour correction (as demonstrated in the comparison pics I posted earlier).

You and I seem to be the only ones who picked up on this.

quote:

Originally posted by samwiseb:

quote:

Originally posted by Japanbot:
I bought the entire first Robotech Saga DVD set. I never re-purchased any new sets after that. The quality looks like VHS tapes. They weren't bootlegs either.

Okay, that's the broadcast version. Believe it or not, it actually looked like that on TV.

The remastered version, released a couple years later, is equal in picture quality to the Voltron DVDs. It comes in sets of 2 (search for 'Robotech Remastered') or as a box set containing the entire series (search 'Protoculture Collection').

Be advised however that the sound effects and opening title sequences have been completely redone (modernized). Also, the 'extra' discs in the Protoculture set are the exact discs the older 'Legacy' box sets, and those elements have not been remastered.

It's a good buy though, if you find it on sale.

The first DVDs were actually taken from the laserdisc masters (having previously owned the entire series in that format), and were a step above the VHS tape versions, but the new DVDs certainly trump those.

If you want the original broadcast version of Robotech as it aired in 1985 (albeit unremastered), go for the "Legacy" boxed sets. Otherwise the digital remasters are the way to go, except -- as samwiseb noted above -- there are new opening credits sequences specific to each generation, and other changes have been made (such as the sound FX of the Veritech cannons).

But extended footage has also been added, deleted stuff that was cut out in 1985 for being too "risqué" -- material with sexual connotations, additional violence, et cetera. Plus there's the sweetened sound and picture. If you pick up the "Protoculture Collection," you'll also get Robotech II: The Sentinels on DVD.

I noticed with the 5th DVD set, that many scenes actually looked blurry. I wasn't happy with this last set at all. At least they released it though.

I did notice a drop in quality in the later episodes. Perhaps the animation company no longer had the film masters for the later episodes, since they were custom-ordered by World Events back in the day.

No GoLion-quality masters of LV season two episodes exist, hence the poor video quality.

They still could have remastered them better. Just look at the episode "Who is that Masked Man," the quality is terrible.

IMO LV season two episodes are not deserving of remastering.